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 each other. According to Abraham Simpson, Shelbyville was also called Morganville in the past.

The City

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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 demonstrated in the episode “Lemon of Troy” when a group of Shelbyville kids stole the Springfield lemon tree.

The people of Shelbyville are apparently not much smarter or less quick to anger than the people of Springfield; as noted in one episode, the people of Shelbyville once spiked Springfield's water supply as vengeance for the people of Springfield having burned down Shelbyville's city hall, as part of (in Lisa Simpson's words) "another chapter in the pointless rivalry between Springfield and Shelbyville." 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 Amadopolis; 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.

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 was born in Shelbyville.

Shelbyville beat out Springfield in the bid for the Olympics, after Springfield's chances for earning it were blown by Bart Simpson.

Location

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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.

The Simpsons locations | Fictional towns and cities in the United States | Fictional rivalries

Shelbyville (The Simpsons)