Springfield (The Simpsons)

Springfield
The Simpsons location
A panoramic view of Springfield, as seen in The Simpsons Movie.
First appearance	"Good Night"
Created by	Matt Groening
Information
Location	United States
Notable locations	742 Evergreen Terrace Kwik-E-Mart Moe's Tavern Springfield Elementary School
Notable characters	The Simpsons
Population	30,720
Mayor	"Diamond" Joe Quimby

Springfield is a fictional town in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, which serves as its main setting. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its surroundings are flexible, changing to address whatever an episode's plot calls for.

Springfield's location is impossible to determine, and the show is deliberately evasive on the subject, providing contradictory clues and information about its location.

Creation

Springfield is intended to represent "anytown, USA" and not be a specific real town, although the producers acknowledge basing the town on numerous locations including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, and Mike Scully's hometown, Springfield, Massachusetts. Groening named Springfield after Springfield, Oregon, and also took inspiration from Springfield being the fictitious setting of the series Father Knows Best. 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 success of the show, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do." Groening liked Second City Television's use of Melonville, a town with a large cast of recurring characters that serves as a mini-universe for the show, and partially based The Simpsons on it.

Location

Because of the many contradictory statements regarding Springfield, it is impossible for the town to 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 – of which only Ohio and Kentucky are real neighboring states, Nevada and Maine being at opposite sides of the US. The city's unknown and unknowable 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", but Lisa Simpson states that "it's a bit of a mystery, yes. But if you look at the clues, you can figure it out." 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. The 2012 episode "Beware My Cheating Bart" played upon the unidentifiability of the state in its opening chalkboard gag, which stated that "The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours".

David Silverman, who directed the movie and various episodes of the series, joked that Springfield is located in the fictional state of "North Takoma". This is substantiated by the state abbreviations NT and TA used within the show. The telephone area codes for Springfield are 636 (St. Charles County and Western St. Louis County, Missouri) 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. The town of Springfield, Vermont, was chosen. 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".

Fictional history

Springfield was founded in 1796 by a group led by Jebediah Springfield (in reality a cover identity for notorious pirate Hans Sprungfeld) who, after misinterpreting a passage in the Bible, left Maryland (which may be a small clue as to depict Springfield's location; not in Maryland) trying to find "New Sodom." After he refused to found a town where men were free to marry their cousins, half of the group left. The dissenters founded the nearby town of Shelbyville, after fellow pioneer Shelbyville Manhattan, and the two cities remain rivals for centuries. 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. The town's prosperity faded; a Time cover story on Springfield was titled "America's Worst City", and Newsweek called the town "America's Crud Bucket".

Topography

Springfield's geography is varied, including forests, meadows, mountain ranges, a desert, a gorge, a glacier, beaches, badlands, canyons, swamps, a harbor, waterholes, and waterways. Major named geographical features include Springfield Gorge, Springfield National Forest, the volcanic Mt. Springfield, the West Springfield Desert ("three times the size of Texas!"), the Springfield Badlands (also known as the Alkali Flats), 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 dry and sunny, with a bright blue sky. However, it has been subject to many natural disasters, including heat waves, blizzards, avalanches, earthquakes, acid rain, floods, hurricanes, lightning strikes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions.

Springfield's environment is unusually polluted. Overflowing garbage forced the whole town – both population and structures — to move five miles (8 km) away from the massive dump that the old town of Springfield had become. Springfield is also, unfortunately, home to the state's largest self-sustaining tire fire, which has been burning continuously for many decades. Lake Springfield's pollution almost led to the town's destruction by an Environmental Protection Agency bomb, and pollution from the nuclear power plant has mutated the fish in the river, with the Nuclear Power Plant's mascot being Blinky, an orange-colored fish with three eyes. Its atmosphere is so polluted that it reduced a comet to a tiny rock the size of a chihuahua's head.

Politics, religion, and media

In politics, the mayor of Springfield is Joe Quimby, while the town's representative in Congress is Herschel "Krusty the Clown" Krustofsky (R) of the 24th congressional district. In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Sideshow Bob (R) ran for Mayor of Springfield and defeated Mayor Quimby, but was later discovered to have committed pure electoral fraud. Previous representatives include Horace Wilcox, who died of a heart attack while in office, and Bob Arnold, who is forced to resign after Lisa exposes his corruption. Mary Bailey (D) is the governor of Springfield's state. The town is infamous for its corruption. Mayor Quimby: a sleazy, womanizing politician is known for his stupidity. During the MENSA tenure, Mayor Quimby is confronted by Lisa Simpson after a group of drunks steal their Gazebo for a Shakespeare play. Thinking he is exposed for his corruption, he flees for a while and the MENSA chapter runs Springfield. Other corrupt parties include the Police Force (Specifically Chief Wiggum).

Religious houses of worship include Congregation Beth Springfield, the First Church of Springfield, First AME Church, the Cathedral of the Downtown, and a Buddhist vihara.

