The Flyers once nabbed a legendary cameo on 'The Simpsons'

As a franchise, the Philadelphia Flyers have accomplished a lot in their nearly 60 years. Two Stanley Cup wins. A victory over the Soviet Red Army Team. A 35-game unbeaten streak to establish an NHL record. A five-overtime win in the longest playoff game of the modern era. And so on.

But the Flyers' most notable contribution to the American zeitgeist may very well be due to their brief mention and "appearance" in the 'Treehouse of Horror IV' episode of The Simpsons, which originally aired on October 28, 1993.

The Philadelphia Flyers were immortalized in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons

The 'Treehouse' episodes of The Simpsons probably don't need much of an explainer, but they were (and continue to be, over 30 years later) a collection of three horror-themed stories that typically played into the theme of that year's episode. In the 1993 installment, The Simpsons explored Rod Serling's classic Night Gallery motif, as Bart strolled through a portrait gallery to introduce paintings that inspired that night's tales.

The first segment of the episode that year was entitled "The Devil and Homer Simpson", and it tells the story of how Homer makes a deal with the devil (shockingly played by Ned Flanders) for a single donut in exchange for his soul. When devil Flanders cons Homer's defense attorney Lionel Hutz into letting him select the jury for the legal battle over Homer's soul, the Prince of Darkness introduces his 'Jury of the Damned', a murderer's row of history's greatest monsters.

Benedict Arnold. Lizzie Borden. Richard Nixon (who was still alive at the time of this episode). John Wilkes Booth. Blackbeard the pirate. John Dillinger. And, finally, "the starting line of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers." It was at this point that a group of hockey players materialize in the Simpsons' living room, having come directly from the underworld. What a random gag. But, why the 1976 Flyers?

As any Flyers fan, and probably any serious hockey fan in general could tell you, the Flyers of the 1970's were tough customers. They didn't call them the "Broad Street Bullies" for nothing. And so the joke lands, as the Flyers were notorious for having produced some of the most physical (some would say "dirty") teams to ever take to the ice.

Of course, we are also left to wonder if the reference means the 1975-76 edition of the team or the 1976-77 version. Looking under the hood, the 1975-76 Flyers put up 1,980 penalty minutes, while the 1976-77 team only accumulated 1,547 PIM. So, we'll go with the supposition that "1976" refers to the former, a team that made the franchise's third consecutive Stanley Cup Final, only to be swept by Montreal largely because Bernie Parent was injured.

What's notable, however, is that not only was that Flyers team nowhere near the most penalized NHL club of all-time, but it ranks only eighth on the Flyers' all time list, with the Orange and Black's 1980-81 entry racking up 2,621 penalty minutes on the year to establish the franchise record. That 2,621 total was the highest mark ever in a single season when it happened, but it's now fifth all-time thanks to the late 1980's and early 1990's being an absolute bloodbath nearly every night in the NHL.

Back to the episode, though, and the lyrical way that "the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers" comes off Flanders' tongue. It just works so much better than saying "the 1981 Philadelphia Flyers" or "the 1992 Buffalo Sabres" (the all-time PIM record holders) or some other team that took way more penalties. The 1976 Flyers still had the Bullies mentality going for them, and this episode came only 17 years later, putting them the perfect distance in the past (not too recent, not too long ago) that people largely got the joke. Their reputation still preceded them, even years later.

The only thing to take issue with here are the Flyers' jerseys, which are portrayed in sort of a royal blue with plain white "Flyers" script on them rather than the team's iconic logo and color palette. Presumably, Simpsons producers didn't want to get in trouble with any kind of copyright, but they couldn't at least make them orange? Oh well. Maybe the Flyers can actually wear jerseys like this sometime to complete the effect. They've been rumored to wear far worse, after all.

As for the players themselves, the five highest PIM guys on the 1976 Flyers were Dave Schultz (307), Andre Dupont (214), Jack McIlhargey (205), Bobby Clarke (136), and Gary Dornhoefer (128). So, there's your starting line. Three other players on the team topped 100 penalty minutes that year, as well. And in net, you'd have thought of Bernie first and foremost, but Wayne Stephenson played most of the team's games that year.

This is all beside the point, of course. As is the fact that the Flyers concurred with the rest of the jury that Homer's soul actually belonged to Marge, rejecting devil Flanders' claim. The only thing that matters is that the Flyers got a prominent mention in a classic early episode of The Simpsons over 30 years ago and it's still a notable tie in for fans of the team and the show, such as yours truly. That's some pretty good team lore/trivia, and it's one that's unique to the Orange and Black.