{{Good article}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates |date=June 2020}} {{Infobox Simpsons episode | image = 22 Short Films About Springfield title card.png | caption = Title card | season = 7 | episode = 21 | director = [[Jim Reardon]] | writer = * [[Richard Appel]] * [[David X. Cohen]] * [[Jonathan Collier]] * [[Jennifer Crittenden]] * [[Greg Daniels]] * [[Brent Forrester]] * [[Dan Greaney]] * [[Rachel Pulido]] * [[Steve Tompkins]] * [[Bill Oakley]] * [[Josh Weinstein]] * [[Matt Groening]] | production = 3F18 | airdate = {{Start date|1996|04|14}} | guests = * [[Phil Hartman]] as [[Lionel Hutz]] and the hospital board chairman<ref name="book"/> | couch_gag = The Simpsons are [[Sea-Monkeys]] who swim to a couch made of clam shells to stare at an open treasure chest.<ref name="BBC">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season7/page21.shtml|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629180431/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/simpsons/episodeguide/season7/page21.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 29, 2012|title=22 Short Films About Springfield|access-date=2007-10-19|last1=Martyn |first1=Warren |author-link1=Gary Russell |last2 = Wood |first2=Adrian |author-link2=Gareth Roberts (writer)|year=2000|publisher=BBC|df=mdy-all}}</ref> | commentary = * Matt Groening * Bill Oakley * Josh Weinstein * Richard Appel * David X. Cohen * Rachel Pulido * [[Yeardley Smith]] * Jim Reardon * [[David Silverman (animator)|David Silverman]] | prev = [[Bart on the Road]] | next = [[Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'|Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish{{'-}}]] }} "'''22 Short Films About Springfield'''" is the twenty-first episode of the [[The Simpsons season 7|seventh season]] of the American animated television series ''[[The Simpsons]]''. It originally aired on the [[Fox Network]] in the United States on April 14, 1996.<ref name="book">{{cite book|last=Groening|first=Matt|author-link=Matt Groening|editor1-first=Ray|editor1-last=Richmond|editor1-link=Ray Richmond|editor2-first=Antonia|editor2-last=Coffman|title=The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family|others=Created by Matt Groening; edited by Ray Richmond and Antonia Coffman.|edition=1st|year=1997|location=New York|publisher=[[HarperPerennial]]|lccn=98141857|ol=433519M|oclc=37796735|isbn=978-0-06-095252-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/simpsonscomplete00groe/page/202 202–203]|ref={{harvid|Richmond & Coffman|1997}}|title-link=The Simpsons episode guides#The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family}}.</ref> It was written by [[Richard Appel]], [[David X. Cohen]], [[Jonathan Collier]], [[Jennifer Crittenden]], [[Greg Daniels]], [[Brent Forrester]], [[Dan Greaney]], [[Rachel Pulido]], [[Steve Tompkins]], [[Josh Weinstein]], [[Bill Oakley]], and [[Matt Groening]], with the writing being supervised by Daniels. The episode was directed by [[Jim Reardon]].<ref name="book"/> [[Phil Hartman]] guest-starred as [[Lionel Hutz]] and the hospital board chairman.<ref name="book"/><ref name="BBC"/>
The episode depicts brief incidents experienced by a wide array of Springfield residents in a series of interconnected stories that take place over a single day. The episode's concept originated from the end segment of the [[The Simpsons season 4|season four]] episode "[[The Front (The Simpsons)|The Front]]", which gave the staff the idea of a possible spin-off from ''The Simpsons'', and serves as a loose parody of ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''. The title is a reference to the 1993 film ''[[Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould]]''.
The episode received positive reviews from critics, and is noted for its popularity among fans, with the "Steamed Hams" segment becoming a popular [[Internet meme]] in 2016.
==Plot== The episode is a series of shorts ranging in length from under half a minute to over two and a half minutes, each showing daily life in [[Springfield (The Simpsons)|Springfield]], after [[Bart Simpson|Bart]] wonders if anything interesting happens to the town's citizens.
