| “ | Oh, wake up, knucklehead! You're in the big leagues now. I may be old, I may be senile, and I haven't been able to find my car for the past half hour, but I can beat your butt in a political campaign any day. You're dead meat, tiny! | „ |
| ~ Carl Robertson to Philip Banks after admitting to incriminating Will. |
| “ | He's got my vote! | „ |
| ~ Robertson's last words before his death. |
Judge Carl Robertson is a supporting antagonist in season 3 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
He was played by the late Sherman Hemsley, who also portrayed Bradley P. Richfield from Jim Henson's Dinosaurs.
Biography[]
Carl Robertson is the former mentor to Philip Banks and eventually his rival for Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. Over the years, Robertson changed, becoming corrupt, misogynistic, stingy, cantankerous, shrewd and callous.
Carl makes his debut in Season 3 Episode 6 "P.S. I Love You". He mistakes Philip's older daughter Hilary for his wife Vivian and compliments her on how youthful she looks. When he's corrected and meets Vivian, he insults her by saying she has aged. Earlier in the episode, Vivian suggested to Philip that he run against Carl for L.A. Superior Court Judge. Initially Philip is against it, but after seeing how Carl has changed for the worse, he decides to do so.
In "Here Comes the Judge", he was checking out police files to find dirt on Philip and discovered what he thought was his nephew Will Smith's enormous parking ticket violation and had him arrested to make Philip look bad. It's later revealed that Will's friend Jazz was responsible as Will lent him his car for the summer.
While absent from "A Night at the Oprah", it's heard on a news report that he adopted 12 ghetto kids in order to compete with Philip taking in Will.
In the following episode "Asses to Ashes", Carl begins a smear campaign against Philip by saying he endorses criminals and plans to let them out of prison instead of keeping them in and he ultimately wins due to Philip's refusal to fight back. At Carl's victory party, Philip congratulates him, only to be mocked, causing the Banks family to leave. Carl then calls Philip the biggest sap who ever lived and a stooge, causing Will to come back and say that Carl should take that back. Carl refuses and Will defends his uncle on how much more decent he is than Carl and tells the Judge to drop dead, which he does from having a fatal heart attack or stroke.
While Philip's son Carlton finds the situation amusing, Will feels incredibly guilty about it and despite all of Carl's despicable acts, Philip still considers him a mentor thus giving Carl his eulogy. To the family's surprise, they find out at Carl's funeral that many of the attendees hated him, including:
- A man Carl sentenced to six months in jail for a crime he didn't commit and was only there to make sure he was dead.
- His gardener, on whom he called immigration when it was time to pay him.
- His mistress, who doesn't have any good memories of him, and recalls the time he asked if her sister would come around.
After hearing what the people said, Will told them off for bad-mouthing the deceased; when he was asked who he is, Will responded he was the one who killed Carl, resulting in everybody applauding him.
Then-Governor of California Pete Wilson later appointed Philip to Carl's seat.
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 Villains
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Carl Robertson | Janice Robertson | The Shooter | Juggles | ||