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Wings is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from April 19, 1990 to May 14, 1997. The show starred Timothy Daly and Steven Weber as brothers Joe and Brian Hackett. The show was set at the fictional Tom Nevers Field, a small airport on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the brothers operated Sandpiper Airlines. Exteriors of the actual Nantucket Memorial Airport were used in the TV show. Interior scenes were, of course, filmed on a sound stage. Other regulars include Crystal Bernard, David Schramm, Rebecca Schull, Thomas Haden Church, and Tony Shalhoub. Farrah Forke later joined the cast for a two-season run. When Forke left, Amy Yasbeck joined the cast for the remainder of the show's run. Thomas Haden Church ultimately left the show in the spring of 1995 to star in the Fox sitcom Ned and Stacey.
Although the show was derisively referred to as "Cheers in an airport" or "Taxi in an airport"[citation needed], it gained a loyal following and was a consistent ratings winner throughout its life. Through repeat airings on the USA Network and Nick at Nite, many have rediscovered the show, praising its writing quality and character development.
Main charactersJoe Hackett: a neurotic, compulsively neat pilot who runs a charter flight business called "Sandpiper Air" on Nantucket Island. He dreamed of becoming a pilot as a child, and became the de facto head of the family after their mother disappeared and their father lost his mind. He initially intended to launch Sandpiper Air with his fiancee Carol behind the ticket counter, but his brother Brian ran off with her, causing a falling out between the brothers. The Hackett family moved to Nantucket when Joe and Brian were children. Played by Timothy Daly. Brian Hackett: the more carefree of the Hackett brothers. His irresponsibility is often a source of consternation to older brother Joe: he had a "free ride" to Princeton and dropped out, was accepted into the astronaut training program at NASA and was soon expelled, and has lost other lucrative opportunities due to his feckless nature. He moved to Mustique, South Carolina and ran charter flights there after he eloped with his brother Joe's fiancee, Carol, which (as stated above) caused a rift between the brothers. When Carol left Brian, he returned to Nantucket, and Joe was eventually persuaded to allow him not only to move into his house but to give Brian a job at Sandpiper Air. Brian is a shameless ladies' man for most of the series, but has two significant relationships: the first with helicopter pilot Alex Lambert, and then with Casey Chappel-Davenport, Helen's older sister. Played by Steven Weber.
Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran: Joe's only employee besides Brian. Fay is an ex-stewardess who handles the ticket counter, baggage check, and flight announcements for Sandpiper Air. Fay has buried three husbands (all with the first name George, which she said is a curse that occurs if she marries a man named George; he dies) and is a generally sweet, motherly (though slightly batty) woman who looks after the younger members of their circle as her own children, with the possible exception of Roy Biggins, for whom she often has little patience due to his generally contemptible behavior. One episode dealt with Fay threatening to quit when Joe denied her a raise, then shortly afterwards treated himself and Brian to bomber jackets. Played by Rebecca Schull. Roy Biggins: the owner of Aeromass, the only other airline on Nantucket, and a larger business than Sandpiper, although Roy had been unable to break into the lucrative business of charter flights. Generally competitive, arrogant and unpleasant, Roy often belittles Joe for having a small-time operation, mocks Joe's business skills, and generally implies by his comments that Joe is inferior to him altogether. Despite this, Roy obviously feels threatened by Joe's presence as a competitor, and makes numerous attempts to either buy Sandpiper or put them out of business. Roy was married once to a woman named Sylvia; for several years he claimed that she died, but it was later revealed that she had actually left him, and is now living in Boston and married to a wealthy plastic surgeon. Sylvia was played by Concetta Tomei. The couple had one son, R.J. (Roy Junior), who is a homosexual. Roy also has gained a reputation for dishonesty. Examples included him forcing a customer on a plane who just ordered a large meal from Helen. The customer leaves his meal and the money for Helen; to which Roy promptly steals both. Other examples of Roy's dishonesty were establishing false charities to include one for his "late wife", to which he would use the proceeds for fly-fishing trips or to subscribe to the Playboy Channel. While normally