# Bart and [[Milhouse]] spit and squirt condiments from a highway overpass onto cars, then go to the [[Kwik-E-Mart]]. # [[Apu Nahasapeemapetilon|Apu]] closes the Kwik-E-Mart for five minutes to attend a party at [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Sanjay Nahasapeemapetilon|Sanjay's]] house, trapping [[Hans Moleman|Moleman]] in the store. # Bart unknowingly throws [[Chewing gum|gum]] in [[Lisa Simpson|Lisa's]] hair, and [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] tries to remove the gum by putting peanut butter and mayonnaise on her hair. Lisa's hair attracts a swarm of bees, one of which flies away. # While bike riding with [[Mr. Burns]], [[Waylon Smithers|Smithers]] suffers an [[allergic reaction]] to the bee's sting and rides to the hospital, but the orderlies admit only Burns. # [[Dr. Nick]] is criticized by the hospital board for his [[Quackery|unorthodox medical procedures]], only to treat [[Grampa Simpson|Grampa]] with an electric light socket, saving his career. # [[Moe Szyslak|Moe]] gets robbed by [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Snake|Snake]] after [[Barney Gumble|Barney]] gives Moe $2,000 to pay for a portion of his $14 billion bar tab. # While hosting [[Superintendent Chalmers]] for lunch, [[Principal Skinner]] burns his roast and bluffs his way through the meal, replacing the roast with hamburgers from Krusty Burger and dubbing them "steamed hams", setting his house on fire in the process. # [[Homer Simpson|Homer]] accidentally traps [[Maggie Simpson|Maggie]] in a newspaper vending box. After several unsuccessful attempts to free her, he uproots the box and takes it home with her still inside. # [[Chief Wiggum]], [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Lou|Lou]], and [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Eddie|Eddie]] compare [[McDonald's]] and [[Krusty Burger]]. # [[Bumblebee Man]] arrives home after a horrible day at work and suffers a string of humorous disasters, causing his house to collapse and his wife to serve him with divorce papers. # Snake runs Wiggum over, and their ensuing fight ends with [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Herman Hermann|Herman]] capturing them at gunpoint in his store. # [[Reverend Lovejoy]] urges his [[Old English Sheepdog]] to relieve himself on [[Ned Flanders]]'s lawn. # Various townspeople advise Marge and Lisa how to remove the gum stuck in Lisa's hair. # [[Cletus Spuckler|Cletus]] offers [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Brandine Spuckler|Brandine]] some shoes he found on a [[telephone line]]. # Milhouse desperately needs to pee and asks the [[Comic Book Guy|Comic Book Guy's]] at the [[Springfield (The Simpsons)#The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop|Android's Dungeon]] if he could use the bathroom, but can only use it if he buys something, and [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Kirk Van Houten|his father]] forces him to leave the store before he can use it. They go to use the bathroom in Hermann's store in which Hermann allows, and Hermann is reluctant to take Kirk hostage as he did Snake and Wiggum, but Milhouse accidentally knocks out Hermann with a [[Flail (weapon)|flail]], invertedly saving all three. # [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Jake the Barber|Jake the barber]] cuts the gum out of Lisa's hair, leaving her with a different hairstyle. # [[Nelson Muntz|Nelson]] laughs at Lisa's new haircut, at an elderly lady who experienced her own misfortune, and at Ian, an extremely tall man in a small [[Volkswagen Beetle]], the latter of whom publicly humiliates Nelson to teach him a lesson, by [[pantsing]] him and forcing Nelson to parade down the main street with onlookers on the sidewalk while Ian followed behind Nelson in his car. # Bart and Milhouse squirt ketchup and mustard onto Nelson from the overpass, and conclude that life is interesting in their town after all. # [[Professor Frink]] attempts to tell his story but is cut off by the ending credits.
