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Wings (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Wings is an American sitcom that ran on NBC
from April 19, 1990, to May 21, 1997. Starring Tim Daly and Steven Weber
as brothers Joe and Brian Hackett, the show was set at the fictional “Tom Nevers Field” airport, a small two-airline airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts
, where the Hackett brothers operated Sandpiper Air. Exteriors of Nantucket Memorial Airport
were used for the show. Interior scenes were filmed on a sound stage
at Paramount Studios
in Hollywood, California, before a live studio audience.
Other regulars included Crystal Bernard
, David Schramm
, Rebecca Schull
, Thomas Haden Church
, and Tony Shalhoub
. Farrah Forke
later joined the cast for two seasons. When Forke left, Amy Yasbeck
joined the cast for the remainder of the show's run from 1994–1997. Thomas Haden Church left the show in spring 1995 to star in the Fox
sitcom Ned and Stacey.
Wings was created and produced by Cheers
veterans David Angell
, Peter Casey
, and David Lee. The trio would later create the sitcom Frasier
, which was a spinoff of Cheers. Characters from Cheers occasionally made special guest appearances on Wings. All three series were produced by Paramount Television
.
In the United Kingdom
, the series aired on Sky One
and Paramount Comedy Channel from 1991 to 1997.
head of his family after his and his brother's mother disappeared and their father went insane. He had 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. He was played by Timothy Daly
.
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Brian is 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 because he was too unreliable, saying that he would have become an astronaut if they let him take his dates into the simulator, and has lost other lucrative opportunities due to his chronic irresponsibility. He moved to the island of Mustique
in the Caribbean
and ran charter flights there after he eloped with Joe's fiancee, Carol, which caused a rift between the brothers. When Carol left Brian for another man and the Hacketts' father died, Brian returned to Nantucket, and Joe was eventually persuaded not only to allow him to move into his house, but to give Brian a job at Sandpiper Air. Brian is a shameless womanizer 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 (see below). He was played by Steven Weber
.
drawl. In the series, it is explained that Helen's family moved to the island from Texas when she was a child. Though Helen dreams of playing the cello
in a large symphony orchestra, she runs the lunch counter in the airport terminal and never really manages to get a music career off the ground until the final episode. Occasionally Helen would also earn money teaching children the cello. A running gag in regards to her music is that bad luck would always seem to follow her in her playing. Examples of this bad luck included her having to join a string quartet
of neurotic
individuals as that was the only group at the time who would accept her. Other instances were: Helen getting accepted to a state-run symphony, only to soon learn the state legislature eliminated the funding; the Boston Symphony Orchestra
appreciated a cassette of her cello playing, but they lost the label and had no way to contact her; when she finally got a chance to play for the BSO, the plane crashed en route. Helen also constantly battles a compulsive eating habit that caused her to be morbidly obese in her youth. Though successful at losing the weight sometime after Brian eloped with Carol, it is still a specter in her life and a blight on her self-image. She has been a lifelong friend of both Hackett brothers and dreamed of marrying Joe from a young age. She was briefly married to Antonio to prevent him from being deported, but divorced early when he won the Green Card Lottery (they were supposed to be married for three years) and finally married Joe at the end of the sixth season. She was played by Crystal Bernard
.
Lowell lived on, Lowell lived with Joe and Brian for a time, where he revealed a surprising talent for cooking. After about a year, however, his eccentricities became unbearable to the Hacketts, and they kicked him out to find his own place. Eventually, Lowell is forced to leave Nantucket and enter the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a mob hit
. Although it was hard for him to leave Nantucket and the people he knew all his life, Lowell decided he would prefer to go into hiding rather than let a guilty man go free and possibly kill again. He was played by Thomas Haden Church
.
who handles the ticket counter, baggage check, and flight announcements for Sandpiper Air. Fay has buried three husbands, all with the first name George, and half-jokes of a curse in which, if she marries a man named George, he dies. In one episode she almost marries another man, until she finds out his real first name is George (he went by his middle name Lyle) and she couldn't make herself marry another George. She is a generally sweet and motherly, though slightly batty, woman who looks after the younger members of their circle as her own children. She can, however, be sweetly manipulative. Fay also has a streak in which she has touched every First Lady of the United States
since Eleanor Roosevelt
. She was played by Rebecca Schull
.
. The couple had one son, R.J. (Roy Junior), who is a homosexual. Roy is also dishonest. Examples included his forcing onto a plane a customer who has just ordered a large meal from Helen; the customer leaves his meal and the money for Helen, but Roy promptly steals both. He also established false charities to include one for his "late wife" and using the proceeds for fly-fishing trips or to subscribe to the Playboy Channel. He has an autographed picture of Richard Nixon
in his office and was once arrested for trying to sneak aboard Air Force One
to have a picture taken of himself shaking hands with President George H. W. Bush
. Also, in his office he has a poster of a woman wearing a thong bikini riding on a unicycle
. His comment was, "If that was Paris and she was holding a loaf of bread, they'd call it art." While normally conniving and arrogant, Roy does have a sense of fun: since his birthday was on February 29, 1948, a leap year
, he celebrates it only once every four years as if he were only a quarter of his real age. He drives a purple El Camino
, to which he claims he can disconnect the brake lights in order to engage in insurance fraud
by being unintentionally rear-ended by people in luxury cars. He was played by David Schramm
.
immigrant from Alekio, who owns and operates a 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). He is a big fan of the Mary Pat Lee Show. Antonio once took over for Faye at the Sandpiper ticket counter, but he caused a bit of an uproar when he bumped Boston Bruins
' star goaltender
Danny "Dead End" Connolly in favor of a standby passenger. Connolly berated him by calling him "Antwerpio Scarpukey" or "Antwerpio Sockpuppet". He was played by Tony Shalhoub
.
pilot who moves to Nantucket to start her own helicopter tour business. She had previously flown U.S. Army Apache helicopters
in Desert Storm. It was also discovered that she had posed for Playboy
. 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 Joe and 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 best to go their separate ways. Alex was played by Farrah Forke
.
), but despite having grown up there she has difficulty adjusting her upper crust
tastes and sensibilities to a working class
life on the small island. 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 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. When she first appears in the show, Casey goes by her married name of Davenport, but after she and Stuart divorce at the end of season seven, she reverts to Chappel. She was played by Amy Yasbeck
.
.
contest
sponsored by Sandpiper and demanded he be flown to Las Cruces, New Mexico
, way beyond the scope of Sandpiper's routes. In another episode, he tricked Helen into throwing him a birthday party and then fell down her stairs in order to force her to take care of him for a week. Though none of the regulars care for Carlton, he is especially disliked by Antonio, a situation made worse by the fact that Carlton repeatedly calls him "Angelo". Carlton was played by William Hickey
.
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. Mr. Hackett was played by Don Murray
.
Lou: Lou is a feisty old man who is introduced in Season Seven's "The Lyin' King". In that episode, Joe, in order to assuage his guilt over going to a strip club later, volunteers at the senior citizens' home, where he is assigned to spend time with Lou. After spending a moment complaining about how lousy nursing home life is, Lou manages to guilt trip Joe into taking him to the strip club with him. Though Joe is somewhat tolerant of Lou, Brian is decidedly less so, referring to him derisively as "Yoda
" (due to Lou's shrivelled physical appearance). Lou, in return, makes it clear he does not care for Brian either. Lou is also prone to talking about a rift he had in the past with his brother Harry, prompting his catchphrase, "He screwed me blue!" Lou was originally intended as a one-shot appearance, but proved so popular that he was brought back in the show's final season, where we are also introduced to his brother Harry, played by Abe Vigoda
. Lou was played by Phil Leeds
.
Davis Lynch: Davis is 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 eventually proposes 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 the 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
. Upon his release, Davis returns to see Helen, but while she is trying to work up the courage to tell him she has married someone else, Davis announces that he will be unable to marry her, having fallen in love with a woman who worked for the State Department and had risked her life to secure his release. Davis was played by Mark Harelik
.
Roy Biggins, Jr. (a.k.a. R.J.): Roy's only son, who is secretly gay
. 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 gay, but if Roy wins R.J. is not. 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. R.J. was played by Abraham Benrubi
.
Gail Scott: Joe's girlfriend during the first part of Season Three. They began dating while Helen was in New York. When Joe persuaded Helen to move back to Nantucket when she was unhappy in New York, he did not tell her about his relationship with Gail because of his worry that it would prevent Helen from moving back to Nantucket. Helen, convinced that she and Joe would pick up right where they left off, did come back, but soon discovered the truth about Joe and Gail. Believing that Joe intended to hurt her by not disclosing his relationship with Gail, Helen drove her jeep through Joe and Brian's office. Gail is in three episodes, but is mentioned in several others, including phone conversations. She is a journalist who constantly travels. She and Helen eventually become friends briefly, but Gail leaves Joe when she catches Joe and Helen kissing in his kitchen. Gail was played by Gretchen German
.
Sandy Cooper: Sandy is a friend of Joe's, Brian's, and Helen's 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, who gives her the nickname "Psycho Sandy". She would appear on Nantucket periodically and carefully plan her fantasy life with "Joey Bear" at moments when the two of them were alone. Such fantasies included a re-enacted high school prom
; the couple's wedding and honeymoon; and the birth of their first child. In one episode, Sandy is shown to be dating Brian, but the relationship was ultimately never pursued by the show's writers. Sandy was played by Valerie Mahaffey.
Kenny McElvey: Kenny is 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 showed Kenny also working at a fast food
joint to supplement his meager income from Sandpiper. Kenny was played by Michael Manasseri
.
Bunny Mather: Lowell's wife at the beginning of the series, from whom he separates 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 (including, at one point, Joe and Brian [her fantasy is to sleep with two co-workers]), 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. Bunny was played by Laura Innes
.
Sylvia: Roy's ex-wife who divorced Roy and married a plastic surgeon. Roy initially tells people that she was dead, but after being caught in his lie, he decides to go see her, only to find out that she has a new husband and a new life. She returns to the island again in season 5 to sleep with Roy in an attempt to get back at her current husband for having an affair. Roy finds out and decides to not go through with it.
Mary Pat Lee: A Boston
talk show host who tricks Brian onto her show in season 6 to meet up with his ex-girlfriend Alex. She returns the next season as Roy's new girlfriend, only to use the relationship to get a show topic using Joe and Helen. Played by Caroline Aaron
. One of her biggest fans is Antonio. Her budding relationship with Roy causes him to mutter, "But.....she's Mary Pat Lee....and he's.....Roy."
Edgar Clayton: Wealthy industrialist who buys Sandpiper from Joe and Brian to keep it from going under. He installs his son Cord as the new president only to see Cord fail miserably. He also fired his uncle Mike in front of his whole board of directors and has been known to give terminated employees "The Big Ugly". He was part of a three-part story arc, "Wingless", during the show's final season. Played by Mitchell Ryan
.
