Wings is an American television sitcom that ran for eight seasons on NBC from April 19, 1990, to May 21, 1997, for a total of 172 episodes.
The show is set at the fictional "Tom Nevers Field" airport, a small two-airline airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts (not to be confused with the actual Nantucket Memorial Airport), where brothers and pilots Joe and Brian Hackett operate Sandpiper Air, a single-plane airline. The majority of the episodes are set in the airport.
Tim Daly and Steven Weber star as Joe and Brian. Crystal Bernard plays Helen, their friend since childhood and later Joe's love interest and wife, who runs the airport's lunch counter but dreams of becoming a concert cellist. David Schramm plays Roy Biggins, who runs a competing airline, Aeromass. Rebecca Schull plays Fay, Joe and Brian's employee at Sandpiper Air. Thomas Haden Church portrayed the mechanic Lowell in the first six seasons, Tony Shalhoub was taxi driver Antonio from season 3 onward, and Farrah Forke was Brian's love interest, Alex, during seasons 4 and 5. Amy Yasbeck played Helen's sister, Casey, from season 6 through the show's end in season 8. Brian Haley briefly played the mechanic Budd, Lowell's replacement, in season 7.
Serving as the second spin-off of the sitcom Cheers, Wings was created and produced by Cheers veterans David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee. The trio later created the sitcom Frasier, which was also a spin-off of Cheers. Wings exists in the same fictional universe as Cheers, and many characters from Cheers occasionally make special guest appearances on Wings. The series was produced by Grub Street Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television.
Synopsis Brothers Joe and Brian Hackett own Sandpiper Air, a small single-plane airline on Nantucket Island. Their childhood friend, the beautiful Helen Chappel, runs the airport’s lunch counter. She has always been in love with elder brother Joe. Helen's dream is to play the cello in an orchestra and she attends auditions when not making sandwiches. Roy Biggins, the brothers' unscrupulous business rival, runs Aeromass, a larger airline in the same airport. Lowell Mather is the dimwitted airport mechanic, who maintains the planes for both Aeromass and Sandpiper. They are joined by an Italian immigrant, Antonio Scarpacci, who operates a taxi service and Fay Cochran, a sweet but scatterbrained widow who runs the Sandpiper ticket counter. Later in the series, Helen's snobbish older sister Casey moves to the island and becomes the unwitting object of Antonio's affections. She later becomes romantically involved with, and roommates with, Brian.
Cast and characters Actor Character Position Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tim Daly Joe Hackett Pilot; owner of Sandpiper Air colspan="8" Steven Weber Brian Hackett Pilot colspan="8" Crystal Bernard Helen Chappel Airport lunch counter operator colspan="8" David Schramm Roy Biggins Owner of Aeromass; City councillor colspan="8" Rebecca Schull Fay Cochran Ticket agent colspan="8" Thomas Haden Church Lowell Mather Mechanic colspan="6" colspan="1" Tony Shalhoub Antonio Scarpacci Taxi driver colspan="1" colspan="6" Farrah Forke Alex Lambert Helicopter pilot colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="2" Amy Yasbeck Various colspan="5" colspan="3"
Cast changes Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Crystal Bernard, David Schramm, and Rebecca Schull starred in all eight seasons. With a few exceptions, the cast was mostly consistent for the show's run:
Thomas Haden Church was a main cast member for the first six seasons. He left the show in spring 1995, at the end of Season 6, to star in the Fox sitcom Ned and Stacey. He later returned for a guest appearance in an episode of Season 7 to wrap up his storyline and was invited back for the finale at the end of Season 8, but declined, though he was in the audience during the taping. Tony Shalhoub joined the cast as a taxi driver in Season 3, having previously made a guest appearance as a waiter in a Season 2 episode. Shalhoub so impressed the producers with his one-shot appearance that he was signed as a main character for the rest of the show. References are made to him working as a waiter in New York City and elsewhere. Farrah Forke featured in Season 4 and became a main character in Season 5, returning briefly for a guest appearance the following season. Amy Yasbeck joined the cast in Season 6 and remained until the end of the show's run. After Thomas Haden Church's departure, Brian Haley briefly joined the cast as the new mechanic for a few episodes of Season 7 before the character was written out without explanation.
Main characters
Joe Hackett Played by Tim Daly, Joseph Montgomery Hackett is a highly responsible, compulsively neat pilot who co-owns the one-plane airline Sandpiper Air on Nantucket Island with his brother Brian. Joe is usually the straight man and the nice guy. He dreamed of becoming a pilot as a child, and became the de facto patriarch of the Hackett family after their mother disappeared, which caused their father to go insane and become institutionalized.
