History WhereTheHellIsSpringfield / TheSimpsons

'''Conductor:''' ''[[SoundEffectBleep (muffled by the train whistle)]]'' -aska.

-->''Marge:''' 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, oh, hiya, Maude! Come on in!

-->'''Producer:''' Get me two plane tickets to the state that Springfield is in!''

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E7LisaGetsAnA Lisa Gets an 'A']]", Skinner remarks that Springfield Elementary was declared the most dilapidated school in Missouri, which draws a surprised look from Lisa. He goes on to say that this was why it was disassembled and moved to its current location.

* The animation in at least two episodes ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E3BartVsLisaVsTheThirdGrade "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade"]] and the CouchGag for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E14TheZiffWhoCameToDinner "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"]]) hint that the town is simply just a heavily fictionalized version of Springfield, Illinois. Incidentally, there's also a Shelbyville in that state.

* The [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIII "Treehouse of Horror XIII"]] story "Send in the Clones" has multiplying Homers in a GreyGoo scenario. A map of the outbreak shows that the Homers started spreading from various Springfields.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E3BartVsLisaVsTheThirdGrade "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade"]], the Capital City Goofball says:

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E22BehindTheLaughter "Behind the Laughter"]] refers to the Simpsons as a "Northern Kentucky family" on the original broadcast, which changed to a "Southern Missouri family" for Fox network repeats. Several more variants[[note]]including Western Oregon, Eastern Nebraska, Southern Illinois and the small island of Lanai[[/note]] were recorded but unused, the original intention having been that ''every'' time the episode aired, it would give a different state. (You can hear them all on the DVD's special features.) And this refers not to the Simpsons as characters, but rather as {{animated actor}}s who play caricatured versions of themselves on the show.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E21MoeLetterBlues "Moe Letter Blues"]], Moe says that Springfield's zip code is 80085 (which spells "boobs" if you type it into a calculator). 80085 is not a real zip code, but other zip codes starting with 800* are in UsefulNotes/{{Colorado}}. Holding the calculator upside down gives you 58008, which is in UsefulNotes/NorthDakota.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E19KillTheAlligatorAndRun "Kill the Alligator and Run"]], the Simpsons visit UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} and get [[PersonaNonGrata banned from visiting ever again]]. It's then revealed that the family is banned from every state except UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} and North Dakota. And neither one has a Springfield.
* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E23MuchApuAboutNothing "Much Apu About Nothing"]] has two clues:

* Several episodes (most notably [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E17BartGetsAnElephant "Bart Gets an Elephant"]]) reference the local [[UsefulNotes/BroadcastingInTheUnitedStates radio station]] KBBL. In the U.S., radio stations almost always start with "W" if they're east of the Mississippi River and "K" if they're west of the Mississippi.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E7LisaGetsAnA "Lisa Gets an 'A'"]], Skinner remarks that Springfield Elementary was declared the most dilapidated school in Missouri, which draws a surprised look from Lisa. He goes on to say that this was why it was disassembled and moved to its current location.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E1TheCityOfNewYorkVsHomerSimpson "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"]], Homer was going to Harrrisburg, PA to buy an irregular coat and had to transfer from a bus to a train in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, implying that Springfield is somewhere on the east coast. When the Simpson family travels there by bus, they have to transfer in UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} twice.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E8TheRoadToCincinnati "The Road to Cincinnati"]], the titular {{road trip|Plot}} Skinner and Chalmers embark on takes at least 800 miles, going through Missouri, implying Springfield is in the west half of the USA.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E16Pygmoelian "Pygmoelian"]], Lenny says that Moe's liquor license is only good in UsefulNotes/RhodeIsland, which is the wrong state.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson "Mother Simpson"]], Homer discovers the tombstone he thought belonged to his mother Mona actually belongs to Creator/WaltWhitman. In real life, Whitman was buried in Camden, UsefulNotes/NewJersey, which is approximately a half-hour's drive away from both Springfield, NJ as well as Springfield, UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E6MidnightRx "Midnight Rx"]]:

