10 Things You Didn't Know About The Making Of The Simpsons

6. Lots Of The Characters Were Named After Streets In Portland, Oregon

Matt Groening never went to that much effort when it came to naming the characters on the show; having named The Simpsons family after members of his own family (that's what you get when you make up the idea for a show in a lobby), he also opted to name lots of the characters in the show after streets in Portland - his home town in the state of Oregon. Which characters, you ask? Well, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Kearney, Major Quimby and (Milhouse) Van Houten, to name five notable examples. Mr. Burns might have been named after "Burnside Street," whilst Sideshow Bob's surname could have been poached from "Terwilliger Boulevard," though these have never been officially confirmed (seems likely they were, though). And that's not all: there are probably a whole lot more to be discovered if you go looking for them, because Groening really did go to town with this naming method. He eventually abandoned the method, though, opting for a different - and more creative - approach to making up characters names, having admitted to being "in a rush" at the time. Fair!
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Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.