==Production== The episode's principal idea came from the [[The Simpsons season 4|season four]] episode "[[The Front (The Simpsons)|The Front]]", which contained a short sequence entitled ''[[The Adventures of Ned Flanders]]'', featuring its own title card and theme song, at its conclusion. The scene has no relevance to the main plot of the episode and was designed solely as [[Filler (media)|filler]] to accommodate the episode's short runtime.<ref name=Oakley>{{cite video |last=Oakley|first=Bill|author-link=Bill Oakley|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=An Oral History of 'Steamed Hams', the Funniest 'Simpsons' Scene Ever Recorded|website=Mel Magazine |first=Brian |last=VanHooker |date=August 18, 2020 |url=https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/simpsons-steamed-hams-oral-history |accessdate=2022-09-09}}</ref> The staff loved the concept and attempted to fit similar scenes into other episodes, but none were short enough to require one. [[Show runner]]s [[Bill Oakley]] and [[Josh Weinstein]] decided to make an entire episode of linked short scenes involving many of the show's characters, similar to [[Quentin Tarantino]]'s ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''.<ref name=Oakley/> The title "22 Short Films About Springfield" was decided upon from the start of the episode's production<ref name=Oakley/> even though there are not actually twenty-two stories in it, due to the standard 22-minute length of an episode.<ref name=Weinstein>{{cite video|last=Weinstein|first=Josh|author-link=Josh Weinstein|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Originally there were more scenes, but several of them had to be cut out for time.<ref name=Oakley/> To decide who would write each of the segments, all the writers chose their top three favorite characters and put them into a hat, the names were drawn out, and the writers were assigned their parts.<ref name=Oakley/> Oakley wrote the [[Superintendent Chalmers]] story,<ref name=Oakley/> Weinstein did the [[Comic Book Guy]] and [[Milhouse]] scene,<ref name=Weinstein/> [[David X. Cohen|David Cohen]] penned the [[Reverend Lovejoy]] sketch, as well as the deleted [[Krusty the Clown]] scene.<ref name=Cohen>{{cite video|last=Cohen|first=David|author-link=David X. Cohen|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> [[Brent Forrester]] wrote the Krusty Burger scene,<ref name=Weinstein/> while [[Rachel Pulido]] wrote the [[Bumblebee Man]] one.<ref name=Oakley/> [[Richard Appel]] wrote a deleted "elaborate fantasy segment" revolving around [[Marge Simpson|Marge]], the only remnant of which is her cleaning the sink during the first Lisa scene, and also a scene with [[Lionel Hutz]] that was dropped.<ref name=Appel>{{cite video|last=Appel|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Appel|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref>
The first draft was 65 pages long and needed to be cut down to just 42, so numerous scenes were removed for time or because they did not fit into the overall dynamic of the episode.<ref name=Oakley/> To solve this problem, a scene before the second act break, where the townspeople go to the Simpson house to provide advice of how Lisa can get the gum out of her hair, was created to include every character that did not appear anywhere else during the course of the episode.<ref name=Oakley/> Weinstein and writing supervisor [[Greg Daniels]] were responsible for ordering and linking together the episodes, and director [[Jim Reardon]] had the challenge of segueing between each section in a way that did not make the change seem abrupt.<ref name=Reardon>{{cite video|last=Reardon|first=Jim|author-link=Jim Reardon|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD |publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Those that were hard to link were put before or after an act break or were given a theme song, one of which was cut from the Apu story, but was included as a deleted scene on ''The Complete Seventh Season'' DVD.<ref name=Weinstein/>
