'The Simpsons' Smithers Is Single No Longer
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Well, folks, it seems Waylon Smithers (a.k.a. Springfield's most diligent executive simp) has finally grown tired of standing idly by while Monty Burns (his decades-spanning crush/boss/Jeff Bezos's final form) blocks out the sun, casually dumps vats of nuclear waste around their geographically-ambiguous town of Springfield, and, generally treats him like Homer Simpson treats anything that isn't beer, his family, or various cursed snack foods, like 64 slices of American cheese.
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It may have taken upwards of three decades, but Smithers will apparently find himself a lover – one that notably isn't Mr. Burns – in an upcoming installment of The Simpsons entitled “Portrait Of A Lackey On Fire," according to longtime writer Rob LaZebnik. In the installment, which hits the small screen on November 21, Smithers will romance Michael De Graaf, a fashion mogul voiced by Alias's Victor Garber, a plotline LaZebnik says he took very seriously.
"So often, gay romances are a subplot or alluded to or shown in some kind of montage or as a punchline," the writer told the New York Post of his landmark work. “And what I think I was really excited about, with this episode, we get to see -- without spoiling too much -- the beginning, middle and who knows how it ends of a gay relationship, of really getting into the nitty-gritty of how gay people date, how they meet, what it's like,” he continued.
Garber, who is openly gay, echoed this excitement surrounding the installment, noting how it's “crucially important that these stories are acknowledged.”
“I haven’t played a lot of gay characters, but every time I do it, it brings back certain feelings I had as a young actor where I couldn’t be gay," he explained.
While the installment marks the first (somewhat successful) romantic subplot for Smithers, this is far from the first time LaZebnik explored LGBTQAI+ storylines on the show. Back in 2016, he penned “The Burns Cage," a.k.a. the episode where Smithers comes out as gay, a story he says was inspired by his son, Johnny.
"I am a Midwestern guy, so I don’t tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I thought, 'What better way to tell my son I love him than to write a cartoon about it?'" he said of the episode at the time.
So, reader here's to Smithers – regardless of how his romance turns out, at least now he knows his type – old and rich.
Top Image: Fox
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