Springfield is the primary fictional setting of the American animatedsitcomThe Simpsons and related media. It is an average-sized, fictional city within an unknown state in the United States. The fictional city's geography, surroundings, and layout are flexible, often changing to accommodate the plot of any given episode.[1]
According to the creator of the series, Oregon native Matt Groening, Springfield was inspired by a number of real-life locations (including Springfield, Oregon, and West Springfield, Massachusetts).[2][3] However, in order to emphasize it as an example of "Anytown, USA", the location of the fictional Springfield remains a mystery,[2][3]. "Clues" regarding Springfield's climate, geology, history, distance from real cities, or political alignment, which are found in numerous episodes of the series, are intentionally contradictory.[3][4] In at least one instance when the name of Springfield's state was explicitly mentioned, multiple vocal tracks were produced and the episode aired with different state names inserted into the line at different times.
Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon, which, as a child, Groening had believed to be the fictitious Springfield featured in the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best. Groening did not intend to place the fictional Springfield in Oregon, contrary to a 2012 interview with him in Smithsonian magazine; he instead adopted the name for the setting of The Simpsons in the hope that "everyone will think it's their Springfield."[7]Al Jean explained that the magazine "misinterpreted something I've heard him say for at least 10 or 20 years. He was inspired by growing up in Portland, but it's really an every town".[5]
Groening liked Second City Television's setting of Melonville, a town with a large cast of recurring characters, and used it as inspiration for The Simpsons.[8] He said, "I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the show's success, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do".[3][9]
Location
"The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours"
Because of the many contradictory statements regarding Springfield in the show, the town can't exist in a specific state. In The Simpsons Movie, Ned Flanders tells Bart that the state where Springfield is located is bordered by the states of Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky – only Ohio and Kentucky are neighboring states in reality, and Nevada and Maine are at opposite sides of the US.[5][4]
The fictional city's unknown geography is a recurring joke in the series; the Dayton Daily News called it the "riddle wrapped in an enigma that is Springfield's location."[10] Episodes frequently make fun of the fact that Springfield's state is unidentifiable, by adding further conflicting descriptions, obscuring onscreen map representations, and interrupting conversational references.[notes 1]
The episode "Lisa the Iconoclast" revealed that Springfield was founded by a group led by Jebediah Springfield (a cover identity for notorious pirate Hans Sprungfeld) who, after misinterpreting a passage in the Bible, left Maryland trying to find "New Sodom."[19] After he refuses to found a town where men are free to marry their cousins, half of the group leave. The dissenters found the nearby town of Shelbyville, named after fellow pioneer Shelbyville Manhattan, and the two cities have remained rivals ever since.[20]
Springfield reached its pinnacle in the mid-20th century when it became the home of the world's first Aquacar factory; one-half of the U.S. was said to wear Springfield galoshes, and the city's streets were literally paved with gold.[21] However, the town's prosperity was short-lived. In a 1992 episode, a fictional Time cover story on Springfield is titled "America's Worst City," [22] and in a 1996 episode, Newsweek called the town "America's Crud Bucket."[23]
Topography
Springfield's fictional geography is shown to be comically varied and includes forests, meadows, mountain ranges, a desert, a glacier, beaches, badlands, canyons, swamps, a harbor, waterholes, and waterways. Major named geographical features include the Springfield Gorge, Springfield National Forest, the volcanic Mt. Springfield, the West Springfield Desert ("three times the size of Texas!"),[24] the Springfield Badlands (also known as the Alkali Flats),[25] the gigantic Murderhorn Mountain, Springfield Glacier, Mt. Useful National Park, Springfield Mesa, Springfield Monument Park, and Springfield National Park.
The town's climate is usually depicted as dry and sunny, with a bright blue sky. However, in various episodes, it has been subject to many natural disasters, including heatwaves, blizzards, avalanches, earthquakes, acid rain, floods, hurricanes, lightning strikes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions.
