Co-Creator David Lee talks about Wings

[Helen Chapel]

Was going through some archives and found this interesting, particularly part two and how Wings came to be.

http://www.wings.kcsky.net/WINGS10.txt

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This is a two parter. First some information on the evolution of
any given Wings episode from writing to production. And secondly
some reminiscences about the creation of Wings and the Legacy
episode that started it all. Both articles from David Lee,
creator, producer and writer for WINGS.

Part One: Who Does What When

In half-hour comedy, most people with the word producer in their
title are writers. The exception being the line producer (that
would be Robin Chamberlain on WINGS the last few years,the late Roz
Doyle on the earlier ones) and sometimes
agents/boyfriends/girlfriends/ne'er- do- wells/ hanger-ons of the
stars or Executive Producers. ( We don't countenance that sort of
thing on Wings)

The Executive producer generally is the head writer. All the writers
sit around in a large comfortable room, called, cleverly enough "The
Room", and start throwing out ideas. Sometimes someone has a small
notion that gets worked out into a larger story. Sometimes a writer
has a fairly good idea of the whole structure and others just help
fill it out. This is usually the most arduous frustrating part of
the sit-com business. Stories are HARD!!!

We try to work with some sort of "arc" for a given season. This
year Mark and Howard are spending the whole year getting to the
wedding. But we also have just sort of forged ahead some seasons
without any particular plan and let the characters and stories take
us where they will. That's fun too. The former is easier. In
either case we like to take time to wander off and do episodes that
have nothing to do with progressing anything.

Once a story has been verbally worked out, it is assigned to
whichever writer is next in line, or if a particular writer has a
special feel for that story, he or she will get to do it. Or if the
idea has been pitched by a freelance (non-staff) writer, of course
it's theirs. That writer or writers does/do and outline. A ten
page prose description of the action, perhaps with a smattering of
dialogue thrown in. This is where we can correct a lot of problems
before any scriptwriting begins. The staff all comment on the
outline with the Executive producers leading the note giving and the
writer is sent off for a first draft. Two weeks. If we have two
weeks. Then the draft is again subjected to notes. A second draft.
One week. If we have one week. The script is now subjected to
"mimeo". The staff goes over the script for a final time to prepare
it for the actors to read. This can range from anything from a
light rewrite(if we're lucky) to a complete re-write( usually on a
freelance script).

That's the usual process leading up to production week, where of
course the script is re-written every day for five days, making it
clear why someone once said that sitcoms are not about writing, they
are about re-writing.

BTW, the person who talked about the bookends of last season
probably made Dave Hackel real happy. He was proud to have done
that but was reconciled to the fact that most people would never
notice. I'm glad somebody did.

--
Part Two: In The Beginning -- The Early Days at WINGS

Legacy, huh? Seems like a long time ago. Yes, the first airing is
exciting but WINGS was sort of odd. We had done the first seven
episodes and then everybody went their separate ways so there was no
party, no anything the night of the first airing. I sat and watched
it with some friends. I remember being in a hideous mood because I
had read every review in the U.S. that had been delivered to me in a
big pile, and although 75 to 80 per cent were highly favorable, the
other 20 per cent really bummed me out. It was par for the course,
though. WINGS was a struggle every step of the way. Tough pitch to
the network--they didn't like our idea that Joe and Helen had been
twice married and divorced from each other. Didn't like the airport
setting either.

That one was sort of impossible to fix. Didn't like the first
pilot we wrote. (It was about Joe's blood pressure grounding him and
his having to ask his estranged brother for help. We used a chunk
of it for a later episode--including a couple of my favorite bits:
one where Fay thinks she might have been Joe's stewardess when he
was a little boy, and another where Joe thinks he is seeing a
"vision" of an other worldly pilot entering in a bright white
light.) Wrote another one (Legacy). It was pretty much what you saw
sans the character of Lowell.

Had a terrible time casting. Handsome leading men in their late
twenties who are funny are IMPOSSIBLE to find and we needed two of
them. Helen was even worse. She was Helen Trionkis then, a sultry,
fiery beauty of Greek descent. Finally found Peri Gilpin (now Roz
on FRASIER) but Mr. Tartikoff nixed her. He suggested Crystal, who
we loved and rewrote the part for, but who became unavailable,
causing us to postpone shooting the pilot for four months. The
night of the shooting was FABULOUS!

One of the headiest evenings of my life. The audience went nuts!
Was brought back to earth about a month later when the testing came
in. Bad, bad, bad. My only consolation was that what tested good
that season had been that insipid series with Stephanie Beecham
(Beauchamp?) as the nun with the kids. About the same time we found
we were losing our coveted post CHEERS timeslot to GRAND (ah, the
title as oxymoron).

Not too auspicious a beginning. But thanks for letting me ramble and
remember.
-----

[Adamantium]

An excellent read! I don't get to read much about behind the scenes of "Wings", so it's always interesting. I'm glad they decided to add Lowell in their second version of "Legacy". The show wouldn't have been the same without him.

I want to read more!

[Helen Chapel]

Here's more about WINGS behind the scenes for those interested.

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2008/0...-my-wings.html