Welcome to the Lifestyles of the Springfield Rich & Famous… errr… well, to a site writing about a new rich people expansion in TSTO. In our silly lil game, we sometimes see things pop in that we have no clue as to their Origin. They seem familiar, but we just can’t pinpoint from where. So that is why we decided to make a fun lil reminder out of it. To let you know just Where did THAT Come From?
So the Springfield Heights expansion brought us lots of new items with confounding leveling up of buildings, real estate values and tap-tap-tappery. Of course, it also brought lots of new stuff to find in the Best. Show. Ever. I’m sure by now we’ve all spent lots of precious time tapping away at the various tasked buildings of Springfield Heights. Since SH dropped in the game, I’ve been trying to slowly reveal the origins of the items for y’all but realized, we never even mentioned what the heck Springfield Heights even has to do with the Best. Show. Ever. I thought it’s be fun to do just that. As a bonus… we’ll also find the Springfield Heights Institute of Technology, the Springfield Heights Gate, the Entrance Sign and the Classic Hot Tub.
So even without knowing the Simpsons TV Series, I’m sure we all figured out that Springfield Heights was the rich and ritzy portion of town. The first mention I remember of this portion of Springfield was as one of the softball teams that Homer and the Power Plant boys beat on their way to the championship in “Homer at the Bat” (S3:E17). All that’s shown is a pennant but the seed for future stuff was sown.
Of course, a fuzzball like me would remember SH because it was mentioned in my favorite episode, “Marge vs. the Monorail” (S4:E12). At the grand opening of the Springfield Monorail, all sorts of celebrities come to the shindig. Leonard Nimoy (RIP LLAP), Dash Calhoun, Krusty (that baby sure looks like him), Lurleen Lumpkin (fresh from a stay at the Betty Ford Clinic) and “one of those loveable highschoolers from TV’s Springfield Heights 90210. He’s cool, he’s sexy, he’s 34 years old. Let’s hear it for Kyle Darren.”
So we know it’s a rich enough area to spoof another show about rich kids going to high school played by actors who aren’t teenagers. We finally see a building from the Springfield Heights in “Much Apu About Nothing” (S7:E23). After Apu graduated from Caltech (aka Calcutta Technical Institute) and was accepted for graduate studies in the U.S., he left his parents and beloved child fiancé Manjula to attend Springfield Heights Institute of Technology.
While there, he studied under the tutelage of the brilliant Professor John Frink. The Frinkiac 7 may be cool but Frink was wrong about computers getting 10,000 times larger, twice as powerful and super expensive. Despite this, he may have been right about computer dating “eliminating the thrill of romantic conquest.” Apu’s PHD thesis was completed in 9 years… 200,000 precisely ordered punchcards comprising the world’s very first tic-tac- toe program. Only the top human players could beat it. Basically all this supports the acronym for the Institute and you gotta love Frink from the 1970s.
This also explains Frink’s task at the S.H.I.T. if you didnt already know about it. The next and first real look at more than one building in Springfield Heights was in “Tis the Fifteenth Season” (S15:E7). Oh Christmas…nothing like the spirit of the season. In our favorite show, it’s time to start decorating AND to start shopping. Thankfully for Homer, Burns mistakenly gave him a Joe DiMaggio rookie card which gets him lots of Christmas money. The Simpsons can afford to shop at the rich people’s mall… the Springfield Heights Promenade. That’s definitely the new sign in our games… do we have to make a mall now?
Also a theater in the background. Not the one in TSTO but I’ll be the first to admit I can’t find any reference for the TSTO version. Springfield Heights Promenade also has stores like Abercrombie & Rich, Get Your Picture on a Rembrandt, The Prodigy Barn, Victor’s Secret, and Things Unnecessary. Aww man, now I want a personalized talking astrolabe for the Christmas Event!
So there’s a rich people mall but that doesn’t jive with TSTO unless we build one up there with different stores. That’s ok though because “Double, Double, Boy in Trouble” (S20:E3) shows us the most we ever get to see of SPringfield Heights. When Bart switches places with Simon Woosterfield, he’s off to live in Springfield Heights… a place full of McMansions and a McDonald’s.
That sign certainly looks like the one at our mountain entrance without the racist joke. This would also be my guess why we have mansions in SH. Too bad none of ours look like these. I guess you could always use the additions to try and attempt this but I wish we’d gotten different color options. You could always put a teeter totter next to one of your mansions and wish Bart and Burns could play on it. Maybe the Woosterfield Mansion is on EA’s sheet of future SH stuff.
And while it’s not in Springfield Heights, you might recognize a certain classic hot tub from this same episode at the Ski Lodge in Aspen.
And that is that for Springfield Heights my friends. They have a softball team, an Institute of Technology, a mall and a bunch of mansions that don’t look like the two we got to build. Some assume the wealthy class of Springfield live there (Burns, etc.) and I guess I can follow the logic, but it’s never officially said that that is the case. We can’t forget there’s also a rich district called Waverly Hills too. Anywho… what did you think of all of it? Build a mall? Got any cool images of your rich district to share? Sound off in the comments and stay classy.
TTFN… Wookiee out!