Simpsons fans baffled by major change to Smithers' character in series – Daily Express US
Waylon Smithers had black skin in his first appearance in the show during the third episode, “Homer’s Odyssey,” yet later he was seen with yellow skin, stirring fan speculation about the racial switch.
A baffled fan on Reddit remarked: “Apparently Smithers used to be black…”
Another chimed in with their newfound awareness, “Today I learned that Mr Smithers of The Simpsons was originally black, but was changed to white because the staff thought it ‘would be a bad idea to have a black sub-servient character’.”
Nonetheless, series creator Matt Groening cleared the air to TMZ, citing it wasn’t an intentional creative direction but rather an accident. He said: “At the time we didn’t have enough money to do retakes.”
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An observer on social media added context, noting: “This was a fairly common thing in the early going in Bart the Genius you can see Milhouse has black hair, and there are numerous other variations from characters. It was part of the charm of an animated series in the early 90s that was still being hand drawn and painted.”
One fan nostalgically remarked: “I actually miss (and Matt Groening has stated this too) the hand drawn style and I wish they weren’t forced into using computers. They fought that for as long as they could. Homers over exaggerated motions and out of proportion body really enhanced the comedic effect.”
Another chimed in with a query: “I know there is one episode in which a character walks out of the room black and walks back in two minutes later white but can’t think if Smithers was that character?” And yet another added some trivia: “Colouring mistakes like that were common in the early seasons.”
They elaborated on specific instances: “Aside from the black Smithers incident, the ones I remember right offhand are one of Bart’s friends changing race and hair colour from one shot to the next in the first episode, ‘Simpsons Roasting On an Open Fire’. The switch happens when they’re in the mall spying on Homer as Santa.”
Another example was pointed out: “In the season three episode ‘Stark Raving Dad,’ the Michael Jackson episode, Groundskeeper Willie is mistakenly coloured black in a crowd scene on the lawn in front of the Simpson home.”
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