History Main / WhereTheHellIsSpringfield

** Most episodes of ''CriminalMinds'' take place in real cities in the U.S., mostly sizable cities such as Pittsburgh or Buffalo. However, occasionally they are known to make up places, with their locations in their state being vague. Two notable examples are North Mammon (from the eponymous episode) somewhere in Pennsylvania and West Bune from "Elephant's Memory", located somewhere along the border between Texas and Mexico.

** There's also Bronson, Missouri where everyone bears a resemblance to CharlesBronson. The only clue to where in Missouri it is, is that a #10 bus goes from there to Branson.

* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': All the heroes' homes are given coordinates (although they were originally left ambiguous and played this trope straight). John[[spoiler:/Jane]] lives in Maple Valley, Washington[[note]]they have an exact address, which really exists[[/note]], Rose near Rainbow Falls, New York, Dave around Houston, and Jade[[spoiler:/Jake]]'s island is in the South Pacific somewhere northeast of Australia,.

* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': All the heroes' homes are given coordinates save for Dave's. John[[spoiler:/Jane]] lives in Maple Valley, Washington[[note]]they have an exact address, which really exists[[/note]], Rose near Rainbow Falls, New York, Jade[[spoiler:/Jake]] is somewhere off the coast of Australia, and Dave is implied to live around Houston.
** The main reason Dave's location isn't set in stone is because AndrewHussie is savvy enough to realize that Houston doesn't look how it is portrayed in the comic (being much closer to New York or Boston) but wanted to have someone living in a big city, so it remains only hinted.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', where the only specifics of Outer Heaven's location was 200 miles north of the Galzburg region of South Africa (which likewise also doesn't have its location specified). It's averted in most future installments, where the game/cinematics at least shows a map showing the specific location of the main location of the game (or in the case of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', take place in actual real life locations (New York City and Costa Rica/Nicaragua, respectively) rendering the trope pointless anyway.).

* The Creator/{{PBS}} cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' takes place in Elwood City, with no clear location. But it's probably on the Atlantic coast, because it's within an easy drive of the seashore and is not very far from either Washington. D.C. or Crown City, a New York city lookalike. It also appears to be near the real New York.

** The "Statue of Liberty" is actually true to some Batman continuities. Gotham city has The Statue of Justice located offshore.

** Nancy's hometown of River Heights was originally placed in Iowa, but in the following years, it drifted as far east as New Jersey. In the most recent series, it's impled to be in Illinois, within driving distance of Chicago.

* The City of ''ComicBook/Transmetropolitan'' gives few clues as to it's location, save that it is near both a mountain and the ocean, though even these have to be taken with several hefty bags of salt, since it's also said The City is the size of a small state at least once. And much like the ''Tick'' example above, it ''really is'' just called "The City".

* Done in ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. Not only is not clear where the orphans are during any book, it isn't even clear which country or [[RetroUniverse time period]] the books are set in (there are vague "hints" at the USA, but this is largely because the author is American).

* Basin City, aka SinCity. It is seemingly in the West somewhere, considering it's located near a desert and was started as a ''boomtown''. There are also Western-style bars and strip clubs (Nancy dresses as a cowgirl, often) as well as the term ''cowboy'' thrown around sometimes. Country music is also popular there, apparently. The city seems based mostly on Las Vegas with elements of NewYork, [[TheWindyCity Chicago]], and LA thrown in for good measure.

* The town in ''PrincessTutu'' has a vague location, made only worse in that the town changes names depending on what language you're watching it in. It's Kinkan in the Japanese, and Gold Crown (the translation of "Kinkan" in the English dub. However, the last episode has a map of the town clearly labeled "Goldkrone," German for Gold Crown--so it's likely that the town is located in Germany, or a fantasy-world equivalent. Nearly all of the text in the series is in German, too, which helps to back up this idea. The town is based on the real-life German town Nördlingen, so it may be an alternate version of that town.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'' can't decide whether Porkbelly is in an unspecified American state or in UsefulNotes/{{Ontario}}.

** The spinoff ''DorasExplorerGirls'' is equally vague. The city is unspecified, all of Dora's friends speak fluent [[GratuitousSpanish spanglish]], and it seems to be set in the same area as the original.
* ''JohnnyTest'' can't decide whether Porkbelly is in an unspecified American state or in Ontario.

* The ''{{Rugrats}}'' franchise is very vague about this. The main setting is never touched on for various reasons:

* ''CalvinAndHobbes'' never makes any direct mention of where it's set, though there are a few hints that it's probably in Ohio or thereabouts.

* And ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''' Townsville and Citysville. [[spoiler:Never mind that there actually ''exists'' a City of Townsville in RealLife.]]

* [[FatalFury South]] [[TheKingOfFighters Town]] While in the games never explains from which part of the U.S. is located, additional info heavily implies it's located in Florida and being inspired in Miami.

* The episode of ''SledgeHammer'' where Sledge and Doreau have to bodyguard a Soviet dissident on a train, which is crossing the USA to... ''Springfield''.
** The city where Sledge is a police inspector (an unusual rank for the USA?) is never revealed either. Somewhere isn't there a pasing gag about ''if we reveal which city this is, we're gonna get oujr ass sued!'' ?
*** It's San Francisco: the pilot episode was at least partially filmed there, the SFPD uses the rank of "Inspector" for its detectives (remember ''The Streets of San Francisco''?), and San Francisco is where ''Dirty Harry'' (the parody target) works.

*** "Nowhere near" is relative—I'm from Springfield, IL and it's a good four-hour drive northeast to Chicago.

*** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' inconsistently implies that Gotham is located in its own state named Gotham or in some area of New York State named Gotham States.

** The most probable truth most will have to come to terms with however, is that when creating the show Springfield was intentionally designed to be a sort of [[EverytownAmerica Everytown USA]]. An amalgamation of sorts combining common qualities of many cities in the United States in order to make the satire within the show broader... as well as give the writers more to work with. So in a sense, it's where ever you want it to be.