10 TV Mistakes You Can’t Unsee
4. Waylon Smither’s Changing Colour – The Simpsons
This one is pretty famous, but it’s jarring enough for new viewers that we had to include it here. Yes, Matt Groening’s iconic family sitcom The Simpsons may be the greatest achievement in TV history and amongst the most impressive artistic endeavours of the entire last century (even if you do stop watching after season nine/ ten/ eleven), but even America’s first family aren’t above some simple errors, and when they make a mistake boy is it a big one.
It was years before viewers had it confirmed for them that Mr. Burn’s lackey assistant Waylon Smithers was actually gay, in what was an impressive moment for LGBTQ+ representation in animation. But years earlier, the character had originally been black, rather than the yellow of The Simpsons brood.
It’s hardly an animation error as Groening claims when the beloved likes of Dr. Hibert, Carl, and Lou are all black characters on the same show, but it’s easy enough to chalk this one up to a change in character design early in the series—though it’s still strange to see an unrecognizable iteration of the now well-known figure early on.