Eleanor "Bluto" Biggins: Roy's eccentric mother who lives in a nursing home. She is a meddlesome, domineering nag and Roy feels threatened by her. Joe, however, stood up to her and called her a "Miserable Old Gargoyle
". Eleanor was also a heavy drinker and Roy once said she had to be "cut off after six boilermakers." She was frequently mentioned, but was not seen until the final season. Played by Rose Marie
.
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 crushes on Casey, Helen, and Alex, who are all completely repulsed by his lewd remarks. Lewis was played by Gilbert Gottfried
.
Mark: He is the waiter at the Crab Restaurant. He becomes infatuated with Helen, who later pushes him toward Alex. Mark was played by John Hawkes
.
's Tom Nevers Naval Facility
, later the home of the Nantucket Hunting Association. The Club Car (a real restaurant on Nantucket) is also often featured on the show.
The airplane for the show was a 1981 Cessna 402
C one of which was C/N 402C0507 #N121PB, still flying with Cape Air.; in the pilot episode (as well as a few other episodes) the airplane was C/N 4110069 #N121PP (which was destroyed). Other Cessna 402Cs with various serials were used periodically.
, and by extension, its spin-off
Frasier
. Several episodes had tie-ins with Cheers
; Kelsey Grammer
(who was nominated for an Emmy for his guest appearance), Bebe Neuwirth
, George Wendt
, John Ratzenberger
, and Kirstie Alley
all appeared on Wings playing their Cheers characters.
and CBS DVD have released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.
piece, Piano sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959, IV. Rondo. Allegretto. 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 jazz
ed-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.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from April 19, 1990, to May 21, 1997. Starring Tim Daly and Steven Weber
Steven Weber (actor)
Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:...
as brothers Joe and Brian Hackett, the show was set at the fictional “Tom Nevers Field” airport, a small two-airline airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...
, where the Hackett brothers operated Sandpiper Air. Exteriors of Nantucket Memorial Airport
Nantucket Memorial Airport
Nantucket Memorial Airport is a public airport on the south side of the island of Nantucket in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The airport is owned by the Town of Nantucket and is located three miles southeast of the town...
were used for the show. Interior scenes were filmed on a sound stage
Sound stage
In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
at Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in Hollywood, California, before a live studio audience.
Other regulars included Crystal Bernard
Crystal Bernard
Crystal Lynn Bernard is an American actress and singer, most widely known for her seven-year-long role on the situation comedy Wings. While her main work has been on television, she has appeared in some films, and also attempted to pursue a music career as a songwriter/performer.-Early...
, David Schramm
David Schramm (Actor)
David Schramm is an American actor. He is best known for playing Roy Biggins, the portly, curmudgeonly rival airline owner in the TV series Wings. He portrayed J.J. Peachum in the Westchester production of The Threepenny Opera and starred as Mr. Mister in the John Houseman directed revival of The...
, Rebecca Schull
Rebecca Schull
Rebecca Schull is an American film and television actress.Schull studied acting in the United States and in Dublin, Ireland...
, Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church is an American actor. After co-starring in the 1990s sitcom Wings, Church became well known for his film roles, including his Academy Award-nominated performance in Sideways and his role as the Sandman in Spider-Man 3.-Early life:Church, the fourth of six children, was born...
, and Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub
Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
. Farrah Forke
Farrah Forke
Farrah Rachael Forke, sometimes credited as Farrah R. Forke , is an American actress known for her role as "Alex Lambert" on the NBC sitcom Wings, and "Mayson Drake" on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman...
later joined the cast for two seasons. When Forke left, Amy Yasbeck
Amy Yasbeck
Amy Marie Yasbeck is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Casey Chapel Davenport on the sitcom Wings from 1994-1997.-Early life:...
joined the cast for the remainder of the show's run from 1994–1997. Thomas Haden Church left the show in spring 1995 to star in the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
sitcom Ned and Stacey.
Wings was created and produced by Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
veterans David Angell
David Angell
David Lawrence Angell was an American producer of sitcoms. Angell won multiple Emmy Awards as the creator and executive producer, along with Peter Casey and David Lee, of the comedy series Frasier...
, Peter Casey
Peter Casey
Peter Casey is an American television producer and screenwriter. He was a writer for the American sitcoms The Jeffersons, Cheers and Wings, as well as being a co-creator and writer for Frasier.-External links:...
, and David Lee. The trio would later create the sitcom Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
, which was a spinoff of Cheers. Characters from Cheers occasionally made special guest appearances on Wings. All three series were produced by Paramount Television
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the series aired on Sky One
Sky One
Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...
and Paramount Comedy Channel from 1991 to 1997.
