USA Today announced today that Springfield, Vermont (pop. 9,078 in 2000) has won the Simpsons movie Springfield Challenege. The small town received 15,367 votes out of 109,582, less than almost 1,000 more than the much larger Springfield, Il. If my math is correct (and it rarely is), that’s 1.6 votes per person in Springfield, VT. Weird!
The new Simpsons movie will premiere on July 21 at the Springfield Movie Theater located at 26 Main St.
Since the exact location was never explicitly revealed in any episode of The Simpsons, fourteen Springfields across America are currently battling it out to decide which town should be the true home of Homer and family.
Each of the fourteen Springfields in the running — Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont — have created a video that showcases why they should be chosen, and each is now available on USAToday.com to watch.
The winning town will be awarded to the right to host the premiere of the movie before the U.S. release date of July 27th.
Log onto USAToday to watch the videos, and cast your vote for which town you think should win. If you have no particular interest in any of cities, cast your vote for Missouri, because…well, I live in Springfield, Missouri, and somebody has got to win, right?
If you plan your trip right, you can pass through a number of Springfields while driving across the United States. This is part of the fun of The Simpsons television series — in that, because the show is set in a town called Springfield, it might as well take place in Anytown, USA.
The big question is: which Springfield will get to host the world premiere of “The Simpsons Movie” this July?
20th Century Fox has invited 16 Springfields across the country to create short films that demonstrate the communities’ positive aspects, and highlight any similarities they share with the Simpsons’ animated town.
Says Mayor Sid Leiken of Springfield, Oregon, “There’s plenty of serious issues to talk about, but this is something that we might as well try to have a little fun with.”
Newsweek has called the animated town “America’s Crud Bucket,” which obviously isn’t an image most places want to be associated with. That being said, the tourism revenue an international film premiere would generate for any one of these cities is no laughing matter.
So, are you from Springfield? Does your town have what it takes to host the premiere?