Springfield (The Simpsons)

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Springfield
A panoramic view of Springfield (as seen in The Simpsons Movie)
Motto: "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." - "Springfield: Meanest Town In America!" - "Springfield: Good"[1]
Country	United States
State	Unknown
County	Springfield County[2]
Landmarks	List 742 Evergreen Terrace Kwik-E-Mart Moe's Tavern Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
Founded	1796
Founder	Jebediah Springfield
Government
- Mayor	Joe Quimby (D)
Elevation [3]	1,582 ft (482 m)
Population [3]
- Total	30,720
Area code(s)	636, 939
Town newspaper	The Springfield Shopper

Springfield is the fictional city in which the American animated television series The Simpsons is set. Springfield is a mid-sized city in an unknown state. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society.^[4] The geography of Springfield and its surroundings are flexible, changing to address whatever an episode’s plot calls for.^[5] In The Simpsons' universe, Time magazine is said to have done a cover story on Springfield entitled "America's Worst City;"^[6] Newsweek is said to have characterized the city as "America's Crud Bucket".^[7]

The city's location is unclear. Fans have tried to determine its location by taking the town's characteristics, surrounding geography, and nearby landmarks as clues, but the show has been deliberately evasive on the subject, even providing contradictory information. For example, in The Simpsons Movie, Ned Flanders points out from elevated ground on the outskirts of the city that Nevada, Ohio, Kentucky, and Maine are all visible from there; two of those states are over 2000 miles apart, with several other states in between. In one episode Lisa Simpson says that the location is a mystery and instructs the audience that if certain clues are followed, it can be figured out.^[8]

Contents 1 The city 2 Creation 3 Real-life location 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] The city

Springfield was founded in 1796 by a band led by Jebediah Springfield (a.k.a. Hans Sprungfeld), that, after misinterpreting a passage in the Bible, left Maryland, trying to find "New Sodom."^[9] After Jebediah Springfield refused to found a town where men were free to marry their cousins, half of the band broke away to do just that. They named their town Shelbyville, after fellow pioneer Shelbyville Manhattan, and the rivalry between the two towns persists to this day.^[10] 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 Springfield's streets were literally paved with gold.^[11]

Springfield's geography changes with the special needs of each episode. It has included forests, meadows, mountain ranges, a desert, a gorge, beaches, badlands, canyons, swamps, waterholes and waterways. Springfield is sometimes shown located on the coast of a large body of water, although other episodes show skyline shots of the city with no signs of a coastline. Major named geographical features include Springfield Gorge, Springfield National Forest, the volcano Mt. Springfield, the Springfield Badlands (also known as the Alkali Flats)^[12], The Murderhorn (a play on Matterhorn), Springfield Glacier, Mt. Useful National Park, Springfield Mesa and Springfield National Park. Springfield is evidently located in an area that receives plenty of rain, as well as heavy snow. Most of the time however, the skies are blue and mostly sunny. Springfield has also been prone to severe heat waves. Springfield is close to a major body of water that is open to the ocean, and close to a major mountain range. It is also situated on a major river, which has cut a deep gorge. It has been subject to just about every sort of natural disaster over the years, including avalanches, earthquakes, acid rain, floods, hurricanes, lightning strikes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and a meteor impact.

The city is divided into many neighborhoods, including: Rats Nest, Bum Town, Chinatown, Crackton, East Springfield, Greek Town, Junkyville, Little Bangkok, Little Italy, Little Newark, Little Stockholm, Little Seattle, Ethnictown, Lower Eastside, Pressboard Estates, Recluse Ranch Estates, Skid Row, Springfield Harbor, Springfield Heights, Springshire, Tibet Town, Waverly Hills, flammable district, a gay district, a fast-food district, and a Russian district. There is also a housing project in Springfield called Lincoln Park Village. There is also West Springfield, a sprawling desert that is described by Lisa as "three times the size of Texas!"^[13]

In "Trash of the Titans", Homer Simpson was elected Sanitation Commissioner. After Homer spent the entire yearly budget in his first month of office, he was forced to take in the garbage of other cities in order to make enough money to pay the city's trash collectors. Eventually the mines that were storing the collected trash erupted and littered the entire city, prompting the entire city, population and structures, to literally move five miles (8 km) down the road to establish a new Springfield away from the massive dump that old Springfield had become.^[14]

Springfield is home to the state's largest self-sustaining tire fire which has been burning continuously since either 1966 or 1989.^[15] In The Simpsons Movie, Lake Springfield was quite polluted by the trash and carelessness of the townspeople. Lisa Simpson managed to petition the town to clean up the lake, and the lake was cleaned up, surrounded by barriers, and a Hazardous Waste Center was built for the garbage of citizens. However, the lake was severely re-polluted after Homer Simpson dumped a large silo of pig manure into the lake. The lake was so polluted that a squirrel jumped into the water and emerged with multiple eyes, and the EPA came to action and sealed the town in a large glass dome, and ultimately decided to blow up Springfield by putting a bomb inside the dome. However, the dome was destroyed after Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson managed to throw the bomb on to the top of the dome, seconds before detonation. Once the dome was destroyed, it was presumed that the town cleaned the lake again. The lake was also seen in Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" where Bart had to dive down to the bottom to retrieve a chest of German paintings that belonged to his grandfather, Abe Simpson.