KBBL Broadcasting Inc. is the major media outlet, owning at least three radio stations and one television station. Channel 6 of KBBL, the most watched channel by far, airs The Krusty the Clown Show and Kent Brockman's nightly news broadcast. The Springfield Shopper is a town newspaper, although it mainly prints tabloid-like newspapers and thus, in the episode "Three Gays of the Condo", it is stated that the headlines are "all a joke" and that most other people read the New York Times. However, the New York Times has never been mentioned since.

Neighborhoods and attractions

The town is divided into many neighborhoods, including Rats Nest, Bum Town, Chinatown, Crackton, East Springfield, Greek Town, Russian Town, Junkyville, Little Bangkok, Little Ethiopia, Little Italy, Little Newark, Little Stockholm, Little Seattle, Little Ukraine, Ethnictown, the Jewish Lower East Side, Kelly Terrace, Pressboard Estates, Recluse Ranch Estates, Skid Row, Springfield Harbor, Springfield Heights, Hyperion Drive, Springshire, Tibet Town, Waverly Hills, the borough of Sprooklyn, the Lincoln Park Village Housing Project, the Flammable District, a gay district and a fast-food district.

Springfield boasts an opera house, an outdoor amphitheater, an arboretum, and a vibrant jazz scene, and was previously regarded as the entertainment capital of its state.

Transportation

For transportation, Springfield has an international airport, is served by a railroad, and has both an abandoned subway system, a public transit system, and an unsuccessful monorail line, as well as an escalator to nowhere.

Sports

The town is home to the Springfield Isotopes, an AA minor league baseball team which plays its home games at Duff Stadium; the Springfield Atoms football team at Springfield Stadium; the NBA's Springfield Excitement (formerly the Austin Celtics); and the Springfield Ice-O-Topes hockey team at the Springfield Arena.

Businesses

Springfield Nuclear Power Plant

The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Springfield owned by Charles Montgomery Burns. Opened in 1974, the plant is the key supplier of the city of Springfield's energy supply, and the carelessness of Mr. Burns and the plant's employees (like Homer, who is employed at Sector 7G) often endangers the residents and natural environment of Springfield. At the core of the plant are two Fissionator 1952 Slow-Fission Reactors, operating in spite of more than 342 safety violations with an estimated repair bill to bring the plant up to code being in excess of $56 million. Among the more alarming safety violations are emergency exits that are just painted on the wall, cracks in the cooling towers held together by tape, massive amounts of poorly stored toxic waste and dangerously unqualified personnel (mainly Simpson), some of which are not even human, such as a chicken that briefly substituted for Homer, and a duck that was used to pull a cart of toxic waste around. A running gag in earlier seasons was the poor security of the plant, with the outside security booth often going unmanned, but this has changed in recent episodes, with the entrance to the plant being heavily guarded. The plant has come close to a meltdown several times and has blown up at least once.

There is a crow or raven that lives near the Power Plant that caws whenever an establishing shot of the Power Plant is on screen. Mutated fish with more than two eyes have been seen in the lake behind the power plant, which has a large pipe pumping nuclear waste into it. According to Mr. Burns, the plant is endowed with flippered mutants. In the Season 25 episode "Homerland", he comments that the air conditioning system has never worked properly.

In one episode, Mr. Burns mentions that he owns the electric company as part of his power monopoly.

The design and folly 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 home town 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."

Waylon Smithers is Burns' executive assistant and lackey, as Burns calls him. Among the plant's employees are Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, and Carl Carlson. The plant offers yearly visits from the Springfield Elementary School.

Kwik-E-Mart

Main article: Kwik-E-Mart

A Seattle 7-Eleven store transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart.

Kwik-E-Mart is a convenience store located in Springfield and 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."

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 food, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and other items offered at a typical convenience store, gasoline pumps have been shown in front on two occasions. The Springfield Shopper also sells well there and it is where Principal Seymour Skinner purchases his tabloids. In the episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", Apu has just installed 16 new gas pumps to compete with rival convenience store, the Gas 'N Gulp. However, they, along with the Kwik-E-Mart, are destroyed due to Bart accidentally interrupting a live mortar exercise at Fort Springfield when visiting the re-enlisted Skinner, forcing the soldiers to redirect the mortar fire into the town, destroying the store and pumps off screen. The episode "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" also shows the pumps where Apu refuses to go out and serve a customer on the forecourt.

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. 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; and Vancouver/Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. 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 Squishees were Slurpees that are sold in special collector cups and the Krusty-O's were made by Malt-O-Meal. 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.

The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop

The Android's Dungeon is a comic book store owned by Jeff Albertson a.k.a. 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 titled "Worst Episode Ever" (which is a remark often used by Comic Book Guy), 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 various extremely rare or illegal subjects, such as a taping of Mr. Rogers on a drunken bender and several interrogation tapes from the Springfield Police. These tapes are later confiscated during a police raid on the store. It was damaged in The Simpsons Movie, like most of the rest of the town, with Comic Book Guy living out of the ruins, considering that all-in-all, his life collecting comics had been "well spent".