Oakley wrote the Chalmers scene because he is his all-time favorite character from the show. The main reason he loved him was that, until Frank Grimes was created for the [[The Simpsons season 8|season eight]] episode "[[Homer's Enemy]]", Chalmers was the only character that "seemed to operate in the normal human universe".<ref name=Oakley/> In previous episodes, Skinner and Chalmers' scenes together revolved around one joke: Skinner tells Chalmers an unbelievable lie, but Chalmers believes him anyway. So, their scene in this episode is made up of a string of thirteen interconnected lies.<ref name=Oakley/> The dialogue between him and Skinner was something that had never been done before, in that it is just a long relaxed conversation with nothing important being said at all.<ref name=Cohen/> The idea behind the scene was to make fun of the classic sitcom trope of taking the boss home for dinner, the boss doubting his employee's lies and ultimately believing them. Oakley wrote the scene in one afternoon, with the finished product resembling almost exactly its first draft. Layout artist Sarge Morton was given the task to storyboard the whole scene, as he had an affinity for scenes featuring both Skinner and Chalmers.<ref name=THR>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/steamed-hams-at-25-simpsons-cast-and-crew-attempt-to-decipher-classic-moments-extraordinary-cult-following-4153712/|title='Steamed Hams' at 25: 'Simpsons' Cast and Crew Attempt to Decipher Classic Moment's Extraordinary Cult Following|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|last=Parker|first=Ryan|date=April 14, 2021|access-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>
In the Mr. Burns story, every word he yells at Smithers is real and used correctly. To maintain accuracy, the writers used a 19th-century slang thesaurus.<ref name=Weinstein/> Many of the Spanish words used in Bumblebee Man's segment are easily understood [[cognates]] of English and not accurate Spanish; this was done deliberately so that non-Spanish speakers could understand the dialogue without subtitles.<ref name=Weinstein/><ref name=Pulido>{{cite video|last=Pulido|first=Rachel|author-link=Rachel Pulido|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Ian, the very tall man, was a caricature of writer [[Ian Maxtone-Graham]]<ref name=Weinstein/> also sharing his first name, and the crowd on the street who laugh at Nelson, Oakley wrote in the script that the street was filled with Springfield's biggest idiots; the animators drew caricatures of him, Weinstein, and Groening into the scene.<ref name=Oakley/>
==Cultural references== The episode's title is a reference to [[François Girard]]'s film ''[[Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould]]''.<ref name="book"/> The episode contains numerous references to [[Quentin Tarantino]]'s ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''. Like the film, the episode is episodic, though the stories are interconnected. The policemen's conversation about McDonald's parallels the famous "Royale With Cheese" discussion,<ref name="book"/><ref name=av/> and the music played during the segment's beginning was also taken from the film.<ref name=Weinstein/> The story involving Chief Wiggum and Snake is a direct parody of the "Gold Watch" segment of the film. Snake runs over Wiggum at a red light, alluding to the segment of the film where the character of Butch Coolidge did the same to Marsellus Wallace, before crashing into a fire hydrant and beginning an on-foot chase.<ref name=Weinstein/><ref name=av/> The two run into [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Herman Hermann|Herman]]'s Military Antique shop, where Herman beats, ties up and gags the two, then waits for "Zed" to arrive, exactly as Maynard does in ''Pulp Fiction''.<ref name="book"/><ref name=av>{{cite news|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-simpsons-22-short-films-about-springfield-1798219451|title=The Simpsons, "22 Short Films About Springfield"|work=[[The A.V. Club]]|last=Murray|first=Noel|date=2010-03-25|access-date=2022-01-21|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The writers were pleased that Herman already existed, as otherwise they would have had to create another character just for this scene.<ref name=Oakley/> The song Apu briefly dances to at Sanjay's party is "Freak-A-Zoid" by American R&B group [[Midnight Star (band)|Midnight Star]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Midnight Star {{!}} Actor, Soundtrack |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3082708/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}}</ref> The Dr. Nick segment is a parody of ''[[ER (TV series)|ER]]''. After passing the board, Dr. Nick exclaims "Free nose jobs for everybody!"; [[List of recurring The Simpsons characters#Jasper Beardsley|Jasper Beardsley]] says "Give me a [[Van Heflin]]."<ref name=av/>
