Well, this submission was a welcome find in our "in" box, as QoD has had a long week and welcomes a break, and luckily your question calls for a timely re-run of a previous answer, long-buried in the QoD Archives. However, we're not ones to shirk, so we're embellishing the original answer with some additional tidbits we just came across. The story's kind of a strange one. Enjoy!
Only in Las Vegas would a real-life neighborhood be named after a TV cartoon (where we also have neighborhoods named for Star Wars characters and Starbucks flavors, among many other weird and wonderful things). Actually, Springfield Community South Valley Ranch is a subdivision of Henderson, about a 10-minute drive from Las Vegas, but it was indeed named for the TV show.
In 1997, to coincide with "The Simpsons'" 10th anniversary, the Fox network teamed with Pepsi-Cola and the Kaufman and Broad Home Corp. to give away a four-bedroom 2,200-square-foot home as part of a national promotion launching the new season premiere of the series (and the new community).
This was not just any old home, however: 712 Red Bark Lane was a room-for-room, tree-house-for-tree-house, mousehole-for-mousehole, driveway-grease-spot-for-driveway-grease-spot replica of chez Simpson. Every effort was made to replicate Matt Groening's handiwork, including the design team looking through over 100 episodes of the show and 7,400 different paint colors before deciding on the 27 -- including Power Orange, Generator Green, Jazz Age Coral, and Flamingo Pink -- that they felt best matched the cartoon equivalents. Groening himself helped with the finishing touches, including graffitiing the garage and etching Bart's self-portrait into the concrete sidewalk.
When he paid a visit to the place on September 16, just prior to the big night, Groening described what he found as "a cartoonist's dream come true." Surveying the street as a whole, he pointed to a similar but unadorned abode, exclaiming: "This is your house ... and this (pointing at "The Simpsons" home) is your house on drugs!" The only marginal (bad pun fully intended) difference was that the life-sized version was to a slightly smaller scale. Well, that and a few discrepancies that Matt and his accompanying 8-year-old son Will pointed out, according to some coverage by the Las Vegas Sun's Scott Dickensheets. For example, while in Bart's Room, Groening hoisted a pair of the undies on display and was overheard saying, "I think these are Krusty's, if you know what I mean."
From August 13 of that year, until it was closed to visitors, a couple of days prior to Groening's private viewing, 33,000 members of the public came to take the grand tour of #712 Red Bark Lane.
Throughout the promotional period, specially marked packages of Pepsi's Mug Root Beer, Lipton Brisk Iced Tea, Slice, and Josta included pieces of a game that gained consumers entry into a sweepstakes. Contest officials waited almost two months for someone to come forward with the winning game piece (No. 978065) after the winning number was announced during "The Simpsons" season premiere on Sept. 21, 1997. But no one did. So, the winner was chosen at random from the pool of 15 million entries.
The lucky winner was Barbara Howard, a 63-year-old retired factory worker from Richmond, Kentucky. A lifelong competition contestant whose wins to date had included diamond rings and a shopping spree at WalMart, the grandmother of 13 entered the contest by sending in an entry form from a Brisk Iced Tea packet. Apparently, when the contest sponsors first called with the good news, her husband thought it was a prank call and hung up. Luckily, they rang back when Barbara was home and she flew out to Vegas with her family to inspect her grand prize.
That was the first and last time she set foot in the house, however. Sadly, Barbara's brother was stricken with cancer and she felt unable to move. Instead, the winner opted for the $75,000 cash-prize alternative and the Simpsons house, valued at the time at $120,000, was returned to the subdued palette of its neighbors. Today, the only evidence of its previous incarnation is the Bart portrait etched into the sidewalk by its mastermind (as far as we know -- if anyone has stopped by recently and can confirm otherwise, please let us know).
