The Simpsons' Iconic TV Now Exists as a Miniature 3D-Printed Replica

The Simpsons, one the most iconic long-running animated TV series of all time, is known for its hilarious intro couch gags, that would always end in Homer and his family gather together in front of a purple-coloured TV. Now, someone has actually designed and created a palm-size replica of the TV using a 3D printer — and it actually works. The creator shared a video of the fun creation on Reddit where the nifty TV is seen showing clips from the series itself.

The TV has two purple-coloured working dials at the front, just like the one from The Simpsons. One of the dials turns on the device while the other is used to control the volume. It has a antenna on the top (just for show) and a cable connected from behind for power.

The user, u/buba447, said on Reddit that the TV plays the first 11 seasons of the show at random without the need of an Internet connection.

According to the user, inside the TV casing there's a tiny Raspberry Pi Zero development board running Jessie Lite operating system, connected to a 640x480 pixels display. It has a 32GB memory card and the TV is powered via a USB port on the back. “When one episode ends the next is randomly selected. The top button is wired up to GPIO (circuit board) and turns the screen on and off while also muting the volume. The bottom is a POT (dial) that is connected to the speaker inside,” the user said.

The post has gone viral with more than 113,000 votes, including 94 percent upvotes, within a day. It has also fuelled immense curiosity and discussion from other Reddit users.

One user asked how did the creator get the episodes to play at random.

Another was curious if this could be attached to a solar panel to make it completely self-sufficient.

Given the excitement the post has generated, the creator has promised a detailed guide on how the TV was made. In an “edit” to the original post, the user said, “Wow this blew up way more than I would've ever imagined.”

In India, all the seasons of The Simpsons are available for streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.