Shelbyville
Shelbyville
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Town/City Information
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Shelbyville is a city located adjacent to Springfield. Shelbyville and Springfield are treated in the series as twin cities, though with an intense rivalry between the two.
Contents
Location
Shelbyville is located in the same state that Springfield is in. Shelbyville and Springfield 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, even though Shelbyville's population was recorded to be much higher.
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, 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 shown more clearly when a group of Shelbyville kids stole the Springfield Lemon Tree till it was taken back by Springfieldians. [1] The rivalry is apparently well-known even among outsiders; the town was manipulated by a slick-talking salesman, who 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, 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". [2] This claim conflicts with another story that Abe tells later, when he explains the origin of the name of the town Shelbyville. However, Abe's senility could explain for his conflicting tales.
The town was crushed when Springfieldians felled a giant sun blocker owned by Mr. Burns, which accidentally fell upon the unfortunate town. [3] Shelbyville was presumably destroyed by a Nuclear Weapon at least one time. [4]
"Song of Shelbyville"
The Simpsons once visited Shelbyville and attend a play entitled "Song of Shelbyville". The play featured a parody of Springfieldians as uncultured hicks, and when Lisa objects to this portrayal, the crowd started pointing at the family and made a noise that Marge calls "hate-hoots". Springfield then proceeded to build an expensive concert hall in another effort to avoid being outdone by Shelbyville. (This effort, like the monorail, went horribly awry.) [5]
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 zoo, 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 lacks as they have Krusty Burger.
Shelbyville has at least one suburb, Shelbyville Heights.
Sports
Shelbyville's sports teams include the Shelbyville Shelbyvillians (minor league baseball), the Shelbyville Visitors (minor league hockey) and the Shelbyville Sharks (American football). Once a year, the annual "Pigskin Classic" football game is held between the Shelbyville Sharks and Springfield's football team, the Springfield Atoms.
Shelbyville beat out Springfield in the bid for the Olympics, after Springfield's chances for earning it were spoiled by ethnocentric comedy by Bart Simpson.
Springfield's little league baseball team, the Iso-Tots, was once beaten in a championship by Shelbyville's team. [6]
Shelbyvillians
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!"
Milhouse Van Houten's mother, Luann Van Houten, was born in Shelbyville. Shelbyville is also the only other place in the Simpsons' world to have another person with the name Milhouse.
Suburbs of Shelbyville
- Chinatown
- Downtown Shelbyville
- Manhattan Square
- Morgue
- Rolling Rock
- Sabertooth
- Shelbyville Bluffs
- Shelbyville Heights
Behind the Scenes
Shelbyville was ranked 10th in "The 10 Best Dystopias" in the December 2005 issue of Wired Magazine.
Reference
