Flanders family
In the
animated series The Simpsons, the
Flanders are a
family consisting of
Ned,
Maude, and their two sons
Rod and Todd. They live at 740 Evergreen Terrace, next to the
Simpson family.
Matt Groening has indicated that the Flanders family is named after NW Flanders Street in
Portland, Oregon.
Ned Flanders is the father in a devout
Christian family, and is often used to satirize
Christian fundamentalism, as well as the cloying "niceness" of doggedly upbeat
born-again evangelicals.
Maude Flanders was the late wife of Ned Flanders, and the mother of Rod and Todd. She died in the episode
Alone Again, Natura-Diddily, after being hit by a t-shirt cannon and falling off a raceway grandstand.
Rod and Todd Flanders are the sons of Ned and Maude Flanders.
Ned's mother or, possibly, his grandmother. The character was voiced by
Pamela Hayden. She only appears in one episode, and is mentioned in one other. Her countenance and senile outburts scared Bart. Her current fate is unknown.
Ned Flanders's parents were
beatniks, as seen in the episode "
Hurricane Neddy", they did not punish him at all during his childhood, causing him to be an unholy terror of a child. They came to Dr. Foster who tried an experimental procedure on Ned, which left him unable to express any anger at all. We also know that Ned has a very large extended family, as seen in his family reunion in the episode
Lisa the Vegetarian. He also has at least one sibling, a sister who lives in
Capital City, as mentioned in the episode
When Flanders Failed.
The Flanders' house is situated at 740
Evergreen Terrace,
Springfield and is next door to
742 Evergreen Terrace, home of the
Simpson family.
The home phone number is 636-
555-8904.
The house is a two-story detached house with a connected garage. The house itself is pink-purple in colour, with red window frames and a blue-orange canopy above the front-door.
Inside the house, most if not all the rooms include religious imagery and photographs of the (late) Maude Flanders. The house is well furnished with expensive-looking furniture, which Ned claims he buys cheaply because it used to be "evidence from a murder trial".
The layout of the house appears to be similar to that of 742 Evergreen Terrace, with two front rooms and two back rooms. The basement of the house has been converted to a 'rumpus room', with a bar and snooker table (oddly since Ned later confesses to being a
teetotaler). The house also has a panic room and a secret room stashed full of
Beatles merchandise. The Flanders' residence once had a
bomb shelter in the backyard, but this was destroyed by a small
meteoriteThe Flanders' have a
satellite dish but lock out 230 of the channels it offers. It is implied the only channel not locked out is one which airs Christian programming for children.
The Flanders' also have
air conditioning, which Homer steals in one episode, in order to gain relief from the heat.
Ned, Rod and Todd sleep upstairs. Rod and Todd share bedrooms, and there is also at least one spare bedroom where
Bart Simpson slept when he was younger, which Ned later rents out. The garden of the house includes a patio and a barbeque and is often used for Ned's barbeque and birthday parties.
(Note: Although the house is generally labelled 740, in one episode it is at number 744 Evergreen Terrace, and in another episode 738 Evergreen Terrace, and since very early episodes of The Simpsons had 742 Evergreen Terrace at different numbers, it is reasonable that 740 Evergreen Terrace used to be different as well).
The
Greenbelt Christian arts festival sometimes runs a Ned Flanders lookalike contest in tribute to one of TV's best-known Christians. In Groening's hometown of
Portland, Oregon,
Simpsons fans vandalize the signs that say NE Flanders Street to say NED Flanders Street.
The Flanders live next door to the Simpsons, and these two families could not be more different. The Flanders are well-kept,
pious individuals. Constantly being harassed by the Simpsons, they have surprisingly gone through a lot. Homer was in one episode good friends with Ned, but became obsessed with spending time with him. At the end of the episode, everything was back to normal. When
Bart and
Lisa were taken into protective custody by child services from their 'unfit' parents, the Flanders were their foster parents, and almost went through with
baptizing them, if Homer hadn't stopped them. Bart tied with Todd in an ego-boosting
golf tournament. Ned and Homer took a wild trip to
Las Vegas, where, in their
inebriation, married some waitresses. Even with all the crazy things that happen to them, the Flanders and the Simpsons have managed to live together for all these years. Since the very first day that The Simpsons moved next door to the Flanders, they have kept a TV Tray that Homer still uses to this day.
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List of characters from The Simpsons*
The Simpsons
