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80's children: Simpsons' Springfield Location Revealed

?Simpsons? fans got the answer to a long-debated question about the 22-year-old animated TV show starring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie: Where the heck is Springfield? The ?Anytown, USA? city could be in almost any state of the union, from Maine, to Ohio, to Vermont, to Virginia.

But it turns out, the show?s town is named for (drum roll) Springfield, Oregon. Oregon! The creator of the cartoon, Matt Groening, revealed the location in an interview with Smithsonian magazine.

Immediately, the Web exploded, and Matt Groening became a trending topic on Twitter, withcomments flying. Eli Braden tweeted, ?No wonder we never see them pumping their own gas.? Ubersocial crowed, ?Eat my shorts, Illinois!? The Oregonian piled on: ?Better luck next time Ohio, Mass., Illinois, Missouri, etc.?

In the interview, the 58-year-old recounted that he had named the town after the TV show ?Father Knows Best,? which took place in a town called Springfield. Groening figured it was near where he grew up in Portland, Oregon (which, now that we think about it, was a huge hint).

[Related: Unlock The Hidden Mysteries of Your City]

The "Life in Hell" creator told the magazine, ?When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, ?This will be cool; everyone will think it?s their Springfield.? And they do.? Or, they did.

When asked why he never spoke of the real town before, he explained, ?I don?t want to ruin it for people, you know? Whenever people say it?s Springfield, Ohio, or Springfield, Massachusetts, or Springfield, wherever, I always go, ?Yup, that?s right.?" But now we know, it?s not. 

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/-simpsons--springfield-location-revealed.html/

Edited: to fix link 

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"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho

Re: 80's children: Simpsons' Springfield Location Revealed

  • Did I make up that fact that at one point there was a big contest about who would "win" the right to claim their Springfield as the Springfield?
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  • imagecopzgirl:
    Did I make up that fact that at one point there was a big contest about who would "win" the right to claim their Springfield as the Springfield?

    no, you didn't.  who won that?

  • Children of the 80s nothing. That show is still on. I've been watching it every week for almost my whole life. :p

    I figured it wasn't something so obvious as Illinois.

    Team Basement Cat imageKnitting&Kitties
  • I think I remember something about that, too, copz, but I might be making it up, as well.

    I will admit to being a bit sad that it's not Ohio - we used to go to Springfield all the time when I was a kid. 

    image
    "You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
  • imagemeshaliu:

    Children of the 80s nothing. That show is still on. I've been watching it every week for almost my whole life. :p

    Pshaw - that show has been going downhill for years, and you know it! And I say that as a loyal Simpsons fan - until the middle of the last decade or so, at least. Stick out tongue 

    Fun fact? When it first came on, I wasn't allowed to stay up late enough to watch it (I was the oldest, and my parents made us all go to bed at the same time). So for the first year or so it was on, my parents recorded it for us (on VHS, no less) and we'd watch it the next day. 

    image
    "You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
  • I live here now in Eugene/Springfield Ore. And let me just say the town portrayed on the Simpsons is much nicer than the real Springfield which is basically a giant meth lab
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  • imagearborgold:
    imagemeshaliu:

    Children of the 80s nothing. That show is still on. I've been watching it every week for almost my whole life. :p

    Pshaw - that show has been going downhill for years, and you know it! And I say that as a loyal Simpsons fan - until the middle of the last decade or so, at least. Stick out tongue 

    Fun fact? When it first came on, I wasn't allowed to stay up late enough to watch it (I was the oldest, and my parents made us all go to bed at the same time). So for the first year or so it was on, my parents recorded it for us (on VHS, no less) and we'd watch it the next day. 

    Clearly not loyal enough. Stick out tongue  

    I sing this to my daughter to help her sleep:

    image

    (I also sing the Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch themes. I need to learn childrens songs.)

    I've been watching since the Tracy Ulman days and I don't know what I'm gonna do when they call it quits. It will be like Buffy and X-Files ending at the same time while my favorite cafe closes.

    You watch for the gems. They're still there.

    Team Basement Cat imageKnitting&Kitties
  • imagemeshaliu:

    You watch for the gems. They're still there.

    Agree. I'm going to cry when it goes off air.

    Also, I'm disappointed they revealed the location. 

    A big old middle finger to you, stupid Nest.
  • Is there a link to this story? I want to send it to H (the link in the OP is to the teacher/Trayvon Martin story.)

    I love the Simpsons, even now. Like Mesh said, you watch for the gems.  There will be some stupid boring episode but then one scene is just to die for.

    And the whole Jack Bauer episode gets me every time.

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  • imagemrsbecky07:

    Is there a link to this story? I want to send it to H (the link in the OP is to the teacher/Trayvon Martin story.)

    Oops, sorry about that.  Here it is:

    http://tv.yahoo.com/news/-simpsons--springfield-location-revealed.html 

    image
    "You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
  • This Springfield-born girl just shed a little tear. Here I've been thinking I was descended from Jebediah Springfield.
    ~formerly Bride2bMO~
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  • Kore!Kore! member
    Eighth Anniversary 10000 Comments
    What! I always had it in my mind as midwestern, like Illinois. Perhaps because I grew up in the midwest. My mind is blown. lol.
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  • As someone who grew up in Oregon this doesn't surprise me at all, but I in my mind "Springfield" is really just a re-named Portland.  A bunch of the characters are named after Portland Streets (Bob Terwilliger/Terwilliger Curves) and apparently there is an elementary school somewhere in Portland that's a spitting image of Springfield Elementary.
  • I know this is splitting hairs, but he doesn't say that the Springfield in the show is Springfield, OR, but that it is named after Springfield, OR.  Throughout the show there have always been inconsistencies that make it impossible for Springfield to actually be in any specific state.

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