The Simpsons may be TV’s most beloved family, but for some reason the show’s proposed spin-off Springfield never got off the ground despite its obvious potential. Since the series began in 1989 with typically cynical and subversive Christmas special " Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire, The Simpsons has gone on to become one of television’s crowning achievements as a medium. That description may seem overblown, but despite its significant decline in critical reception since season 12, the anarchic animated family sitcom has been one of the most influential and best-reviewed TV shows since the advent of the medium.
Described in critic Matt Zoller Seitz in TV: The Book as "ambitious, intimate, classical, experimental, hip, corny, and altogether free in its conviction," in its prime, The Simpsons was a melange of divergent comedy styles with a vast ing cast that somehow found countless consistently funny, inventive ways to subvert the family sitcom genre. Despite this, The Simpsons Movie remains the lone spin-off from the series even though the show's style and tone gave rise to everything from South Park to Family Guy, to American Dad, to Rick & Morty and Bojack Horseman.
However, other Simpsons spin-offs were proposed even though the shows never came to fruition. For any Simpsons fan who has ever wondered what the ing cast of the show's small hometown gets up to when the titular family is busy with their one-episode trips to Britain/Africa/Japan/Delaware, one spin-off series was pitched that would have answered that inquiry. According to an interview with The Simpsons writers Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, and Al Jean, co-creator Matt Groening ed the pitch of a spin-off series simply titled Springfield which would have consisted of standalone single-episode stories for the show’s massive ing cast.
The meme-spawning “steamed hams” segment and is a popular outing among fans even to this day.
“22 Short Films About Springfield” was essentially a dry run for the proposed show which, according to Weinstein’s uncertain recollection, Spanglish director and Simpsons producer James L Brooks may have been the one to veto: "We never knew exactly why, but I think at the time James didn't go for it." However, the pitch for "Springfield" went further than simply expanding on the lives of existing characters, and could have included other non-canon adventures like the show's annual "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween specials. Per Oakley, "it wasn’t going to be just about the minor characters, there would be other things that were outside the normal Springfield universe." It's hard to imagine a stronger pitch than this for a Simpsons spin-off but evidently, Springfield was not meant to be, and as a result, all fans have is a classic episode to memorialize the promising premise.