Contents
How many times was Mr. Burns stabbed
The Future – Mr. Burns is later cryogenically frozen. Scientists work to find a cure for 17 stab wounds to the back so that he can be thawed out and cured. He was cured in ttime to attend Lisa Simpson’s wedding. He isn’t completely thawed, and when he tries to sit down, he snaps in half, which is also cured.
Later he is a shut-in who sponsors a Yale scholarship as punishment for stealing Christmas. He keeps diamonds to have them changed into Earth’s most precious mineral of the age: coal. His home is also guarded by a large group of unicorn-clam creatures (uni-clams). Billions of years into the future, Burns lives in the form of a partial android with his robot dog sidekick Smithers.
Burns’ head misplaces his teddy, Bobo every century.
What season is the Who Shot Mr Burns
129 ” Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) ” |
Mr. Burns was admitted to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was then transferred to a better hospital where his condition was upgraded to ‘alive’. ” ― Kent Brockman
“Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)” | |||||||||||||||||||||
Episode Information
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Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) ” is the first episode of season 7 of The Simpsons and the one-hundred and twenty-ninth episode overall. It originally aired on September 17, 1995, The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein and directed by Wes Archer,
Why did Maggie shot Mr Burns?
Part Two – With Burns hospitalized, the Springfield police search for his assailant. Smithers vaguely remembers shooting someone the night before in a drunken rage. Guilt-ridden, he heads for a local church, and is promptly arrested when the confessional turns out to be a police sting,
While passing the media on his way to the police station, Smithers makes a remark to them that Sideshow Mel recognizes from an episode of the fictional Comedy Central program, Pardon My Zinger, that aired at the same time as the shooting. Mel realizes Smithers must have watched it as well, giving him an alibi.
Mel and Krusty head to the police station as Smithers’ memory clears. It turns out he had actually shot Jasper in Jasper’s wooden leg. Meanwhile, the townspeople pull down the sun-blocker, which crushes Shelbyville to their delight. With one of the prime suspects cleared, the police, aided by Lisa, eliminate other suspects, including Puente, Skinner, Willie, and Moe.
- After a surreal dream involving Lisa, Wiggum finds an eyelash on Mr.
- Burns’ suit that matches Simpson DNA,
- At the same time, Burns wakes up from his coma, exclaiming “Homer Simpson!” The police conclude that Homer shot Burns as revenge for not remembering his name.
- They raid the Simpson home and find a gun under the seat of their car, covered with Homer’s fingerprints and loaded with bullets matching the one fired into Burns, resulting in Homer being arrested for attempted murder.
On the way to jail Homer escapes. At the hospital, it is revealed “Homer Simpson” is the only thing Burns can say, suggesting his “accusation” may not have actually been creditable. Lisa returns to the scene of the crime to investigate. At the same time, Homer arrives at the hospital to confront his boss.
- After a police bulletin reports Homer’s location, the police, Lisa, and many other citizens of Springfield race to the hospital.
- Upon entering Burns’ room, everyone finds an enraged Homer vigorously shaking Burns.
- This returns Burns’ ability to speak normally, but when he asks who is shaking him, this pushes Homer over the edge, grabbing Wiggum’s pistol and threatens to kill Burns if he does not take back accusing him of shooting him.
Burns calms Homer down and confirms Homer did not shoot him. He then reveals the true assailant upon seeing her in the crowd of citizens: Maggie, After leaving the town meeting, Burns came across Maggie eating a lollipop in the Simpsons’ car. He decided to try stealing candy from a baby, but struggled against Maggie.
As Burns yanked the lollipop away, his gun slipped from its holster into Maggie’s hands and discharged. The gun fell beneath the car seat, and Homer would unknowingly leave fingerprints on the gun while reaching under the seat for an ice cream cone he dropped. Burns demands for Maggie to be arrested, but he is dismissed by Wiggum, who says no jury would convict a baby for a crime.
