Iconic gay character, assistant to the villain Mr Burns will finally find love in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons, with Michael De Graaf, a billionaire fashion mogul.
Entertainment Weekly named him in the top 20 TV’s greatest sidekick of all time. Gay.com ranked him as the sixth-gayest cartoon character. He Came out as gay in 2016 (expressing his love to his boss Mr. Burns and being rejected) and now he finally finds love. Waylon Smithers is definitely one of The Simpsons’ more popular characters, and its great to see the creators of the show developing it even further. It seems as Smithers has seemingly moved on and is taking the next step in living his best life publicly – finding love.
The buttoned-up sidekick will hook up with a new boyfriend, billionaire fashion mogul Michael De Graaf (voiced by Victor Garber) in a 21 November episode of the show.
The historic moment isn’t just big for the show, it is also a landmark moment for longtime series writer Rob LaZebnik and his gay son Johnny, who inspired Smithers’ coming out episode in 2016. The father and son have penned this upcoming The Simpsons installment together, and Rob told the New York Post that it was “such a dream” to work with his son and to be “able to see how truly funny and talented he is”.
Johnny, who also lives in LA and has himself has carved a niche as a TV writer since he graduated from college in 2016, called the experience “spectacular and fulfilling,” as well as “an honor” to work with his supportive father.
“Sometimes TV can have a real impact on people’s thinking,” Rob added.
Johnny shared it was important to him to put gay romance at the front and center of the episode as so often LGBT+ romantic storylines are “subplot or alluded to or show 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 gate, how they meet, what it’s like,” he said.
In Smithers’ Coming Out episode (“The Burns Cage”, Season 27; Episode 17) the character briefly dated another gay character, Julio (who is currently voiced by out actor Tony Rodríguez), after being rejected by Mr Burns. However, the two characters ended their short love affair at the end of the episode after Smithers realised he couldn’t let go of his love for Mr Burns.