No families will have to change their name to Flanders, and the creatures with the giant foam-rubber heads will just be around for one weekend morning, but residents of one Las Vegas-area subdivision will soon have a safety-orange replica of the Simpsons' TV house for a neighbor. Fox and homebuilder Kaufman and Broad are giving away the faux sitcom domicile to one, preferably enthusiastic or colorblind, fan in September.
Though loosely inspired by the floorplans for The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield CD-ROM, Kaufman and Broad designers did most of their research in a nonstop, 65-episode Simpsons TV marathon. The house will contain such trademark Simpsonian accessories as the kitchen's corn-print curtains, but apparently no living-room furniture as dangerously mutable as that featured in the animated show's intro.
The 2,200 square-foot structure (built in a housing development that just happened to be named Springfield) is said to be worth about US$150,000. Of course, if the new residents live up to the home's legacy, local property values could drop. Anyone who lost out on MTV and John Cougar Mellencamp's little pink house giveaway in 1984 - or who found that prize too tasteful - should buy the proper Pepsi product or drop by a Kaufman and Broad housing tract starting next month.
