“Offering That Man a Job at My Airline Would Be the Stupidest Thing I Could Do.” “So Why Are You Going to Do It?” “I Have No Idea.”
Somewhere along the way, I caught reruns of the sitcom Wings. I enjoyed the ones I saw, but I never followed the show regularly. A few years ago, I decided to get the complete series DVD set, and then it sat on my shelf for a while. I finally pulled it out and enjoyed season 1.
Season 1 of the show was a late replacement in spring of 1990. It must have done well since it would go on for seven more full seasons before flying off the air. It came from the creative team of David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee who had worked on Cheers and would also create a little show called Fraiser.
The show is set around a small commuter airport on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts. In the first episode we meet brothers Joe and Brian Hackett (Tim Daly and Steven Weber), who are both pilots. They’ve been estranged ever since Brian ran off and married Joe’s girlfriend. Newly single, Brian winds up taking a job for Joe’s small airline, Sandpiper Airline. The other employee is Fay (Rebecca Schull), who works the counter for the airline. Of course, the brothers have competition in the form of Roy (David Schramm) who owns a larger airline, Aeromass. There’s also the mechanic, the slow-witted Lowell (Thomas Haden Church). And then there’s Helen Chapel (Crystal Bernard). She was a childhood friend of Joe and Brian, and both brothers seem to be interested in turning that friendship into something more even though Helen wants to remain friends. She is currently running the lunch counter in the tiny airport.
Season 1 consisted of six episodes. In this day and age, that’s the norm, especially on streaming, but back then, that was extremely low. Of course, it helps that it premiered on April 19, 1990, so there wasn’t long before the season ended. (Again, when the networks had true TV seasons.) In a lot of ways, these episodes are just setting up the characters. The first episode reunites the brothers and sets up them working together. We learn that Helen is trying to get a career playing cello to take off. And, honestly, those three characters are the main focus of the episodes, especially when Brian’s ex-wife (and Joe’s ex) returns to their lives in a two-parter.
Even though it’s hard to fully judge a show in only six episodes, you can see why this would become a show that lasted. There are plenty of great laughs. While the main trio is beginning to develop, they are still fairly flat here. And the other three characters, while promising, definitely show room for growth. Most shows having growing pains in their first few episodes, so none of this is surprising. Still, it is easy to see why the show was back in the fall. It may not be a classic thought about frequently today, but it has solid laughs, especially for the first few episodes of a show.
And the actors are already stepping into the characters they would play for the next several years. I’m sure I’ll see their performances and comedic chemistry improve, but they are off to a great start here.
In my DVD set, season 1’s six episodes share space with the first couple of episodes of season 2 (which I didn’t watch yet). We don’t get any extras. The stereo sound is good, but the picture leaves much to be desired. I get it, the show is older and was filmed, so things are going to lose something as they age. But this is pretty consistently poor quality, especially on the wider shots. But the show is still enjoyable.
I’m hoping my push to watch more of the TV on DVD sets I’ve bought will mean I can get back to Wings soon. Season 1 may be short, but it teases more great laughs to come.