Characters
| Actor | Role | Years | Seasons | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Daly | Joe Hackett | 1990–1997 | 1–8 | 172 |
| Steven Weber Steven Weber (actor) Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:... |
Brian Hackett | |||
| Crystal Bernard Crystal Bernard Crystal Lynn Bernard is an American actress and singer, most widely known for her seven-year-long role on the situation comedy Wings. While her main work has been on television, she has appeared in some films, and also attempted to pursue a music career as a songwriter/performer.-Early... |
Helen Chappel-Hackett | |||
| David Schramm David Schramm (Actor) David Schramm is an American actor. He is best known for playing Roy Biggins, the portly, curmudgeonly rival airline owner in the TV series Wings. He portrayed J.J. Peachum in the Westchester production of The Threepenny Opera and starred as Mr. Mister in the John Houseman directed revival of The... |
Roy Biggins | |||
| Rebecca Schull Rebecca Schull Rebecca Schull is an American film and television actress.Schull studied acting in the United States and in Dublin, Ireland... |
Fay Cochran | 172 Episodes (Approx. 5 Are Credit Only) | ||
| Thomas Haden Church Thomas Haden Church Thomas Haden Church is an American actor. After co-starring in the 1990s sitcom Wings, Church became well known for his film roles, including his Academy Award-nominated performance in Sideways and his role as the Sandman in Spider-Man 3.-Early life:Church, the fourth of six children, was born... |
Lowell Mather | 1990–1995 | 1–6 (Starring), 7 (1 Episode) | 123 |
| Tony Shalhoub Tony Shalhoub Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk... |
Antonio Scarpacci | 1991–1997 | 2 (1 Episode), 3–8 (Starring) | 154 (1 Credit Only) |
| Amy Yasbeck Amy Yasbeck Amy Marie Yasbeck is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Casey Chapel Davenport on the sitcom Wings from 1994-1997.-Early life:... |
Casey Chappel-Davenport | 1994–1997 | 6–8 | 75 |
| Farrah Forke Farrah Forke Farrah Rachael Forke, sometimes credited as Farrah R. Forke , is an American actress known for her role as "Alex Lambert" on the NBC sitcom Wings, and "Mayson Drake" on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman... |
Alex Lambert | 1992–1994 | 4 (Recurring) 5 (Starring) 6 (1 Episode) | 36 (+1 Archive Footage) |
Joseph Montgomery Hackett
Joe is a highly responsible, compulsively neat pilot who owns the one-plane airline Sandpiper Air on Nantucket Island. He dreamed of becoming a pilot as a child, and became the de factoDe facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
head of his family after his and his brother's mother disappeared and their father went insane. He had 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. He was played by Timothy Daly
Timothy Daly
James Timothy "Tim" Daly is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series, as well as his recurring role of the...
.
Brian Michael Hackett
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and dropped out, was accepted into the astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
training program at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
and was soon expelled because he was too unreliable, saying that he would have become an astronaut if they let him take his dates into the simulator, and has lost other lucrative opportunities due to his chronic irresponsibility. He moved to the island of Mustique
Mustique
Mustique is a small private island in the West Indies. The island is one of a group of islands called the Grenadines, most of which form part of the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines....
in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and ran charter flights there after he eloped with Joe's fiancee, Carol, which caused a rift between the brothers. When Carol left Brian for another man and the Hacketts' father died, Brian returned to Nantucket, and Joe was eventually persuaded not only to allow him to move into his house, but to give Brian a job at Sandpiper Air. Brian is a shameless womanizer 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 (see below). He was played by Steven Weber
Steven Weber (actor)
Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:...
.
Helen Chappel Hackett
Helen is a petite blonde who, despite having lived on Nantucket for most of her life, speaks with a TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
drawl. In the series, it is explained that Helen's family moved to the island from Texas when she was a child. Though Helen dreams of playing the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
in a large symphony orchestra, she runs the lunch counter in the airport terminal and never really manages to get a music career off the ground until the final episode. Occasionally Helen would also earn money teaching children the cello. A running gag in regards to her music is that bad luck would always seem to follow her in her playing. Examples of this bad luck included her having to join a string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
of neurotic
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
individuals as that was the only group at the time who would accept her. Other instances were: Helen getting accepted to a state-run symphony, only to soon learn the state legislature eliminated the funding; the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
appreciated a cassette of her cello playing, but they lost the label and had no way to contact her; when she finally got a chance to play for the BSO, the plane crashed en route. Helen also constantly battles a compulsive eating habit that caused her to be morbidly obese in her youth. Though successful at losing the weight sometime after Brian eloped with Carol, it is still a specter in her life and a blight on her self-image. She has been a lifelong friend of both Hackett brothers and dreamed of marrying Joe from a young age. She was briefly married to Antonio to prevent him from being deported, but divorced early when he won the Green Card Lottery (they were supposed to be married for three years) and finally married Joe at the end of the sixth season. She was played by Crystal Bernard
Crystal Bernard
Crystal Lynn Bernard is an American actress and singer, most widely known for her seven-year-long role on the situation comedy Wings. While her main work has been on television, she has appeared in some films, and also attempted to pursue a music career as a songwriter/performer.-Early...
.
Lowell Mather
(Season 1–6) Lowell is a dim, eccentric mechanic/handyman who works at the airport and is available to everyone when repairs are needed. He claims that, while he is not an orphan, his brother is. 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. After Brian sank the houseboatHouseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
Lowell lived on, Lowell lived with Joe and Brian for a time, where he revealed a surprising talent for cooking. After about a year, however, his eccentricities became unbearable to the Hacketts, and they kicked him out to find his own place. Eventually, Lowell is forced to leave Nantucket and enter the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a mob hit
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
. Although it was hard for him to leave Nantucket and the people he knew all his life, Lowell decided he would prefer to go into hiding rather than let a guilty man go free and possibly kill again. He was played by Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church is an American actor. After co-starring in the 1990s sitcom Wings, Church became well known for his film roles, including his Academy Award-nominated performance in Sideways and his role as the Sandman in Spider-Man 3.-Early life:Church, the fourth of six children, was born...
.
Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran
Fay, Joe's only employee besides Brian, is a flight attendantFlight attendant
Flight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
who handles the ticket counter, baggage check, and flight announcements for Sandpiper Air. Fay has buried three husbands, all with the first name George, and half-jokes of a curse in which, if she marries a man named George, he dies. In one episode she almost marries another man, until she finds out his real first name is George (he went by his middle name Lyle) and she couldn't make herself marry another George. She is a generally sweet and motherly, though slightly batty, woman who looks after the younger members of their circle as her own children. She can, however, be sweetly manipulative. Fay also has a streak in which she has touched every First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
since Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
. She was played by Rebecca Schull
Rebecca Schull
Rebecca Schull is an American film and television actress.Schull studied acting in the United States and in Dublin, Ireland...