Comics sold there are well-loved by Bart and Milhouse's Radioactive Man, Manboy, Radiation Dude, Batboy, Mr. Hop, Batchick, Mr. Smarty Pants, Birdguy, Nick, Cat Girl, Power Person, Dog Kid, Iguana Girl, Snake Kid, Lava Lady, Star Dog, The Human Bee, Mister Amazing and Tree Man, as well as real-life comics such as The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.

Barney's Bowl-A-Rama

Barney's Bowl-A-Rama is the bowling alley in Springfield. It is owned by Barney Gumble's Uncle Al. The very first known appearance is the episode "Life on the Fast Lane" where Homer forgets Marge's birthday and after rushing out to purchase a gift, he ends up buying a bowling ball. Marge is insulted at the fact her gift from Homer was something obviously intended for his own personal use given the fact the ball had Homer's name engraved on it. Marge decides she will keep the gift for her own use and goes bowling for the first time. This is seen destroyed in The Simpsons Movie.

In the episode "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer tells the family the story of Maggie's birth. In this story, Homer explains how he quit his job at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant to work at the Bowl-A-Rama, which was Homer's dream job. This episode reveals where the bowling pins go after they are knocked over; the pins are shown ending up in a heap and new pins are manufactured instantly by a Rube Goldberg device to replace those knocked over, in a massively wasteful process that only produces one pin out of a single tree.

The Bowl-A-Rama is used in the episode "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" as a way of smuggling beer into Moe's Tavern. In this episode, alcohol is banned in Springfield and Homer begins bootlegging beer he uncovered from the city dump. The beer is poured into bowling balls and Homer then bowls the ball into the gutter at the Bowl-A-Rama; the ball then falls into a pipe leading to Moe's Tavern where Moe charges an outrageous price.

"Hurricane Neddy" has the bowling alley briefly relocate to a precarious teetering position on top of a nearby train tunnel after a hurricane blows through Springfield and tears the alley off its foundation.

There are seven known bowling teams, from The Pin Pals (Homer, Moe, Apu, and Otto/Mr. Burns), to the Holy Rollers (the Flanders, and Reverend Lovejoy and his wife).

Costington's

Costington's is a high-end department store located in downtown Springfield. Costington's is a parody of Macy's, an American department store. Their slogan is "Over A Century Without A Slogan". Costington's sponsors the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade (an identical move to Macy's) and holds a "Love Day" celebration. Owned by Mr. Costington, the store has employed many Springfieldians, including Homer (as their parade Santa and as a mattress salesman), Gil and The Yes Guy. Lenny and Carl once crashed into Costington's, which sparked a city riot. It was first seen in the episode "Trash of The Titans".

KBBL Broadcasting

KBBL Broadcasting is a media company which runs all KBBL TV and radio stations, which is used to parody the media. Its most notable television personalities are news anchor Kent Brockman, children's entertainer veteran Krusty The Clown and Hispanic comedian Bumblebee Man. Their radio channel hosts are DJ's Bill and Marty.

The station jingle is "No sports, no rock, no information! For mindless chatter, we're your station!"

King Toot's

King Toot's is a music store located next door to Moe's Tavern. The store sells musical instruments and is the place where Lisa's saxophone was purchased. The most notable appearance of King Toot's Music Store was in "Lisa's Pony" where Lisa asks Homer to pick up a new reed for her saxophone for her recital. Homer heads to the store after work and realizes Moe's is next door; since the store wasn't to close for 5 minutes, Homer decides to have a quick beer first. Homer finishes his beer with 15 seconds to spare only to find the store owner has closed early. Homer goes back to Moe's fortunately to find the owner of the store and after much convincing from Homer and Moe the owner opens up to sell Homer a reed. Unfortunately, Homer is too late for Lisa's recital. Another appearance was in "Lisa's Sax" where after Lisa's saxophone was run over by a truck, as a result of a fight between Bart and Lisa, Homer tells the story of how Lisa first got her sax. King Toot's is seen briefly during the opening of The Simpsons Movie and later while the dome is being put over Springfield. In "Covercraft" King Toot is revealed to be a sleazy, overweight middle-aged man with a mustache who torments Moe by dumping all of his junk into Moe's alley dumpster without paying him, and ends up having a huge fight with Moe that ends with them both getting arrested and the music store being closed for repairs.

The Leftorium

The Leftorium was a store in the Springfield Mall that specialized in products for left-handed people. The store was owned by Ned Flanders, who first started The Leftorium in the season 3 episode "When Flanders Failed". At first, business at the store was going very poorly. Irritated with Flanders, Homer wished that the store would go out of business after Homer received the larger half of a wishbone. Homer got his wish and the Flanders family were forced to sell many of their possessions, much of which Homer purchased at a meager price of $75. The bank repossessed the Flanders' home and the Leftorium was to be the next asset repossessed. Homer then regretted making this wish and the fact that he never told any of his friends who were in need of left-handed items about the Leftorium. As a result, he managed to get everyone he knew in town to shop at Ned's store, saving it from closure.

