Frustrated, Smithers is instead forced to fire Karl, who has sacrificed his own job to save Homer's.

Within ten minutes, the power plant is on fire and Homer is fired ( after pretending it was his first day which Mr. Burns initially fell for until Smithers pointed out who he actually was ).

In " Homer the Smithers ", Burns orders Smithers to take a vacation and Homer Simpson is hired as a temporary replacement.

When Homer loses his temper and punches Burns in the face, Mr. Burns learns to become self-reliant and this results in Smithers being fired.

In " Burns ' Heir ", both Mr. Burns and Waylon Smithers refer to him as " Leonard ", the same way they refer to Homer as " Simpson ", though in The Frying Game, Homer refers to him as " Lenford ".

In " Homer the Smithers " he is seen in the opening scene with his arm around a woman who appears to be his girlfriend.

On one occasion, he is promoted to head of the power plant when Mr. Burns goes bankrupt ; which Smithers later describes to Homer Simpson as a " reign of terror ".

Smithers bumps into Homer Simpson, whose family is conveniently walking down the street.

During production the staff did not want one side to be slobs ( e. g. Homer, Barney, Moe ) and the other snobs ( e. g. Mr. Burns, Smithers, Skinner ), but this ended happening in the final product.

In the 1990 episode " Simpson and Delilah ", the character Karl ( voiced by Harvey Fierstein ) kisses Homer, while the recurring character Waylon Smithers is often shown to be in love with his boss, Montgomery Burns, initially suggestively and since then more overtly.

*" Homer the Smithers "

Smithers remarks that all the past accidents were either caused by Homer or believed to be traced to him.

However, Burns tells Smithers to stop being negative and even accuses him of harboring jealousy towards Homer.

Smithers begins to feel jealous of Homer for his high standing with Mr. Burns and searches Homer's file, finding the damaging information he seeks in the case of insurance fraud that gave Homer hair in the first place.

Homer is invited to give a speech at the next meeting, and Smithers does his best to ruin Homer's confidence.

Marge joins Mr. Burns and Smithers on an expedition to Ape Island to find the legendary King Homer.

Nonetheless, Mr. Burns is determined to capture King Homer and Smithers knocks Homer unconscious with a gas bomb before being swallowed alive by a sleeping Homer.

Ferrell mentions that his favorite joke from The Simpsons was the line " Women and seamen ( semen ) don't mix ", said by Smithers during the " King Homer " segment.

He provides voices for numerous characters, including Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, Lenny Leonard, Principal Skinner, Otto Mann and Rainier Wolfcastle.

The idea for Smithers ' orientation came from 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.

His father, Waylon Smithers, Sr., worked for Burns until he died of radiation poisoning after saving Springfield from a potential nuclear meltdown when Waylon was a baby.

Smithers is shown to have a passionate and deep love for Mr. Burns and his sexual orientation has been characterized by the writers of the show as " Burns-sexual ".

" Smithers has openly declared his love for Burns on at least two occasions, such as in " Lisa the Skeptic ", when, believing the world is ending, Smithers says " Oh, what the hell!

Burns himself has been involved with several women and in " A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love ", Smithers is noticeably disgusted when Burns starts looking for a female companion.

Burns, for his part, views Smithers as somewhat of a lackey, albeit a highly valued one for his competence.

When it was proven that he had not, Smithers seemingly forgave Burns and demanded that the culprit be brought to justice, offering a reward for the capture of the perpetrator.

Smithers ' official job at the power plant appears to be that of executive assistant, which he says is " actually about 2, 800 smaller jobs " responsible for monitoring employee attendance, and is often a disciplinarian and has won dozens of employee of the month awards.

The idea for Smithers ' orientation came from 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.

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.

Dan Castellaneta occasionally fills in for Shearer at table reads and voices Smithers.

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.

There have often been strong hints about Smithers ' true feelings for his boss, with one of the earliest references being in the season one episode " The Telltale Head ".

Smithers has mixed feelings about Jones, though he generally has more respect for Jones than for the rebels.

Snowball I is mentioned for the first time and Waylon Smithers can be heard over the speaker at the power plant, but he is not seen.

* Kay Cousins as Irate Mother ( of " Percival Smithers ", the ill-mannered kid who tells " Santa Corwin " that, for a Christmas present, he wants " a new front name ")

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 sub-servient character " and so switched him to his intended color for his next episode.

Still, it seems surprisingly clever and witty " In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of ½ / 5 and calls it " the first season at its worst " and continues that is was " notable for introducing Mr. Burns and ( a strangely African-American ) Smithers, but otherwise boring and preachy.

Smithers then takes the letter to San Felipe, site of the provisional Texas government.

" You definitely lose touch with what the movies you're supposed to see, what's good on TV ..." " Weekend at Burnsie's " is the second episode Vitti wrote in which a character forgets to vote at an election, and the second episode he wrote in which Homer takes a chemical that causes him to be promoted by Burns and run into conflict with Smithers.

Burns takes Smithers and Homer in his old plane, setting off to find an island and start a new country.

However, as The Baltimore Sun writes, it would have been unlikely for Smithers to be the outed character because it would not have been a surprise to fans, and his love for his heterosexual boss would prevent him from marrying another person.