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E22TheBobNextDoor "The Bob Next Door"]] has a similar gag; Sideshow Bob kidnaps Bart and takes him to the Five Corners in a ZanyScheme to avoid being arrested by causing a JurisdictionFriction. This is a reference to the "Four Corners", a point where UsefulNotes/{{Utah}}, UsefulNotes/{{Colorado}}, UsefulNotes/NewMexico and UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} all border each other. The problem is that the fictional "Five Corners" is an impossible location; after whichever state Springfield is in, the other states are UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Minnesota}}, UsefulNotes/{{California}} and UsefulNotes/NewJersey.
* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E10HalfDecentProposal "Half-Decent Proposal"]] has Homer going to "West Springfield", which is described as "three times the size of Texas". [[note]] UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}} is bigger than Texas, but it’s only two and a half times larger. [[/note]]
* Springfield may or may not be near the coastline. After all, it has a naval base, and the Squidport boardwalk, and a couple of crusty sailors. But some episodes suggest otherwise, like [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E5BartAfterDark "Bart After Dark"]], where Marge comments that the nearest coastline is 400 miles away.
* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E7BrawlInTheFamily "Brawl in the Family"]] suggests that bigamy is legal in Springfield's state. In RealLife, it's not legal in ''any'' state.

** In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode [[Recap/FuturamaS1E9HellIsOtherRobots "Hell Is Other Robots"]], Fry and Leela stumble upon the entrance to Robot Hell, and Leela asks, "Who would have thought Hell actually existed – and that it was in [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]]?" But during that scene, there's a brief shot of a wall with SweetieGraffiti reading "HS & MB" – ''i.e.'' Homer Simpson and Marge Bouvier. And there is a Springfield in New Jersey, and the state's [[{{Joisey}} reputation]] fits nicely with Springfield's CrapsackWorld nature. But ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama'' are also MutuallyFictional (or at least were at the time).
** In [[Recap/FamilyGuyS13E1TheSimpsonsGuy "The Simpsons Guy"]], a {{crossover}} with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':

** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E6BartStar "Bart Star"]], a {{crossover}} with ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Hank Hill claims that Springfield is 2000 miles away from his own hometown of Arlen, Texas. The problem is that Arlen is also an example of this trope, but Google Maps notes that it's 2052.4 miles by highway from Springfield, Oregon to Garland, Texas (where ''[=KotH=]'' creator Creator/MikeJudge once lived, and a strong candidate for Arlen's inspiration).
* Season 23 premiere [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E1TheFalconAndTheDohman "The Falcon and the D'ohman"]] suggests that Springfield is deliberately hard to find:

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E5SideshowBobRoberts "Sideshow Bob Roberts"]], Lisa discovers that Music/BuddyHolly, Music/RitchieValens and Music/TheBigBopper, who were all killed on "The Day The Music Died", are among the dead people who allegedly voted for Sideshow Bob. Holly and the Big Bopper were both buried in Texas, whereas Valens was buried in California, neither of which borders one another.
* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E2ATaleOfTwoSpringfields "A Tale of Two Springfields"]] sees the town being split into two area codes - 636 and 939. Due to where they are, Springfield is somewhere on the border between Missouri and UsefulNotes/PuertoRico.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIII "Treehouse Of Horror XIII"]], UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, Frank and UsefulNotes/JesseJames, the Sundance Kid (but not Butch Cassidy[[note]]"We're not joined at the hip, you know!"[[/note]]) and Kaiser Wilhelm II are buried in Springfield. William "Billy the Kid" Bonney is buried in Fort Summer, New Mexico, Frank James is buried in Independence, Missouri, and his brother Jesse is in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Wilhelm II is buried at Huis Doorn in Doorn, UsefulNotes/{{Netherlands}}, while the Sundance Kid was buried at the San Vicente cemetery in UsefulNotes/{{Bolivia}}, though he was never definitively identified after the shootout.