Marge also adds the shooting must have been an accident, considering Maggie is an infant. In the final shot, Maggie is shown with shifty eyes as she sucks her pacifier, implying she shot Burns intentionally.
Why did Smithers turn white?
Character – Smithers’s initial (and only) appearance with a dark complexion, as seen in ” Homer’s Odyssey ” Mr. Smithers was partly based on how numerous Fox executives and staff members acted towards Barry Diller, The idea for Smithers’s orientation was pitched by Sam Simon, who proposed that Smithers should be gay, but the writers should never draw too much attention to it and should try to keep it in the back of their heads.
- Jay Kogen said “Originally he was gay and black.But we thought it was too much so we just kept him gay.” The script for ” Blood Feud ” originally featured Smithers saying “Just leave me enough to get home to my wife and kids”, but the line had to be cut for time.
- Smithers is voiced by Harry Shearer, who is also the voice of Mr.
Burns. Shearer is often able to perform dialogue between the two characters in one take. Dan Castellaneta occasionally fills in for Shearer at table reads and voices Smithers. The name Waylon, coined by Mike Reiss, was first used in ” I Married Marge ” and comes from the puppeteer Wayland Flowers,
- Smithers made his first appearance in ” Homer’s Odyssey “, which was the third episode of the first season, although he can be heard over a speaker in The Simpsons series premiere ” Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire “.
- In his first visual appearance in “Homer’s Odyssey”, Smithers was mistakenly animated with the wrong color and was made darker than most characters by Gyorgyi Peluce, the color stylist.
David Silverman has claimed that Smithers was always intended to be “Mr Burns’ white sycophant”, and the staff thought it “would be a bad idea to have a black subservient character” and so switched him to his intended color for his next episode. Silverman retconned this error by saying that Smithers had a tan from a recent holiday in the Caribbean.
How did Bart save Mr. Burns life?
Episode aired Jul 11, 1991 TV-14 30m
After Bart saves Mr. Burns’ life with a donated blood transfusion, Homer vows revenge when they receive only a “thank you” card as compensation. After Bart saves Mr. Burns’ life with a donated blood transfusion, Homer vows revenge when they receive only a “thank you” card as compensation.
- After Bart saves Mr.
- Burns’ life with a donated blood transfusion, Homer vows revenge when they receive only a “thank you” card as compensation.
- Review A solid conclusion to the first solid season Several common Homer tropes make their first appearance in this episode-i.e.
- Homer and his brain having a conversation.
Likewise, the episode combines a moralistic theme wrapped around a faintly absurd resolution with the totem head. And the writers proceed to undermine the point with meta-commentary in Marge trying to figure out the moral of the story. In short this episode is a token of what show was for its first dozen or so years.
They made better episodes this season and certainly in the series but this is a good one to watch to get the flavor of the show. Season 2 on the whole is a lot better than season 1 largely because the animation is better. Season 1 is rough on the directorial and animated level; the writers seemingly exceeded the then animators skills.
Season 2 does a lot better on this and the animation is a lot more nuanced and frankly cleaner. The writing is a little tighter as well. There are several very good episodes in the 2nd season but I would be hard press to put most of season 2 in the “Golden Age” of the show.
How evil is Mr. Burns?
Among the huge cast of characters that have appeared in The Simpsons, there have been some truly wonderful bad guys. From the murderous Sideshow Bob to the lovable mob boss Fat Tony; together they’ve been responsible for some of the most heinous crimes imaginable.
- When looking back across the show’s 32 seasons though, one character really stands out from the crowd.
- He might not feature as much as he used to, but Mr.
- Burns has a long track record of causing chaos in Springfield.
- He steals, cares little for the environment, and is even willing to kill anyone standing in his way.
Mr. Burns’ crimes are too numerous to count, but some of them are too villainous to ever forget.
Who shot Mr Burns that is not an adult
The sun-blocking shield. The accidental gunshot. Smithers getting fired. Tito MFing Puente, The two-part “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” episode of The Simpsons is enshrined among the series’ most remembered. But as writer Josh Weinstein, also a former showrunner, now reveals, things could have gone very differently.