conniving and arrogant, Roy does have a sense of fun: since his birthday was on February 29th, 1948, he celebrates it only once every four years as if he were only a quarter of his real age. Drives a purple El Camino. Played by David Schramm. Antonio Scarpacci: (season 3-8) an Italian immigrant who provides taxi service to and from the airport. Antonio is mild-mannered, deferential, and hopelessly romantic; he falls head-over-heels for Helen's older sister Casey when she returns to Nantucket, though his feelings are not reciprocated. Antonio was originally a waiter, and made a guest appearance in the second season in this role before becoming an official cast member in the third season (by which time he had changed professions). Played by Tony Shalhoub. Lowell Mather: (season 1-6) a rather dim-witted mechanic/handyman who works at the airport and is available to everyone when repairs are needed. He was married to a woman named Bunny with whom he had several children, but they divorced when Lowell learned that Bunny was sleeping around. He lived with Joe and Brian for a time after Brian sank the boat he lives on, when it was revealed that Lowell is a surprisingly talented cook and fluent in French. After about a year, however, his eccentricities became unbearable to the Hacketts, and they kicked him out to find his own place. It may have also been possible that Lowell has military experience as he is a skilled mechanic and had also drawn out a hostage negotiation and rescue plan when Antonio was captured at gunpoint. Eventually, Lowell is forced to leave Nantucket and enter the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a mob hit. Played by Thomas Haden Church. Alex Lambert: (season 4-5) a helicopter pilot who moves to Nantucket to start her own helicopter tour business. Though she initially rebuffs the amorous attentions of both Hackett brothers, she eventually falls for Brian's boyish charms. She and Brian live together briefly, but after Brian spends a wild night in New York with an old friend, Alex throws him out of the apartment and leaves Nantucket for good. She returns a season later to resolve some of the bitterness in their breakup; she and Brian briefly get back together before they both finally decide it is best to go their separate ways. Played by Farrah Forke. Casey (Davenport) Chappel: (season 6-8) Helen's older sister. Casey returns to Nantucket after being abandoned by her husband Stuart, but she has difficulty adjusting her upper crust tastes and sensibilities to a working class life on the small island. (This is again at odds with the fact that she grew up on the island along with her sister Helen; she often behaves as though she is totally unfamiliar with life on Nantucket.) Though Antonio falls madly in love with her, Casey takes little notice of him. After she and Brian spend the better part of a season sniping at each other, they end up having sex the night before Joe and Helen's wedding. Afterward they find themselves unable to stay away from each other, having a passionate sexual affair; while Joe and Helen are on their honeymoon, Casey's bra lands on the hearth of the lit fireplace and leads to Helen's house burning down. Her relationship with Brian cools after that, but they maintain a friendship, with occasional hints of a possible further romance. Played by Amy Yasbeck. Budd Bronski: (season 7) an ex-military man who is hired to replace Lowell. He is extremely jumpy and insecure, and somewhat haunted by an incident in his past in which an aircraft he worked on ended up crashing. Though the military officially cleared him of charges, Budd continued to blame himself for the incident until Brian convinced him to let it go. After being introduced early in the seventh season, Budd disappears toward the end of the season and is never mentioned again. Some viewers opine that the character was created because the writers had already written Lowell into some scripts, and inserted Budd to provide a quick solution to re-writing the shows. Played by Brian Haley. Recurring charactersBunny Mather: Lowell's wife at the beginning of the series, whom he ends up separating from and eventually divorces when he learns she sleeps with other men. Bunny's promiscuity is her primary gag; she flirts with nearly every man she encounters, and ends up sleeping with many of them. Not even the divorce was enough to convince Bunny to stay away, as the episode that showed the divorce had Lowell and Bunny sleeping together that very same night. Played by Laura Innes. Carlton Blanchard: an old man with a high-pitched nasal voice whose outwardly meek yet privately demanding behavior causes everyone who meets him to shudder at his coming. He is also known for asking bizarre questions such as "If you were to carpet Florida, how long would it take to vacuum?". Played by