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E10TheSimpsons138thEpisodeSpectacular "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"]] claims that Springfield is "the entertainment capital of this state".
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E5WhenYouDishUponAStar "When You Dish Upon a Star"]], Homer is talking with Creator/AlecBaldwin about why he moved to Springfield:

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E14BartsComet "Bart's Comet"]], when the eponymous comet is heading toward Springfield:

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E12SundayCruddySunday "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"]], Marge is giving her street address over the phone when she's interrupted:
-->''742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, oh, hiya, Maude! Come on in!''
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E4BurnsBabyBurns "Burns, Baby, Burns"]], a man spots Mr. Burns on a moving train and realizes that Burns is his father, so he talks to the train's conductor:

* From [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E10EPluribusWiggum "E Pluribus Wiggum"]]:

* A similar exchange in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2RadioactiveMan "Radioactive Man"]]:
-->''Get me two plane tickets to the state that Springfield is in!''
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E11TheChangingOfTheGuardian "The Changing of the Guardian"]]:

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E21TheBartOfWar "The Bart of War"]], when Bart and Milhouse are watching ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E5TheSevenBeerItch "The Seven Beer Itch"]] has [[Creator/OliviaColman British newcomer Lily]] play DecisionDarts on a map of the US to decide where she'll go. The dart she threw gets blown off course from the map and hits a tourist pamphlet about Springfield instead.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E18IAmFuriousYellow "I Am Furious (Yellow)"]], the creator of the cartoon ''Danger Dog'' visits Springfield Elementary, and the children are given the chance to ask questions. Several hands go up. The first question is, "What state is ''Danger Dog'' set in?" "UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}." [[HandsGoDown All but one hand immediately goes down again.]]
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E13TheOldManAndTheKey "The Old Man and the Key"]], the Simpsons are trying to get to Branson, Missouri in pursuit of Bart and Grampa, but accidentally wind up in Bronson, where everyone bears a resemblance to Creator/CharlesBronson. The only clue to where Bronson is that a #10 bus goes from there to Branson.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsTappedOut'', during the 2021 event "Love and War", the beginning of the premium questline "Happy Happy Boy Boy" has Lisa state that her Libido (who originally appeared in the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E10DiatribeOfAMadHousewife "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife"]]) shouldn't be freed until they've turned sixteen, adding, "Fourteen if we actually live in Kentucky."

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E10HalfDecentProposal "Half-Decent Proposal"]] has Homer going to "West Springfield", which is described as "three times the size of Texas".

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E22TheBobNextDoor "The Bob Next Door"]] has a similar gag; Sideshow Bob kidnaps Bart and takes him to the Five Corners in a ZanyScheme to avoid being arrested by causing a JurisdictionFriction. This is a reference to the "Four Corners", a point where UsefulNotes/{{Utah}}, UsefulNotes/{{Colorado}}, UsefulNotes/NewMexico and UsefulNotes/{{Arizona{{ all border each other. The problem is that the fictional "Five Corners" is an impossible location; after whichever state Springfield is in, the other states are UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{Minnesota}}, UsefulNotes/{{California}} and UsefulNotes/NewJersey.

* The animation in at least two episodes ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E3BartVsLisaVsTheThirdGrade "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade"]] and the CouchGag for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E14TheZiffWhoCameToDinner "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"]]) hint that the town is simply just a heavily fictionalized version of Springfield, Illinois. Ironically, there's also a Shelbyville in that state.

* Creator Creator/MattGroening is from Portland, Oregon (a state with a Springfield in it). Evergreen Terrace is a residential street in Portland (where Groening's childhood home was located). Also, some of the characters are named after streets in Portland. It's natural to assume some CreatorProvincialism. Springfield also has some traits of California, because that's where most of the other writers live. When WordOfGod revealed that [[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/11/entertainment-us-simpsons-springfield-idUSBRE8391FZ20120411 this was basically true]], that CouchGag for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E18BewareMyCheatingBart that week's episode]] had Bart writing, "The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours."
* Groening also attended college in Olympia, Washington, and there are [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed some resemblances]] between Springfield and Olympia – particularly the city square with its statue of Jebediah Springfield, which is highly reminiscent of Olympia's Sylvester Park. David Silverman, who directed several episodes and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', also half-jokingly suggested that Springfield is in the fictional state of North Tacoma, which may be a reference to nearby Tacoma, WA.