The Leftorium continued to thrive over the following years. However, Flanders mentioned 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 he purchased most of his possessions cheaply, and that the business moved way downhill since "Leftopolis" moved in 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 business 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, substituting the void left by his deceased second wife Edna Krabappel.

The writers had wanted to have Flanders own a failing business and the idea for the store was suggested by George Meyer. He got the idea from a friend whose family had owned a left-handed specialty store which had failed.

Matt Groening himself is left-handed, and once remarked that 1 in 3 Springfieldians were left-handed.

Noiseland Video Arcade

Noiseland Video Arcade is the video arcade in downtown Springfield, a popular place for the youth. Arcade games include Escape from Grandma's House (versions I-III), Kevin Costner's Water World and Larry the Looter. The video arcade has had several appearances in The Simpsons, although mostly in the earlier seasons. The earliest known appearance was in "Moaning Lisa" where Bart challenges Homer to a boxing game on their home TV game system. As Bart is continuously undefeated, Homer decides to fight back by going to the video arcade to learn from the young children how to win in the same boxing game. Homer almost beats Bart but Marge switches off the game at the crucial moment. It was seen destroyed briefly in The Simpsons Movie.

Sprawl-Mart

Sprawl-Mart is a big department store in Springfield and a parody of Wal-Mart. It is first seen in "The Fat and the Furriest". While the entire Simpson family has shopped there, and Homer and Abe worked there, it is a terrible place to work, perhaps worse than the Power Plant, with low pay, 24 hours a day shifts, no bathroom breaks, and fake passports given to American citizens to get arrested, if ever caught escaping. They also implant microchips in the workers during the company physicals that give them electroshocks if they try to leave. Even though most of the workers have already managed to remove their chips, they stay anyway, since they use the lack of management during nightshifts to steal from the store.

Springfield Mall

The Springfield Mall is a shopping mall in Springfield. It features stores such as Happy Market, Cost-Mo, and smaller stores such as 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 Starbucks coffee shops, several Krusty Burgers, and many others.

Try-N-Save

In the episode "Marge Be Not Proud", Bart is caught shoplifting in a Try-N-Save. Despite being told by Try-N-Save security Don Brodka to never return to the store because of shoplifting, Bart is forced to go back with his family for a photo portrait session. Seen by security again, Bart's crime is revealed, and his relationship with Marge is threatened. The store also appears in the "Kamp Krusty" episode. In "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly", the Try-N-Save brand comes up when Seymour Skinner leads Superintendent Chalmers to believe that his shoes are genuine Hush Puppies when they are Try-N-Save Shush Mutts.

Jake's Unisex Hairplace

Jake's Unisex Hairplace is a salon/barber in Springfield. As the name implies, it serves both men and women. In the Simpsons app, it is called Jake's Unisex Hair Palace. It is one of the oldest location shown in the series, as it originally appeared in the Tracy Ullman short "Bart's Haircut" (where it was called Snipper Cuts). It is owned and operated by Jake the Barber.

Mapple Store

Season 20 Episode 7 "MyPods and Boomsticks" A spoof of an Apple store, where Lisa almost bought a MyPod.

Shøp

An IKEA parody, Shøp sells assorted furniture with unique and unusual designs. Their mascot appears to be an anthropomorphic hex key named Allen Wrench, but rather than being a costume is in fact an alien being who needs tungsten to live. Cutlery in the canteen is self-made from Lego, allowing Homer to create a multi-pronged fork.

Coolsville Comics and Toys

Coolsville only appeared once, on the Season 19 episode 7 episode of "Husbands and Knives". Milo owns the store, which is right across the street from The Android's Dungeon. Unlike Comic Book Guy, Milo treats the kids like royalty and lets them read comics at leisure, rather than hoarding them until the time is ripe. He also started an autograph signing with three famous writers. Comic Book Guy goes out of business in the episode, but somehow jumps back in the next.

Herman's Military Antiques

Formerly Pet Shop, Herman's sells all sorts of war memorabilia, from muskets to a Confederate flag.

I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm!

Also known as "Lionel Hutz also Expert Shoe Repair" or "The Law Offices of Lionel Hutz", it is located near the Springfield mall. It is a law firm visited by the Simpsons on multiple occasions, including when Bart was hit by a car. Hutz usually has an incentive for visiting, such as smoking monkeys. His number is 5-LAWW, or 5-5299.

