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I think that every state in America has a city in it called Springfield. Which is why they chose that name for the Simpsons' home town.

To shed light on the Kentucky Debate:

The Behind the Laughter episode did mention it at the end of the show.

Narrator: The Simpsons' bitter past was forgotten, and now the future looks brighter than ever for this northern Kentucky family.

However, subsequent airings of the episode show that "northern Kentucky" was changed to "Southern Missouri.

All of this was merely a joke by the writers to stir up more questions about what state it's in and get everyone in a panic.

Springfield does not exist. Or more accurately, Springfield is an amalgamation of whatever towns fit the needs of the episode(s).

For more useless info, consult The Simpsons Archive, from which the above was liberally stolen.

Just find the Springfield that is within commute distance of a Nuclear Power Plant.

I seem to recall that in the area code episode, the area code for Springfield (Olde Springfield), was in Missouri.  But, as others have pointed out, it doesn't really fit the geography, nor will it ever.

Illinois.  Not New York, not the South, not California.  I always thought it was Illinois.

i always thought it was Illinois too (Springfield IS the capital afterall). And I haven't actually watched the Simpsons in YEARS!!

...As far as the simpsons go, it is kentucky, I saw the Behind the Music episode (as i posted earlier) they do say it in there.  I saw it a couple weeks ago and downloaded it last night to check, and sure enough, it is kentucky

Only problem with that is the Simpsons, and in fact none of the citizens of Springfield (except Cletus) have southern accents or Kentucky drawl. Also in one episode Krusty leaves town to sail out to sea in his fishing boat-no ocean close to Kentucky, and then in another episode Bart and friends steal a car and drive to the Worlds Fair in Knoxville TN-not too far from any point in Kentucky but as the storyline goes they need airfare to get back!

I think the ambiguity the writers use in not giving Springfield an exact state location serves their plot lines better than it does in feeding the fans speculations.

There iswn't a springfield in every state, it is one of the most common town names, in fact there is only one town name used in every state, and that is Portland.

No "Portland" in Hawaii, AFAIK.

And count me with those who think "Springfield" is a fictional town placed in no particular state, or in any state that fits the particular episode.  You're not going to nail down the state it's in, because the writers are constantly screwing around with it.  That's part of what makes it fun.

I would say it has to be Texas.

There are no Texas accents in their voices either. Unlike say in an animated show like...King of the Hill, which is blatantly placed in Texas.

i've always thought that it was based in part on sacramento, seeing as how thats where Groening is from.

Matt Groening is from Portland, Oregon.  There are a lot of names from the show that are located in Oregon: Terwilliger, Springfield, um, blanking on some of the others, thugh Krusty the Klown might be based on a children's show in the PDX area.

Anyway, "Springfield" is not a real place.  It's fictional.

they live in Kentucky. in the episode done like vh1's Behind the Music and they do the behind the scenes documentary of the Simpson's lives, the narrator says something like "life was tuff for this simple Kentucky family". check it out.

Slade wrote:

Illinois.  Not New York, not the South, not California.  I always thought it was Illinois.

Quiet you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kepeli83 wrote:

I think that every state in America has a city in it called Springfield. Which is why they chose that name for the Simpsons' home town.

There iswn't a springfield in every state, it is one of the most common town names, in fact there is only one town name used in every state, and that is Portland.  I wanna say that there are 30 Springfields in the country, or something close to that, i remember reading it in some geography thing somewhere.  As far as the simpsons go, it is kentucky, I saw the Behind the Music episode (as i posted earlier) they do say it in there.  I saw it a couple weeks ago and downloaded it last night to check, and sure enough, it is kentucky

Watch the episode again.

It says various things that simply are not true...such as that "NRA" flashes on the cash register during the show's opening (it doesn't), because Groening is supposedly some gun freak.

In the first airing of [BABF19], "Behind The Laughter", the
narrator gave Springfield's location as northern Kentucky.
For the second and some later airings, this changed to
southern Missouri. But neither of these are admissible
locations for Springfield, for the many reasons listed later
in this document.

What's the explanation? This episode is not canon.
It portrays the show not as a cartoon created by Matt
Groening, but as a live-action sitcom originally written by
Homer and starring his own family. None of what happens is
part of the main Simpsons continuity... just like any
Halloween Special.

Last edited by bratboy (2005-06-30 6:15 pm)

yes and if you read an interview with Seth McFarland, the simpsons people hate him and his show