Features and Furniture
The basement always includes a washing machine, a clothes dryer, and a large Olmec statue of a head which is a present from Mr. Burns after Bart donates blood to him in "Blood Feud". However, the appearance of other features such as a furnace, ping-pong table, air hockey set, and water softener varies from episode to episode. The basement is often used as a "secret lair", where Homer hides after faking the kidnapping of Mr. Burns' son in "Burns, Baby Burns", brews alcohol to beat prohibition in "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", hides his superhero operation as Pie Man in "Simple Simpson", and where Marge hides during a spell of agoraphobia in "Strong Arms of the Ma". Bart hints in one episode that the basement has a problem with radon gas, then lets a homeless man sleep there in "The Day the Violence Died".
The house has two similar red sofas: the one in the sitting room is not seen in as many scenes as the well-known one in front of the TV in the living room. The current living room sofa is a replacement of the old one, which was destroyed in season 3. A simple painting of a boat hangs on the wall above this couch. Marge says she painted it for Homer in "The Trouble with Trillions", though in the episode "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife", she reads a plaque saying that the painting was based on a scene from Moby Dick. In the episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", Homer destroys the painting over the couch and Marge retrieves a replica out of a closet. Behind the painting there is a safe containing a Twinkie that's been there for ten years. A tank full of fish is sometimes seen in the sitting room. In the Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror VI" episode, there is a portal behind the bookcase in the sitting room that leads to the third dimension. This is a reference to The Twilight Zone episode "Little Girl Lost". However, Treehouse of Horror episodes are not canonical. In Treehouse of Horror IV, the famous Dogs Playing Poker painting appears above the sofa. Also, in the episode "Father Knows Worst", a sauna is revealed to be in the Simpsons' basement, behind the water heater. So far, only Marge and Homer have been shown to know its location.
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Famous quotes containing the words features and/or furniture:
“It is a tribute to the peculiar horror of contemporary life that it makes the worst features of earlier times—the stupefaction of the masses, the obsessed and driven lives of the bourgeoisie—seem attractive by comparison.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)
“In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete; being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquillity; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The rest might wait. The preparations of new carriages and furniture might wait for London and the spring, when her own taste could have fairer play.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)