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.

Shelbyville was ranked 10th in "The 10 Best Dystopias" in the December 2005 issue of Wired Magazine.[1]

Contents

[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 Springfield's various broadcast media, particularly radio station KBBL, serves both cities. Springfield is seemingly the more dominant of the two cities, though.

In the episode "Black Widower," a sign outside of the Simpsons' home states that Shelbyville is 34 miles away. Despite the posted distance, the two cities share at least one common border, as shown in the episode Lemon of Troy.

[edit] History and rivalry with Springfield

The city of Shelbyville was founded by Shelbyville Manhattan in 1796, who held the belief that people should be allowed to marry their cousins, due to the fact "they're so attractive"; a practice disallowed by fellow explorer and founder of Springfield, Jebediah Springfield. 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 and the Springfield children enter Shelbyville in search of the tree, using guerrilla tactics. This episode is the only episode which shows Shelbyville in detail; including yellow fire hydrants, which causes bully, Nelson Muntz, to chime, "This place is starting to freak me out." Shelbyville is also the home to lemon-shaped rocks, an impound yard and bizzaro Milhouse. The true calling card of a kid from Shelbyville is a candy wrapper. As noted by the real Milhouse, "They're always eating candy in Shelbyville; they love the sweet taste.", unlike the people of Springfield, who enjoy eating lemons (being the sweetest fruit available at the time of the founding of Springfield, according to Grandpa Simpson).

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.)

According to Abe Simpson in Last Exit to Springfield, Shelbyville was called "Morganville" during the 1910s, which, he elaborates, was when "Nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em" and men tied onions to their belts, "which was the style at the time." This claim conflicts with the story Abe tells in Lemon of Troy where he claims the town was founded with the name Shelbyville after its founder, Shelbyville Manhattan.

In season 18's episode 24 Minutes, guest character Jack Bauer dismisses Springfield's fears after a nuclear bomb goes off, by explaining that the blast happened in Shelbyville. The crowd was relieved by this news.

[edit] "Song of Shelbyville"

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.)

[edit] Landmarks

Landmarks and 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. 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 at least one McDonald's restaurant, which Springfield does not have, as Krusty has been paying the Springfield Mafia to keep such fastfood restaurants out of town, to promote his own Krusty Burger.

[edit] Sports

Shelbyville's sports teams include the Shelbyville Shelbyvillians (minor league baseball), the Shelbyville Visitors (minor league ice hockey) and the Shelbyville Sharks (Football). Once a year, the annual "Pigskin Classic" football game is held between the Shelbyville Sharks and Springfield's football team, the Springfield Atoms. Springfield are said to lose this game 'almost half the time' due to a perceived discipline problem.

In The Boys of Bummer, Springfield's little league baseball team, the Iso-Tots get beaten in the championship by Shelbyville's team.

[edit] Shelbyvillians

The people of Shelbyville are apparently not much smarter or less quick to anger than the people of Springfield. Both cities are prone to pointlessly escalating their bitter rivalry; as noted about a football game in one episode (in Lisa Simpson's words) "It's just another chapter in the pointless rivalry between Springfield and Shelbyville. They built a mini mall, so we built a bigger mini mall. They made the world's largest pizza, so we burned down their City Hall." 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!"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jeremy Adam Smith (December 2005). The 10 Best Dystopias. Wired. Retrieved on 2007-12-12.

[edit] See also