Vermont Wins Simpsons’ Springfield Movie Hosting Contest
Posted July 10, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s one of the most popular town names in the United States, which is part of the reason behind Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s decision to base his popular cartoon family in Springfield. But after years of speculation about which Springfield the family resides in, there may finally be an answer.
With the upcoming release of the Simpsons movie, a heated competition was held among residents of 14 Springfields to host the July 26 premiere and become the official home of Marge, Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Among the Springfields vying for the hometown crown: Springfield, Illinois, home to Abraham Lincoln, and Springfield, Mass., where basketball was born.
But in the end the winner was a town that was never originally entered into the online contest at all – Springfield, Vermont will host the premiere of the cartoon flick on July 26th. “Ninety-three hundred people and we won,” boasts an exultant Town Manager Bob Forguites. “I think it’s pretty neat, myself.”
Other towns with similar monikers but different zip ocdes are disappointed. “We always really did think we were the one,” said Tim Farley, executive director at the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau in Illinois. “The similarities between the cartoon and Springfield are really uncanny.”
Aside from Illinois and Massachusettes, other Springfields in the running were in Oregon, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Vermont, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Louisiana.
The Kentucky entry involved a court setting where witnesses including Homer Simpson testified that the series was based on their town, while the Massachusetts submission included Sen. Edward Kennedy, often the butt of jokes on the show.
As for Canada, well there are at least four Springfields here – including towns in Ontario, P.E.I. and Manitoba. But since the Simpsons are undoubtedly an American family, we were never in the running.