Weinstein shared a photo of the original pitch (which he penned with Bill Oakley) for the episodes bridging together Seasons 6 and 7 of The Simpsons, It’s dated “6-3-94” and it paints a much-changed picture of what the episode could have been. “This is very rough,” the pitch begins. “The story has to basically be about Mr.
Burns making six mortal enemies. Obviously Homer, maybe Bart, and possibly other major characters like, Apu, Barney, etc. Perhaps he fires Smithers.” So far, so accurate. But once the pitch gets to the motivation for having Springfield Nuclear Power Plant owner Monty Burns shot, the story takes a very grounded approach.
Remember, in the actual episodes, Burns builds a many-stories-high sun shield to block out all the light, thus forcing Springfieldians to depend entirely on nuclear power for all their needs. “Usually the way these things happen is there is some big business deal brewing,” the earlier version goes. “We thought it could be a big real estate thing where Burns is going to buy this block of downtown area and demolish it to build some crazy Burns new thing, and it includes Moe’s Bar, and maybe the Kwik-E-Mart and maybe Patty and Selma’s apartment.” Tweet may have been deleted The sun blocking idea of course turned out to be much more useful for establishing motives, since it angered the whole of Springfield.
It was also just one of those didn’t-see-it-coming Simpsons twists that made this era of the show so delightful. Mr. Burns faithful assistant Smithers still takes issue with the evil plan and gets fired in Weinstein and Oakley’s original take. And the actual episode did riff on different murder mystery tropes, as the pitch also suggests.
But one thing it never mentions: The actual shooter. Maggie’s name never comes up once. ” the end we have to decide a character we’re willing to sacrifice. It could be Barney, who has been driven to madness by the imminent destruction of Moe’s bar,” the pitch goes. The writers then ponder having Barney sent to jail for a short period of time, for attempted murder (never happened).
They also consider Marge’s sisters, Patty and Selma, suggesting the latter may be having an affair with Burns. “It would really be satisfying if it were not some cheap-out guy like Burns’ brother.” The end isn’t clearly plotted out, but the pitch does make one thing clear: ” would really be satisfying if it were not some cheap-out guy like Burns’ brother who suddenly appeared at the last minute.” The final episodes delivered.
Maggie shot Mr. Burns, by accident, while he was attempting to literally steal candy from a baby. There were even clues peppered throughout, echoing one of the original pitch’s goals. “If I was a kid I’d really like it if there were actually clues. If there really was a puzzle that we could solve. Little things that point to the actual person so people could be thinking about it all summer.” That’s exactly what happened.
In the time between Parts 1 and 2, The Simpsons team staged a media blitz, complete with a contest, that focused on a singular purpose: Keep everyone asking “Who shot Mr. Burns?” (Note: “Collect calls” were something people used to do to place calls on a payphone – a public phone kiosk – when they didn’t have the coinage necessary to pay for the call themselves.
- Calling someone collect meant the recipient would pay for it on their next bill, provided they accepted the call.
- This explanation is mostly a joke, but I have to sadly admit that some of you just might not know about public phone services.) Weinstein also mentions the possibility of there being a future book on “this stuff.” Oh please let it be true.
Tweet may have been deleted Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team.
He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city.
He’s a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He’s also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner’s two cats. He’s a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
Why was Mr. Burns glowing?
Plot – In a framing story, Leonard Nimoy is hosting a program about alien encounters, and begins the episode by talking about an “encounter” that occurred in Springfield, Homer tells Lenny and Carl that they should sneak out of work early and start drinking beer.
Homer puts in an old tape of them working into the security camera. That night at Moe’s, after drinking over 10 beers, a drunken Homer is forced to walk home after taking a breathalyzer test, but takes a wrong path and ends up in the woods. In a clearing, he encounters a glowing, thin-boned alien, Although the alien tells him, “Don’t be afraid,” Homer panics and runs home screaming.
The rest of the family do not believe Homer’s story, and his attempts to report the alien sighting to the police are dismissed by Chief Wiggum, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the FBI hear of the sighting and go to investigate. After receiving no results from their psychological tests of him, Homer fails to provide any proof that he actually saw an alien.
- Homer is ridiculed by most of the neighborhood; even Marge refuses to believe in his claims, but Bart admits that he believes Homer.
- The next Friday night, the pair camp out in the forest.
- The alien arrives and promises peace, but Homer scares it away when he accidentally steps on their campfire and screams in pain.
Bart captures the entire incident on tape. Nimoy bids the audience goodnight. He is then reminded that the show still has ten minutes left by an off-screen Squeaky-Voiced Teen, at which point he runs to his car and leaves. The Squeaky-Voiced Teen takes over narrating duties.
Following the successful capture of the alien’s existence, Homer and Bart present it to the media. Everyone in town finally believes Homer, even knocking on his door and asking Homer questions. During a church lecture, Reverend Lovejoy gets emotional talking about the character E.T. Meanwhile, Lisa maintains that there must be a logical explanation for the alien.
Friday comes again and everyone (including Nimoy) goes to the forest. The alien appears, promising love, but the townspeople begin to riot, and charge at the alien. Lisa and Smithers stop them just in time, showing that the “alien” is actually Mr. Burns,
Smithers explains that Burns receives longevity treatment once a week in order to cheat death; this includes intense chiropractic, administering eye drops and painkillers, as well as a vocal cord scraping. The ordeal leaves Burns in a state of disorientation, and with a soft, high-pitched voice. Back to his normal self, Burns reveals that his “healthy” green glow is due to many years of working in his nuclear plant (which has also left him impotent ).
After threatening to bring “fear, famine pestilence” instead of peace and love to the people of Springfield, he is given another booster injection from Dr. Nick, Reverting to his “alien” self, he begins to sing ” Good Morning Starshine “, with the entire crowd, including Nimoy, and a returned Mulder and Scully (who is wearing a “Homer is a dope” t-shirt), joining in.
Does Mr. Burns lose his memory
“” The Fool Monty (TV Episode 2010) ⭐ 6.4 | Animation, Comedy
Episode aired Nov 21, 201030m
After Mr. Burns finds out that he is dying, he has an accident and loses his memory, and all the townspeople use the situation to get their revenge on him. After Mr. Burns finds out that he is dying, he has an accident and loses his memory, and all the townspeople use the situation to get their revenge on him.
After Mr. Burns finds out that he is dying, he has an accident and loses his memory, and all the townspeople use the situation to get their revenge on him. It was Fun to see the Town get Revenge on Mr. Burns, The Fool Monty is a great Simpsons episode with a well written storyline and a lot of very funny parts.Its certainly weak compared to previous episodes in the twenty second season,but it still has plenty of good moments.My favourite part of the whole episode was certainly seeing the people of Springfield get revenge on Mr.
Burns,they used very cruel methods of payback but it was very funny,also the way Burns talked and acted had me in stitches,it was certainly the most different we’ve ever seen his character in the series and I really enjoyed seeing him behave so differently.Definitely a weaker moment for the twenty second season,but the Fool Monty is still an enjoyable Simpsons episode.
Nov 26, 2010
Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations Suggest an edit or add missing content : “” The Fool Monty (TV Episode 2010) ⭐ 6.4 | Animation, Comedy
Why are The Simpsons yellow?
There’s a few reasons behind the yellow choice – They’re arguably the most famous family in television, and have been on our screens for more than three decades – but when you think about it, it’s quite weird that Matt Groening decided to make the Simpsons yellow.
Well, it turns out there was an understandable thought process behind the choice to make the Simpsons yellow – and it may have had a whole host of benefits. Groening revealed in an interview back in 2007 that an animator came up with the idea of yellow. He said that he wanted his cartoon to be eye-catching.
