It is Springfield, however not as we all know it. The recreation has some tellingly British touches. Marge drives a right-hand-drive automotive (a Lada, no much less, as soon as frequent in these elements). In the meantime, the stand-in for Chief Wiggum is sporting a British police uniform. That is as a result of this was a completely British manufacturing. The near-perfect homage was shot on the finish of 2005 as a intelligent promotional skit for Sky One, masterminded by London promoting company Devilfish.
On this model of “actuality” the Simpson household reside in Orpington, south-east London (or Kent in the event you stubbornly adhere to the outdated methods). The scene the place Homer will get out of his automotive to be nearly mowed down by Marge was filmed on Lansdowne Avenue, an in any other case unremarkable residential avenue on the sting of Crofton Woods. This a lot was simply discovered by googling.
Different areas within the sequence require a little bit of detective work. A reverse picture search reveals that Homer has fairly a commute every day, on condition that he apparently works in Didcot Energy Station in Oxfordshire. Didcot runs on pure fuel, fairly than the nuclear rods of the cartoon.
In the meantime, the row of retailers previous which Bart skateboards are additionally a great distance from Orpington. The telltale clue right here is the aspect street, whose avenue identify can nearly be learn as “The Run-…”. The one avenue in London starting with these letters is The Runway in Ruislip, and Avenue View confirms this as the situation. The outdated automotive wash and tyres indicators seen within the video are nonetheless in place.
What began out as a Sky One advert additionally discovered its approach into official Simpsons canon. The clip was re-used because the “sofa gag” within the Ricky Gervais-penned episode Homer Simpson, That is Your Spouse (2006). Sadly, it was solely seen on the unique airing, and has been switched out in streaming variations and later broadcasts.
Followers have lengthy debated the place the Simpsons’ dwelling city of Springfield is supposedly situated (see my guide Atlas of Imagined Locations for one intriguing idea). Who’d have guessed it seems to be in south-east England?