The current mayor of Springfield is Joe Quimby (D), while their representative in congress is Krusty the Clown (R). Mary Bailey, a Democrat, is the Governor of Springfield's state and was first seen in "Two Cars In Every Garage, Three Eyes On Every Fish". Mayor Quimby is simultaneously incompetent and immoral as well as being a conspicuously corrupt and fraudulent politician. Quimby is a sleazy womanizer and has had multiple affairs on his wife. The citizens of Springfield are normally accepting of this conduct, except on certain issues, such as when the citizens blamed Quimby for traffic jam caused by Bart Simpson — the largest in the history of the town.^[16]

Springfield boasts an opera house, an outdoor amphitheater, an arboretum, a vibrant jazz scene and was previously regarded as the entertainment capital of its state.^[17] Religious houses of worship include a local synagogue, the First Church of Springfield and the Cathedral of the Downtown. There is also an unusually high number of museums, including Springfield Museum (which features the world's largest cubic zirconium), Springfield Knowledgeum, Springfield Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Swordfish, Springsonian Museum, and a stamp museum. Media includes KBBL Broadcasting Inc. which serves as the major media outlet, owning at least three radio stations and one television station. The Springfield Shopper is a city newspaper.

The town is home to the Springfield Isotopes, an AA minor league baseball team. Home games are played at Duff Stadium. The Springfield Isotopes were the inspiration for the new name of the Los Angeles Dodgers' AAA affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes, when they relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico from Calgary. ^[18] The plot of the "Hungry, Hungry Homer" episode revolves around Homer Simpson's attempts to thwart a planned move by the team to Albuquerque. Springfield has a basketball and hockey arena, which is home to the Springfield Ice-O-Topes hockey team.

There is a strong rivalry between Springfield and its closest neighboring town, Shelbyville, starting with the rivalry that existed between Jebediah Springfield and Shelbyville Manhattan, the founder of Shelbyville. Manhattan wanted to found a city where men were free to marry their cousins, but Springfield refused to allow it. This caused Manhattan to break away with his supporters and found the town of Shelbyville. The rivalry extends to the present day through American football and even a Lemon tree near the two towns' borders.

[edit] Creation

The name Springfield was chosen by Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, as the setting for the show because it is one of the most common place-names in the United States.^[19] The town was partly inspired by Melonville, the town in Second City Television, which featured a large cast of recurring characters. Groening liked the idea of a town that was its own mini-universe and partially based The Simpsons on it.^[20]

[edit] Real-life location

The uncertain location of Springfield is a recurring joke in the series. Springfield is meant to represent "anytown, USA" and not be a specific real city,^[21] although the producers have admitted to basing the town on various locations.^[22] The name was chosen because it is a common town name in the United States;^[23] there are 35 states in the United States that have at least one community with that name.^[24] Despite this, many fans still believe that Springfield is located in a real state and try to follow the clues. The search for its location has been described as a "riddle wrapped in an enigma that is Springfield's location".^[25] Due to the many contradictory clues, it is impossible for Springfield to exist in any set location.

Episodes frequently make fun of the fact that Springfield's state has never been revealed, by adding further conflicting descriptions, obscuring onscreen map representations, and interrupting conversational references. In the episode "Blame It on Lisa", when asked about Springfield's location, Lisa replies, "it's a bit of a mystery, yes. But if you look at the clues, you can figure it out."^[26] David Silverman, a director for the Simpsons, has claimed that Springfield is in the fictional state of "North Takoma".^[27][28] This is substantiated by the state abbreviations NT and TA used within the show.^[28][29] However, this has never been officially confirmed in any canonical episode of The Simpsons or by other Simpsons producers. Homer's driver license displays the state as NT and the ZIP code as 49007,^[30] which is Kalamazoo, Michigan.^[31], although the area codes for Springfield have also been stated as 636 (East-Central Missouri) and 939 (Puerto Rico).

In The Simpsons Movie, the idea that the state cannot exist in reality is further emphasized when Ned Flanders identifies the four bordering states as Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky, most of which are vastly separated from each other.^[32] To promote the movie, various towns and cities across the United States called Springfield competed to hold the premiere of the movie in their town. Springfields from many different states entered the competition.^[33] The town of Springfield, Vermont, was elected to host the movie's premiere.^[34][35]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation. Canada: Random House. pp. 167. ISBN 0-306-81341-6. 

[edit] External links

• Where Is The Simpsons' Springfield? from the fan-maintained "The Simpsons Archive"

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