Hi everyone. I think most of you are like me. You did not startwa tching Wings until it was in syndication whether it be on the USA network or Nick at Night. And if your like me, your kicking yourself that you did not bother watching it during it's original run on NBC. Now it's no secret that most people don't remember Wings when you talk about it at work or other places when tv topics come up. If you had to try and convince a friend or co-worker that Wings was one of the best shows in the 90s, what eight and only eight episodes would you recommend to prove your point and get them hooked?

I watched Wings during its origional run on NBC, although I didn't start until the end of the 5th season. I was 13 when I started watching with my mom. It was one of the first "grown-up" shows I was allowed to watch. (Of course, kids today are watching worse stuff at a younger age, but I won't get into that now :D )

Anyhoo, only 8 episodes, huh? You're making this way too hard for me! OK, I'll try to narrow it down...

<In no particular order.>
1. Sports and Leisure (Ann-Margaret!)
2. My Brother's Back- and There's Gonna be Trouble
3. Mother Wore Stripes
4. Blackout Buggins
5. Airport '90
6. Insanity Claus
7. Duet for Cello and Plane
8. Joe Blows, parts 1 and 2 (I managed to sneak 9 episodes in, hee hee! ;) )

I would divide into two sets.

The first four being the really funny, can't miss, classic Wings episodes:

1. Nuptuals Off, "Joe help me with the bats", "Helen's at the store", "Why
don't you just put me in an overnight pouch and FedEx me to hell"
2. Death Becomes Him, "Get in the box Joe", "For a dead man, he's got a
strong grip"
3. Try to Remember the Night He Dismembered, "Once, when I was out of
underwear", "Tortilla", "What happened to the meatball? He became a
mechanic at the airport.", "Can someone give me a hand here, I just
dropped all my fingers."
4. Goodbye Old Friend, If you didn't want me to go to sleep, why did you give
me these tiny little pillows?", "s-mores, are s-stupids"

The second set would be the funny, touching, and well acted dramatic
episodes.

1. Duet for Plane and Cello: that fight with the fire extinguisher and grease
gun is legendary and Joe telling Helen he loves her but yet she chooses
to leave, so sad and well done
2. Taming of the Shrew: Brian's diagram, the old man saying he doesn't want
to role play anymore, and Helen telling Joe why she had such a hard time
dealing with her anger and how he looked at her and held her because it
hurted him too after she said that memorable line, "it's not that I just lost
my boyfriend, it's I lost my best friend", unforgetable episode
3. Joe Blows: how can we forget the way Joe slams the baggage tickets on
the counter and powerfully states, "where do I go when it dawns on me
that my life sucks", Brian figuring out that "omelette" meant overdue, the
way Helen leaped over the counter when Joe returns, and of course it's
this episode that Brian matures and becomes a partner of Sandpiper.
4. Whose Wife Is It Anyway: Helen's after sex glow, Lowell danggling the
keys as the guys fight for it, and of course the famous elevator proposal
as our Helen and Joe became one, "we've spent a lifetime together, how
could think of marriying him, it's wrong, having kids with him, growing old
together, that's our marriage, those are our kids, that's our lifetime, we're
surpossed to be together." Need I say more

I can't see anyone watching these episodes and not falling in love with it or at least giving it a second look. That's why I'm hoping that USA network will give Wings a better time slot b/c if people just give it a chance, I think they will find out what a truely remarkable show this is.

(In Season order)
1. Airport '90 (Season 2)
2. This Old House (Season 3)
3. The Bank Dick (Season 3)
4. It's So Nice to Have a Mather Around the House (Season 4)
5. What the Cabbie Saw (Season 4)
6. Boy Will Be Girls (Season 5)
7. Is That a Ten Foot Sandwich... (Season 6)
8. The Lyin' King (Season 7)

I chose eight episodes which are just regular episodes. None of these are big episodes that deal with important moments in the show (such as Joe & Helen's wedding, Lowell leaving, the final episode). But rather some of the funniest episodes the show has. Of course just eight episodes doesn't do it justice. But if I had never seen an episode before, saw these eight episodes in a marathon, I'd tune in again and become a fan of the show.

1)Legacy - so one can be introduced to all the characters, and get a look of how they are all, i.e. Joe's the serious one, Brian's the fun one, Helen used to be overweight, Roy is a weenie, etc.
2)Sports & Leisure
3)A Terminal Christmas
4)The Bogey Men
5)Try to Remember the Nights He Dismembered
6)Black Eye Affair

2-6 because the whole cast is in the ep for the majority of it

7)Who Wife is it anyway? - just for Joe's speech to Helen
8)Murder, She Roast - mainly because I love, love love, this ep because it's so hilarious!!

Joe's proposal to Helen is definitely what got me hooked. Even at just 13 years-old, I thought it was just so sweet.

Yeah, the proposal to Helen was quite awesome. Daly played that perfectly.

What episode was it where Lowell's friend died and Brian was telling Joe the five (?) stages of grief then Lowell walks into the office and goes through all five in like fifteen seconds. That was freaking hilarious.

I would divide into two sets. The first four being the really funny, can't miss, classic Wings episodes. The second set would be the funny, touching, and well acted dramatic episodes.

I love the way you divided those up. Because as side-splittingly funny as so many episodes are, there are some that make me teary every time I see them. I think you hit the nail on the head with your "touching" choices -- though I'd personally swap out "Duet for Plane and Cello" for "Mother Wore Stripes", because Joe's little speech to his mom in the hangar (complete with tears and shakes) always chokes me up BAD (yikes). In fact, that scene and the one where he loses it in "Joe Blows" slightly beat out his proposal to Helen, which always chokes me up as well. ("Duet" is actually one of my funny picks because that fight between Helen and Joe was my favorite moment in the entire show for years -- pretty much until I got the DVDs and could watch them repeatedly at will! When she shakes her head and whips herself in the face with her hair I lose it every time.)

And MAN, the "Try to Remember" episode... so many hilarious moments in that one... Roy dancing and singing "buttons and Bows" and Lowell with the mushrooms... Ya know, I don't know how you guys can pick eight episodes. Way too tough for me. Even thinking about it casually I come up with a dozen plus. Too many great moments and too many densely funny episodes, that's Wings for you.

Oh, and Craig B: that episode was "Goodbye Old Friend", end of Season 4.

1. The Bogey Men (Keep your butt down Roy!)
2. ... The Night he Disremembered (Can somebody help me, I just dropped all my fingers). Those two were on within a month of each other.
3. Sports & Leisure (I don't care do you hear me? No, no, no, no, no Ida Lupino!)
4. It's So Nice to Have a Mather Around the House (Lowell smacking Joe with the wooden spoon). Watch Steven Weber's reaction during that, you can tell he is trying not to crack up.
5. The Gift Part II (The job I have now a chimp can do, what do you want me to do? Swing in on a rope)
6. Black Eye Affair (It's like the Marx Brothers did a sitcom episode. It's Davis. Stall him! Dinner, not ready.)
7. Joe Blows (Brian trying to decipher Fay's handwriting is hilarious. Alright, we've established that omelet is overdue.)
8. Any episode with Carlton

^ Sorry to bump an old post but OH SNAP! DAN FIELDING POSTS HERE!

ANY OF THEM. But it was the Xmas eps that I saw first and got me hooked and charmed; but every ep I've seen so far (admittedly only 12) I have just loved. I just love being a Wings newbie and seeing each new ep with awe. So 12 down, 160 to go!

Am I the only one whose fave episode is The Puppetmaster and it would totally be the ep I'd choose to show someone who's never seen the show?