{"id":2382,"date":"2012-04-11T14:09:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T20:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2382"},"modified":"2012-04-11T14:09:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T20:09:52","slug":"springfield-is-in-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2382","title":{"rendered":"Springfield Is In Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe Springfield that exists in the mind of Matt Groening is a kind of American everything \u2014 hick pit stop, rosy-cheeked Rockwellian font of family values, cesspool of corruption, ethnic melting pot, boomtown gone to rust.<\/p>\n

It’s what the creator of “The Simpsons,” the nation’s longest-running sitcom, used as a backdrop for 22-minute allegories about the American experience, beginning as earnest tales about a lower-middle class nuclear family and expanding to encompass spoofs of presidential elections, the obesity epidemic and “Citizen Kane.”<\/p>\n

It’s also, according to an interview posted online Tuesday, a real place. Groening told Smithsonian magazine that he was inspired by the television show “Father Knows Best,” which was set in a town called Springfield. Springfield, Ore., is 100 miles south of Groening’s hometown of Portland.<\/p>\n

“When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name,” Groening said. “I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S.<\/p>\n

“In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, ‘This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield,'” he said. “And they do.”<\/p>\n

The acknowledgement ends one of the longest-running mysteries in popular culture. But people in town on Tuesday weren’t quite sure what to do with the information.<\/p>\n

“He did?” asked convenience store manager Denise Pohrman. “I think that’s a good thing. I think.”<\/p>\n

But how should the town react? On the surface, it’s not a flattering portrait. Groening’s Springfield is polluted and sad, run by corrupt officials and beset by the simpleminded populace that keeps voting for them.<\/p>\n

Embrace it, Pohrman said.<\/p>\n

“There’s the stuffy part of history, and then there’s the trivia,” Pohrman said. “Everybody needs some fun.”<\/p>\n

The series has been on the air for 22 years, becoming the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program and a cultural phenomenon with colleges devoting courses to studying it.<\/p>\n

The real Springfield is a western Oregon town of about 60,000 people. Its’ quiet Main Street is struggling in the face of a recession while the highway-based chain stores and restaurants survive or thrive. Its median income is just under $40,000 and nearly 20 percent of people of all ages live under the poverty line.