A popular and well-regarded comedy that ran for eight seasons in the '90s, Wings was created by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, the team that worked together on Cheers and later created Frasier. Tim Daly and Steven Weber play two brothers, Joe and Brian Hackett, respectively, who parted ways many years ago when a woman left Joe to marry Brian. Joe, the straitlaced do-everything-right brother, is running Sandpiper Air, a small airline on the island of Nantucket that runs commuter flights to the New England coast, when he reluctantly offers a job to Brian, the carefree brother who's also a pilot. Others who work at the airport are Helen (Crystal Bernard), the former girl-next-door who now works the lunch counter and aspires to be a professional cello player; Lowell (Thomas Haden Church), the not-all-there mechanic; Roy (David Schramm), the owner of the rival airline AeroMass; and Fay, who handles Sandpiper's front desk.
Over the short (six episodes) first season, Joe and Brian develop romantic triangles over both Helen and Brian's ex-wife, Carol (Kim Johston Ulrich), and Brian tries to set up Joe with the island tramp (Megan Mullaly). In the second season, the romantic entanglements continue, Joe develops a health problem that keeps him from flying, and we meet the last major member of the cast, Italian cab driver Antonio Scarpacci (Tony Shalhoub). Guest stars include Cheers' George Wendt and John Ratzenberger, Abraham Benrubi (ER) as Roy's son, and David Ogden Stiers as a conductor whom Helen tries to impress. While much of the regular cast faded from view after Wings, Shalhoub and Church garnered critical acclaim for their work on Monk and Sideways, respectively.
Cast and Characters
- Timothy Daly as Joe Hackett
- Stephen Weber as Brian Hackett
- Crystal Bernard as Helen Chapel
- Thomas Haden Church as Lowell Mather
- Rebecca Schull as Faye Cochran
- David Schramm as Roy Biggins
- Tony Shalhoub as Antonio Scarpacci
- Farrah Forke as Alex Lambert
- Amy Yasbeck as Casey Davenport
Broadcast History
First Telecast: April 19, 1990
Last Telecast: May 21, 1997
Number of Episodes: 172
Number of Seasons: 8
Original Network: NBC
Theme Song Lyrics and Opening Credits
The theme was a short version of a Franz Schubert piece, Piano sonata No. 20 in A Major, D. 959, IV. Rondo. Allegretto. Schubert received screen credit as the theme composer in every episode.
DVDs
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