Phineas Q. Butterfat's 5600 Flavors Ice Cream Parlor

The ice cream parlor actually owns several locations, but most of them are in the Springfield Mall. They serve, indeed, 5600 flavors, with their premier item being "The Ark", a gigantic sundae featuring all the store's flavors, 26 sauces, toppings and nuts. In "You Kent Always Say What You Want", Homer purchased the 1,000,000th ice-cream cone (though briefly lost the prize because he could not decide between a cup or a cone), and won a special interview with Kent Brockman.

Hairy Shearers

A barbershop; pun on the name of the actor Harry Shearer. It is frequented by Marge Simpson whose massive hairdo requires significant effort to maintain. In "Hungry, Hungry Homer", they refused to honor her coupon for discount hair streaks, as their thin profit margins would ruin them, but Homer (in an unusual exhibition of helpfulness) assisted the owner with finding ways of decreasing their spending, and they honored the coupon in return. The shop reappears in "The Blue and The Gray", where it is revealed that Marge's hair has been grey for decades, but the industrial-strength coloring they use keeps wiping out her memory.

1987 Calendars!!!

1987 Calendars!!! is a calendar store in the Springfield Mall that sells calendars from 1987.

Bars and restaurants

The Gilded Truffle

The Gilded Truffle is an elegant, upscale restaurant in Springfield. The restaurant once employed Groundskeeper Willie until he quit and returned to his old job at Springfield Elementary. The restaurant serves French cuisine. It first appeared in the episode "Bart The Lover". The store is "worldwide-famous" for their truffles.

Moe's Tavern

Moe's Bar in Concepcion, Chile, closely based on images from The Simpsons.

Moe's Tavern (called Moe's Bar in The Simpsons Movie) is a local bar in Springfield frequented by Homer Simpson, Carl Carlson, Lenny Leonard and Barney Gumble. The tavern is named after and run by Moe Szyslak. Moe's Tavern first appeared in the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". In the first season of The Simpsons, the entrance appeared to be a saloon door. The bar sells mostly Duff Beer although other beverages are served. In the episode "Flaming Moe's", Moe's beer payments were delinquent so his beer distributor stopped delivering to him. When Homer shows Moe a drink he developed called the Flaming Homer, Moe sells it as his own, calling it the Flaming Moe. The drink becomes extremely popular until Homer reveals its secret ingredient, allowing other businesses to create a similar product. The drink's popularity wanes significantly. A recurring gag is the dirty and dilapidated state of the bar. In "Mommie Beerest", it is revealed that Moe was long able to avoid several enormous health code violations (among other things, the corkscrew has a severed human ear on it, and there's a toilet on the roof) due to being friends with the health inspector. Another episode reveals that the bar's liquor license is expired, is only valid in Rhode Island and is just signed by Moe himself. The bar is also infested with rats, a large number of whom moved to the bar after the destruction of a derelict factory as seen in "Homer's Enemy". The tavern had to be briefly shut down as shown in "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", due to toxic fumes runover from Mr. Burns' oil rig nearby.

Moe's Tavern undergoes several makeovers in various episodes of The Simpsons, but it always reverts to its original dark, squalid state before the show's end. In the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" Moe's Tavern is named Moe's Cavern as a reference to the world-famous Cavern Club in Liverpool, where The Beatles played. Other notable makeovers are in the episode "Bart Sells His Soul" where Moe turns his tavern into a family restaurant called Uncle Moe's Family Feed Bag and in "Homer the Moe" where Moe turns his tavern into a yuppie bar called "m". Also in this episode, it is revealed that the television in Moe's is not black and white (as it is always seen) but a dirty color television (Homer says "When was the last time Moe cleaned this thing?" then wipes the screen with a cloth). In addition, it is turned into an English pub named Nag and Weasel in the episode "Mommie Beerest". In "My Sister, My Sitter", Moe appears to have become Moe's Brewing Co., a brewpub that is moved to a posh new premises at the Springfield Squidport, but it is revealed to just be a very long tunnel to the existing bar. In "Flaming Moe", he enlists the help of Waylon Smithers to transform the bar into a gay bar called Mo's, although he changes it back again at the end of the episode. In "Three Gays of the Condo", it is revealed that when it first opened, it was originally called "Meaux's Tavern". In The Simpsons Movie it is located next to the church and named Moe's Bar, and in The Simpsons Game it is seen next to the Sleep-Eazy Motel. In the episode "Homer the Smithers", Mr. Burns believes in order to operate a telephone, you spell the requested person's name out using the alphabetic keypad (he spells out S-M-I-T-H-E-R-S), he is instead connected to Moe's Tavern. As a result, if one was to spell Smithers name out on a telephone keypad, the fictional phone number minus the area code for the tavern would be revealed as 764-8437(7). Moe and his tavern had been the victim of Bart's ongoing prank calls in the earlier seasons when Bart would call looking for nonexistent people with names that would get Moe laughed at by his customers. Though there was one name that backfired on Bart when he asked for Hugh Jass, who had been sitting in the tavern. In more recent episodes it was revealed that Bart still torments Moe with prank calls, although the calls themselves haven't been shown onscreen.

