Shelbyville (The Simpsons)
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Shelbyville is a fictional city on the television series The Simpsons that is located adjacent to Springfield. Shelbyville and Springfield are treated in the series as twin cities, though with an intense rivalry between the two. According to Abraham Simpson, Shelbyville was also called Morganville in the past.
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[edit] The City
The city of Shelbyville was founded by Shelbyville Manhattan in 1796, who held the belief that people should be allowed to marry their cousins, a practice disallowed by fellow explorer and founder of Springfield, Hans Sprungfeld. As a result of this disagreement, the two founders and their party split into separate groups, and went their own ways; since that time, the populaces of Springfield and Shelbyville have held a strong rivalry. This feud was demonstrated in the episode “Lemon of Troy” when a group of Shelbyville kids stole the Springfield lemon tree. The rivalry is apparently well-known even among outsiders; in Marge vs. the Monorail, a slick-talking salesman convinces the residents of Springfield to spend a large sum of money on a monorail system they don't need by musing that the idea might be better suited for Shelbyville. (Mayor Quimby quickly tells him that the Springfieldians are twice as smart as the people of Shelbyville, so if he'll just tell them his idea, they'll vote for it.)
In The Seven-Beer Snitch the Simpsons visit Shelbyville and attend a play entitled "Song of Shelbyville". The play features a parody of Springfieldians as uncultured hicks, and when Lisa objects to this portrayal, the crowd starts pointing at the family and making a noise that Marge calls "hate-hoots". Springfield then proceeds to build an expensive concert hall in another effort to avoid being outdone by Shelbyville. (This effort, like the monorail, goes horribly awry.)
In Who Shot Mr. Burns?, part 2 an angry mob of Springfieldians tears down Mr. Burns' sun-blocking machine, accidentally sending the apparatus crashing down on a neighboring town and apparently doing considerable damage. The mob seems momentarily remorseful at this until Krusty asks, "What town did we just crush?" and Principal Skinner replies "Shelbyville". At this point, the mob cheers exuberantly.
The people of Shelbyville are apparently not much smarter or less quick to anger than the people of Springfield; as noted in one episode, Shelbyville built a minimall, so Springfield built a bigger minimall, in retaliation Shelbyville spiked the town's water supply, and Springfield ended up burning down Shelbyville's city hall, as part of (in Lisa Simpson's words) "another chapter in the pointless rivalry between Springfield and Shelbyville." (Burning down their city hall had been Springfield's revenge for Shelbyville making the world's largest pizza, backing up Lisa's charge of pointlessness.) On other occasions Shelbyville has been shown as the more culturally sophisticated of the two cities with a better public school system and hospital, demonstrated by Abe Simpson saying "I'm going to a better place. Shelbyville hospital!"
Features of Shelbyville include: its own nuclear power plant, owned by Aristotle Amadopoulos; Shelbyville Elementary School; Shelbyville High School (which competes against Springfield High School in student debate competitions); a "Speed-E-Mart" convenience store; local bar "Joe's Tavern (where "Fudd Beer" is served, despite having been recalled after a large number of hillbillies went blind)"; and yellow-colored fire hydrants. Oddly enough, most of these features, and the people staffing them, strongly resemble Springfield's (a female version of Groundskeeper Willie works at Shelbyville Elementary, for instance).
Other features include at least one mini-mall, a Best Western hotel, a city dump, and natural landmarks "Rolling Rock" (a giant boulder rolling between two steep cliffs) and Shelbyville Falls, a waterfall. Shelbyville also has a McDonald's restaurant, which Springfield lacks as they have Krusty Burger.
Shelbyville's sports teams include the Shelbyville Shelbyvillians, a minor league baseball team, and the Shelbyville Sharks, an American football team. Once a year, the annual "Pigskin Classic" football game is held between the Shelbyville Sharks and Springfield's football team, the Springfield Atoms.
Shelbyville has at least one suburb, Shelbyville Heights.
Milhouse Van Houten's mother, Luann Van Houten, was born in Shelbyville.
Shelbyville beat out Springfield in the bid for the Olympics, after Springfield's chances for earning it were spoiled by a racist comedy by Bart Simpson.
[edit] Location
Like Springfield, Shelbyville is also a city located in a fictional/nonexistent U.S. state (once unofficially named by Simpsons producer David Silverman as "North Tacoma"). Springfield and Shelbyville are twin cities, share at least one common roadway between the two, and that Springfield's various broadcast media, particularly radio station KBBL, serves both cities. Springfield is seemingly the more dominant of the two cities, though.
Some fans of the series believe Springfield, Oregon to be the basis for the Springfield of the show, which, they argue, makes nearby Eugene, Oregon a basis for Shelbyville. Part of this suggestion is based on series creator Matt Groening having grown up in Portland, Oregon (near the real-world Springfield), and several traits the fictional Shelbyville has in common with the real-world Oregon locations. However, it might also be argued that Vancouver, Washington, Portland's neighboring twin city, could also serve as an inspiration for Shelbyville. It may be coincidential, but Shelbyville, Missouri is 130 miles directly west of Springfield, Illinois For what it is worth, Shelbyville, Illinois is approximately 60 miles from Springfield, Illinois. It should also be noted that Springfield, KY is less than 50 miles from Shelbyville, KY.
- The episode Black Widower the Simpsons rush to Shelbyville, as they leave their garage there is a sign saying "Shelbyville 34 miles"
[edit] Trivia
- Shelbyville was ranked 10th in "The 10 Best Dystopias" in the December 2005 issue of Wired Magazine
- Shelbyville is the only other place in the Simpsons' world to have another person with the name Milhouse.
