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Lou Smith is a guest character in Season 4 of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by Ben Vereen.
Character[]
Lou is the deadbeat biological father of Will Smith and the ex-husband of Vy.
History[]
Lou abandoned his family (Will and Viola "Vy" Smith) when Will was five years old and explains his motives for leaving by saying he was scared to be a father and started to feel trapped. Sometime during the 14-year period that he was absent from Will's life, he became a trucker.
Lou drops in unannounced at the Peacock café where Will and Carlton work. Will sees Lou watching him but does not immediately recognize him. He goes over to offer some coffee, then recognizes him after Lou calls him "son". After an awkward conversation between the two, Lou claims to have spoken to Vy recently and learned that Will was now living with Aunt Vivian and Uncle Phil in Bel-Air, Will invites Lou to the Banks' residence for dinner. Vivian is less than happy to see Lou, being fully aware of his past deeds, but for Will's sake she tries to be civil; meanwhile, Philip is downright hostile toward him. Carlton and Hilary are excited to see their long-lost uncle, and Ashley was a baby when he last saw her, so it's like they're meeting for the first time. Lou also meets baby Nicky for the first time ever and holds him, reflecting on how he used to hold Will the same way. Will and Lou go to a carnival, where Lou explains to him he wasn't ready to be a father and asks for Will's forgiveness. Will decides to forgive him, and after he impresses Will with his skills at a basketball carnival game, Will calls him "Dad" for the first time.
When they return to the house, Will announces that he is joining his father for the summer on a nationwide road trip in Lou's truck. Philip objects to this, not buying into Lou's supposed change of heart and subtly disses Lou that he wasn't part of their family. After Lou leaves the mansion to wait in the pool house, Will calls out Philip for dissing Lou, which finally causes Philip to blow up. Philip points out Lou's callous attitude towards re-entering Will's life after 14 years, after never once trying to make any sort of contact with him, not even a phone call, during that time, thus proving that he hasn't changed at all. Philip goes on to accuse Lou of having his own selfish motives for returning to Will's life and not having Will's best interests at heart. However, Will remains convinced that Lou has truly repented and stands by his decision to go with him, having waited his whole life to reconnect with his father. When Philip continues to object, Will explodes, screaming, "Who cares what you think?! You're not my father!"
Horrified and hurt by Will's words, Philip begins to wonder if he's a good father to his own children. The next day, Philip is still upset over what Will said, believing that, because Lou had re-entered Will's life, he no longer cares about anything that Philip has done for him and accuses him of being selfish. Vivian makes Philip realize that he's the one being selfish by standing in the way of Will's reconnection with his true father. Philip speaks with Will and the two make amends. Will assures Philip that he does appreciate everything his uncle has done for him, but the trip with Lou is something he needs to do for himself. Philip understands and gives Will his blessing to take the trip and wishes him the best. Will reminds Phillip that the trip is only for the summer and he'll return to Bel-Air after it's done.
Later, Phillip and Vivian are playing with Nicky in the living room. Vivian questions Lou's tardiness, leading Philip to believe that he left--just as he thought. However, Lou suddenly shows up at that moment, but Philip's prediction is confirmed when he tells them that he has a shipment that needs to go to Maine in 72 hours but unfortunately, there won't be enough space to take Will, as he'll need to pick up an extra driver along the way. He even declines an offer from Philip to fly Will to Maine to meet up with him so they can still take their trip, claiming that the job could lead to another big one and he needs to "stay flexible". Vivian expresses concern for Will's reaction, saying that it would crush him. Lou acknowledges this and asks them to tell Will instead. Finally provoked for the last time, Philip asks Vivian to take Nicky upstairs so he can discuss the matter with Lou privately. Vivian asks Phillip to restrain from hitting Lou (only because she wants to be present if he decides to) and she heads upstairs with Nicky, but not without sternly telling Lou that if he abandons Will now, he will never be welcomed back into their house or their lives ever again.