Universal Studios Florida, includes a Moe's Tavern in the Springfield section of the park.

Krusty Burger

Krusty Burger is a fast food restaurant chain owned by Krusty the Clown as one of his many branded products and services. Krusty Burger is seen as a parody of a typical fast food chain such as McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Wendy's, or Arby's. A typical store features a drive-thru with a speaker box and most of the employees are young teenage workers. In the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", the Springfield police are comparing the differences between Krusty Burger and McDonald's, a parallel of the "Royale With Cheese discussion" seen in Pulp Fiction.

It appears that Krusty Burger is located across the entire United States; in the episode "Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood", Homer loses the map of the rafting route but tells the group that luckily he has brought a map along. It happens to be a map of the entire United States with locations of Krusty Burger restaurants. There is even a Krusty Burger located on an unmanned offshore oil rig; Homer, Bart, Ned Flanders, and Rod Flanders find it after being lost at sea for several days and reaching the verge of starvation, and place a huge order of food that saves it from going out of business. There is also a Krusty Burger in France, as seen in the episode "The Devil Wears Nada". It exists under the name "Le Krusty Burger". In the episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" it was also revealed that Krusty Burger operates in different markets across the US when Krusty Burger has a new burger called the Ribwich. After the Ribwich stopped selling in Springfield, Homer and a group of Ribwich fans known as the "Ribheads" followed the "Ribwich tour" as the Ribwich was tested in various markets. The Ribwich sandwich is based on a real life McDonald's sandwich called the McRib.

According to the episode "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", Krusty Burger is one of the only burger places open in Springfield because Krusty has been paying mobster Fat Tony to keep McDonald's and Burger King from establishing local locations. The extent of Fat Tony's involvement is unknown, as there are no locations of Wendy's, and other major chains. However, Springfield does have an In-N-Out Burger location in town to compete with Krusty Burger.

A common gag, especially in the later seasons of the show, is the extremely low quality of the food served at the restaurants, a parody of common beliefs and urban legends surrounding American fast food. Documentary filmmaker Decland Desmond has made several exposes on the chain, revealing practices such as stapling together half-eaten burgers and serving them to new customers, and substituting all manner of cheap filler as meat. Krusty also reveals that the Ribwich was made of an unspecified animal with more than four legs, presumably some sort of insect or spider, that was driven into extinction by its production.

Universal Studios Florida includes a Krusty Burger in the Springfield section of the park.

Lard Lad Donuts

Lard Lad Donuts is a donut store in Springfield. Its mascot is an (estimated) 8-metre (26 ft) tall statue of a rather chubby boy proudly holding a donut over his head. The name and the statue of the eponymous boy are likely references to Big Boy Restaurants.

In The Simpsons Game, the Lard Lad mascot is a boss. Lard Lad Donuts is shut down by a health inspector in The Simpsons Movie, and the Lard Lad is painted in different colors and seen later in the movie during the dome sequence. The former was disproved in "E Pluribus Wiggum" when an explosion violently detaches the correctly colored Lard Lad's head. In "Sweets And Sour Marge" it is revealed to contain the entrance to a secret passage, which leads to an underground bunker where the pro-sugar enclave of Springfield meet. In "Treehouse of Horror VI", the Lard Lad statue is the first advertising mascot brought to life by a mysterious atmospheric disturbance, enraged by Homer Simpson having stolen his giant donut, and ends up leading the various mascot statues of Springfield's "miracle mile" business district on a destructive rampage.

Universal Studios Florida includes a Lard Lad Donuts in the Springfield section of the park.

Luigi's

Luigi's is a Springfield Italian restaurant owned by Luigi Risotto, who is a parody of the "Italian pasta/pizza chef" stereotype but seems to be aware of his status as a stock character. Luigi is polite to his customers and treats them with respect when they order and then loudly insults and belittles them to his cook Salvatore, fully aware that they can hear him from the kitchen. The restaurant also employs an old Italian saucier, who in Take My Life, Please, claims they can tell what someone's life could have been like by stirring tomato sauce in a certain way. By using his magical tomato sauce, the saucier helps Homer see what his life would have been like if he had won his high-school election. Fat Tony and his mob frequently use the restaurant for their meetings.

Luigi takes customer service very seriously.

Universal Studios Florida, includes a Luigi's in the Springfield section of the park.

The Frying Dutchman

The Frying Dutchman is a maritime-themed restaurant operated by Sea Captain Horatio MacAllister. Its cuisine specializes in seafood (to which Marge is allergic), and even the bread has fish in it. Homer sued for their refusal to honor the 'all you can eat' promise in the episode "New Kid on the Block" and was given a job as a freak attraction "more stomach than man" (to Marge's great embarrassment).

Universal Studios Florida, includes a Frying Dutchman in the Springfield section of the park.