Springfield's environment is shown as unusually polluted. Overflowing garbage forces the whole town – population and structures — to move five miles (8km) away from the massive dump that the old town of Springfield had become.[26] Springfield is also home to the state's largest self-sustaining tire fire, which has been burning continuously for many decades.[27] Lake Springfield's pollution almost leads to the town's destruction by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bomb in The Simpsons Movie,[28] and pollution from the nuclear power plant has mutated the fish in the river, and the Nuclear Power Plant's mascot is Blinky, an orange-colored fish with three eyes.[29] Its atmosphere is so polluted that, in one 1995 episode, it reduces a comet to a tiny rock.[30]
Springfield is shown to feature a large numbered grid plan, ranging from streets at least as low as 3rd Street and at least as high as 257th Street.[31]
Krusty the Klown (R) represents Springfield in Congress. Previous representatives include Horace Wilcox, who dies of a heart attack while in office in "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington," and Bob Arnold, who is forced to resign after Lisa exposes his corruption in "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington."
Mary Bailey is the fictional governor of Springfield's state.[29]
Sports
The town is home to a number of fictional sporting teams, including the Springfield Isotopes, a minor league baseball team which plays its home games at Duff Stadium;[32] the Springfield Atoms football team at Springfield Stadium;[33] the NBA's Springfield Excitement (formerly the Austin Celtics);[34] and the Springfield Ice-O-Topes hockey team.
Businesses
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is a fictional representation of a two-unit pressurized water reactornuclear power plant in Springfield owned by Charles Montgomery Burns. Among the plant's employees are Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, and Carl Carlson, and Burns' assistant Waylon Smithers. The plant is shown to be the key supplier of the city of Springfield's energy, and the carelessness of Mr. Burns and the plant's employees often endangers the residents and natural environment of Springfield. Mutated fish with more than two eyes are often shown in the lake behind the power plant, which has a large pipe pumping nuclear waste into it. There is a crow or raven shown living near the Power Plant, which caws whenever an establishing shot of the Power Plant is on screen. A running gag in earlier seasons was the poor security of the plant, with the outside security booth often going unmanned.
The design of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is often rumored to be based on the troubled Trojan Nuclear Power Plant (closed in 1993 due to defects) near Matt Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, or the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. However, Antonia Coffman, Groening's publicist, has said that the Springfield plant's design is generic and that "the Springfield Nuclear Power plant was not based on the Trojan Plant or any other power plant in the country."[35][36]
A Seattle 7-Eleven store transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart.
Kwik-E-Mart is a fictional convenience store run by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. The Kwik-E-Mart first appeared in the first-season episode "The Telltale Head" (although mentioned in "Bart the General" as the "Quick-e-Mart"). In "Stark Raving Dad," a street sign reading "Highland" is seen outside one of the front windows, in the same blue color as is used for signs for Highland Avenue in Los Angeles. Likewise, three buildings are visible that are similar to some of those that might be seen on that street: two low buildings with bars over the windows, and a third, also with barred windows, which has a mission-style roof and a sign reading "Smog Center."[37]
The episode "Homer and Apu" suggests that Apu is an employee of the Kwik-E-Mart and after losing his job there, had to travel to India, where the Kwik-E-Mart head office is located, in the Himalayas. However, Apu mentions at a bachelor auction that he runs his own business in "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons."
In addition to the sale of items offered at a typical convenience store, gasolinepumps have been shown in front of the store on two occasions. The Springfield Shopper also sells there, and it is where Principal Seymour Skinner purchases his tabloids. In the episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song," Apu installs 16 new gas pumps to compete with a rival convenience store, the Gas 'N Gulp. However, they, along with the Kwik-E-Mart, are destroyed when Bart accidentally interrupts a live mortar exercise at Fort Springfield, causing the soldiers to redirect the mortar fire into the town. The episode "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" also shows the pumps.
The Android's Dungeon is a fictional comic book store owned by Comic Book Guy. The comic book store and its owner first appeared in the episode "Three Men and a Comic Book" when Bart sees a copy of the first issue of the Radioactive Man comic on sale for $100.
In the episode "Worst Episode Ever," Bart and Milhouse are given the job of running the comic book store after Comic Book Guy suffers from a stress-induced heart attack and is instructed to try and gain a social life. During their brief tenure at the store, Bart and Milhouse discover a secret room filled with bootleg videotapes of extremely rare or illegal subjects. These tapes are later confiscated during a police raid on the store.
The Leftorium is a fictional store in the Springfield Mall specializing in products for left-handed people. The store is owned by Ned Flanders, who first started the Leftorium in the episode "When Flanders Failed."[42] At first, business at the store went very poorly. Irritated with Flanders, Homer wishes that the store would go out of business after receiving the larger half of a wishbone. Homer gets his wish, and the Flanders family are forced to sell many of their possessions, much of which Homer purchases at a meager price of $75. The bank repossesses the Flanders' home, and the Leftorium is to be the next asset repossessed. Homer then regrets making this wish and that he never told any of his friends who needed left-handed items about the Leftorium. As a result, he manages to get everyone he knows in town to shop at Ned's store, saving it from closure.
The Leftorium continues to thrive over the following years. However, Flanders mentions in several episodes that the store does not do that well, such as in the season 10 episode "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo," where Ned mentions that the business now has a competitor, "Leftopolis" next door to it. In the episode "Home Away from Homer," Ned mentions that a recently opened, left-hand megastore called "Left-Mart" (a parody of Wal-Mart) is threatening his business. The season 25 episode "White Christmas Blues" reveals that competition from the Southpaw Superstore forced Flanders to downsize the company to a mall cart, the "Leftorium Express," which he splits with a cosmetic saleswoman. In the season 29 episode "Left Behind," the Leftorium closes for good, leaving Flanders unemployed until he finds a new job as Bart Simpson's new teacher.[43][44]
The writers had wanted to have Flanders own a failing business and the idea for the store was suggested by George Meyer.[45] He got the idea from a friend whose family had owned a left-handed specialty store which had failed.[46]
Springfield Mall
The Springfield Mall is a fictional shopping mall that features comical fictional stores and pastiches, such as the Happy Market, Cost-Mo, Girdles N' Such, Eye Caramba, The Ear Piercery, Happy Sailor Tattoo Parlor, Love Your Computer, Gum4Less, Popular Books, the Leftorium, Nick's Bowling Shop, Stoner's Pot Palace, Bookacchino's, Moe's Express (a mini version of Moe's Tavern), a Mapple Store (a parody of the Apple Store), numerous knockoff Starbucks coffee shops, and several Krusty Burgers.
Moe's Bar in Concepción, Chile, based on images from The Simpsons.
Schools
Springfield Elementary School
Springfield Elementary School is a fictional local school attended by Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, and most other Springfield children. It teaches children from kindergarten through to sixth grade. Springfield Elementary is depicted as a grossly underfunded school that suffers from the incompetence and apathy of its administration, teachers, staff, and students. It is portrayed within the show as a satire of publicly funded schools and education in the United States, an illustrative example and parody of the lengths undertaken by some schools to overcome underfunding.
Bart's class was taught by Edna Krabappel for the first 25 seasons; after she married Ned Flanders in season 23, Krabappel also was Bart's neighbor until her death in season 25. In "Left Behind", the Leftorium closes, leaving Flanders unemployed, and he returns to Springfield Elementary School, where he becomes Bart's new teacher, filling the void left by Krabappel's death.[43][44] He holds that role until season 33, when Rayshelle Peyton (voiced by Kerry Washington) takes the job.[47] Other students in this class include Milhouse van Houten, Nelson Muntz, Martin Prince, and Sherri and Terri. Lisa's class is taught by Elizabeth Hoover, who spends much of her time dealing with Ralph Wiggum.
In 1994, the naming of a new, real-life elementary school in Greenwood, South Carolina, was left up to the students, and the name Springfield Elementary was chosen. The school board was unaware of the connection to The Simpsons until a protest by one group of parents, who argued that the character of Bart Simpson was a poor role model. The name stood, and the school opened in August 1994.[48][49]
Colleges/universities
The fictional Springfield University is a large college which Homer attended in "Homer Goes to College". It teaches several different courses, including nuclear physics, arts management, and the meaning of cartoons. Springfield University also has a fierce rivalry with Springfield A&M University. In the episode "Faith Off", the nickname of the Springfield University football team is revealed to be the Nittany Tide—a reference to the Penn State Nittany Lions and Alabama Crimson Tide.
Springfield Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) University is a rival institution of Springfield University. Carl Carlson is an A&M alumnus. Springfield A&M's mascot is a pig named Sir Oinks-A-Lot, who was kidnapped by Homer and his three student tutors as a prank in "Homer Goes to College".
Springfield Heights Institute of Technology focuses on the engineering sciences. Professor Frink is a college professor at the university, and it is from where Apu Nahasapeemapetilon earned his doctorate.