.
Roy Peterman Biggins
Roy is the owner of Aeromass, the only other airline on Nantucket and, with seven planes, a larger business than Sandpiper, although Roy had been unable to break into the lucrative business of charter flights. Generally competitive, arrogant and unpleasant, and morbidly obese, Roy often belittles Joe for having a small-time operation and mocks Joe's business skills. Despite this, Roy feels threatened by Joe's presence as a competitor, and makes numerous attempts to either buy Sandpiper or put it out of business. Roy was married to a woman named Sylvia; for several years he claimed that she died, but it was later revealed that actually she had left him and is now living in Boston and married to a wealthy plastic surgeon. Sylvia was played by Concetta TomeiConcetta Tomei
Concetta Tomei is an American theatre, film and television character actress, best known for her roles as Maj. Lila Garreau on the ABC series China Beach and as Lynda Hansen on the NBC series Providence ....
. The couple had one son, R.J. (Roy Junior), who is a homosexual. Roy is also dishonest. Examples included his forcing onto a plane a customer who has just ordered a large meal from Helen; the customer leaves his meal and the money for Helen, but Roy promptly steals both. He also established false charities to include one for his "late wife" and using the proceeds for fly-fishing trips or to subscribe to the Playboy Channel. He has an autographed picture of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in his office and was once arrested for trying to sneak aboard Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign of any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. In common parlance the term refers to those Air Force aircraft whose primary mission is to transport the president; however, any U.S. Air Force aircraft...
to have a picture taken of himself shaking hands with President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. Also, in his office he has a poster of a woman wearing a thong bikini riding on a unicycle
Unicycle
A unicycle is a human-powered, single-track vehicle with one wheel. Unicycles resemble bicycles, but are less complex.-History:One theory of the advent of the unicycle stems from the popularity of the penny-farthing during the late 19th century...
. His comment was, "If that was Paris and she was holding a loaf of bread, they'd call it art." While normally conniving and arrogant, Roy does have a sense of fun: since his birthday was on February 29, 1948, a leap year
Leap year
A leap year is a year containing one extra day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year...
, he celebrates it only once every four years as if he were only a quarter of his real age. He drives a purple El Camino
Chevrolet El Camino
The Chevrolet El Camino is a coupe utility vehicle produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1959–1960 model years in response to the success of its rival, Ford Ranchero. Production resumed for the 1964–1977 model years based on the Chevelle platform, and continued for the...
, to which he claims he can disconnect the brake lights in order to engage in insurance fraud
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud is any act committed with the intent to fraudulently obtain payment from an insurer.Insurance fraud has existed ever since the beginning of insurance as a commercial enterprise. Fraudulent claims account for a significant portion of all claims received by insurers, and cost billions...
by being unintentionally rear-ended by people in luxury cars. He was played by David Schramm
David Schramm (Actor)
David Schramm is an American actor. He is best known for playing Roy Biggins, the portly, curmudgeonly rival airline owner in the TV series Wings. He portrayed J.J. Peachum in the Westchester production of The Threepenny Opera and starred as Mr. Mister in the John Houseman directed revival of The...
.
Antonio V. Scarpacci
(Season 3–8) An ItalianItalian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
immigrant from Alekio, who owns and operates a taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
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
Waiter
Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
, 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). He is a big fan of the Mary Pat Lee Show. Antonio once took over for Faye at the Sandpiper ticket counter, but he caused a bit of an uproar when he bumped Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
' star goaltender
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
Danny "Dead End" Connolly in favor of a standby passenger. Connolly berated him by calling him "Antwerpio Scarpukey" or "Antwerpio Sockpuppet". He was played by Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub
Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
.
Alex Lambert
(Season 4–5) Alex is a helicopterHelicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
pilot who moves to Nantucket to start her own helicopter tour business. She had previously flown U.S. Army Apache helicopters
AH-64 Apache
The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the...
in Desert Storm. It was also discovered that she had posed for Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
. 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 Joe and 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 best to go their separate ways. Alex was played by Farrah Forke
Farrah Forke
Farrah Rachael Forke, sometimes credited as Farrah R. Forke , is an American actress known for her role as "Alex Lambert" on the NBC sitcom Wings, and "Mayson Drake" on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman...
.
Cassandra "Casey" (Davenport) Chappel
(Season 6–8) Casey is Helen's older sister. She returns to Nantucket after being abandoned by her husband, Stuart Davenport (played by John RitterJohn Ritter
Jonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively...
), but despite having grown up there she has difficulty adjusting her upper crust
Upper crust
"The upper crust" is an English-language idiom that refers to a society's social or economic elites. It is derived from the housekeeping practices of the pre-industrialization British gentry, whose servants baked bread for the household but were permitted to eat only the pan-scorched bottom...
tastes and sensibilities to a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
life on the small island. 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 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. When she first appears in the show, Casey goes by her married name of Davenport, but after she and Stuart divorce at the end of season seven, she reverts to Chappel. She was played by Amy Yasbeck
Amy Yasbeck
Amy Marie Yasbeck is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Casey Chapel Davenport on the sitcom Wings from 1994-1997.-Early life:...
.
Budd Bronski
(Season 7) Budd is a retired US Marine who is hired to replace Lowell. He is extremely jumpy and insecure, and haunted by an incident in his past in which an aircraft he worked on crashed, resulting in his facing a court martial. Though the military cleared him of charges, Budd continues to blame himself for the incident until Brian convinces him to let it go. Occasionally Budd would astonish everyone with magic tricks, but otherwise had difficulty adjusting to the social scene. After being introduced early in the seventh season, Budd disappears toward the end of the season and is never mentioned again. He was played by Brian HaleyBrian Haley
Brian Haley is an American actor and stand-up comedian. His stand-up act is characterized by playing his all-American looks against manic outbursts and absurd situations...