When someone is flipping through channels, he wanted the bright yellow colour of the Simpsons to catch the eye and make them go back to watch it. And so, the iconic yellow Simpsons family was created. “An animator came up with the Simpsons’ yellow and as soon as she showed it to me I said, ‘This is the answer!’ When you’re flicking through channels with your remote control, and a flash of yellow goes by, you’ll know you’re watching The Simpsons, ” he told CBBC, Matt Groening immediately liked the idea of the Simpsons being yellow when he saw it (Getty) He said: “Bart, Lisa and Maggie have no hairlines — there’s no line that separates their skin from their hair points. So the animators chose yellow — it’s kinda skin, kinda hair.” Furthermore, there seems to be some scientific logic and benefit behind the colour choice.
Esquire reports that the colour yellow has a unique psychological effect on the human brain, and represents optimism and joy. It’s also the most visible colour to the human eye because of the way our eyes process light, which is why taxis and warning signs are yellow. So there you have it, a whole host of reasons why Springfield’s most famous family have their recognisable skin colour.
Along with being yellow and it being one of the best television shows of all time, The Simpsons has also become famous for another thing – predicting the future. Whether it’s Donald Trump’s presidency, the Super Bowl lineup or last summer’s fuel shortages, it’s incredible how many times the show has foreseen what’s in store for humanity.
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Is Mr. Burns a vampire
Count Burns
” | Mmm. precious blood. | „ |
~ Mr. Burns |
Count Charles Montgomery “Monty” Plantagenet Schicklgruber Burns was Mr. Burns as a vampire. He was the main villain in the Treehouse of Horror IV story, “Bart Simpson’s Dracula”.
Why does Mr. Burns never remember Homer?
In “And Maggie Makes Three”, we see that two years ago, Homer managed to briefly get out of debt and quit his job in celebration. Part of his “victory dance” involved playing Monty Burns’ head like a bongo throughout the nukyular panner plant. Throughout the series, in (nearly) every scene that occurs later than this event, Burns cannot remember Homer’s name.
- Obviously, the repeated head trauma on Burns’ fragile noggin had lasting effects, including destroying the part of his brain that is responsible for remembering Homer’s name.
- Although concussion symptoms generally manifest quite rapidly, Burns was in such shock (“paralyzed with rage and island rhythms”) that the first noticeable effect occurred a few days later when he confused “The Plaque” with “The Plague”.
What is supposed to be a lighthearted joke about Homer’s lowly status (Burns has no problem remembering anyone else, even that crippled Irishman from 80 years ago) is instead a cautionary tale about the dangers of head injury two decades before the NFL would acknowledge it.
Who shot JR Ewing
Plot – In the final scene of the 1979–80 season, J.R. Ewing ( Larry Hagman ) hears a noise outside his office, walks out to the corridor to look, and is shot twice by an unseen assailant. The episode, titled ” A House Divided “, was broadcast on March 21, 1980, and was written by Rena Down and directed by Leonard Katzman,
Viewers had to wait all summer to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible.J.R. Ewing was a villain on the series who regularly double-crossed business associates, plotted against his own family, called his wife Sue Ellen ( Linda Gray ) a ” slut “, and had her committed to a sanatorium so he could take custody of their infant son John Ross,
Essentially all the other characters on the show were suspects. Ultimately, in the ” Who Done It? ” episode which aired on November 21, 1980, the person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be Kristin Shepard ( Mary Crosby ). Kristin was J.R.’s scheming sister-in-law and mistress who shot him in a fit of anger.J.R.
Why did Maggie turn evil
As The Walking Dead season 11 continues, it’s rapidly becoming clear that Maggie is turning into a brand new Negan. What inspired this major change? Why is The Walking Dead turning Lauren Cohan’s Maggie into the second coming of Negan? Ever since her debut in The Walking Dead season 2, Maggie Greene (later Rhee) has been one of the apocalypse’s most reliable protagonists – loyal ally to Rick Grimes, loving wife of Glenn, brave savior of Hilltop, etc.
