[unlurking]

Originally Posted by Psyko Tek

nope. the rights for the groovy hand and Smart are owned by another
the flash back sequence
No Army of Darkness

I'm going with never happened, it's a judgement call

Made me go look!

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/33...-vs-evil-dead/

Originally Posted by Raimi

“Because of some licensing issues we no longer have the rights to use the name ‘S-Mart,’ and the same goes along for anything that came out of ‘Army of Darkness’,” Sam told us. “I’m not sure exactly who owns the rights, but we’ve made sure… even gone out of our way… to make sure that will not inhibit the fans’ enjoyment of the show.”

Originally Posted by Tapert

’Army of Darkness’ doesn’t exist,” says Tapert before clarifying a bit. “Well, certainly Ash went through a bad experience, but we’re not really referencing it [on the show], specifics from that, but he certainly has that in his memory.

To me it means AoD happened, they just can't talk about it for licensing reasons.