Flyers

There Was a GREAT Ron Hextall Reference on an ABC Sitcom Last Night

By Kyle Scott

Published: Oct 2nd, 2014 · 9:37 AM EDT

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Last night on The Goldbergs – which is absolutely a sequence of words I never thought I’d write – a show set in the 80s and apparently in Philadelphia, one of the storylines centered on the dad (the guy from Curb Your Enthusiasm) taking his son to a Flyers game at the Spectrum, on December 8, 1987– the day Ron Hextall scored his first goal. Problem for the fictional pair: they left early to beat traffic and missed the goal completely, only to learn about it once they walked in the door at home.*

It’s one of the most random Philly sports references on a TV show maybe ever, made even stranger by the fact that we just posted about Hextall’s goals yesterday.

TV shows are notoriously bad at nailing the details of sporting events. So how did The Goldbergs do? Off the top of my head, what they got right:

Red Spectrum seats

Old-style Spectrum scoreboard

Gulf ad on the dasher (an actual sponsor at Flyers games, at least in recent years)

Brian Propp

Hextall’s mask!

Wrong:

Back then, professional hockey teams (rightfully) wore white at home… they were wearing orange in the show, a miscue made worse by the fact that they showed the actual goal in the episode

There were no ads behind the goal when Hextall scored

Let’s Go Flyers! chant

Anyway, good stuff. Great reference. Probably a terrible show. But great reference. Video after the jump.

*Love this storyline. I had a similar moment in 1992 when my Dad made us leave a Phillies game early because I had a spelling test the next day – a spllenig tset! – and we wound up missing a Juan Bell inside-the-park home run and a bench clearing brawl. I had never seen either at a baseball game, and I held it over my Dad’s head for years. Still do, actually. But some of my ire was dialed back when we were there for Chasey’s inside-the-parker a few years ago. Still haven’t seen a brawl.

H/T to Hall of Fame CB reader (@PhillyPartTwo)