* In keeping with the idea that Springfield is synonymous with EverytownAmerica, publicity for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' included a video contest to determine which Springfield the film would premiere in. The winner: Springfield, Vermont.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E21MoeLetterBlues "Moe Letter Blues"]], Moe says that Springfield's zip code is 80085 (which spells "boobs" if you type it into a calculator). 80085 is not a real zip code, but other zip codes starting with 800* are in Colorado. Holding the calculator upside down gives you 58008, which is in North Dakota.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E19KillTheAlligatorAndRun "Kill the Alligator and Run"]], the Simpsons visit Florida and get [[PersonaNonGrata banned from visiting ever again]]. It's then revealed that the family is banned from every state except Arizona and North Dakota. And neither one has a Springfield.

** We see a shot of Homer's paycheck, which includes state withholding. This narrows things down somewhat, because nine states don't have a state income tax.[[labelnote:They are]]Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.[[/labelnote]]

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E1TheCityOfNewYorkVsHomerSimpson "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"]], Homer was going to Harrrisburg, PA to buy an irregular coat and had to transfer from a bus to a train in New York City, implying that Springfield is somewhere on the east coast. When the Simpson family travels there by bus, they have to transfer in Atlanta twice.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E16Pygmoelian "Pygmoelian"]], Lenny says that Moe's liquor license is only good in Rhode Island, which is the wrong state.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson "Mother Simpson"]], Homer discovers the tombstone he thought belonged to his mother Mona actually belongs to Creator/WaltWhitman. In real life, Whitman was buried in Camden, New Jersey, which is approximately a half-hour's drive away from both Springfield, NJ as well as Springfield, Pennsylvania.

** While at the Springfield Air and Space Museum, Homer tells Marge that he'd gone to "the bathroom of the future", before Marge informs him that'd gone in the Apollo 12 command module. In real life, the Apollo 12 CM is on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Virginia, which is an 8-hour drive away from Toronto, Canada.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' has Ned Flanders list the four states that border Springfield: Ohio, Nevada, Maine and Kentucky. Although Ohio and Kentucky do border each other (and both have a Springfield), this is otherwise geographically impossible.
* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E22TheBobNextDoor "The Bob Next Door"]] has a similar gag; Sideshow Bob kidnaps Bart and takes him to the Five Corners in a ZanyScheme to avoid being arrested by causing a JurisdictionFriction. This is a reference to the "Four Corners", a point where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all border each other. The problem is that the fictional "Five Corners" is an impossible location; after whichever state Springfield is in, the other states are Texas, Minnesota, California and New Jersey.

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E2ATaleOfTwoSpringfields "A Tale of Two Springfields"]] sees the town being split into two area codes - 636 and 939. Due to where they are, Springfield is somewhere on the border between Missouri and Puerto Rico.
* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIII "Treehouse Of Horror XIII"]], UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, Frank and UsefulNotes/JesseJames, the Sundance Kid (but not Butch Cassidy[[note]]"We're not joined at the hip, you know!"[[/note]]) and Kaiser Wilhelm II are buried in Springfield. William "Billy the Kid" Bonney is buried in Fort Summer, New Mexico, Frank James is buried in Independence, Missouri, and his brother Jesse is in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Wilhelm II is buried at Huis Doorn in Doorn, Netherlands, while the Sundance Kid was buried at the San Vicente cemetery in Bolivia, though he was never definitively identified after the shootout.

