WDTCF – The Sunsphere

Well, it’s another day at Addicts and another where did THAT come from just for you.  As often happens, life imitates art.  I have friends I’ve made through this game from all over.  Some use certain characters as avatars and every time I see Otto or Kearney or Frink in my town, I think of them.  Even some of the buildings remind me of my buddies.  One that always reminds me of one of my pals is the Sunsphere.  He actually lives in that general vicinity and sees it all the time and I think it’s so cool that a piece of TSTO connects to real life for everyone blessed to be connected to this awesome guy.

For more info about the real sunsphere, check out this info from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunsphere.

The Sunsphere is the cheapest aspirational building in TSTO.  It is available at Level 5 and costs $750,000.  While it doesn’t generate and cash or XP after it’s built, it does add 16 hour tasks (celebrate the ‘WOD FIR’) for Bart, Nelson, Milhouse and Martin.  But what the heck does this have to do with the Simpsons?  Well, that’s where another WDTCF comes in handy.

The Sunsphere comes to use from Season 7, Episode 20: Bart on the Road.  It all starts when Principal Skinner’s tickets for Spring Break get messed up.  They’re leaving for Hong Kong on a Friday.  What’s he to do?  GM Chrysler knows he can’t afford the expensive fix.  It’s not like he can close school early for personal reasons… or can he?  His solution is making the schoolchildren go to work with their parents for a day where they can apply all they’ve learned to real-world situations.

Lisa is off to work with Homer, but when Marge sees her profession as a homemaker doesn’t count for Bart, he’s off to the DMV with Patty and Selma.  (For the record, it’s crap that they say domestic professionals don’t have real jobs because they don’t get paid to do it.  Ok… off my soapbox.)  Bart isn’t thrilled to go to work with his Aunts but at least it’s not the cracker factory.  I love that it turns out that it is really fun on the inside of the Cracker Factory complete with bat poles.  I’m always gonna picture these shenanigans when I see it in my town.

At the DMV, Patty leaves the license machine on and Bart makes himself a fake ID stating he’s 25.  It’s Bart, Nelson and Milhouse’s ticket to the Best. Spring Break. Ever.  R-Rated Movies and the possibility of drinking and ending up like Barney aren’t the way to go though.  Instead, they rent a car and hit the road.  I love how in Springfield apparently everyone takes IDs at face value.  Never mind that it says he’s 4 foot, 85 lbs (and has blue eyes?).

With their parents fooled with airtight alibis that they’re going to a National Grammar Rodeo (in Canada?)… the kids are off on a road trip.  The American Automobile Guidebook inspires them to visit the World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The Hungarians have built a giant motorized Rubik’s cube and the symbol is the (wait for it, wait for it)…

SUNSPHERE!  It sits atop a 266 foot tall steel shaft with an information booth inside!  With a choice between Disney World and Knoxville, it’s an easy decision.  We’ve all made it before, right?  The road trip includes ice cream, weigh stations, rehabilitated hitchhikers and a stop in Branson, Missouri.  It’s like Vegas if it was ran by Flanders AND Nelson gets to see Andy Williams.

Next stop, Knoxville and its fabulous Sunsphere!  Stupid Milhouse… the guidebook was from 1982.

They’re 14 years too late.  All that’s left is a wig outlet, a “WOD FIR” sign, and the Sunsphere which is now the Wigsphere, home of 16,000 boxes of unsold wigs.

Bart and the boys buy some wigs but after Nelson knocks over the Sunsphere with a rock demolishing their rent-a-car, the kids realize they’re stranded and out of cash.

On the plus side, Nelson knocked over the Sunsphere AND they look fabulous!  Here’s the answer for the kids wearing those wigs during the 16 hour task.

As it only can happen in the Simpsons, everything works out.  It’s as easy as Bart becoming a bonded courier, transporting human eyes to Hong Kong, enlisting the help of Lisa who convinces Homer to endanger the lives of all in Springfield by destroying his T-437 Safety Command Console and shipping the replacement from the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Nuclear Facility (according to Lisa the birthplace of the nuclear bomb) to Springfield.  Happens every day, right?

And that’s that.  The Sunsphere and associated tasks are a tribute to a real landmark in Knoxville, Tennessee and a great episode that has once been ranked as the 8^th best.  As for me, the Sunsphere will always make me think of Double D. TTFN… Wookiee out!

P.S.  Anyone else wonder what would have happened if they’d gone to Macon, Georgia instead?

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All Screen Shots of Game Graphics & Dialogue and Game Graphics from files ™ and © EA, Gracie Films and FOX