Joe intended to launch Sandpiper Air with his fiancée Carol behind the ticket counter, but his brother Brian ran off with her prior to the start of the series, causing a falling out between the brothers. Joe is a big sports fan, supporting the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, New England Patriots, and Boston Celtics. He grew up playing baseball and football and played on both varsity teams in high school. Joe graduated Boston College and says he pledged a fraternity, but never mentions which one. Joe eventually falls in love with Helen Chappel, his childhood friend.
Brian Hackett
Played by Steven Weber, Brian Michael Hackett is the younger and more carefree of the brothers and co-owns Sandpiper Air with Joe. His irresponsibility is often a source of consternation for Joe. He had a "free ride" to Princeton and dropped out, was accepted into the Astronaut training program at NASA and was expelled because he took dates into the simulator, and lost other lucrative opportunities due to his chronic irresponsibility.
Ironically, when Brian attempts to act responsibly it causes problems for Joe; When Brian managed to hold down a job flying charter flights on the Caribbean island of Mustique, he was emboldened to seduce Carol to run off to Mustique with him, which caused Joe to cut Brian out of his life.
When Carol leaves Brian for another man and their father Donald Hackett dies, Brian returns to Nantucket, and Joe is eventually persuaded not only to allow him to move into his house, but also to give Brian a job at Sandpiper Air (after some posthumous support from the father). Soon they become partners in the airline. Brian ultimately becomes Joe's best friend. 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.
While Wings was on the air, Weber reprised the role of Brian on an episode of Duckman titled "Role with It".
Helen Chappel Played by Crystal Bernard, Helen is a petite blonde who speaks with a Texas drawl despite having lived on Nantucket for most of her life. It is explained that her family moved to the island from Texas when she was ten years old. Though Helen dreams of playing the cello in a large symphony orchestra, she runs the lunch counter in the airport terminal and never manages to get a music career off the ground until the final episode. Occasionally, Helen earns money teaching the cello.
A running gag related to her music is that bad luck follows her when she plays. Examples include: Helen having to join a string quartet of neurotic individuals as it is the only group at the time who accepts her; Helen being accepted by a state-run symphony, only to learn the state legislature eliminated the funding; the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) appreciating a cassette of her cello playing, but losing the label and having no way to contact her; and when she finally gets a chance to play for the BSO, the plane crashes en route.
Helen battles a compulsive eating habit that caused her to be obese in her youth. Though successful at losing the weight sometime after Brian eloped with Carol, it is still a spectre in her life and a blight on her self-image. She tends to gain weight when Carol comes to town and makes Helen a mess. She has been a lifelong friend of both Hackett brothers and dreamed of marrying Joe from a young age. Helen marries Antonio to prevent him from being deported. Although Antonio wins the Green Card Lottery and agrees to end the marriage, when Helen tries to get a marriage license to marry Joe, she finds out she is still married to Antonio. Roy advises her to get a quick divorce in Mexico. At the sixth season finale, Helen is finally able to marry Joe.
The writers originally had a different character in mind, written for Peri Gilpin, who would have played a woman of Greek heritage. However Gilpin was unable to commit to the role, and the character of Helen was created for Bernard. Gilpin, however, did star on one episode of Wings in the third season, and was later cast as Roz Doyle on Frasier.
Fay Cochran Played by Rebecca Schull, Fay is Joe's only other regular employee besides Brian (Kenny was an employee briefly in season 2). She is a retired flight attendant who handles the ticket counter, baggage check, and flight announcements for Sandpiper Air. She grew up in Syracuse, NY (next to a chop shop), and lived in Hawaii before moving to Nantucket. She is generally sweet and motherly, though slightly batty. She looks after the younger members of their circle as her children, although she can be sweetly manipulative. She came to work for Joe when he met her on a flight to Hawaii right after Carol left him for Brian.
Fay is thrice widowed; all three of her husbands were named George, and she jokes about a curse that if she marries a man named George, he will die prematurely. In one episode she almost marries a man named Lyle, only to learn that "Lyle" is only his middle name and his first name is George. Her full name is Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran.
Fay has a streak in which she has touched every First Lady of the United States since Eleanor Roosevelt.
Roy Biggins Played by David Schramm, Roy Peterman Biggins is the owner of Aeromass, the only other airline on Nantucket and, with seven planes, a larger business than Sandpiper. Roy has been unable to break into the lucrative business of charter flights. He is also a member of the City Council of Nantucket. It is revealed that he started Aeromass with money inherited from an uncle. He usually addresses the other characters by their last names.
Generally competitive, arrogant, and unpleasant, Roy 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 either to buy Sandpiper or put it out of business. Roy is generally the rival of the group.