One confused Reddit user said: "Apparently Smithers used to be black..." While another added: "Today I learned that Mr Smithers of The Simpsons was originally black, but was changed to white because the staff thought it 'would be a bad idea to have a black sub-servient character'.".
Simpsons fans are only just realising why Smithers changes key detail during series It has been on air since 1989 - but some fans of The Simpsons are only just learning why creators changed a key detail about one of its characters.
When making his first appearance in episode three of the first season, Homer's Odyssey, Waylon Smithers, who works as Mr Burns' personal assistant at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, has black skin.
Commenting on this, one social media user said: "This was a fairly common thing in the early going in Bart the Genius you can see Milhouse has black hair, and there are numerous other variations from characters.
However, in later episodes, his skin colour changes to yellow, making fans wonder why the creators decided to change his race.
