Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Alec Baldwin:''' Most people don't even know where Springfield is.

'''Homer:''' Heh, yeah. To tell you the truth, ''I'm'' not even sure! }}

{{quote|'''Congressman #1:''' Then it is unanimous. We are going to approve the bill to evacuate the town of Springfield in the great state of....

'''Congressman #2:''' Wait a second, I want to tack on a rider to that bill. }}

{{quote|'''Marge''': "742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, <s>Ohio</s> oh, hiya, Maude! Come on in!"}}

{{quote|'''Larry:''' ''(to the conductor)'' Hey, Casey Jones, where's this train headed?

'''Conductor:''' Springfield.

'''Reporter 2:''' Which one?

'''Reporter 1:''' The one the Simpsons live in! }}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Umi no Misaki]] is set on what is for all intents and purposes, a fictional small island in the vicinity of Okinawa.

* "Cape Mery" in ''[[Kaleido Star]]'' is allegedly in California, but it can't seem to make up its mind whether it's Los Angeles or San Francisco—it's got LA's shoreline and palm trees but also San Francisco's hills, vintage streetcars, and a dead-on markup toward the Ferry Building and nearby Amtrak terminal in the second season's opening. At the same time, it also has the concrete canyons of New York City. And just to confuse the issue even further, the rising sun over the ocean horizon when Sora performs the Angel Maneuver in the final episode makes it clear that the open sea is to the ''east'' of the city—pretty hard to do anywhere in California. Some viewers suspect that it's actually in Hawaii, not California, which would solve most of these problems (and explain some otherwise extremely fast travel times from Japan).

 

== Comic Books ==

** From the comics we know that it is west of the Mississippi, and that the town founder was on his way to California when his wagon broke an axle (with the implication that he never actually made it there). Various characters talk about going to California in a manner that implies that they do not already live there. So Oregon or western Nevada seem like strong contenders.

* The geography of [[The DC Universe]] and its fictional cities is vague and inconsistent at best, but some facts have been "officially" or quasi-officially established from time to time. DC's "house fanzine" from the '70s, ''Amazing World of DC Comics'', established some city locations, which were mostly followed in ''The Atlas of the DC Universe'', a supplement for the DC Heroes Roleplaying Game. As an aside, the ''JLA/Avengers'' miniseries established a reason ''why'' DC's Earth seems to have so many large cities with no analogues on Marvel's Earth (which generally speaking conforms much more closely to [[Real Life]] Earth). The reason? DC's Earth is ''physically larger''. Not by a lot, but by enough to have a bit more room for extra cities.

*** Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster grew up in [[Cleveland]]. Shuster lived in [[Toronto]], [[Canada]] until age 10. Both cities have been suggested as inspirations for Superman's Metropolis.

*** Clark Kent's newspaper ''The Daily Planet'' is most likely ''The Daily Star'', one of the big-three Toronto newspapers; the building depicted in the comics is their former office, which is no longer standing. Joe Shuster delivered the Daily Star as a young lad.

* ''[[W.I.T.C.H.]]'' has Heatherfield. Here's all the data we have: the location is easily recognizable as a generic big European city on the sea with a Los Angeles-style bridge; the names of the vast majority of the residents are of British origin (Hay Lin's family doesn't count because they're Chinese, with her mother being explicitly a native of Hong Kong); football (soccer for the Americans) is apparently the most popular sport; Halloween is a popular celebration; language in signs and insignias switches between English (most used) and Italian (rarer); the Sheffield Institute was build on a former pumpkin patch due an Italian-language pun (pumpkin being sometimes used as synonym for 'head' and 'brain' in Italian); France and Italy are explicitly shown as foreign countries (and French is often treated as a foreign language that Will and Irma have problems with); the school sometimes flies the Stars and Stripes; currency has been alternatively shown being the American dollar (early on) and the euro; the police has called the Interpol for an apparent case of illegal aliens. Many people tried to narrow that location down to at least a country, everyone failed.

 

* ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'' takes place in a generic [[Oop North|Northern England town]], though when Wallace gets post, the address can be briefly seen as "62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan."

* The ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' movies are set in "the Tri-County area," as seen on newspaper vending machines, TV ads for Al's Toy Barn, the local airport, and [[Brand X|WebTuraMaps]].

** Nor is Carburetor County.

** "Radiator Springs" is a composite of multiple real places from at least five federated states. Its map location is most likely Peach Springs AZ (based on the desert and I-40 being nearby) - but "Carburettor County" suggests the area around Baxter Springs: Cherokee County, KS.

* ''[[Se7en]]'' takes place in an unnamed American city. Some take it to be Seattle (due to much of the film taking place on rainy days), but there's also a nearby desert.

* ''[[American Beauty]]'' takes place in a generic [[Stepford Suburbia]], location unspecified.

* ''[[Office Space]]'' had cars with generic "USA" license plates.

* ''[[Incendies]]'' is set in an unnamed [[The Middle East|Middle Eastern]] state in a state of unrest and rebellion.

 

== Literature ==

** The Hardy Boys' home of Bayport was a little better. It was always implied to be a coastal town, but that didn't stop it from drifting up and down the East coast. Similar to River Heights, though, in more recent years, they keep it in the New York/New Jersey area to keep it within driving distance of New York City.

 

* Most US soap opera primary setting locations (e.g. Port Charles in ''[[General Hospital]]'')

** "Salem" in ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' is pretty explicitly set in or near a heavily Catholic part of Chicagoland (albeit some distance outside the city itself), though with ''extreme'' [[Geographic Flexibility]].

** Some more attentive viewers have figured out that the flagship Sanctuary is in the Vancouver, BC/Seattle, WA area, however.

* Sunnydale in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. We do know it's in California, and it's explicitly described in one episode as being about 2 hours' drive north of L.A. It's also on the coast (sometimes). Most evidence points to it being an [[Expy]] of Santa Barbara, but there are a few bits of contradictory information which belie that identification.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Similarly, much of the action in ''[[The Year Without a Santa Claus]]'' takes place in "Southtown, U.S.A.", about whose location we know only that it is [[Captain Obvious|in the South]]. Of the U.S.A. Far enough so that it never has snow. (The show has some odd ideas about geography in general... it strongly implies that the Earth is a hemisphere and that nothing exists below the equator, despite at least one Sub-Saharan African child appearing in the "gift" sequence.)

* ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' has [[Everytown, America|Dimmsdale]]. There's a Dimsdale... it's in Canada. The Christmas Special, on one hand, places it in Southern California.

*** There are multiple other episodes which place it in southern California; the founding episode is the only exception. For example, the Old West episode, in which Timmy's family reaches the desert in their car in just a few hours, and the another episode states it's in a time zone three hours behind the East coast.

* Where is [[Doug]]'s hometown of Bluffington? It's near Bloatsburg.