.
Recurring characters
Carlton Blanchard: He is 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 it?" and "If a monkey were to bite you, what kind of drugs do you suppose they'd give you?". He annoyed Joe, Brian, Lowell and Antonio when he won a charityCharity (practice)
The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...
contest
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...
sponsored by Sandpiper and demanded he be flown to Las Cruces, New Mexico
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Las Cruces, also known as "The City of the Crosses", is the county seat of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 97,618 in 2010 according to the 2010 Census, making it the second largest city in the state....
, way beyond the scope of Sandpiper's routes. In another episode, he tricked Helen into throwing him a birthday party and then fell down her stairs in order to force her to take care of him for a week. Though none of the regulars care for Carlton, he is especially disliked by Antonio, a situation made worse by the fact that Carlton repeatedly calls him "Angelo". Carlton was played by William Hickey
William Hickey (actor)
William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston 1985 film Prizzi's Honor, as well as the voice of Dr...
.
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
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
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
Reverse psychology
Reverse psychology is a technique involving the advocacy of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what actually is desired: the opposite of what is suggested...
to convince Joe to make peace with Brian. Mr. Hackett was played by Don Murray
Don Murray (actor)
Donald Patrick "Don" Murray is an American actor.-Early life and career:Murray was born in Hollywood, California on July 31, 1929, the only child of Dennis Aloisius, a Broadway dance director and stage manager and Ethel Murray, a former Ziegfeld performer...
.
Lou: Lou is a feisty old man who is introduced in Season Seven's "The Lyin' King". In that episode, Joe, in order to assuage his guilt over going to a strip club later, volunteers at the senior citizens' home, where he is assigned to spend time with Lou. After spending a moment complaining about how lousy nursing home life is, Lou manages to guilt trip Joe into taking him to the strip club with him. Though Joe is somewhat tolerant of Lou, Brian is decidedly less so, referring to him derisively as "Yoda
Yoda
Yoda is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, appearing in the second and third original films, as well as all three prequel trilogy films. A renowned Jedi master, Yoda made his first on-screen appearance in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back where he is responsible for...
" (due to Lou's shrivelled physical appearance). Lou, in return, makes it clear he does not care for Brian either. Lou is also prone to talking about a rift he had in the past with his brother Harry, prompting his catchphrase, "He screwed me blue!" Lou was originally intended as a one-shot appearance, but proved so popular that he was brought back in the show's final season, where we are also introduced to his brother Harry, played by Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda is an American movie and television actor. Vigoda is well known for his portrayal of Sal Tessio in The Godfather, and for his portrayal of Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on the sitcom television series Barney Miller from 1975–1977 and on its spinoff show Fish that aired from February 1977 to...
. Lou was played by Phil Leeds
Phil Leeds
Phil Leeds was a Jewish-American Hollywood character actor. Leeds' bulging eyes, rubbery face and wizened features made him a distinctive presence.-Biography:...
.
Davis Lynch: Davis is 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 eventually proposes 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 the wake of a coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
to salvage major investments he had in the company. He was then placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
by the military junta
Military junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...
. Upon his release, Davis returns to see Helen, but while she is trying to work up the courage to tell him she has married someone else, Davis announces that he will be unable to marry her, having fallen in love with a woman who worked for the State Department and had risked her life to secure his release. Davis was played by Mark Harelik
Mark Harelik
Mark Harelik is an American television, film, and stage actor, as well as a playwright.-Career:Harelik has appeared in the films Election, Jurassic Park III and For Your Consideration; He was the voice of Rogers in The Swan Princess, and he has played parts on the television sitcoms Seinfeld,...
.
Roy Biggins, Jr. (a.k.a. R.J.): Roy's only son, who is secretly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
. Roy had trained R.J how to do "guy stuff" such as playing football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
. The first time he is shown is when he is a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
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 gay, but if Roy wins R.J. is not. 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. R.J. was played by Abraham Benrubi
Abraham Benrubi
Abraham Rubin Hercules Benrubi is an American character actor known for his appearances as Jerry Markovic on the long-running U.S...
.
Gail Scott: Joe's girlfriend during the first part of Season Three. They began dating while Helen was in New York. When Joe persuaded Helen to move back to Nantucket when she was unhappy in New York, he did not tell her about his relationship with Gail because of his worry that it would prevent Helen from moving back to Nantucket. Helen, convinced that she and Joe would pick up right where they left off, did come back, but soon discovered the truth about Joe and Gail. Believing that Joe intended to hurt her by not disclosing his relationship with Gail, Helen drove her jeep through Joe and Brian's office. Gail is in three episodes, but is mentioned in several others, including phone conversations. She is a journalist who constantly travels. She and Helen eventually become friends briefly, but Gail leaves Joe when she catches Joe and Helen kissing in his kitchen. Gail was played by Gretchen German
Gretchen German
Gretchen German is a Canadian-born American actress who has appeared in both film and television. She is best known for her guest roles in an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and as Joe Hackett's girlfriend, Gail, during the third season of Wings...
.
Sandy Cooper: Sandy is a friend of Joe's, Brian's, and Helen's 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, who gives her the nickname "Psycho Sandy". She would appear on Nantucket periodically and carefully plan her fantasy life with "Joey Bear" at moments when the two of them were alone. Such fantasies included a re-enacted high school prom
Prom
In the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...
