The Simpsons: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Season 1
2. Black Smithers
In the show's third episode, "Homer's Odyssey", the children of Springfield Elementary take a tour of the Nuclear Power Plant.
Along the way they meet Smilin' Joe Fission, Sherri and Terri's pompous Dad, and Mr. Waylon Smithers who is unmistakably African-American.
If you've just seen this one episode of The Simpsons then, firstly, who are you? We need you for scientific studies. Secondly, you wouldn't think anything was up.
However, anyone who has seen Smithers in any other episode will know that this is the only time he is ever depicted as black.
As we heard in the first entry, The Simpsons' first season was littered with mistakes and this was one of them.
The writers decided that having an African-American act as a servant to a wealthy White man was not a good idea.
However, an error was made by Gyorgyi Peluce, a colour stylist and, ironically, the person who decided to make the characters yellow in the first place.
By the time the mistake was noticed, the show didn't have enough money to fix it. So the episode went out and Smithers' one-off appearance was explained away by David Silverman as "an extreme tan".
Nice save, Dave.