10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About The Simpsons

10. Smithers Was Always Supposed To Be Yellow

Many of those that live in Springfield have grown and evolved over the years, changing in some way or another. Few have gone through this quite like Waylon Smithers however, as he was depicted as black in his first appearance, and has been yellow ever since his second.

This has always seemed like quite a strange alteration to make to a character after just one episode, with many fans asking why his skin colour was changed, but the truth is that Smithers was always intended to be yellow.

According to long time writer, director, and animator for The Simpsons, David Silverman, there was an error in ‘Homer’s Odyssey’ that led to Smithers being animated in the wrong colour. As this was his first appearance, it was assumed that this was his original design, but that was never the case.

Silverman stated that Smithers’ character as a sycophant to Mr. Burns was always the plan, and that the writers didn’t believe it would be a good idea for this particular character to be black. So just one episode later, Smithers was back to his original, yellow design.