==Reception== In its original broadcast, "22 Short Films About Springfield" finished tied for 73rd in the weekly ratings for the week of April 8–14, 1996, with a [[Nielsen rating]] of 6.9. It was the seventh highest rated show from the [[Fox network]] that week.<ref>{{cite news|title=Nielsen ratings/April 26-May 2|date=1993-05-05|page=C–6|publisher=[[Long Beach Press-Telegram]]|df=mdy-all}}</ref> It is [[Bill Oakley]]'s personal favorite episode, but he claimed that it is hated by two prominent (and unnamed) figures within the running of the show.<ref name=Oakley/> The episode is frequently cited as a popular one among the show's fans on the Internet.<ref name=Weinstein/>
In 1998, ''[[TV Guide]]'' listed it in its list of top twelve ''Simpsons'' episodes.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Dozen Doozies|work=[[TV Guide]]|date=January 3–9, 1998|url=http://www.simpsonsarchive.com/other/articles/dozendoozies.html|access-date=2019-01-13|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'', in 2003, placed the episode 14th on their top 25 ''The Simpsons'' episode list, praising the episode's structure and finding the ''Pulp Fiction'' references "priceless".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/2003/02/02/best-simpsons-episodes-nos-11-15/|title=The best ''Simpsons'' episodes, Nos. 11-15|access-date=2022-01-21|date=2003-01-29|magazine=Entertainment Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510034058/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0%2C%2C417748_3%2C00.html|archive-date=2007-05-10|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The episode is the favorite of British comedian [[Jimmy Carr]] who, in 2003, called it "a brilliant pastiche of art cinema".<ref>{{cite news|title=Why there's no place like Homer's|last1=Hunter|first1=Jo|last2=Mattin|first2=David|last3=Richards|first3=Jonathan|last4=Greenwood|first4=Phoebe|last5=Hazlehurst|first5=Jeremy|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=2003-04-14|page=24|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
In 2004, ''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'' named the episode's ''Pulp Fiction'' parody the seventh best film gag in the show, calling Wiggum and Snake bound and gagged with red balls in their mouths "the sickest visual gag in ''Simpsons'' history".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Kennedy|first=Colin|title=The Ten Best Movie Gags In ''The Simpsons''|magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|date=September 2004|page=77}}</ref>
[[Gary Russell]] and [[Gareth Roberts (writer)|Gareth Roberts]],<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv51/garyrussell.html|title=Gary Russell: From Peladon to Placebos|author=Preddle, Jon|date=June 1997|magazine=Time Space Visualiser|issue=51|access-date=20 August 2020|publisher=The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club|quote=I've just done my first non-fiction book, Oh No It's A Completely Unofficial Simpsons Guide for Virgin, co-authored with Gareth Roberts which has, to be frank, been more of a nightmare than it needed to be [the book was published as I Can't Believe It's An Unofficial Simpsons Guide, with Gary and Gareth writing under the pseudonyms Warren Martyn & Adrian Wood].}}</ref> the authors of the book ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'', called it "an untypical episode, and a very good one", naming the Skinner and Chalmers story as the best.<ref name="BBC"/>