; the couple's wedding and honeymoon; and the birth of their first child. In one episode, Sandy is shown to be dating Brian, but the relationship was ultimately never pursued by the show's writers. Sandy was played by Valerie Mahaffey.
Kenny McElvey: Kenny is an 18-year-old who becomes Sandpiper's backup pilot during a second season story arc where Joe is grounded for hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
. 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 showed Kenny also working at a fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
joint to supplement his meager income from Sandpiper. Kenny was played by Michael Manasseri
Michael Manasseri
Michael Manasseri is an American actor and film director.-Biography:He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Wyatt Donnelly in the TV series Weird Science . Manasseri also had a recurring role in the second season of the NBC sitcom Wings as young pilot Kenny McElvey...
.
Bunny Mather: Lowell's wife at the beginning of the series, from whom he separates 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 (including, at one point, Joe and Brian [her fantasy is to sleep with two co-workers]), 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. Bunny was played by Laura Innes
Laura Innes
Laura Elizabeth Innes is an American actress and director, probably best known for her role as Dr. Kerry Weaver on ER, and most recently, as Sophia on the NBC thriller The Event.-Career:...
.
Sylvia: Roy's ex-wife who divorced Roy and married a plastic surgeon. Roy initially tells people that she was dead, but after being caught in his lie, he decides to go see her, only to find out that she has a new husband and a new life. She returns to the island again in season 5 to sleep with Roy in an attempt to get back at her current husband for having an affair. Roy finds out and decides to not go through with it.
Mary Pat Lee: A Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
talk show host who tricks Brian onto her show in season 6 to meet up with his ex-girlfriend Alex. She returns the next season as Roy's new girlfriend, only to use the relationship to get a show topic using Joe and Helen. Played by Caroline Aaron
Caroline Aaron
Caroline Aaron is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her role as acid-tongued talk show host Mary Pat Lee on Wings.-Personal life:...
. One of her biggest fans is Antonio. Her budding relationship with Roy causes him to mutter, "But.....she's Mary Pat Lee....and he's.....Roy."
Edgar Clayton: Wealthy industrialist who buys Sandpiper from Joe and Brian to keep it from going under. He installs his son Cord as the new president only to see Cord fail miserably. He also fired his uncle Mike in front of his whole board of directors and has been known to give terminated employees "The Big Ugly". He was part of a three-part story arc, "Wingless", during the show's final season. Played by Mitchell Ryan
Mitchell Ryan
Mitchell Ryan is an American actor most recently known for playing Edward Montgomery on the sitcom Dharma & Greg. He also worked with his on-screen wife from Dharma & Greg, Susan Sullivan, in the short-lived series Julie Farr, M.D..Ryan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville,...
.
Eleanor "Bluto" Biggins: Roy's eccentric mother who lives in a nursing home. She is a meddlesome, domineering nag and Roy feels threatened by her. Joe, however, stood up to her and called her a "Miserable Old Gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
". Eleanor was also a heavy drinker and Roy once said she had to be "cut off after six boilermakers." She was frequently mentioned, but was not seen until the final season. Played by Rose Marie
Rose Marie
Rose Marie is an American actress. As a child performer she had a successful singing career as Baby Rose Marie....
.
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 crushes on Casey, Helen, and Alex, who are all completely repulsed by his lewd remarks. Lewis was played by Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried is an American actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his trademark comedic persona of speaking in a loud, grating tone of voice. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin , and...
.
Mark: He is the waiter at the Crab Restaurant. He becomes infatuated with Helen, who later pushes him toward Alex. Mark was played by John Hawkes
John Hawkes (actor)
John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...
.
Locale
The series takes place primarily at the fictional Nantucket airport Tom Nevers Field. Until 1976, the real-life island was the site of the United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
's Tom Nevers Naval Facility
Tom Nevers Naval Facility
Tom Nevers Naval Facility was a U.S. Navy submarine listening post active from 1955-1976. It later became home to the Nantucket Hunting Association.- History :...
, later the home of the Nantucket Hunting Association. The Club Car (a real restaurant on Nantucket) is also often featured on the show.
The airplane for the show was a 1981 Cessna 402
Cessna 402
The Cessna 401 and 402 are series of 6 to 10 place, light twin, piston engine aircraft. This line was manufactured by Cessna from 1966 to 1985 under the name Utiliner and Businessliner...
C one of which was C/N 402C0507 #N121PB, still flying with Cape Air.; in the pilot episode (as well as a few other episodes) the airplane was C/N 4110069 #N121PP (which was destroyed). Other Cessna 402Cs with various serials were used periodically.
Cheers tie-ins
Although not a spin-off, Wings takes place in the same universe as CheersCheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, and by extension, its spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
. Several episodes had tie-ins with Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
; Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier...
(who was nominated for an Emmy for his guest appearance), Bebe Neuwirth
Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth is an American actress, singer and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife , on both the TV sitcom Cheers , and its spin-off Frasier...
, George Wendt
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the roles of Norm Peterson and Tug Clarke on the television shows Cheers and Modern Men.-Early life:...
, John Ratzenberger
John Ratzenberger
John Deszo Ratzenberger is an American actor, voice actor, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his role as Cliff Clavin in Cheers.-Early life:...
, and Kirstie Alley
Kirstie Alley
Kirstie Louise Alley is an American actress known for her role in the TV show Cheers, in which she played Rebecca Howe from 1987–1993, winning an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1991...
all appeared on Wings playing their Cheers characters.
