Matt Groening Reveals Springfield Is In His Home State of Oregon 148
First time accepted submitter TheSeventh writes "Simpsons creator Matt Groening has revealed the location of the real Springfield: It's in Oregon. In an interview with Smithsonian magazine, Groening credits the name to the hit TV show Father Knows Best. The show 'took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown,' he says. '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.'"
A more accurate headline (Score:5, Insightful)
"Matt Groening Reveals that 'Springfield' Name Came From 'Father Knows Best'"
The Springfield of the show is, of course, fiction. It can't exist. It's everywhere in the U.S. all at once. It's in the desert, near the ocean, it was founded by colonial settlers, it's close to both Mexico and Canada, it's home to every type of U.S. wildlife (except for bears, of course--the Bear Patrol keeps those out).
About the only things you won't find there these days are decent writing or a sense of pride.
Re:Wrong (Score:1, Insightful)
Ah, slashdot pedantry at its best, when people think they now better than the writer of an obviously fictional story.
Re:More important (Score:5, Insightful)
Eugene.
Re:Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to be a jerk or anything, but what in the hell is a "fictional fact"?
No, really, that's just wrong. Way wrong. Please don't do that again.
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I do agree with you that once a canon of sorts is established, especially in a long-running fictional/storybook 'universe', the details of it do fill out, and fans expect the author to try and stay within them, especially as the storylines get more complex. On the other hand, it all too often happens that a new and interesting story may well break the fabric of what you the fan may have come to expect, and something is going to have to explain that.
Maybe Groening will come up with such an explanation in the future? After all, it wasn't unheard of for weird crap to occur in Start Trek:TNG (and others) to start popping out of the writers' collective arse to explain a particular story or situation (accidental time travel, getting sucked into alternate universes, the all-too-rambunctious dilithium crystals, etc.)
Re:Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe Groening failed geography.
Dakota Channing was named after North Dakota. Does that mean she lives in North Dakota? No. She was born in Georgia. Georgia O'Keefe, named after Georgia, was born in Wisconsin and probably never got to Georgia, even though she did work in South Carolina.
Caroline Kennedy was named after South Carolina. Does she live there? No, she lives in New York. Dick York (first and really only true husband to Samantha, for those who care abouts such things), named after that vernerable city (and state!) doesn't live in New York (city OR state), he lived in Grand Rapids Michigan until he died in 1992.
Speedy Gonzalez (rapido == speedy) never went to Michigan, although he was named after Grand Rapids. (Little known fact: his full name was Super Speedy Gonzalez, or "La Grando Rapido".)
And Morey Amsterdam was named after what New York used to be called -- New Amsterdam. Ok, he did live in New York. Forget about him.
Short version: "named after" is not "is in".