William Hickey. Lewis Blanchard: Carlton's equally irritating nephew. He is very rude and abrasive, and makes only the slightest of attempts to hide his wish for Carlton to die so he can inherit his money. He seems to have a crush on Casey, who is completely repulsed by his lewd remarks. Played by Gilbert Gottfried. Davis Lynch: a businessman whom Joe flies to Nantucket to invest in the airline. Though he rejects Joe's offer (and ends up investing the money in Roy's airline), he ends up dating Helen and finally proposing to her. Helen accepts, but ends up leaving him for Joe. Toward the end of the series, Helen reveals she never broke off the engagement. She had figured he was gone after he was skirted off to Burma in wake of a coup d'etat to salvage major investments he had in the company. He was then placed under house arrest by the military junta. Davis comes to break off the engagement to Helen, revealing he has fallen in love with a lady who worked for the State Department and had risked her life to secure his release. Played by Mark Harelik. Sandy Cooper: a friend of Joe, Brian, and Helen from high school. She has an insane obsessive crush on Joe, but he is unable to convince anyone else of this because she acts completely normal except when she is alone with Joe. She would appear at different points and carefully plan her "life with Joe" at points when he is alone. Such life points included a reenacted high school prom, wedding, and first baby. Played by Valerie Mahaffey. Roy Biggins, Jr. (a.k.a. R.J.): Roy's only son, and the pride of his life. Roy had trained R.J how to do "guy stuff" such as playing football. The first time he is shown is when he is a high school student taking cello lessons from Helen as an extracurricular activity. R.J. reveals to everyone he is a homosexual. Roy does not take this news well and challenges him to a game of one-on-one basketball on the condition that if R.J. wins he is allowed to be homosexual, but if Roy wins R.J. is not allowed to be homosexual. R.J. wins game after game against Roy, but Roy refuses to give up. R.J. would return much later in the series after being estranged from Roy for a long time. He had since graduated from law school and was looking to take the Massachusetts Bar Exam. Roy is proud of R.J and his accomplishments, but only so long as R.J.'s homosexuality isn't discussed. Played by Abraham Benrubi. Kenny McElvey: an 18-year-old who becomes Sandpiper's backup pilot during a second season story arc where Joe is grounded for hypertension. The comedic focus of the character was his youth and relative inexperience, but he was the most qualified out of the applicants for Joe's replacement (which did not consist of a very large pool). When Joe began flying again in the third season, Kenny disappeared from the series without explanation and was never mentioned again. One episode had Kenny also working at a fast food joint to supplement his income as Joe gave Kenny a meager salary, so it may have been possible he started working full time for the restaurant or enrolled in college to become a more experienced pilot. Played by Michael Manasseri. Mr. Hackett: Joe and Brian's deceased father who had taken it hard when his wife, and the boys' mother, walked out on the family. He was committed to a mental institution and had died just prior to the beginning of the series. He had a good sense of humor, and in the series premiere had his will required to be read to both Brian and Joe together, which required them to reunite after their six year estrangement. He willed them a key which opened up the lockbox to another key, then another, which had Joe and Brian go to Boston then back to Nantucket airport where they ended up finding a suitcase full of spring snakes and a photograph of them as children, encouraging them to always value their kinship. After Brian and Casey burn down Joe's house, Joe, fed up with Brian's string of irresponsible behavior, fires him from Sandpiper and orders him never to speak to him again. The ghost of his father appears and uses reverse psychology to convince Joe to make peace with Brian. Played by Don Murray. DVD releasesThe first four seasons have been released on DVD Season releases
MusicThe theme was a short version of a Franz Schubert piece, Piano sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959, IV. Rondo. Alegretto. Schubert received screen credit as the theme composer in every episode. The opening theme heard during the first two and a half seasons was a fairly straightforward arrangement with piano and strings; a jazzed-up version of the theme was heard during the closing credits. The slow opening theme was dropped in January 1992 as episodes began using a cold open, though it returned for the series finale in 1997. Trivia
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