In 2019, several sources cited the episode as one of the show's best, including ''[[Consequence of Sound]]'' who ranked it number five on its list of top 30 ''Simpsons'' episodes;<ref>{{cite news|title=The Simpsons' Top 30 Episodes|url=https://consequence.net/2019/12/the-simpsons-top-30-episodes/|publisher=[[Consequence of Sound]]|date=2019-12-17|access-date=2019-12-27}}</ref> ''[[Entertainment.ie]]'' who named it among the 10 greatest ''Simpsons'' episodes of all time;<ref name="EntIe">{{cite web |url=https://entertainment.ie/tv/tv-news/10-greatest-the-simpsons-episodes-of-all-time-418495/ |title=The 10 greatest 'The Simpsons' episodes of all time |author=Molumby, Deidre |publisher=[[Entertainment.ie]] |date=September 6, 2019 |access-date=September 7, 2019}}</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]'' who named it one of the five greatest episodes in ''Simpsons'' history;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/nov/28/the-simpsons-the-five-greatest-episodes-in-the-iconic-shows-history|title=The Simpsons: the five greatest episodes in the iconic show's history|work=[[The Guardian]]|last=Belam|first=Martin|date=November 28, 2019|access-date=2019-11-30}}</ref> and, in early 2010, [[IGN]] named "[[A Fish Called Selma]]" the best episode of the seventh season, adding that "22 Short Films About Springfield" was "good competition" for the crown.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/01/08/the-simpsons-20-seasons-20-episodes |title=The Simpsons: 20 Seasons, 20 Episodes|last1=Goldman|first1=Eric|last2=Iverson|first2=Dan|last3=Zoromski|first3=Brian|website=[[IGN]]|date=2010-01-08|access-date=2022-01-21|df=mdy-all}}</ref> When ''The Simpsons'' began streaming on [[Disney+]] in 2019, Oakley named this one of the best classic Simpsons episodes to watch on the service.<ref>{{cite news |last=Katz |first=Mathew |title=The best classic Simpsons episodes on Disney+ |work=[[Digital Trends]] |date=2019-11-11 }}</ref>
Emily St. James praised the episode: "'22 Short Films' is fundamentally an experiment, an attempt by the series to do something different at a time when coming up with stories must have started to get exhausting. But it's also a wonderful reminder of how everybody on this show was the protagonist of some other, weirder show. The Simpsons might have been the center of the series, but they didn't need to be the only thing in it anymore. Springfield had ceased to be a solar system with them as the sun. Instead, everybody else had become stars of their own, and the show expanded into a galaxy."<ref name=A.V.Club>{{Cite web |last=James |first=Emily |date=June 22, 2014 |title=The Simpsons (Classic): "22 Short Films About Springfield" |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-simpsons-classic-22-short-films-about-springfie-1798180763}}</ref>
===Legacy=== ====Unproduced spin-off==== The episode sparked the idea among the staff for a spin-off series entitled ''Springfield Stories''<ref name="Groening">{{cite video|last1=Groening|first1=Matt|author-link=Matt Groening|date=2006|title=The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> or simply ''Springfield''.<ref name="digitalspy">{{cite web|first=Morgan|last=Jeffery|title=The Simpsons spinoff was once planned, reveals ex-showrunner|website=[[Digital Spy]]|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/s195/the-simpsons/news/a613896/the-simpsons-spinoff-was-once-planned-reveals-ex-showrunner.html|date=2014-12-12|access-date=2019-04-03|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name=THR/> The proposed show would focus on the town in general, rather than the Simpson family. Every week would be a different scenario, such as three short stories, an adventure with young Homer, or a story about a background character that was not tied into the Simpson family at all.<ref name="Groening"/> According to Bill Oakley, the show was not just going to focus on secondary and minor characters, but also in other things that were outside the normal ''Simpsons'' universe, with the episodes being "free-form", but Josh Weinstein recalls that executive producer [[James L. Brooks]] "didn't go for it".<ref name=THR/> The idea never resulted in anything, as Groening realized that the staff did not have the capacity to produce another show as well as ''The Simpsons''.<ref name="digitalspy"/><ref name="empire">{{cite magazine|last=Richards|first=Olly|title=Life In Development Hell|pages=76|magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|date=2007-05-24|df=mdy-all}}</ref> By 2006, the staff maintained that it was something that they would still be interested in doing,<ref name=Weinstein/> and by 2007 that it "could happen someday".<ref name="empire"/> "22 Short Films About Springfield" also helped inspire the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "[[Three Hundred Big Boys]]".<ref name="Cohen" />