- Maggie departed in The Walking Dead season 9 (Cohan went to film Whiskey Cavalier ), and returned in season 10’s finale a changed woman.
- Maggie was always a tough, no-nonsense leader, but now those qualities have veered into ruthlessness, cruelty and selfishness.
- In fact, Maggie is rapidly turning into the mirror image of Negan during his bat-swinging “leader of the Saviors” phase.
In The Walking Dead season 10, Maggie leads an expedition to her former settlement, planning to oust the villainous Reapers who took over and claim their supplies for Alexandria. Straightforward enough so far. On the way, however, Maggie insists on taking the direct route through a subway tunnel, despite being warned repeatedly about the dangers within.
Maggie also admits she was planning to use the trip as cover for killing Negan, and when one of the squad returns after running away, Maggie has no hesitation letting him die. Not only is The Walking Dead ‘s Maggie rapidly losing the support of her fellow survivors, she’s actually transforming into a villain.
Maggie seems driven by a desperate need for revenge on the Reapers – as if doing so will make amends for her past failures. To achieve this, she’s willing to endanger friends and allies, showing the same selfishness Negan did while Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character was in charge of the Saviors.
Though he made less effort to hide it, Negan used his people as pawns to settle personal goals, which is precisely what Maggie is doing in The Walking Dead season 11, Another example comes when Maggie lets Gage get eaten by zombies. She’s sending a clear message to her team – follow me, or end up like this.
Once again, this is a more subtle version of Negan’s leadership style, where he’d brand dissenters’ faces with a hot iron to ensure their obedience. From an in-universe perspective, Maggie’s transformation has been a long time coming. Her execution of Gregory in season 9 highlights a dark streak developing long before The Walking Dead ‘s current season, and Maggie also abandoned Hilltop right when the community needed a leader most.
- The genesis of Maggie’s ruthlessness can be traced back to the death of Glenn – a life-altering event that tainted the goodness she was once known for.
- This brings Maggie even closer to Negan, since it was the loss of Lucille, his own wife, that triggered Negan’s evil Savior act,
- Both characters are embarking on the same grief-stricken journey, but where Negan fell to darkness almost immediately after Lucille died and is only now recovering, Maggie has slowly crept deeper into morally questionable territory, and hasn’t yet hit the bottom.
In storytelling terms, there are several possible reasons for making Maggie The Walking Dead ‘s new Negan. On one hand, The Walking Dead has always highlighted the fragility of “good” and “bad” in a world where zombies reign. The likes of Rick Grimes and Morgan Jones have constantly flitted between being violent dictators and hopeful pacifists, and The Walking Dead season 11 is proving how even Maggie can take the wrong path, under the right circumstances.
- But Maggie’s personality U-turn also says a great deal about vengeance, after Lauren Cohan’s character recently admitted to never shaking the desire for payback against Negan.
- Maggie now faces a choice – let go of the past and stay wholesome, or continue gunning for Negan’s head and turn into the very person she spent so many years hating.
More: Walking Dead: How Daryl’s Subway Discovery Foreshadows The Commonwealth’s Evil
Did Maggie become a villain
Maggie Rhee has made some questionably cruel decisions in The Walking Dead that occasionally depicted her as a villain rather than a hero. This article has videos/references that contain graphic violence, death, and profanity. Viewers’ discretion is advised. Although The Walking Dead show is coming to a conclusion on November 20th, 2022, fans won’t have to say goodbye to their favorite characters for too long since there are a couple of spinoffs in the works.
While many fans are excited to hear that Rick and Michonne will once again be reunited in 2023 (via Digital Spy ), there are a lot of fans who are also thrilled that Maggie and Negan will star in their own spinoff, The Walking Dead: Dead City, However, the Maggie Rhee featured in this upcoming spinoff will likely be far different from the character in the original.
Maggie’s character went through many changes as her story progresses. While she learned to be a strong leader, she also made some questionable choices that proved to be cruel and vindictive. These decisions Maggie made occasionally depicted her as more of a villain than a hero.