Spinster City Apartments, also announced as Spinster Arms Apartments, is a fictional apartment building. Patty and Selma Bouvier, along with Selma's daughter Ling and their pet iguana Jub-Jub, live at number 1599.
Springfield Retirement Castle
The fictional Springfield Retirement Castle is Springfield's retirement home for the elderly. Some noted residents of the Castle include Abraham "Grampa" J. Simpson and his neighbors, Jasper Beardley, and the Crazy Old Man.
For Grampa Simpson, the Retirement Castle is a lonely place to be. He often gets mad when his family does not come and visit him. The door features a sign reading 'Thank you for not discussing the outside world'. The most interesting way to pass time at the home is to "stake yourself out a good spot at the starin' window",[50] which overlooks nothing but a barren tree, and bingo (the prize being a banana). The staff of the home has little to no respect for the residents, doing things like vacuuming their hair during "nap time", or switching their IV bags with their catheter bags when the former is empty, and the latter is full. In the episode "Old Money", Grampa inherits $106,000 from his girlfriend Beatrice "Bea" Simmons. He uses both this money and his winnings from a gambling junket to refurbish and redecorate the home and has the dining hall renamed in Bea's honor.
The fictional City Hall of Springfield serves as the workplace of Mayor Quimby and the City Government. Often it is the site of town meetings regarding an issue facing the city, where the citizens vote to approve a proposals that generally cause havoc and create more problems. The building is based on the Chelmsford, Massachusetts public library due to longtime The Simpsons background designer Lance Wilder, being a former Chelmsford resident.[51]
Five Corners is a fictional location, imagined as "the only geographic location in the US where five states meet". A boundary marker indicates the exact spot. While on their road trip to Itchy & Scratchy Land, the Simpsons visit Five Corners, where they each "stand in five different states while holding hands". The location is visited again in "The Bob Next Door", where Sideshow Bob plots to kill Bart at the marker where the location's unique property would result in a lack of extraterritorial jurisdiction, explaining it as: "I can stand in one state, fire a gun in a second state, the bullet will travel through the third, hitting you in the fourth, so you fall dead in the fifth. No single act is against any law, but their sum total is the greatest murder..."[52] In reality, no such place exists in the US; the location is a spoof of Four Corners.
Other towns
Shelbyville
The fictional city of Shelbyville is Springfield's neighbor and rival. It was founded in 1796 by Shelbyville Manhattan, who advocated cousin marriage among his followers, causing a split between himself and Jebediah Springfield. An intense rivalry between the two cities continues today, especially in the sixth-season episode "Lemon of Troy", in which Shelbyville residents steal a prized lemon tree from Springfield. In several episodes, "Lemon of Troy" in particular, it is suggested that Shelbyville is to an extent a parallel version of Springfield. Shelbyville is also the city where Luann van Houten grew up. It also has at least one McDonald's restaurant, a Speed-E-Mart, Joe's Tavern, and a school. Per "Last Exit to Springfield", Shelbyville was at least briefly called "Morganville" during Abe Simpson's youth. According to The Simpsons Movie, Shelbyville is west of Springfield. It is the home of the button fly.
Shelbyville was ranked 10th in "The 10 Best Dystopias" in the December 2005 issue of Wired.[53]
Capital City
Capital City (often spelled Capitol City in early episodes) is the fictional capital and largest city in the state in which the show is set. It is represented as a major urban center, hosting major sports events, conventions, and United Nations conferences. Its nickname is The Windy Apple (a joke by the show's writers, combining the nicknames of New York City's "The Big Apple" and Chicago's "The Windy City"). Landmarks include a Duff brewery, possibly mimicking the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, the Cross-town suspension bridge resembling San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, the Capital City Stadium, the Capital City Amphitheatre (featuring Krusty the clown), and the intersection of 4th Street and Avenue D. The Simpsons Movie places Capital City just to the north of Springfield.
Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook are also mentioned in Episode 18 of the TV series Supernatural by Sam Winchester, as locations of past Shtriga activity.