===="Steamed Hams"==== {{Redirect|Steamed ham|the food item sometimes known by this name|Steamed cheeseburger}} [[File:Steamed cheeseburger.jpg|thumb|A [[steamed cheeseburger]], sliced in half. The term "steamed hams" was coined by Seymour Skinner to refer to hamburgers.]] [[File:Steamed Hams screenshot.webp|left|thumb|A screenshot of the "Steamed Hams" segment]] In one segment of the episode, titled "Skinner & The Superintendent", a frenzied Seymour Skinner attempts to pass off fast food hamburgers as home-cooked "steamed hams", claiming that it is an expression in the [[regional dialect]] of [[Albany, New York]], and later attempts to explain away a growing kitchen fire as an improbable case of [[aurora borealis]]. Starting in 2016, over two decades from the episode's premiere, the scene gained renewed popularity in [[Facebook]] groups and pages relating to ''The Simpsons''. It has also spawned numerous parody and remix videos on [[YouTube]], many of them featuring "Steamed Hams But..." in their titles.<ref>{{cite web |date=28 August 2018 |title='Simpsons' Unkillable 'Steamed Hams' Meme Explained |url=https://www.thewrap.com/simpsons-steamed-hams-explained/ |access-date=2019-07-19 |website=thewrap.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2019-07-19|title=How a 20-year-old 'Simpsons' joke about steamed hams became a huge meme|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/steamed-hams-simpsons-meme/|date=17 January 2018|website=The Daily Dot}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/2/16842564/steamed-hams-meme-the-simpsons|title=The internet revives The Simpsons' greatest joke, 'Steamed Hams': Let us now praise 'Steamed Hams'|last=Frank|first=Allegra|date=2018-01-04|website=Polygon|access-date=2018-01-07|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
In 2018, Bill Oakley, the writer of the segment, posted the original draft for the segment on [[Twitter]].<ref>{{cite tweet|last=Oakley|first=Bill|author-link=Bill Oakley|user=thatbilloakley|number=949044048370614273|date=2018-01-04|title=Steamed Hams, but it's the original first draft in a thread|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180113074635/https://twitter.com/thatbilloakley/status/949044048370614273|archive-date=2018-01-13|df=mdy-all}}</ref> He said he believed it was the most famous thing he had written, and that it was also one of his favorites.<ref name=THR/> Some months later, a reporter for ''[[GameSpot]]'' convinced [[Jeff Goldblum]] to read part of the script during an interview about the video game ''[[Jurassic World Evolution]]''. Goldblum commented at the end of the reading, "I like the writing, too—that was from what?"<ref name=avclub2018>{{cite web|title='Steamed Hams' reaches its zenith with Jeff Goldblum as Principal Skinner|url=https://www.avclub.com/steamed-hams-reaches-its-zenith-with-jeff-goldblum-as-1824255065|work=[[The A.V. Club]]|date=April 2, 2018 |access-date=2022-01-21|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Oakley responded immediately on Twitter, writing, "[I'm] not a fan of fairly big companies like GameSpot having famous actors perform scripts I wrote, verbatim, without giving me any sort of credit whatsoever." The video was taken down within days.<ref name="pedestrian2018">{{cite web |date=April 2, 2018 |title=A 'Steamed Hams' Meme With Jeff Goldblum Is Gone Thanks To A Simpsons Writer |url=https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/steamed-hams-jeff-goldblum-meme-gone-simpsons/ |access-date=2019-12-29 |work=[[Pedestrian.TV]] |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
