‘The Simpsons’ Will Explore Its First-Ever Gay Relationship In Landmark Episode

The Simpsons will explore its first-ever gay relationship in a landmark episode, titled ‘Portrait Of A Lackey On Fire’. 

Waylon Smithers, who works for Mr Burns, will apparently find ‘true love’ in the episode airing on November 21.

The character, who came out as gay back in 2016, will meet fashion designer Michael De Graaf (voiced by Victor Garber).

Find out more about the landmark episode in the clip below…

The episode’s synopsis reads: “Smithers finds true love with a famous fashion designer, but will his new relationship destroy Springfield?”

The show’s longtime writer, Rob LaZebnik, teamed up with his son, Johnny, to write the script. Previously, the pair worked on Smithers’ coming out episode.

In an interview with the New York Post, Johnny – who has also worked on the Rugrats reboot – said that he wanted to create ‘fully formed’ gay characters.

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He explained: “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.”

He added: “That was really special to me to get to highlight characters who are not punchlines, who are fully formed.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Johnny reflected on working with his dad for the script, describing the experience as an ‘honour’.

“I know my dad is a comedy writer. I grew up with him – obviously, I know he’s a funny guy,” he said. “But actually getting to sit down and write jokes with him was so much fun. And there were some moments where I was like, ‘Dad, that’s disgusting – we can’t put that on television,’ which I didn’t expect to be saying because I’m usually the disgusting one.”

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