ABC/Michael Ansell(NEW YORK) — As America’s Funniest Home Videos host Alfonso Ribeiro gears up for the premiere of show’s 28th season this Sunday, the former Fresh Prince of Bel Air star is shutting down any hopes for a possible reboot of his popular sitcom.
“It ain’t happening. There’s not going to be a Fresh Prince of Bel Air — anything of the future,” Ribeiro tells ABC Radio. “I can never say never, but I feel really confident in the fact that we would never do it.”
According to Ribiero, the reason is pretty simple: he lost interest in the project when James Avery, who played his character Carlton’s dad, Phillip, on the show, died.
“When James Avery passed, it was basically the last possibility of the show coming back in any form,” Ribeiro explains. “Look, I don’t want to do it and I know that Will [Smith] wouldn’t want to do it. I don’t know whether other people would want to do it. But, I just feel like, you know, the past is the past. We have to kind of just let it go.”
Ribeiro says the Fresh Prince cast — who were recently spotted together at a charity luncheon in March — is still in contacat with each other. But noticeably missing from that March get-together was Janet Hubert, who played the original Aunt Viv. Over the years, Hubert has repeatedly attacked the cast and, more recently, Ribeiro, though he says he’s not sure what her issue is with him.
“It’s hard to understand why someone is feeling and reacting the way they do,” he says. “I think it’s one of those things where for some reason I am always on the scope of her attacks. But it is what it is. I wish her nothing but the best for her life and her family.”
The 28th season of AFV premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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