Why does Maggie hate the Reapers?
Meridian Takeover – At some point, the Reapers discovered a location known as Meridian and attacked Maggie Rhee ‘s group who resided there despite having no previous conflicts with her group, forcing her and her surviving group members to flee back to Virginia, in which the Reapers followed them to finish them off due to them being “marked” by Pope,
Why was Skinner black?
The Simpsons’ Matt Groening reveals why Smithers started a different color Published: 02:49 BST, 18 November 2014 | Updated: 17:08 BST, 18 November 2014
- In the third episode of the Simpsons in 1987, Smithers made his first appearance.
- When viewers first laid eyes on Montgomery Burns’ assistant, he was black.
- But when he appeared on screen again he was yellow, because of what the show’s creator Matt Groening says was a mistake.
- Scroll down for video
Then and now: Smithers first appeared in the third episode of the show in 1987 (left). In his second appearance he was yellow, as he has remained ever since
- The 60-year-old claimed that the character was always meant to be yellow, but animators painted him the wrong color and, because they were low on funds, they could not afford a retake.
- The writer also revealed that all the characters are yellow, because he wanted them to look different to everything else on TV, and have four fingers because it is easier to draw.
- Talking to, he said: ‘He was always yellow, and they painted him wrong once.
- ‘At the time we didn’t have enough to do retakes, so when there were glitches and mistakes it stayed that way.
- ‘He was never ‘black’, it was an accident.’
The interviewer then asks why all of the characters are yellow, to which Groening sarcastically replies: ‘I’ve never noticed’. He then adds: ‘It is so they wouldn’t look like anything else on TV. except for Spongebob.’ And he said that the reason all of the characters have four fingers is because it is ‘easier to draw’.
- ‘That is a lot of pencil mileage if you add another finger’ he said.
- The 26th season of The Simpsons begins on September 28, where Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, Krusty the Clown’s father, was killed off.
- The show originally ran as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.
- After three seasons, the shorts were developed into a half-hour prime time show that debuted on December 17, 1989 as a Christmas special.
- The Simpsons have won 28 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award.
Homer’s catchphrase ‘D’oh!’ has entered the American lexicon while the show has become the longest-running US sitcom, the longest running American animated program and the longest-running US scripted primetime TV series. The show’s other notable catchphrases include Marge’s questionable ‘Hmmmmmm’, neighbor Ned Flander’s greeting ‘Hi-Diddily Ho!’ and schoolyard tyrant Nelson’s ‘Haw Haw!’ The Simpsons Movie was released in July 2007 and the feature-length film grossed more than $527 million.
Why are the Simpsons yellow instead of white?
The Simpsons has become a cultural juggernaut since its debut, but many fans still don’t know the reason why the characters have yellow skin. Since its debut, The Simpsons has remained a cultural mainstay, but many fans still don’t know the reason why the characters have yellow skin. The Simpsons may not be the phenomenon it once was, but the show’s satirical take on the modern American family garnered success on its debut that continued throughout the following decade and beyond.
- Despite a recent decline in popularity, The Simpsons remains on the air to this day – making it the longest running scripted show in history (and one viewers can now finally see in its original aspect ratio on Disney+ ).
- The Simpsons longevity is a testament to how popular the show was at its apex, consistently bringing eyes to the Fox network week on week during the height of its popularity.
Not only was the writing razor sharp, the show itself stood out visually. Based on character designs by original creator Matt Groening, the Simpsons family and the various characters that inhabit Springfield, wherever that may be, have a distinct design that remains wholly unique even today.
- The most obvious difference between The Simpsons and other cartoons, aside from the Simpsons family not having real hair, is the characters’ yellow skin.
- Now, this design quirk has become an accepted part of popular culture, but at the time the show debuted, audiences weren’t used to the striking visual – and it seems this was intentional.