In a 2021 interview with ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'', Oakley, Weinstein, animation director [[Jim Reardon]], voice actor [[Hank Azaria]] and ''Simpsons'' showrunner [[Al Jean]] shared their thoughts about the popularity of "Steamed Hams". Azaria said he was confused about how popular the segment had become. Reardon became aware of it when his daughters pointed it out a few years prior. They shared their favorite "Steamed Hams" parodies, including one made with [[Lego]] animation, one animating the characters in the style of the music video for the song "[[Take On Me]]" by [[A-ha]], and one with the dialogue synchronized to the vocals of "[[Basket Case (song)|Basket Case]]" by [[Green Day]]. Weinstein said that Groening also enjoyed the phenomenon.<ref name=THR/> A [[Twitch (service)|Twitch]] channel streaming a 24/7 series of [[procedurally generated]] "Steamed Hams" parodies premiered in 2023. Oakley described it as "truly uncanny".<ref>{{cite web |last=Barr|first=Kyle|title=AI-Generated Simpsons Episode Plays Out Skinner's Steamed Hams Saga Infinitely |url=https://gizmodo.com/twitch-ai-the-simpsons-unlimited-steam-openai-1850145942 |website=[[Gizmodo]] |date=22 February 2023|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223083317/https://gizmodo.com/twitch-ai-the-simpsons-unlimited-steam-openai-1850145942|archivedate=23 February 2023|accessdate=23 February 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> A series of short film [[pastiche]]s in 2025 recreate the scene in the style of the Soviet film ''[[The Glass Harmonica (film)|The Glass Harmonica]]'', the German expressionist film ''[[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]]'', and the 1981 comedy-drama film ''[[My Dinner with Andre]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lefebvre |first=Charles |date=5 October 2025 |title=Winnipegger scoring big with YouTube videos inspired by Simpsons meme |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg/article/steamed-hams-but-its-elevated-to-an-art-form-winnipegger-scoring-big-with-youtube-videos-inspired-by-simpsons-meme/ |work=[[CTV News]] |access-date=2 April 2026}}</ref>
==Availability== On March 12, 2002, the episode was released in the United States on a DVD collection titled ''The Simpsons Film Festival'', along with the [[The Simpsons season 11|season eleven]] episode "[[Beyond Blunderdome]]", the [[The Simpsons season 4|season four]] episode "[[Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie]]", and the [[The Simpsons season 6|season six]] episode "[[A Star Is Burns]]".<ref name=Haag>{{cite web|last=Madden|first=Damian|title=Simpsons: Film Festival|url=http://www.dvdbits.com/reviews.asp?id=949|publisher=DVD Bits|access-date=2011-12-19|date=2002-03-31|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111205005708/http://www.dvdbits.com/reviews.asp?id=949|archive-date=2011-12-05|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
The DVD boxset for [[The Simpsons season 7|season seven]] was released by [[20th Century Fox Home Entertainment]] in the United States and Canada on December 13, 2005, nine years after it had completed broadcast on television.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/Simpsons-Complete-7th-Season-Marge-Head/5293 |title=The Simpsons — The Complete 7th Season (Marge Head) |access-date=2008-03-01 |publisher=[[TVShowsOnDVD.com]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221130251/http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/Simpsons-Complete-7th-Season-Marge-Head/5293 |archive-date=2008-02-21 }}</ref> The episode ''22 Short Films About Springfield'' features an optional [[audio commentary]] track featuring Richard Appel, David X. Cohen, Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Rachel Pulido, Jim Reardon, David Silverman, Yeardley Smith and Josh Weinstein.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote|The_Simpsons/Season_7#22_Short_Films_About_Springfield|"22 Short Films About Springfield"}} {{portal|The Simpsons}} *{{snpp capsule|3F18}} *{{IMDb episode |id=0701186}}
{{The Simpsons episodes|7}}
[[Category:The Simpsons season 7 episodes]] [[Category:1996 American television episodes]] [[Category:Television episodes directed by Jim Reardon]] [[Category:Television episodes written by Dan Greaney]] [[Category:Television episodes written by Greg Daniels]] [[Category:Television episodes written by David X. Cohen]] [[Category:Television episodes written by Matt Groening]] [[Category:Television episodes written by Bill Oakley]] [[Category:Television episodes written by Josh Weinstein]]