Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 24, 2025 | 1 comment

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

Hands in the air if you remember this: Way back in 1997, Pepsi partnered with Fox to launch a contest to win The Simpsons house…Bsort of. The prize being offered was an actual house that closely resembled the Simpsons’ residence as seen on TV, but it was over 1,200 miles away from the nearest town named Springfield with not a Moe’s Tavern nor a nuclear power plant in sight. And its mostly faithful resemblance to the iconic house at 742 Evergreen Terrace was only temporary.

The house was designed and built by Kaufman and Broad in the Las Vegas, Nevada, suburb of Henderson, and I was one of a handful of lucky Simpsons employees who got to visit it prior to the announcement of the sweepstakes winner.  I drew most of the packaging art for the Pepsi products that promoted the contest, and when Fox organized a press junket to visit the house, I was included in Matt Groening’s entourage. We took the Western Pacific Airlines Simpsons jet (another cool late-90’s Simpsons promotion) out of the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank for an amazingly cool day-trip that included a self-guided tour of the entire house.

Matt was the center of attention and we all looked on as he was given an award, christened an outside wall of the garage with a drawing of Bart, posed for photos with actors in Simpsons costumes, put his signature, handprints, and a Homer sketch in a slab of cement, and was interviewed by the press and TV news. I remember one of his comments to a reporter, “If you really want a good interview, talk to the guy who lives across the street because he’s the angriest man in Las Vegas!”

Me and Matt

After our time inspecting the house and all its cool artifacts, such as framed family photos, Lisa’s saxophone, Bart’s skateboard, and even cans of Duff Beer in the fridge, we took a ride to the Vegas strip for lunch at the Motown Cafe in the New York, New York Hotel and Casino where Matt was given another award by none other than Honorary Las Vegas Mayor Wayne Newton! We were then entertained by a Supremes-style girl-group whose members all sported Marge Simpson wigs, and took a free ride on the Big Apple Rollercoaster! It was a day I’m not likely to ever forget, but in case I do I’m glad I took a lot of photos (even if they are pre-digital and a bit blurry).

Photo by Simpsons casting director Bonnie Pietila

The lucky winner of the house lived on an ostrich and tobacco farm in rural Kentucky and had no desire to relocate to the sweltering ’burbs of Sin City. Instead, she opted to take a cash prize of $75,000, much less than the value of the house, but not too shabby when you consider one of the provisos. Because of the homeowner’s association, the house had to be repainted after the contest to meet community standards. So, what she really won was an oddly-designed home with no downstairs bathroom and rooms full of Crayola-colored walls that would be tough to endure on a daily basis and eventually painted over when the novelty wore off.

And I was told that all the fun props and decor were reclaimed by Fox and were not included in the sweepstakes, though reports on that vary. Some say that the props remained, and while the house was empty for a time, rabid Simpsons fans occasionally broke in and helped themselves to some trophies.

The house still stands and is occupied by a long-suffering resident who gets occasional visits from curious Simpsons fans.

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