The Singing Sirloin

The Singing Sirloin is a restaurant where all the waiters sing everything they say. It is first featured in the Season 1 episode "Life on the Fast Lane"; Marge celebrates her birthday there. Bart also celebrated here after getting an A, however after Homer was unable to pay them for the food, they had to sing on stage to pay for the bill (in the episode "Homer vs. Dignity").

The Happy Sumo

The Happy Sumo is a Japanese restaurant. Among the restaurant's menu offerings are all kinds of sushi, including fugu, which can be fatally poisonous if not properly prepared. The Master Sushi Chef is the only person at the restaurant qualified to prepare fugu. The restaurant also offers karaoke. Akira works as a waiter and translates on occasion for the Simpson family.

The Java Server

The Java Server is an internet cafe and coffee shop, originally appearing in "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo". On its opening day, it was the site of a robbery by Snake Jailbird, who used uncharacteristic tech savvy to rob the Simpsons' online bank account.

Pimento Grove

The Pimento Grove is an Italian restaurant in the style of "Olive Garden". It is shown to be fairly upscale and features photos of celebrities on its walls.

Schools

Springfield Elementary School

Springfield Elementary School is a local school on The Simpsons, attended by Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson and other Springfield children. Springfield Elementary is a grossly underfunded school and 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. As an illustrative example and parody of the lengths undertaken by some schools to attempt to overcome underfunding, some Springfield Elementary School students (specifically Cletus and Brandine Spuckler's children) are purposely excluded from state or federal standardized testing regimens. The impetus being the maintenance of artificial school-wide averages and therefore basic levels of government support—a practice not unheard of in the United States and other systems where funding is tied to test results.

Established in the episodes "Separate Vocations" and "Pokey Mom", the school's mascot is a puma. It is revealed in the episode "Lisa Gets an "A"" that Springfield Elementary was at one time voted "The Most Dilapidated School in Missouri"—it was then moved, brick-by-brick, to Springfield. It has been stated several times that the school is filled with asbestos, and the underfunding of the school has resulted in a variety of troubling scenarios for students and staff. Sub-standard facilities abound; including a cinder block having replaced the school's tetherball, cafeteria food made from circus animals and in several decades-old cans, shredded newspaper, and old gym mats, among others (only the teachers eat French fries made from potatoes), and "malk" having replaced milk. In one episode, prison inmates occupied the cloakrooms in the classrooms, in an effort to make extra money. In another episode, Lisa Simpson, who has been voted student president, is tricked into authorizing the cancellation of music, gym and art. The school later finds the funding for these extra curricular activities by cancelling flu shots. The school's poor funding is made worse by the town's refusal to accept any tax increases, no matter how minor, and even basic services are sometimes refused by the PTA, including a free service of refilling the fire extinguishers.

For a few episodes the school also had a tower with a winding staircase within which led to an observation area. This has since been removed. Other short period additions include a phony disabled ramp access system built by the local Mafia and other constructions. In one episode, the presentation hall is bulldozed to make way for a mini-mall. The school's address is 19 Plympton Street, revealed in the episode "Bart on the Road" when Principal Skinner receives an envelope addressed to the school containing his airline tickets to Hong Kong. In the episode "Team Homer", school uniforms are temporarily introduced following a riot brought on by Bart wearing a "Down With Homework" T-shirt to school. This policy was rescinded after the uniforms turned out not to be waterproof and washed out into psychedelic colors when it rained.

Most students travel to school by bus, usually driven by Otto Mann. However, in "The Otto Show", Otto is suspended from his job (due to not actually having a drivers license) and Principal Skinner temporarily takes over Otto's role. Additionally, in another episode, the students are forced to carpool when the school bus is wrecked after Otto falls asleep at the wheel and the bus crashes into the auto wrecking yard. In the episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", the regular school bus breaks down and a Springfield State Prison bus is used instead. The bus is sometimes shown to be in extremely poor condition, another indicator of the school's low funding.

In "Lisa the Vegetarian", it is shown that both Ms. Hoover and Lunchlady Doris have access to "Independent Thought Alarms" which are sent to Principal Skinner's office and are both triggered by Lisa. Also, in "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", Superintendent Chalmers fires Ned Flanders, who has become Principal after Skinner being sacked, only because he freely expresses his religious views in the school. Edna Krabappel was Bart Simpson's 4th grade teacher, and from Season 23 onwards also neighbor due to marrying to Ned Flanders until Season 25 established Krabappel's death. In "Left Behind", the Leftorium closes, leaving Flanders unemployed, and he returns to Springfield Elementary School, where he finds a new job as Bart Simpson's new teacher, substituting the void left by his deceased second wife Edna Krabappel.

Many of the school faculty seem very bored with their jobs and do not try to help students, leaving them to unfulfilling futures. They also take full advantage of any-and-all time off that they have. Several of the teachers and staff smoke and drink in the staff room and in front of their students. In one episode, the teachers are shown joyfully running out of the school building with the students at the end of the day and subsequently are then shown trooping back into school the following day. Otto Mann is shown to be a user of illegal drugs, and in the episode "Weekend At Burnsie's", Lisa notices a smell of marijuana and remarks that "it smells like the art teacher's office". The teachers like Miss Hoover do not seem to care whether or not the students achieve in their class, and seem to have given up on many of them.

