Classic TV Shows & the NFL & MLB

[wdm1219inpenna]

Certain vintage American TV shows put me in mind of certain MLB & NFL teams.

 

While I myself was never a huge fan, I know Seinfeld is closely associated with the New York Yankees.

 

All in The Family always reminded me of the Jets because Archie seemed to almost miss out on seeing the game on TV.  Once he even missed out on going to a game in person.

It also reminds me of the Mets because I know of a couple of episodes at least where he mentioned them too.

 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show puts me in mind of both the Minnesota Vikings & the Twins.  In an early episode they are at dinner and the weatherman Gordy talked about how he watched the Twins play last night, and Mary said "Aww Gordy, I didn't know you had twins!"

 

Mork & Mindy always puts me in mind of the Denver Broncos.

 

And for some odd reason, The Facts of Life reminds me of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I don't think the show was set anywhere near Pittsburgh though.

 

WKRP of course puts one in mind of the Cincinnati Reds & Bengals.

 

What other TV shows put you in mind of various teams?

 

[dont care]

That 70s show and the packers 

[FinsUp1214]

Seinfeld: Mets, Yankees, and Orioles. Jerry, Kramer, and Newman are all Mets fans (plus the Keith Hernandez incident!), and George is later a Yankees employee who has a close working relationship with Steinbrenner. Elaine is from Maryland and an Orioles fan (who refuses to remove her Orioles cap at a Yankees game).

 

Friends: Football Giants. Chandler, Monica, Ross, and Joey are all Giants fans and wear Giants apparel at various points throughout the series. The group also watches broadcasts of Giants games occasionally throughout the series (including once at the funeral of Ross and Monica’s grandmother).
 

The Office: Eagles and Phillies. Jim is a massive fan and calls into sports radio shows to talk about the Eagles specifically. He also gets occasionally teased by Ryan and David for being a fan of Philadelphia teams in general. Ryan also shares his first and last name with the Phillies slugger, Ryan Howard.
 

How I Met Your Mother: Vikings, Browns, and Indians; Marshall is a native of Minnesota and a Vikings fan, and Ted is a native of Ohio and a Browns/Indians fan (also, the wedding of Ted’s childhood friend in Cleveland is Browns themed).

Parks and Recreation: Colts. The series takes place in Indiana and refers to the Colts in some form often.

 

EDIT: Oh, I don’t think this counts as “Classic”, but the Documentary Now episode “Bat:censored: Valley” has a hilarious bit about how the featured cult members’ names were just rearranged Steelers legend names. 

[Will94]

Fresh Prince-Eagles

South Park-Broncos

Family Matters-Bears

[DG_ThenNowForever]

There's talk about the Bulls and Bears on Roseanne, set in Illinois.

 

Cheers famously had the Red Sox connection, but also the Celtics too.

 

The Simpsons is closely aligned with the Denver Broncos, or at least for one great episode. I think that's pretty good!

 

Finally, Tim Russert's Meet the Press and the Buffalo Bills.

[Shumway]

5 hours ago, Will94 said:

Fresh Prince-Eagles

South Park-Broncos

Family Matters-Bears

 

There's a Family Matters Halloween episode where Carl's inexplicably dressed as Emmitt Smith. At least his jersey included the 75th season patch. Eddie also had a Cowboys poster in his room in that episode. It was confusing, and a little disappointing.

 

 

 

Also, I think Home Improvement is most closely related with the Detroit Lions, but let's take a look at the Toolman's glorious collection of Motor City crewneck sweatshirts....

 

[disman00911]

Some of my TV/Movie memories are already mention, such as Seinfeld's love for the Mets and Tim Allen's love for the Detroit teams in Home Improvement. 

 

TV Shows
Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Carl loves the NY Giants
Entourage - Turtle, one of the main four characters, often wore fashion NY Yankees caps
Simpsons - the baseball players in "Homer at the Bat" (season 3); Mark McGwire (as a St. Louis Cardinal) appeared as himself in an episode. Too many other guest stars (Magic Johnson, Joe Namath, etc) to list;  Also, Homer dreamed of owning the Dallas Cowboys but ended up stuck with the Denver Broncos (You Only Move Twice)
South Park - The small Colorado town love the Broncos
Drew Carey Show - Drew loves the Browns and Indians (pretty sure he was upset when Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore in 96)
Perfect Strangers - Balki wears a Cubs jersey when he & Larry go to Wrigley Field as seen in the 3rd season intro to its last.
Friends - either Joey or Chandler is seen in a NY Rangers jersey in one of the season's intros
King of Queens - Kevin James loves the Mets and Jets
Odd Couple - Jack Klugman's character wears a Mets cap
Facts of Life - Nancy McKeon's character wore a Yankees cap in one of the episodes
Saturday Night Live - Wayne's World's - Wayne sometimes wore hockey jerseys (i.e. Blackhawks).  Also, Wayne Gretzky (when he was with the LA Kings) appeared in a Wayne's World skit.  Also the Da Bears superfans skits.
According to Jim - Jim Belushi (both in the show and in real life) is a superfan of the Cubs, Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks.

Full House -  Giants and 49ers pennants and clothes can sometimes be seen. Also, Joey wore a Red Wings shirt.

 

Movies
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - One of Ferris's friends wears a Red Wings jersey.
Naked Gun - Frank Drebin (Leslie Neilsen) as an Umpire in a game between the Mariners and Angels in the 1st Naked Gun movie.
virtually every baseball-themed movie of the 80s-90s (Major League I & II, Rookie of the Year, Angels in the Outfield, etc)

Space Jam - MJ and many other NBA players with the Looney Tunes

Sudden Death - Jean Claude Van Damme battles terrorists during the Stanley Cup finals between the Penguins and Blackhawks

 

Music Videos
Many rap artists beginning in the late 80s often wore NBA/NFL/MLB gear in their videos.  The most common teams include the Raiders, White Sox, and Yankees. 
Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit always wore a red Yankees cap backwards.