An irate Philip bluntly reminds Lou of his responsibility to Will as a father. Although Lou tries assuring that the trip will happen eventually, Phil doesn't accept it, going on to say that Will isn't some come-and-go object that he can use whenever he feels like it and that Lou is supposed to be there for Will, not the other way around. Lou then blows up, angrily snapping that he didn't want the job opportunity to happen. Lou begins to attempt to use his old excuse as to why he left Will to begin with. However, Phil immediately shoots it down, because he had been there too, but he never allowed it to let him abandon his family as Lou did. Rather, he continued to be present for them, explaining that it's what a man is supposed to do. An annoyed Lou misses the point and admits that Philip is a better man than himself, thinking that's what Phillip wants to hear. He then asks whether or not he'll give Will the news. Phil refuses to do Lou's "dirty work," and Lou decides to maybe call Will from the road. Just before Lou can duck out, Will walks in with his bags packed, ready to go. This forces Lou to come clean with Will that their trip is being put on hold because of his job, as well as Will learning the hard way that Phil was right about his father's true nature as a cowardly deadbeat. Lou attempts to lie that the trip will only be delayed for a couple of weeks (maybe a little longer) and that he will give Will a call "next week to iron out the details." Will pretends to buy his story, though it is obvious that he knows better now. When Lou says goodbye to Will, Will closes the bridge by addressing him as "Lou" instead of "Dad", indicating that he no longer recognizes Lou as his father. Lou seems hurt by this but can't say anything else and awkwardly slips out, never to be seen again.
Phil apologizes to Will and offers to make it up to him. Will, who denies feelings of hurt and betrayal, declines Phil's offer and claims it doesn't matter, as he doesn't need Lou and is glad that at least he said goodbye this time. Philip says Will can be angry, it's not good to keep things bottled up. Will responds by talking about all the times he never needed his father, whether it was for learning to play basketball, school, dating, his past 14 birthdays, for which he never did so much as to send a card. He then goes into an angry rant talking about how he would continue to succeed in life without him and would also go on to be a better father to his own children when he had them, saying that "there ain't a damn thing he could ever teach me about how to love my kids!" Will then finally reveals how broken he feels about Lou leaving him again when he says, "How come he don't want me, man?" then completely breaks down sobbing uncontrollably in his uncle's arms. This solidifies the fact that Philip, despite his often antagonistic attitude toward Will, is Will's real father figure.
Will intended to give a gift to Lou which never was awarded, ironically a small statue showing a carving of a man having his arms on the shoulder of a child, symbolic of a father always being there for his kids, which contrasts the fact that Lou was never there for Will.
Trivia[]
- Although Lou only physically appears in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse", he is mentioned frequently both prior to and after that episode:
- In an earlier episode before Lou's appearance, when Phil suffers a heart attack and Carlton is in denial, Will confronts Carlton to go visit Phil in the hospital. Will wins the argument using reverse psychology by reminding Carlton he has a father who is always there for his children when Will asks Carlton "Do you know where my father is?" When Carlton answers in the negative, Will rebuts "Neither do I".
- Will was so hurt by the incident that he developed a deep resentment towards his father whenever he was mentioned. In "Get A Job", he gets into a heated argument with Carlton, who insulted Will by comparing him to his father. Shaking with anger, he calmly but clearly stated, "I am nothing like my father".
- In the finale episode, Will states that Uncle Phil is the only father he ever had and Philip says, "You are my son, end of story."
- According to Lou, he hasn't seen his nephew Carlton since he was 3 years old, which was about 1 year before he abandoned Vy and Will in Philadelphia.
- According to Will, when he was 5 years old, he'd constantly stay up every night asking his mother Vy when Lou would return home, unaware that Lou had abandoned them (and would continue to be unaware of it for a couple of years).
- Ben Vereen, the actor who played Lou, was once mentioned in Kiss My Butler by Will to Geoffrey.
- Vereen revealed in an interview that he broke into tears after walking offstage when Lou leaves Will at the end of the episode. Vereen is a father himself and devoted to his family, and when Will referred to him as "Lou" instead of "Dad" it just hit him how badly his character had failed Will's and how Vereen couldn't imagine abandoning his own family as Lou had done to his.
- The original script for the episode depicted Lou as a pool hustler, breezing from town to town. This version of the character was not received well by Will Smith at the table read, and so he was written to be somewhat more sympathetic by at least having a legitimate job as a self-employed truck driver. Episode co-writer David Zuckerman describes Lou as someone who just "wasn't cut out to be a father."
- There is a popular misconception that Smith himself was also abandoned by his biological father in real life when he was young and had "broken character" while delivering the rant which went from being directed towards Lou to being directed towards Smith's own real-life father. In reality, Smith's parents separated when he was 13 but his father remained in his life well into adulthood.