Lisa believes Eliza to be a hero for helping Virgil escape, and tells this story at a Black History Month presentation at Springfield Elementary.
He reads from the journal of his ancestor, Milford Van Houten, who witnessed Colonel Burns bribe Hiram with "a pleasant surprise", a new pair of shoes in exchange for giving up Virgil.
Milford Van Houten's account is substantiated when Lisa views a 1950s oral history archival film interview with an elderly Eliza, where she indicates this cowardice as being the one regret of her life.
To help raise Lisa's spirits, Homer threatens Grampa Simpson to get him to tell the rest of the story by turning the thermostat down a few degrees.
In its original American broadcast, "The Color Yellow" was watched by 6.08 million households getting a 3.0/8 in the 18-49 Nielsen Rating, and was the second most-watched show on Fox that night, after a repeat of Family Guy and came second in its time slot after The Olympics.
[3] Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a 6.4 writing that it "as a whole fell flat" and commented: "I guess it's difficult to find the humor in slavery, even for The Simpsons".
[5] Jason Hughes of TV Squad gave "The Color Yellow" a positive review stating that "there were some great comedic moments in tonight's episode".