McFly121
02-09-2005, 09:49 PM
From the LA Times in May of '97....
NewsBank InfoWeb
America's Newspapers
Paper: Los Angeles Times
Title: 'Wings' Going 'Gently' in Last Flight
Author: SUSAN KING
Date: May 21, 1997
Section: Calendar
Page: F-6
Don't expect any big fireworks or bizarre surprises when the NBC sitcom
"Wings" takes it final flight tonight after eight seasons and 172
episodes.
"I think 'Wings' ends the way it began," offers Steven Weber, who
played Brian Hackett, the carefree womanizer who operated a one-plane
airline on Nantucket Island with his serious-minded brother Joe (Tim
Daly).
"It ends gently," Weber reports. "It doesn't go for a big
sensational wallop. It ends the way it began. It sort of strolled in, hung around
and then strolled out. Not everything has to have such an incredible
dynamic that it captures audiences by the nape of the neck, shakes it
around and throws it against the wall and then runs out."He believes
"Wings" reflected how people really are in terms of their everyday lives.
"People aren't all gorgeous and blond with tremendous breasts, and
handsome with square jaws," says Weber, who recently starred in the ABC
miniseries "The Shining." "There is not a lot of shooting and car
chases. In many ways, the show portrayed a kind of heightened average
behavior."
In the one-hour finale, Joe finds a suitcase in the attic that
belonged to his dead father; it contains $1,000, a key and a note hidden in
the lining that reads, "There's a lot more where this came from." And
Joe's wife, Helen (Crystal Bernard), who runs the tiny airport's lunch
counter, is offered a chance to study the cello in Vienna.
"Wings," created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee--who
went on to create "Frasier"--was sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of
sitcoms. The comedy, which premiered in April 1990, never received an Emmy and
earned little or no respect from critics. Many believed "Wings"
achieved hit status simply because it aired for several seasons between
"Cheers" and "L.A. Law."
"It was a good, utilitarian show," Weber says. "We did yeoman work
for the network."
"They moved us around a lot," acknowledges producer Casey. "To the
show's credit, for as much as it was moved, it was always put in a
workhorse position and it usually ended up pulling the plow pretty well for
them. It was a really good, solid, successful show and probably
unappreciated."
Bernard, who is also a popular country-western singer, believes that
"Wings" finally got a bit of recognition when it was chosen to anchor
the Tuesday lineup beginning in the fall of 1994.
"It was NBC's worst night, and when people started watching Tuesday
night, the network said, 'Well, "Wings" is a good show.' We felt like a
stepchild. I think even the network didn't really know how solid we
were or appreciate us."
Casey says the NBC ratings improved when the USA cable network began
showing repeats in September 1993.
"More people were exposed to it," he says. "I must have bumped into
three different episodes [on USA] when I was channel surfing yesterday.
There was one year we counted five different shows that made jokes
about how often 'Wings' was on the air. Obviously, other people were
noticing."
Daly says "Wings" wasn't taken seriously because it was an
"old-fashioned" show. "It was beautifully made and very smartly written," he
says. "It was never sort of pushing the boundaries of the situation comedy
like 'Seinfeld.' "
And it never made headlines. "I think a lot of times people in the
media can only be excited by some kind of extracurricular media
event--someone having an affair, someone coming out of the closet, someone
fighting on the set," Daly says. "I think we should have been appreciated
more for the quality of the show than [for] being some sort of an
event."
Casey and the actors believe "Wings" is coming to an end at the
right time. Last season, the series ranked No. 32 with an average of 15.7
million viewers. "Wings," which moved to Wednesdays in September, has
lost a third of its audience this season and currently ranks 93rd.
"I think that our feeling was that one more year would have been one
more year too many," Casey says. "The year before last, we felt there
were some good shows left in it. This year it just felt like the right
time. I think some of the cast was getting restless."
Daly acknowledges he was ready to bail. "I actually went to our
creators at the beginning of December. I said, 'I can't come back. I can't
do this anymore. Not because I am unhappy but because we sort of milked
it for everything that was possible.' "
Casey says that "Wings" was a great learning experience for him and
his partners, Lee and Angell, who previously had been writers and then
executive producers and writers on "Cheers."
"It was a big difference running someone else's show and then
creating your own show and running it," he says. "We were fortunate that we
did a good and successful job with 'Wings.' I think 'Frasier' wouldn't
have been as good a show as it is if that was our first effort."
* The final original episode of "Wings" airs at 9 tonight on NBC
(Channel 4). Repeats of "Wings" air weekdays at 5, 5:30, 11 and 11:30 p.m.
on USA cable.
Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 1997
NewsBank InfoWeb
America's Newspapers
Paper: Los Angeles Times
Title: 'Wings' Going 'Gently' in Last Flight
Author: SUSAN KING
Date: May 21, 1997
Section: Calendar
Page: F-6
Don't expect any big fireworks or bizarre surprises when the NBC sitcom
"Wings" takes it final flight tonight after eight seasons and 172
episodes.
"I think 'Wings' ends the way it began," offers Steven Weber, who
played Brian Hackett, the carefree womanizer who operated a one-plane
airline on Nantucket Island with his serious-minded brother Joe (Tim
Daly).
"It ends gently," Weber reports. "It doesn't go for a big
sensational wallop. It ends the way it began. It sort of strolled in, hung around
and then strolled out. Not everything has to have such an incredible
dynamic that it captures audiences by the nape of the neck, shakes it
around and throws it against the wall and then runs out."He believes
"Wings" reflected how people really are in terms of their everyday lives.
"People aren't all gorgeous and blond with tremendous breasts, and
handsome with square jaws," says Weber, who recently starred in the ABC
miniseries "The Shining." "There is not a lot of shooting and car
chases. In many ways, the show portrayed a kind of heightened average
behavior."
In the one-hour finale, Joe finds a suitcase in the attic that
belonged to his dead father; it contains $1,000, a key and a note hidden in
the lining that reads, "There's a lot more where this came from." And
Joe's wife, Helen (Crystal Bernard), who runs the tiny airport's lunch
counter, is offered a chance to study the cello in Vienna.
"Wings," created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee--who
went on to create "Frasier"--was sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of
sitcoms. The comedy, which premiered in April 1990, never received an Emmy and
earned little or no respect from critics. Many believed "Wings"
achieved hit status simply because it aired for several seasons between
"Cheers" and "L.A. Law."
"It was a good, utilitarian show," Weber says. "We did yeoman work
for the network."
"They moved us around a lot," acknowledges producer Casey. "To the
show's credit, for as much as it was moved, it was always put in a
workhorse position and it usually ended up pulling the plow pretty well for
them. It was a really good, solid, successful show and probably
unappreciated."
Bernard, who is also a popular country-western singer, believes that
"Wings" finally got a bit of recognition when it was chosen to anchor
the Tuesday lineup beginning in the fall of 1994.
"It was NBC's worst night, and when people started watching Tuesday
night, the network said, 'Well, "Wings" is a good show.' We felt like a
stepchild. I think even the network didn't really know how solid we
were or appreciate us."
Casey says the NBC ratings improved when the USA cable network began
showing repeats in September 1993.
"More people were exposed to it," he says. "I must have bumped into
three different episodes [on USA] when I was channel surfing yesterday.
There was one year we counted five different shows that made jokes
about how often 'Wings' was on the air. Obviously, other people were
noticing."
Daly says "Wings" wasn't taken seriously because it was an
"old-fashioned" show. "It was beautifully made and very smartly written," he
says. "It was never sort of pushing the boundaries of the situation comedy
like 'Seinfeld.' "
And it never made headlines. "I think a lot of times people in the
media can only be excited by some kind of extracurricular media
event--someone having an affair, someone coming out of the closet, someone
fighting on the set," Daly says. "I think we should have been appreciated
more for the quality of the show than [for] being some sort of an
event."
Casey and the actors believe "Wings" is coming to an end at the
right time. Last season, the series ranked No. 32 with an average of 15.7
million viewers. "Wings," which moved to Wednesdays in September, has
lost a third of its audience this season and currently ranks 93rd.
"I think that our feeling was that one more year would have been one
more year too many," Casey says. "The year before last, we felt there
were some good shows left in it. This year it just felt like the right
time. I think some of the cast was getting restless."
Daly acknowledges he was ready to bail. "I actually went to our
creators at the beginning of December. I said, 'I can't come back. I can't
do this anymore. Not because I am unhappy but because we sort of milked
it for everything that was possible.' "
Casey says that "Wings" was a great learning experience for him and
his partners, Lee and Angell, who previously had been writers and then
executive producers and writers on "Cheers."
"It was a big difference running someone else's show and then
creating your own show and running it," he says. "We were fortunate that we
did a good and successful job with 'Wings.' I think 'Frasier' wouldn't
have been as good a show as it is if that was our first effort."
* The final original episode of "Wings" airs at 9 tonight on NBC
(Channel 4). Repeats of "Wings" air weekdays at 5, 5:30, 11 and 11:30 p.m.
on USA cable.
Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times 1997