'''Bart:''' Colorado.\\

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E18IAmFuriousYellow "I Am Furious (Yellow)"]], the creator of the cartoon ''Danger Dog'' visits Springfield Elementary, and the children are given the chance to ask questions. Several hands go up. The first question is, "What state is ''Danger Dog'' set in?" "Michigan." [[HandsGoDown All but one hand immediately goes down again.]]

* The animation in at least two episodes ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E3BartVsLisaVsTheThirdGrade "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade"]] and the CouchGag for [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E14TheZiffWhoCameToDinner "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"]]) hint that the town is simply just a heavily fictionalized version of Springfield, Illinois.

* In keeping with the idea that Springfield is synonymous with EverytownAmerica, publicity for TheMovie included a video contest to determine which Springfield the film would premiere in. The winner: Springfield, Vermont.

** The city is shown in a few episodes to be located off of Interstate 95, much like the real-life Springfield, Virginia. There is even a nearby nuclear power station in Falls Church, though this particular part of Virginia is made of several neighboring small towns rather than any large cities, and none of them have grid-style city planning.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson "Mother Simpson"]], Homer discovers the tombstone he thought belonged to his mother Mona actually belongs to Creator/WaltWhitman. In real life, Whitman was buried in Camden, New Jersey, which is approximately a half-hour's drive away from both Springfield, NJ as well as Springfield, Pennsylvania.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson "Mother Simpson"]], Homer discovers the tombstone he thought belonged to his mother Mona actually belongs to Creator/WaltWhitman. In real life, Whitman was buried in Camden, New Jersey, which is approximately a half-hour's drive away from both Springfield, NJ as well as Springfield, Pennsylvania, a township near Philadelphia.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson "Mother Simpson"]], Homer discovers the tombstone he thought belonged to his mother Mona actually belongs to Creator/WaltWhitman. In real life, Whitman was buried in Camden, New Jersey, which is approximately a half-hour's drive away from both Springfield, Pennsylvania, a township near Philadelphia, as well as Springfield, NJ.

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E22BehindTheLaughter "Behind the Laughter"]] refers to the Simpsons as either a "Northern Kentucky family" on the original broadcast, which changed to a "Southern Missouri family" for Fox network repeats. Several more variants were recorded but unused, the original intention having been that ''every'' time the episode aired, it would give a different state. (You can hear them all on the DVD's special features.) And this refers not to the Simpsons as characters, but rather as {{animated actor}}s who play caricatured versions of themselves on the show.

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E22BehindTheLaughter "Behind the Laughter"]] refers to the Simpsons as either a "Northern Kentucky family" on the original broadcast, which changed to a "Southern Missouri family" for syndication. Several more variants were recorded but unused, the original intention having been that ''every'' time the episode aired, it would give a different state. (You can hear them all on the DVD's special features.) And this refers not to the Simpsons as characters, but rather as {{animated actor}}s who play caricatured versions of themselves on the show.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIII "Treehouse Of Horror XIII"]], UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, Frank and Jesse James, the Sundance Kid (but not Butch Cassidy[[note]]"We're not joined at the hip, you know!"[[/note]]) and Kaiser Wilhelm II are buried in Springfield. William "Billy the Kid" Bonney is buried in Fort Summer, New Mexico, Frank James is buried in Independence, Missouri, and his brother Jesse is in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Wilhelm II is buried at Huis Doorn in Doorn, Netherlands, while the Sundance Kid was buried at the San Vicente cemetery in Bolivia, though he was never definitively identified after the shootout.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E1TreehouseOfHorrorXIII "Treehouse Of Horror XIII"]], UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, Frank and Jesse James, the Sundance Kid (but not Butch Cassidy[[note]]"We're not joined at the hip, you know!"[[/note]] and Kaiser Wilhelm II are buried in Springfield. William "Billy the Kid" Bonney is buried in Fort Summer, New Mexico, Frank James is buried in Independence, Missouri, and his brother Jesse is in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Wilhelm II is buried at Huis Doorn in Doorn, Netherlands, while the Sundance Kid was buried at the San Vicente cemetery in Bolivia, though he was never definitively identified after the shootout.