After many years of being the but of jokes about his status, Mr. Burns’ assistant Smithers came out as gay in a 2016 episode of the hit series The Simpsons and he’s about to get a new boyfriend in the series voiced by none other than Victor Garber (The Flash, Alias). Entertainment Weekly brings word of this revealing a new clip from the November 21 episode of the series titled ย “Portrait of a Lackey on Fire.” According to the outlet, Garber’s character is Michael De Graaf and is described as a “billionaire fashion designer and tart-tongued America’s Got Fabric judge,” one that will perhaps lure him away from Mr. Burns.
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“He’s charming and down to earth, and he loves that Smithers isn’t using him to get ahead in the fashion world,” executive producer Matt Selman revealed in an interview. “Smithers doesn’t know anything about fashion. Smithers is a smart, hardworking, intelligent guy. Michael is tired of people from the New York fashion scene where everyone has an agenda. He wants that middle-America regular guy who isn’t about status and fashion stuff.” ย
The New York Post offers an interesting peak behind the curtain about what the episode means to those working behind the scenes including series writer Rob LaZebnik, whose son Johnny was the inspiration to finally have Smithers come out as gay. The father-son pair wrote the upcoming episode together
“To be able to work with Johnny on this was, like, such a dream and to be able to see how truly funny and talented he is was just, you know, super fun and rewarding,” the elder LaZebnik said.
“I know my dad is a comedy writer. I grew up with him – obviously, I know he’s a funny guy,” Johnny added. “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…We now have this piece of content that we put into the world together that is a combined brainpower of the two of us.”
The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 PM on FOX with “Portrait of a Lackey on Fire,” the season 33 premiere episode, set to air on November 21.
