Simpsons Key To The City

[Beatrix Gerke]

Springfield is the primary fictional setting of the American animated sitcom The 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]

The fictional city of Springfield was intended to represent "Anytown, USA", and not be derived from any specific real-life location.[1][5] However, the producers acknowledge deriving inspiration from numerous locations, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, and Mike Scully's hometown, Springfield, Massachusetts.[6][2]

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]

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]

David Silverman, who directed the movie and various episodes of the series, joked that Springfield is located in the fictional state of "North Takoma".[11][12] This is substantiated by the state abbreviations NT and TA used within the show.[12][13] As of A Tale of Two Springfields (season 12, episode 2), the telephone area codes for Springfield are 636 (St. Charles County and Western St. Louis County, Missouri)[14] and 939 (Puerto Rico).

To promote The Simpsons Movie, various actual towns and cities across the U.S. called Springfield competed to hold the premiere.[15] The promotion was, whichever state sent in the most votes would be the winner and would officially be which state The Simpsons takes place in. Despite the smaller size of Vermont compared to other states, the town of Springfield, Vermont was chosen.[16][17] In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "of all the Springfields in America, [The Simpsons] is most popular in Springfields in Virginia, Minnesota and New Jersey, and least popular in Springfields in Louisiana, Arkansas and Georgia".[18]

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]

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, which is claimed to be "three times the size of Texas",[24] the Springfield Badlands,[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.

The fictional mayor of Springfield is Joe Quimby, a Democrat. In the episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Sideshow Bob (R) runs for mayor and defeats Mayor Quimby, but Bob is later discovered to have committed electoral fraud.

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".

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.

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".[35]

The episode "Homer and Apu" suggests that Apu is an employee of the Kwik-E-Mart and shows him travelling to the Himalayas, where the Kwik-E-Mart head office is located, to ask for his job back after being fired. However, Apu mentions at a bachelor auction that he runs his own business in "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons".

In July 2007, convenience store chain 7-Eleven converted 11 of its stores in the United States and one in Canada into Kwik-E-Marts to promote the release of The Simpsons Movie.[36] The locations of the renovated Kwik-E-Marts were: Bladensburg, Maryland/Washington, D.C.; Burbank, California; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Henderson/Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Mountain View/San Francisco; New York City; Orlando/Lake Buena Vista, Florida; Seattle;[37] and Vancouver/Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.[38] These 12 locations, as well as the majority of other North American 7-Elevens, sold products found in The Simpsons, such as "Buzz Cola", "Krusty-O's", "Squishees", pink frosted "Sprinklicious doughnuts", and other Simpsons-themed merchandise. The Squishes were Slurpees that are sold in special collector cups, and the Krusty-O's were made by Malt-O-Meal.[37] The promotion resulted in a 30% increase in profits for the changed 7-Eleven stores. This can be seen during the opening of The Simpsons Movie.[39]

Moe's Tavern, or often simply referred to as "Moe's", is a fictional bar operated and named after the owner, Moe Szyslak. Moe's Tavern first appeared in the first episode of the series "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, and Carl Carlson often visit the bar after a day of work at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Other frequent patrons of Moe's Tavern are Barney Gumble, Sam, and Larry Dalrymple.

The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is a fictional representation of a two-unit pressurized water reactor nuclear 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."[40][41]

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