- Cliff ClavinCliff ClavinClifford C. Clavin, Jr. is a character on the American television show Cheers, co-created and portrayed by John Ratzenberger.- Character history :...
and Norm PetersonNorm PetersonHillary Norman "Norm" Peterson is a character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by George Wendt. Norm's real first name was revealed to be Hillary, named after his grandfather....
visit Nantucket in the season two episode "The Story of Joe". Their goal is ostensibly to go fishing, but the two never seem to get any farther than the island's drinking establishments.
- FrasierFrasier CraneFrasier W. Crane, M.D., Ph.D., A.P.A. is a fictional character on the American television sitcoms Frasier and Cheers. He was played by Kelsey Grammer for 20 years, tying the record for the longest-running character on prime-time American television, which was set by James Arness, who played Marshal...
and Lilith Crane were the focus of the season three episode, "Planes, Trains, & Visiting Cranes." In the episode, Frasier and a skeptical Lilith come to Nantucket to put on a motivational seminar, but run into opposition from Helen Chappel, a dissatisfied former customer of Frasier's program. In the Cheers episode "License to Hill", which aired the same night as that particular Wings episode, Frasier even mentions that he and Lilith are going to Nantucket, foreshadowing their crossover appearance. (An additional note: Nine years later, at the beginning of the Frasier episode "Bla-Z Boy," NilesNiles CraneNiles Crane, M.D., Ph.D., A.P.A. is a fictional character on the American sitcom Frasier, a spin-off of the popular show Cheers. He was portrayed by David Hyde Pierce. Niles is the younger brother of Dr. Frasier Crane, the son of Det. Martin Crane and Dr. Hester Crane, husband of Daphne Moon,...
plays the Wings theme on the piano.)
- Rebecca HoweRebecca HoweRebecca Howe-Santry is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Kirstie Alley. She is introduced after Shelley Long, who played overeducated barmaid Diane Chambers, left to pursue a movie career...
has a cameo appearance in the season four episode "I Love Brian", whose plot revolves around Brian's attempt to infiltrate a post-concert party in Clint BlackClint BlackClint Patrick Black is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and occasional actor. Signed to RCA Records in 1989, Black made his debut with his Killin' Time album, which produced four straight Number One singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country...
's hotel room. As Rebecca is seen being asked to leave by Black's bouncer, she begs Black to come to the bar in Boston where she works so she can prove to the others there that she knows him. Black responds, "Maybe next year", causing Rebecca to exclaim right before she is kicked out of the party, "But none of you know where we're going to be next year!", a reference to how Cheers was in its final season on television.
- In the season three episode "Four Dates That Will Love in Infamy," Brian's date, a stock broker named Barbara, is played by Peri GilpinPeri GilpinPeri Gilpin is an American actress known for her role as Roz Doyle in the U.S. television series Frasier from 1993 until 2004. Along with the principal cast, Gilpin won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2000...
. Gilpin also played Roz DoyleRoz DoyleRosalinda "Roz" Doyle is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Frasier. She is played by Peri Gilpin. Roz is the producer of Frasier Crane's Dr. Frasier Crane Show on KACL 780AM...
, Frasier Crane's radio producer in "Frasier."
Awards
The list of awards and nominations for Wings| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Emmy Award Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various... |
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. The award was first presented in 1953, but was not awarded again until 1959... |
Tyne Daly Tyne Daly Tyne Daly is an American stage and screen actress, widely known for her work as Detective Mary Beth Lacey in the television series Cagney & Lacey and as Maxine Gray in the television series Judging Amy. She is also known for her role as Alice Henderson in television series Christy... |
|
| Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.-1980s:Outstanding Guest Performer In A Comedy Series*1986: Roscoe Lee Browne – The Cosby Show as Dr... |
Kelsey Grammer Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier... |
|||
| BMI Broadcast Music Incorporated Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed... Film & TV Awards |
BMI TV Music Award | Bruce Miller Bruce Miller Bruce Miller may refer to:*Bruce Miller *Bruce Miller *Bruce Miller , infielder for the San Francisco Giants baseball team*Bruce Miller , fullback for the San Francisco 49ers... |
||
| 1994 | BMI Broadcast Music Incorporated Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed... Film & TV Awards |
BMI TV Music Award | Bruce Miller Bruce Miller Bruce Miller may refer to:*Bruce Miller *Bruce Miller *Bruce Miller , infielder for the San Francisco Giants baseball team*Bruce Miller , fullback for the San Francisco 49ers... |
|
| 1995 | American Cinema Editors American Cinema Editors Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E... |
Best Edited Half-Hour Series for Television | Darryl Bates | |
| 1996 | Emmy Award Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various... |
Outstanding Makeup for a Series | Tommy Cole, Ken Wensevic | |
| 1997 | GLAAD Media Award | Outstanding TV – Individual Episode | ||
| 2005 | TV Land Award | Favorite Airborne Character(s) | Tim Daly, Steven Weber Steven Weber (actor) Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:... |
|
DVD releases
Paramount Home EntertainmentParamount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
and CBS DVD have released the entire series on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete First and Second Seasons | 28 | May 23, 2006 |
| The Complete Third Season | 22 | October 24, 2006 |
| The Fourth Season | 22 | May 15, 2007 |
| The Fifth Season | 24 | November 6, 2007 |
| The Sixth Season | 26 | March 25, 2008 |
| The Seventh Season | 26 | September 9, 2008 |
| The Eighth Season | 24 | April 14, 2009 |
Music
The theme was a short version of a Franz SchubertFranz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
piece, Piano sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959, IV. Rondo. Allegretto. 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 jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
ed-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
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
, though it returned for the series finale in 1997.
External links
- http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N121PB.html