In a 2000 documentary detailing his life and career, Groening elaborated on his characters’ distinctive skin tone: ” Yellow skin: why. if you’re flicking around with your channel changer very fast and you zoom by The Simpsons there’s nothing else that looks like them on TV, so therefore we stand out. Groening has since elaborated on the genesis of The Simpsons ‘ iconic yellow skin. In a BBC interview back in 2007 for the launch of The Simpsons Movie, the cartoonist said he didn’t want the “conventional cartoon colours” when the show was being developed.
- According to Groening, he was shown character designs by an animator who had used yellow ink, to which he responded “this is the answer.” As it turns out, yellow is actually the most eye-catching color, due to the way brighter colors reflect more light and stimulate the eye.
- This may explain why other big cartoon characters, such as Spongebob Squarepants, are also yellow.
It seems the lone animator that approached Groening back in the show’s pre-production phase may have known something about color theory. However, former showrunner and writer on The Simpsons Mike Reiss seemingly revealed there was more to the story than what Groening spoke about.
- In his book Springfield Confidential, Reiss writes that “Bart, Lisa and Maggie have no hairlines – there’s no line that separates their skin from their hair points.
- So the animaters chose yellow – it’s kinda skin, kinda hair.” It seems this could explain why the animator Groening referred to made the choice to paint the characters yellow, but it seems an oddly specific reason, even with The Simpsons ‘ strict character design rules, and one that Groening would surely have shared at some point.
Whatever the specific reason behind the decision to paint characters yellow behind the scenes of The Simpsons, there’s more to it than Groening wanting his characters to stand out. In the 2000 documentary My Wasted Life, the creator explained how the yellow color “looks like there’s something wrong with your TV set,” before explaining that he “thought that was appropriate to The Simpsons symbolically.” Exactly what he was getting at here is up for debate, but one likely explanation is he was talking about the show depicting a dysfunctional version of modern American family.
The Simpsons, as Groening said in a 1991 documentary “are in a struggle to be normal” and “they fail miserably every time and that abnormality is what makes them funny.” Yellow skin, then, becomes a visual symbol of the family’s, and by extension, of the modern American family’s, abnormality. It’s pretty deep, but then The Simpsons was always more than just a cartoon, and the yellow skin is yet another reminder of what made the show great.
More: The Simpsons Is 30 Years Old: How The Show Has Changed
Does Smithers ever get a boyfriend?
Waylon Smithers and boyfriend Michael De Graaf from The Simpsons have made the cover of Attitude magazine. Smithers, who previously came out on the show in 2016 episode ‘Tom Collins’, had a gay romance storyline last year in episode ‘Portrait Of A Lackey On Fire’.
In the episode, Smithers falls in love with Graaf, a famous fashion designer character voiced by Victor Garber ( Argo, Legally Blonde ). The fictional couple have since been celebrated in the March/April issue of Attitude, with a cover inspired by Disney classic Lady And The Tramp, @TheSimpsons ‘ Waylon Smithers makes history on the cover of Attitude as Springfield’s most famous gay resident introduces the world to boyfriend Michael De Graaf.
Get the new-look Attitude March/April issue now ➡️ https://t.co/Du4RBe4TgQ pic.twitter.com/FVL3pbmtXU — Attitude Magazine (@AttitudeMag) February 17, 2022 The issue also features a “world-first interview” with Smithers about “life as a gay man in a small town”.
- Asked when he first realised he was gay, Smithers said: “Well, I remember watching A StreetCar Named Desire and being unbelievably attracted to the hunk on screen who had such a powerful, raw sexual energy – Karl Malden, who plays Stanley’s friend.
- I’ve had a poster of him in my bedroom ever since.” Speaking about the episode last year, co-writer Johnny LaZebnik, who was the inspiration for Smithers’ original coming-out episode, said: “So often, gay romances are a subplot or alluded to or shown in some kind of montage or as a punchline.
“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.” A fan of The Simpsons recently created a point-and-click adventure game based on the Steamed Hams scene, inspired by classic LucasArts adventure games like Monkey Island,