 

I can go on and on.

[BBTV]

IIRC, Boy Meets World was set in suburban Phila:

 

 

[AnPheitseog]

51 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

IIRC, Boy Meets World was set in suburban Phila:

 

 

The impression that I always got from the show is that it took place in the city and not the burbs.

[BBTV]

LOL... just look at that house and lawn.  That ain't city.

[sc49erfan15]

2 hours ago, Shumway said:

 

There's a Family Matters Halloween episode where Carl's inexplicably dressed as Emmitt Smith. At least his jersey included the 75th season patch. Eddie also had a Cowboys poster in his room in that episode. It was confusing, and a little disappointing.

 

 

I actually really like this - we see lots of examples in this thread of "show is set in a certain city, so everyone is a fan of the hometown teams." Of course, in real life, not everyone is a fan of the hometown team. It's different and more realistic.

 

I haven't watched Family Matters in years, but were the Bears featured/mentioned often? If Carl and Eddie are portrayed as hardcore Bears fans throughout the series, but they're both Cowboys fans seemingly for one episode... then yeah, that's weird.

[floydnimrod]

Obviously, It's Always Sunny calls to mind:

the Phillies (Chase Utley & Ryan Howard appearing, as well as the episodes revolving around the World Series),

the Eagles (Super Bowl episode with Jason Kelce and someone else appearing

and the Flyers (when Mac wins the radio contest)

 

I don't think Parks and Rec even actually mentions the Pacers, but Detlef Schrempf and Roy Hibbert appear a few times. They also go to Lucas Oil Stadium with Andrew Luck and a few other Colts.

 

Friends also routinely mentions Knicks games and tickets. Mike proposes to Phoebe at a Knicks or Rangers game.

 

In Letterkenny, while the teams are fictional, I've spotted Predators, Blackhawks, and Stars uniform templates in the hockey scenes.

[disman00911]

On the Family Matters example, The Cowboys were one the elite NFL teams in the 90s, winning 3 super bowls.  The Bears, on the other hand, were mediocre to downright awful, especially in the post-Ditka years.

[Shumway]

12 minutes ago, sc49erfan15 said:

 

I actually really like this - we see lots of examples in this thread of "show is set in a certain city, so everyone is a fan of the hometown teams." Of course, in real life, not everyone is a fan of the hometown team. It's different and more realistic.

 

I haven't watched Family Matters in years, but were the Bears featured/mentioned often? If Carl and Eddie are portrayed as hardcore Bears fans throughout the series, but they're both Cowboys fans seemingly for one episode... then yeah, that's weird.

 

Not sure about hardcore Bears fans, but in another episode, Steve, Grandma and Carl go to the Bears game in their Bears gear (Steve has a sweet hat that's a stuffed bear). Eddie's a peanut vendor at the stadium. Hilarity ensues. Edit: Carl DID NOT have Bears stuff on. Continuity!

 

 

And just to throw another Family Matters sports reference in there....

[charger77]

8 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

There's talk about the Bulls and Bears on Roseanne, set in Illinois.

 

Cheers famously had the Red Sox connection, but also the Celtics too.

 

The Simpsons is closely aligned with the Denver Broncos, or at least for one great episode. I think that's pretty good!

 

Finally, Tim Russert's Meet the Press and the Buffalo Bills.

 

You just don't understand football DG_ThenNowForever.

[charger77]

2 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

IIRC, Boy Meets World was set in suburban Phila:

 

 

 

 

Weird thing was with all the Philadealphia sports references in one episode he wore a Mighty Ducks jersey and not Flyers. 

[DEAD!]

Wasn't there one Family Matters episode where Carl and Harriet went to a Blackhawks game (out of scene) and when they returned home, and mentioned Harriet got hit by a puck?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

27 minutes ago, charger77 said:

 

You just don't understand football DG_ThenNowForever.

 

My favorite part of that is that episode aired the season the Broncos won the Super Bowl and the Broncos have been a generally good team sense.

 

I think the Colts or Cardinals would have been a more fitting team, but their team names don't have the same comedic cadence as the Broncos.

[FinsUp1214]

If other sports are being included, I can add a few more to the shows I mentioned.

 

Seinfeld: Knicks and Bulls (the game Jerry and George tried to attend before getting mixed up in the Donald O’Brien situation), Rangers and Devils (Puddy!)

 

Friends: Knicks and Rangers; numerous references of both and multiple scenes at games of both (Mike’s proposal to Phoebe, Ross getting hit by a wild puck, “Nacho Seat”)

 

The Office: 76ers (Jim’s Philly fandom), Penguins (inadvertently through the minor league Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins being referred to multiple times)

 

How I Met Your Mother: Cavaliers (Ted and Barney’s multiple references, especially after LeBron leaves for Miami), Canucks (Robin’s favorite team; arguably the most consistently visible or spoken reference to a sports team in the show due to her jersey collection, the Canucks section of “Robin 101”, and flashbacks to her childhood in BC).

 

Parks and Rec: Pacers (aforementioned cameos of Hibbert and Schrempf, as well as one character - I think Tom - who at one point has a picture of Pacers players in his office). 

[disman00911]

There was an episode of the Sopranos where Tony's daughter, Meadow, dates a guy from San Diego.  Briefly, the guy and Tony's mobster friends discuss the 1998 World Series, where the Yankees swept the Padres.