Ogdenville
The fictional city of Ogdenville was first mentioned in "Marge vs. the Monorail", when Lyle Lanley claimed to have sold a monorail to Ogdenville. Ogdenville has also been mentioned in other episodes such as "Saddlesore Galactica", "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" and "To Surveil with Love". In "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe", Maya is from Ogdenville. Ogdenville has an outlet mall and is separated from Springfield by a rocky desert. In "Coming to Homerica", Ogdenville is a town of barley producing farms that are shut down due to tainted barley being used in a new, vegetarian Krusty Burger. Ogdenvillians are composed of Norwegian immigrants with thick Norwegian accents. They also are big fans of the Minnesota Vikings due to the heavy incidence of Norwegian immigrants in the state of Minnesota. As a small easter egg, during a flu outbreak in Springfield, the hospital only received schemas in Norwegian, which was later confirmed via close-up. Series creator Matt Groening's background is Norwegian and German, which he has described as "two of the unfunniest ethnic groups in the history of the world".
North Haverbrook
The imagined North Haverbrook was first mentioned by Lyle Lanley in "Marge vs. the Monorail". Marge arrives in North Haverbrook and finds a desolate ghost town, where the faulty monorail derailed, causing a disaster, chasing away most of their residents and scaring away investors. The remaining North Haverbrook locals have since denied the monorail's existence, presumably blaming Lanley for the whole thing that ruined their town's reputation. Marge is met with hostility by the locals, including a woman who works at the 'Monorail Cafe'. She orders Marge to leave her town at once and never speak of the monorail anymore. A resident scientist from Germany, Sebastian Cobb, was the only one willing to help Marge out and save the passengers on the Springfield Monorail from suffering the same fate as North Haverbrook. Lanley is later attacked by the citizens of the town after his plane makes an unscheduled stop there.
North Haverbrook also appeared in "Little Big Girl". After Bart is awarded a driver's license, he gets sick of countless errands and goes for a drive and eventually finds North Haverbrook, and falls in love with a girl named Darcy. In this episode, the town appears to have recovered well from the monorail disaster, as it is now changed from a ghost town to a thriving community with multiple businesses that Bart enjoys. It has a romantic reputation. All signs of the monorail have also disappeared.
It also appears on a road sign as Snake drives towards Mexico with the Kwik-E-Mart on a flatbed trailer during "Marge in Chains".
Cypress Creek
In the world of the Simpsons, Cypress Creek is a model town created for the workers of the Globex Corporation. It appears in the episode "You Only Move Twice". It is an affluent town and is home to many wildflowers (to which Lisa is allergic). The city is an obvious parody of Silicon Valley or the master-planned communities often built by major corporations.
Guidopolis
In the episode "Midnight Towboy", Homer initially goes for a bottle of milk in a little town near Springfield named Guidopolis, where he then subsequently becomes a tow truck driver and is introduced to the vehicle recovery sector. The town is primarily inhabited by Italian-Americangreasers.
Little Pwagmattasquarmsettport
Little Pwagmattasquarmsettport is a fictional seaside town close to Springfield's State, where the Simpsons went for the Fourth of July in the Flanders's holiday home; the town appears in the episode "Summer of 4 Ft. 2". Nicknamed "Little Pwag", the town contains many beaches and a large boardwalk section, and a fun fair open every summer.
References
Informational notes
^One of the contradictory identifications takes place in Lisa the Iconoclast (season 7, episode 16) in which the grave of Democratic Presidential candidate and later UN ambassador under President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson II, is shown to be located in Springfield's cemetery. The actual grave is in Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois. Like his father, Vice President Adlai Stevenson I, and his son, Senator Adlai Stevenson III, Stevenson was strongly connected to Illinois, having been Governor of the state from 1949 to 1953. The Stevenson grave is thus a "clue" pointing to Springfield being in Illinois.
^De La Roca, Claudia (May 2012). "Matt Groening Reveals the Location of the Real Springfield". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved September 23, 2020. Moe's Tavern is actually based on 'Max's Tavern' in the neighboring town, Eugene. It is iconic for its pickled eggs on its counters and the television in the top right corner of the room.
^Groening, Matt (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
^ abSilverman, David (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
^Writer: John Frink; Director: Nancy Kruse (May 16, 2010). "The Bob Next Door". The Simpsons. Season 21. Episode 463. Fox Broadcasting Company. I can stand in one state, fire a gun in a second state, the bullet will travel through the third, hitting you in the fourth, so you fall dead in the fifth. No single act is against any law, but their sum total is the greatest murder...
^Smith, Jeremy Adam (December 2005). "The 10 Best Dystopias". Wired. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
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