"Wings" Repetition

[pilotguy]

It's interesting how "Wings" featured a gag which was repeated during three consecutive episodes...namely driving Helen's jeep through Joe's office...and viewers never seem to have a problem with it. In fact, it's usually considered as one of the funniest sight gags of the series....

However, when ANOTHER "Wings" situation was repeated (namely the accidental fires of the Hackett homes), viewers protested loudly...that "fire" situation is usually considered to be one of the WORST moments of the series and very unbelievable....

Comedy repetition...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!

[losthighway]

Maybe it worked better with the Jeep because it was a decision by Helen to do it...it was NO accident. She was angry and she was going to vent that anger for all to see!......whereas with the second fire you are asked to take a pretty good leap and have a second fire started under the exact same circumstances where a couple is in the throws of passion. It's easier to buy when someone makes a conscious decison to do it, then have it be pure luck.

The third jeep crash was a really nice twist I thought.....having Joe get the gears stuck worked for me.

[pilotguy]

Originally posted by losthighway
Maybe it worked better with the Jeep because it was a decision by Helen to do it...it was NO accident. She was angry and she was going to vent that anger for all to see!......whereas with the second fire you are asked to take a pretty good leap and have a second fire started under the exact same circumstances where a couple is in the throws of passion. It's easier to buy when someone makes a conscious decison to do it, then have it be pure luck.

The third jeep crash was a really nice twist I thought.....having Joe get the gears stuck worked for me.

I think that you've hit on the difference in the two repetitive situations....The multiple fires cause the viewer to say, "Aw, come ON now...that's just RIDICULOUS...that COULDN'T happen AGAIN!", but the jeep crashes had real humor in their repetitive occurances.

The second crash was funny because even though Helen had just been sued and had to pay Joe for the original damage, he had gotten her SO mad with his smug gloating that she just didn't CARE....She snapped, and she was going to wreck his office again no matter WHAT it ended up costing her!

And the THIRD time was funny too...Now that Helen was no longer angry at Joe, and they had made their peace, the viewer figures that at LAST Joe's office is safe from further destruction...but NO! And the fact that it was JOE who accidentally drove the jeep through the office (which realistically COULD have happened, given the jeep's mechanical problems after the last crash) made that third crash funny too...and somewhat ironic!

I think that so many "Wings" fans get angry and resentful about the multiple fires because that seemed to be the first time in the history of the series where the viewer's intelligence was really being insulted!

[losthighway]

Originally posted by pilotguy
I think that you've hit on the difference in the two repetitive situations....The multiple fires cause the viewer to say, "Aw, come ON now...that's just RIDICULOUS...that COULDN'T happen AGAIN!", but the jeep crashes had real humor in their repetitive occurances.

The second crash was funny because even though Helen had just been sued and had to pay Joe for the original damage, he had gotten her SO mad with his smug gloating that she just didn't CARE....She snapped, and she was going to wreck his office again no matter WHAT it ended up costing her!

And the THIRD time was funny too...Now that Helen was no longer angry at Joe, and they had made their peace, the viewer figures that at LAST Joe's office is safe from further destruction...but NO! And the fact that it was JOE who accidentally drove the jeep through the office (which realistically COULD have happened, given the jeep's mechanical problems after the last crash) made that third crash funny too...and somewhat ironic!

I think that so many "Wings" fans get angry and resentful about the multiple fires because that seemed to be the first time in the history of the series where the viewer's intelligence was really being insulted!

That really is kind of how I felt with the second fire Pilotguy......I was like Brian when he found out Joe had gone to Roy for advice about Helen first....."Oh come on!"

I understood the writers intention to try to keep having an excuse to keep the four of them under one roof.....but that wasn't the way to go about it......plus I think they killed several potential story lines by not having Casey and Brian live alone longer, or even have Antonio live with them for a longer time period rather then just the one episode.

[AgtSkye]

losthighway you hit the nail on the head. In film class we learned there are certain unspoken rules you must follow to not put off the audience. You can't have too many coincidences. Like more than one, lol. Espeically if it's something repeated or too good to be true, validating something else that's already coincidental. And if you think about it, it just doesn't have much believability for happening in real life. The jeep thing was fine, and quite funny.

Anne

[losthighway]

Originally posted by AgtSkye
losthighway you hit the nail on the head. In film class we learned there are certain unspoken rules you must follow to not put off the audience. You can't have too many coincidences. Like more than one, lol. Espeically if it's something repeated or too good to be true, validating something else that's already coincidental. And if you think about it, it just doesn't have much believability for happening in real life. The jeep thing was fine, and quite funny.

Anne

In film class? Glad to see my film classes in college paid off as well! I learned something I guess.

I also took several script writing courses, and one thing I learned was there are about 12 basic plot lines that are repeated in one variation or another, it’s amazing how accurate that turns out to be! This was mainly in a discussion about Film, but I think it also can be applied to TV writing.

[AgtSkye]

I should have known losthighway! I have taken only one screenwriting class so far. Plan to take some more. Yeah, these ideas work for tv and film both.

Anne