The show featured a bunch of hilarious outcasts who worked on the island’s airline, “Wings.” From the quarreling brothers to the ditsy airline workers of the Nantucket Island, “Wings” caught the eye of viewers across America as well as some surprising critical attention.
But there’s a lot more to the show than meets the eye and there are many juicy facts behind the creation of the series. The show was responsible for the success of some of Hollywood’s greatest actors and even a beautiful marriage between two cast members. In fact “Wings” made a huge contribution to the TV world, as well as the personal lives of its actors.
It Was Part of The Greater TV Universe
"Wings" was the brainchild from the same creative team that gave us "Cheers." It goes without saying that the big-time TV execs figured that it'd likely be a major hit. Series creators David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee were all showrunners on the classic 80s show about hilarious barflies.
They were also all heavily involved in "Frasier." In fact, many actors crisscrossed between these shows and we even see Norm, Cliff, Frasier, Lilith, and Rebecca at some point or another, end up at Tom Nevers Field in Nantucket. It's not very far away from Boston after all.
It Was The TV Underdog
Perhaps not as witty and edgy as its sitcom counterparts, the show made its mark. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find people from the 90s sitcom era who had never heard of the show. While the creators didn't necessarily break any molds or raise controversial topics, "Wings" was the fun and simple show of the 90s, the TV comfort food if you will.
The leads, Tim Daly and Steven Webber who portrayed Joe and Brian Hackett had a great dynamic, a little competitive, but mostly complementary, it was the older brother younger brother relationship as old as time itself. Of course, in addition to them, there was a gang of funny and adorable characters, as well as some beautiful love interests.
The Show Made Some Stars
While "Seinfeld" was the hottest of the show of the era, many of us witnessed the terrible "Seinfeld" curse, where most of the cast saw their careers pretty much plummet the moment it ended. "Wings" on the other hand, definitely put some of Hollywood's talent on the map.
Thomas Haden Church, star of the HBO series "Divorce" started out as the hilarious idiot savant mechanic. And everyone now knows Antonio the cab driver as the iconic Emmy award-winning "Monk" as well as the hilarious and beleaguered patriarch, Abe Weisman. As for the rest of the cast, they've continued to pop up our screens pretty consistently. Its been over 25 years since the eight-season show came to an end, let's see what the rest of the cast is up to.
Tim Daly Then
The role of Joe Hackett in Wings was played by none other than Tim Daly. His character, who was at the center of the show, was a co-owner of the small airline company named Sandpiper. We see him making his childhood dreams come true, well, sort of. Sandpiper may have not been the airline he envisioned for himself, but with his mature and hardworking nature, he does the best he can. As for the actor, his life looked pretty different from his TV character.
Daly was actually born in Manhattan to a family of entertainers, so naturally, he pursued. Starting out at the Putney School, Daly dove into literature and theatre. He started out his career at the ripe age of 10 where he starred in “An Enemy of the People.”