New information and Sneak Peeks for the seventh episode of Season 33, titled “Portrait of a Lackey on Fire“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs on November 21, 2021.
If you want to know more about Season 33, visit our page for it in our Wiki!
Stay tuned for more!
In an interview with the New York Post, Rob and Johnny LaZebnik shared some new info on the episode.
Rob starts talking about the work with his son on the episode “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”.
Johnny calls the experience “spectacular and fulfilling, and an honor. I know my dad is a comedy writer. I grew up with him — obviously, I know he’s a funny guy,. 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.”
Rob continues “I am a Midwestern guy, so I don’t tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I thought, ‘What better way to tell my son I love him than to write a cartoon about it?’ Sometimes TV can have a real impact on people’s thinking. 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. That was really special to me to get to highlight characters who are not punchlines, who are fully formed.
Victor Garber, who will voice Micheal in the episode, concluded “I think it’s crucially important that these stories are acknowledged. I haven’t played a lot of gay characters, but every time I do it, it brings back certain feelings I had as a young actor where I couldn’t be gay.” and that his animated role “was kind of a reminder of how much things have changed and also how I’ve evolved. In my journey to find self-acceptance, self-love, it’s a definite significant part of it.”
In an interview with EntertainmentWeekly, Matt Selman talks about Michael, “He’s charming and down to earth, and he loves that Smithers isn’t using him to get ahead in the fashion world. 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.”
Talking about Smithers and his love life, Matt adds “We thought, ‘His love life is kind of a blank slate at this point. The show has moved away from him being completely obsessed with Mr. Burns all the time. So it feels a little bit like Smithers is like, ‘Who am I going to be with?'”.