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. Bart Simpson weighed in on the controversy, in a statement from the Fox Network where he said "at least they didn't call it Beavis and Butt-head Elementary".

West Springfield Elementary School

West Springfield Elementary School is an elementary school in Springfield. It is identical in layout to Springfield Elementary, as both were built from the same plans.

Lisa arrives at the school by mistake in the episode "Trilogy of Error", one of the differences being that French is taught at the school.

Springfield Preparatory School

Springfield Preparatory School was a private school in Springfield. Greta Wolfcastle and other students attend there. The Simpsons attended an Annual Fair there in the episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants".

Colleges/universities

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, and 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, possibly a reference to the fierce rivalry between Texas A&M and the University of Texas. 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 (S.H.I.T.) focuses on the engineering sciences. Professor Frink is a college professor at the university, and it is where Apu Nahasapeemapetilon earned his doctorate from.

Springfield Community College is a community college.

Springfield High School

Springfield High School is most often seen in flashbacks, notably in "The Way We Was" when Homer and Marge tell the story of how they met. Springfield High School is seen in the present day in "The Front" when Marge and Homer have their high school reunion there. The Squeaky Voiced Teen has said that the school has an air hockey table. As well as being a school, they have hosted events there. One such event was a ballet performance, despite the fact there was a gas leak in the school.

Landmarks

Krustylu Studios

Krustylu Studios is the television studio in Springfield in which the Krusty the Clown Show is recorded. It is located either on or in the vicinity of the Channel 6 studio lot. The lot is located across the street from a box factory. The name Krustylu is an homage to Desilu Productions, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's production company, which produced the 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy. The first appearance was in the short "The Krusty The Clown Show".

Sleep Eazy Motel

First seen in "The Cartridge Family", this is a run-down motel where everything is coin-operated, including the Bible. The building itself is deteriorating and prostitutes hang outside the lobby. When Marge and the kids stayed there, a body was seen floating in the pool. Selma claims that she woke up there once. Homer once stayed there to cheat on his diet behind Marge's back, though he was caught on camera by the producers of Sneakers. The name is a play on "sleazy motel", a fact highlighted by its malfunctioning neon sign.

Springfield Retirement Castle

The 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 staring window", which overlooks nothing but a barren tree, and bingo (the prize being a banana). The staff of the home have 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," Grandpa 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 Springfield City Hall

The 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 proposal that generally causes havoc (most of the time proposed by Homer) and causes 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.

Springfield Courthouse

The courthouse is the center for all trials and cases in Springfield. Its judges include Judge Constance Harm, who is a tough and unforgiving judge who enjoys giving cruel punishments to criminals in her courtroom, and Judge Roy Snyder, who is known for his lenient punishments. Often the prosecutor is The Blue Haired Lawyer who also represents Mr. Burns and The Walt Disney Company and unlike Gil Gunderson or Lionel Hutz, he is a competent lawyer (but not always ethical).

Five Corners

Five Corners is "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..." In reality no such place exists in the US; the location is a spoof of Four Corners.

Krustyland

Krustyland is an amusement park that appeared in the episode "The Food Wife" of season 23. It is based on the theme of The Simpsons Ride, which opened at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood in 2008.

Itchy & Scratchy Land

Itchy & Scratchy Land, is a themed amusement park owned by "Itchy and Scratchy International", marketed as the "violentest place on earth". It first appears in the eponymous episode in Season 6 as a direct response to the more stringent censorship laws put in place at the time and the Fox network trying to stop the writers from including Itchy & Scratchy cartoons in episodes as result. The theme park also features in "Mommie Beerest", "Bart's New Friend", "To Courier with Love" (mentioned) and "Dad Behavior". It is a parody of Disneyland, complete with a similar park layout and similar attractions, and the fact that its European counterpart ("Euro Itchy & Scratchy Land") fails to attract the expected number of customers. It being located on an Island as well as Professor Frink's prediction via chaos theory were both references to Jurassic Park. In addition, the robots going wild and being taken down by cameras was a reference to Westworld.

Springfield Mystery Spot

A strange attraction in Springfield, referencing the Mystery Spot. It is quite popular. Its most likely location is somewhere around the Alkali Flats,

It was first mentioned by Lisa Simpson on the way to Discount Lion Safari in “Old Money”. She claimed it was because of paint fumes and completely fake.

In “Homer at the Bat,”Ozzie Smith visits it and literally “vanishes off the face of the earth”

Discount Lion Safari

The Simpsons visit it on Beatrice Simmons’ birthday in Old Money. It references Indiana Jones (“Mr Simpson, I presume?”)

They get trapped in the car and attacked by a lion.

References

Bibliography

External links

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