“Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show “Father Knows Best” took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. 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.“
“I don’t want to ruin it for people, you know? Whenever people say it’s Springfield, Ohio, or Springfield, Massachusetts, or Springfield, wherever, I always go, “Yup, that’s right.”” Hey Matt, I love you but you totally just ruined it for all those people in Ohio, Illinois (the only town with a neighboring Shelbyville), Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Groening also revealed that “My family lived on a long, windy road on a little dead-end street called Evergreen Terrace-also the name of the street the Simpsons live on-and in order to visit any friends I had to walk at least a mile through the woods to get to their house.” Groening has always maintained that The Simpsons were modelled off his family, which he also reiterates in the interview. Thanks to the stalker-enabling Google maps, you an get an idea of what lies at (updated) 742 Evergreen Terrace below:
More art imitating life: “I very early on named a lot of characters after streets in Portland. I thought it would be amusing for people in Portland to be driving past the alphabetically laid-out streets. There’s Flanders, Kearney, Lovejoy, mostly in Northwest Portland.“
No mention of the Kwik-E-Mart though:
