Wings at 35: A Tribute to a Classic Sitcom That Flew Under the Radar

Just a few days ago, on April 19, 2025, Wings celebrated its 35th Anniversary.  It marked the debut of a sitcom that quietly soared beneath the radar and into viewers' hearts between 1990 and 1997.  Nestled in NBC's "Must-See TV" lineup alongside giants like Cheers and Frasier, Wings carved out a unique niche audience with its blend of charming characters and comedic style. 

Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata, a tranquil, nearly 200-year-old song, acts as the theme song.  It sets a peaceful tone at the start of each episode as we watch a real-life Cape Air Cessna 402 double as the fictional Sandpiper Air buzzing around the island of Nantucket.  After Season Three, this opening sequence was replaced with a cold open, but a jazzy instrumental version remained for the closing credits throughout.

Set at the fictional "Tom Nevers Field" airport in Nantucket, the show follows two brothers, Joe and Brian Hackett, who run Sandpiper Air.  Sandpiper was a scrappy single-plane airline, surrounded by an eccentric ensemble of friends, coworkers, and customers.  Over eight seasons and 172 episodes, Wings delivered reliable humor and heartfelt moments, but never quite reached the critical heights of its "television siblings," Cheers and Frasier.  Nevertheless, it has earned a lasting place in 90s television history.

As we remember this milestone anniversary, let's revisit its creation, history, trivia, many ties to the Cheers universe, and some standout episodes - including my favorite, "Try to Remember the Night He Dismembered."

For a long period of time, I spent more of my working hours on the way to and from Nantucket (and on the island itself) as I did anywhere else.  Well, at the airport anyway.  To be honest, I've only ever been off the airport property twice, and not for very long. 

By the way, there is an actual Tom Nevers Field on Nantucket, but it's a sports complex, not an airport.  The airport on Nantucket is called Nantucket Memorial.

When working, I prefer shorter flights; honestly, the shorter the better.  Long transcontinental flights might be fun because of the destination on the other side of the country, but if I have to put in my hours at work, I'd rather do a few short flights than one long one.

So, once I had gained enough seniority to choose the type of flying I wanted, I eagerly started flying day trips (like a regular 9-to-5 job) or two-day trips in and around the Northeast.  These trips were the reason I consider Buffalo, New York, to be like a second home, since looking at my logbook between 2013 and 2028, 80% of my layovers and flights were in or out of Buffalo.  Not entirely exciting, but the flights were short, it was relatively close to home, and it was comfortable. 

And I really like the wings at Duff's.  

Eventually, the flying schedule changed, and we reduced the number of flights to Buffalo, so I began picking up more Nantucket flights.  Those were even shorter, and I really enjoyed them!  Some days I'd do two round trips from New York City to Nantucket in my 100-passenger jet, and when I got there, I enjoyed sliding open the cockpit windows and letting the island breeze bring in fresh ocean air while waiting for my next flight.  Before I left that aircraft, I got to fly with my best friend for the last few years.  We'd fly together as often as possible, and most of the time we tried to get flights to Nantucket.

We'd stand outside on the airstairs, rolled up to the side of the plane, and take in the sun and fresh air.  Often, our time would be cut short as we tried to talk the gate agents into boarding the next group of passengers early.  

We had our reasons, though.  We didn't get stuck in the daily summertime afternoon delay program that Air Traffic Control imposed on JFK Airport.  Even if we arrived on time, we'd struggle to make the bus to the parking lot, let alone avoid summertime afternoon rush hour on the Long Island Expressway.  If we were late, then forget it.  It became a two- to three-hour drive home, easily.  That's incredibly frustrating enough, and more so when you figure the drive to the airport took less than 45 minutes that morning.

Over the years of my career, I have been to Nantucket countless times, in all sorts of aircraft.  From the 32-seat turboprop to my current jet that seats nearly 150, I've enjoyed flying to the islands around Boston.  As I sat there waiting for my next flight, I would always marvel at Cape Air, the little airline that continues to defy odds. 

For a while, Cape Air had a rivalry with another Nantucket-based company called Island Air.  This always made me smile because Cape Air flies the blue and white plane you can see in the opening of Wings, while Island Air flew similar planes colored in red and white.  On the television show, red and white were the colors of AeroMass, Sandpiper's rival, and here it was playing out in real life.  Island Air went out of business in 2015.

Joe, Roy, Antonio, and Brian (left to right) "flying" in the N121PP set piece 

The show actually used three aircraft for filming.  The most prominent one, N121PP, was a 1989 Cessna 411 owned by Paramount Pictures that was destroyed toward the end of filming.  It was used for hangar scenes, close-up shots, and a small part of the opening sequence.   Two other planes were used during filming for the opening: a pair of Cape Air-owned 1981 Cessna 402Cs registered N160PB and N121PB.  N121PB reportedly flew the majority of the opening sequence scenes and was proudly dubbed "The Wings plane" by Cape Air employees.

N121PB flew frequently in and around Nantucket until it was retired in 2023.  When filmed for the show, it was under the livery of now-defunct Provincetown-Boston Airlines, which ended operations the year before Cape Air started.  Cape Air had not yet repainted the aircraft to its own paint scheme, which was similar enough anyway.

The real N121PB, taken in 2020

I had several friends who worked for Cape Air at one time or another, and aside from the nostalgia of Wings and being out in the summer sun and fresh island air, it's a tough job.  Sometimes flying up to 10 to 12 flights a day, the pilots were often like Joe and Brian on Wings, loading bags, making flight plans, and frequently not having enough time between flights to eat during the day (unlike Joe and Brian at Helen's lunch counter).  I will say, though, that with a few exceptions, they are some of the finest pilots I've flown with.  Flying single-pilot at Cape Air, into the often foggy islands around Boston, hones a pilot's skills quickly.

And yet, knowing how hard they work, I'd love to do it.  For a day, maybe.  Only if it's nice weather. :)

Either way, watching the Cape Air planes buzz around Boston, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket always makes me think back to my younger years watching Wings.

I never saw the show when it aired on NBC during primetime.  I had always loved airplanes, so I immediately fell in love when I saw a show about an airport on a USA Network daytime rerun.  My brother and, to some extent, my parents were always fans of Cheers, but they never got into Wings, so I was the only one who enjoyed it.  

I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit as well, and in my younger days, would frequently daydream about opening my own single-plane airline, much like Sandpiper.  Unfortunately, as I got older and realized the economics of the airline business, I realized that would never happen.  One can dream, though!

During college, when DVDs were relatively new and box sets were extremely expensive, I purchased a bootleg complete series box set of Wings off eBay.  The quality wasn't good, but it wasn't until 2014 that the entire series was available, so it was all I had.  At least some episodes had the classic Nick-at-Nite logo in the corner!  Some even had the vintage USA Network commercial breaks left in.  

I watched the series from start to finish in a day or two during my first winter break from college.  I was home for a few weeks and had a television in my room for the first time, and I must have never left my room.  I used that time to catch up on the movies and television that I had always wanted to see (or rewatch).   

I haven't watched the entire series since then, but I will turn on Paramount+ occasionally and watch a few episodes, especially my old favorites.  After this article, I may need to go back and watch some more!

Wings "took flight" from the minds of David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee.  This trio found success in 1982 with their previous television venture, Cheers.  The three would strike gold a second time in 1990 with Wings, and again in 1993 when they created Frasier, a direct spin-off of Cheers.  Seeking a fresh twist on the workplace sitcom, they swapped the "barstool camaraderie" of blue-collar Boston for the quirky island isolation of an upper-class Nantucket airport.  "They (Angell, Casey, and Lee) wanted a new setting that still felt like a hub of human interaction," recalls Ken Levine, a creative consultant for much of the show's run.  "An airport was perfect—practical yet whimsical."

Tragically, co-creator David Angell passed away on 9/11 aboard American Airlines Flight 11.  

The Hackett brothers anchored the series: Joe (Tim Daly), the strait-laced pilot and owner of Sandpiper Air, and his brother Brian (Steven Weber), the reckless dreamer and ace pilot.  Their sibling dynamic was a blend of antagonistic rivalry and friendship.

Around them orbited a vibrant cast of characters.  

Helen Chappel (Crystal Bernard) worked at the lunch counter with big dreams of success in a major orchestra, playing her cello.  Roy Biggins (David Schramm) was the bombastic, crude, and cheapskate rival who owned AeroMass, the only other airline on Nantucket.  Fay Cochran (Rebecca Schull) was the sweet yet eccentric ticket agent for Sandpiper Air.  Lowell Mather (Thomas Haden Church) was the strange (quirky?) airport handyman and aircraft mechanic.  Lastly, Antonio Scarpacci (Tony Shalhoub) was the lovelorn, stereotypical Italian immigrant cab driver.

Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Crystal Bernard, and David Schramm were the only actors to appear in all 172 episodes of the show.  As a neat bit of trivia, Daly and Weber, the lead actors who portrayed the Hackett brothers, both went on to take lead roles in various Stephen King television miniseries.  Daly appeared in Storm of the Century (1999), and Weber starred in The Shining (1997) and Desperation (2006).  

David Schramm's lovable curmudgeon, Roy, was always present in every episode, yet we never see the inside of his house or office, unlike the Hackett's home.  While we see a tiny section of his office through the open door, we never go inside.  His house and office, along with his purple El Camino, are frequently described in great detail.  It's only in the final season, when Joe and Helen visit Roy for dinner, that we get a small glimpse of the inside of his house.

Rebecca Schull's sweet yet eccentric ticket agent, Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran, appeared in every episode except for four.  As a running gag, all three of Faye's deceased husbands were named George.

Casting was a meticulous process.  "They wanted special people, faces you hadn't seen on seventeen other shows," Levine notes. 

Initially untested in comedy, Daly paired perfectly with Weber's improvisational flair after multiple screen tests.  Bernard's Southern twang posed a challenge - how does a Nantucket native sound like she's from Texas?  The pilot episode, directed by Cheers alum James Burrows, explained it with a backstory of her family moving to Nantucket from Texas when she was a child.

Bryan Cranston, Daniel Stern, Nick Cassavetes, and Boyd Gaines auditioned for the role of Joe.    Kevin Conroy was also in the top contention for the part, and he would eventually go on to voice Batman in the 1990s animated series and related projects.  Tim Daly, the man chosen to play Joe, later provided the voice of Superman in several crossover/companion series opposite Conroy's Batman.  

Fisher Stevens, Hank Azaria, George Clooney, David Duchovny, and Greg Germann auditioned for the Brian role.  

Peri Gilpin, Lisa Darr, Julianne Moore, Gina Gershon, Marcia Cross, Marcia Gay Harden, Rita Wilson, Megan Mullally, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were among those who auditioned for the role of Helen.  Producers liked Gilpin best, but NBC didn't want her in the role.  According to Ken Levine's blog, Peri was the first choice to play the role of Helen since the character was originally a sassy, foul-mouthed, dark-haired Greek siren named Helen Trionkis.  The studio didn't feel Gilpin was ready to star in a series, so they went with Crystal Bernard instead.

Peri Gilpin would still appear in the series as a date for Brian in Season 3's "Four Dates That Will Live in Infamy." Gilpin would later get the role of Roz Doyle on Frasier.  The Frasier character was named Roz Doyle after a beloved Wings producer of the same name, who passed away in 1991 from breast cancer.  

Thomas Hayden Church's audition reportedly cost him the job of Brian Hackett, but producers liked him so much that they created the Lowell character for him.  His first and last names, Lowell Mather, came from the names of two buildings at Harvard University.  Lowell's wife, Bunny, makes several appearances on the show, but his many children and his oft-discussed houseboat do not.  

Lastly, Tony Shalhoub's Antonio Scarpacci was the stereotypical immigrant cab driver.  Before joining the cast as a regular, Tony Shalhoub had appeared in an early Season 2 episode ("Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places") as Antonio, the waiter.  In a later episode, Antonio mentions that when he first arrived on Nantucket, he worked as a waiter, in a nod to the original appearance. 

Boy, the show would certainly be different if some of the other names were chosen for the leading roles.  Think of how the career paths of certain actors would have changed had George Clooney or Julia Louis-Dreyfus wound up on Wings?

The pilot premiered on April 19, 1990, launching a six-episode first season that set the stage for a much longer journey.  However, the late-in-season start delayed its initial momentum with the viewing audience.

Behind the scenes, Hollywood talents earned their stripes on Wings, like Levine, who wrote several episodes for Wings, including the Frasier crossover, and future showrunners Dave Hackel (Becker) and Steve Levitan (Modern Family).  Despite airing on NBC, the show was filmed on Paramount's Stage 19, which was large enough to accommodate the hangar and terminal sets.  Eagle-eyed CBS viewers would recognize Helen's house doubled for the short-lived CBS series Almost Perfect due to budget constraints.

Wings aired on NBC from 1990 to 1997, finding its stride after a lackluster debut.  Produced by Grub Street Productions and Paramount Network Television, it thrived on Thursday nights alongside Cheers, benefiting from the "Must-See TV" buzz without stealing the spotlight.  The show evolved over time, moving away from Season 1's focus on the airline and the brief love triangle between Joe, Helen, and Brian, to tell different stories with more depth.  Later seasons introduced characters like Shalhoub's Antonio, Helen's sister Casey (Amy Yasbeck), or Alex Lambert (Farrah Forke), the helicopter pilot and Brian's love interest.  Storylines began to revolve around secondary characters, such as Faye, Lowell, and Roy, toward the end of the series.

In Season 4, Alex Lambert admits that she once posed for Playboy when she was in college.  In reality, Farrah Forke, who played Alex Lambert, had actually posed for the men's magazine.  Casey's ex-husband, Stuart, appeared in one episode, played by John Ritter.  Yasbeck (Casey) would later marry John Ritter, and it was the third (and final) time they played each other's spouses, after "Problem Child" (1990), where they initially met, and the "The Cosby Show" (1984) episode "Total Control" (1991).

Several important storylines, like Joe and Helen's romance finally culminating in marriage during Season 7, added a serialization to the lighthearted tone of each episode.  While viewers kept coming back to follow along with the characters, the ratings were solid but not spectacular.  It wasn't until the show was syndicated on cable on USA Network, where it aired several times a day, that the newer episodes aired on NBC saw a surge in viewership as more and more fans discovered the series.

The show struggled with constant change, though.  Thomas Haden Church left the series after Season 6 when he was cast in a leading role for the FOX sitcom Ned and Stacey.  After Lowell was written off by entering Witness Protection after seeing a mob hit, Antonio filled much of the void.  Lowell's orange hat was nailed to the hangar wall and remained there until the finale.  

Brian Haley was cast as the new mechanic, Budd Bronski, but was written out of the series without explanation after only a few episodes.

Before Church's departure, the show also introduced new characters and love interests, like helicopter pilot Alex Lambert or Helen's sister, Casey.  More serious story arcs of house fires, infidelity, and medical issues began to take over, like when Joe was temporarily grounded due to hypertension and had to stop flying.  

This storyline introduced two new characters, Kenny and his mother, Melinda.  Kenneth "Kenny" Margaret McElvey (Michael Manasseri) was the 18-year-old hired by Joe to fill in for him while on medical leave.  Brian became involved with Kenny's mother, Melinda (Marie Marshall), and broke Kenny's heart when Brian split up with his mother.  The character disappeared after Manasseri was cast in a FOX sitcom, Charlie Hoover, and Joe returned to work.  Charlie Hoover lasted 7 episodes.  

Toward the end of the series, as fans grew tired of the "Will they, won't they?" game between Joe and Helen, the ratings suffered.

Yet, Wings maintained a core loyal audience, wrapping up in 1997 with a finale that saw the gang reflecting on their journey.  In the end, Helen rediscovers her passion for the cello, and the gang finds the $250,000 that Joe and Brian's father left them.  While Joe plans to expand Sandpiper, Brian wants to leave Nantucket.  In the end, Joe and Helen move to Vienna for a year so Helen can study cello with a famous conductor, while Brian agrees to run Sandpiper while Joe is away.

Several episodes highlighted Wings' ability to blend humor and emotion.  "The Puppetmaster," the Season 2 premiere, saw Joe and Helen share their first steamy kiss.  Another Season 2 classic, "A Little Nightmare Music," mixes Helen's cello dreams and slapstick laughs, elevated by David Ogden Stiers' (MASH) guest role as a famous conductor.

My favorite episode, "Try to Remember the Night He Dismembered," aired during Season Three and delivered a wild ride when a fog blankets the island of Nantucket.  When all the flights are canceled, the gang is stuck inside the terminal, bored, waiting for Joe to cancel his last flight.  Helen convinces Brian to do his best party trick, hypnosis.  First, he hypnotizes Joe and makes him cluck like a chicken whenever someone says the word "tortilla." Eventually, Brian gets to Roy, who gets him to sing and dance to "Buttons and Bows." The group then asks Roy, still under hypnosis, his darkest secret and is shocked to discover that he once stole $250,000 and it's buried in his backyard, "roughly six paces from the southwest corner of his house." He then admits he plans to dig it up tomorrow because the neighbors are getting nosy.

With the fog thicker than ever, the gang convinces Joe to cancel the last flight, and they all head to Roy's to dig up the money.  When they arrive at his backyard and begin digging, they only find junk like old car batteries.  While snooping, Helen discovers plans for a hot tub, with blueprints to install it "roughly six paces from the southwest corner of his house."

The gang realizes they've been tricked by Roy into digging his hot tub for free and devise a plan to get back at him.  Later that evening, Roy returns home and is pleased to find the hole dug and the soil has all been removed.  The group emerges from the bushes to confront Roy, who rushes into the house... only to be trapped in an avalanche of dirt.

Other great episodes worth checking out include another Season 2 episode, "Murder, She Roasts," when Brian is forced to live with Faye for a week and jumps to conclusions after watching a "Most Wanted" television show.  Steven Weber is fantastic in this episode.  Season 4's "As Fate Would Have It" uses flashbacks to tell a story as the gang gets caught in a storm while flying to find Helen in Boston. 

Season 6's "Joe Blows" is a two-part episode that sees Tim Daly spectacularly unravel as everyone keeps demanding more and more from him.  He eventually flees the island, only to be found in part two, where he sells Sandpiper to Brian for a dollar.  Ultimately, he returns, and the two brothers split the airline's ownership as partners.

The finale episode, "Final Approach," in Season 8, is peak Wings.  While the later episodes struggled for laughs compared to the earlier ones, the finale ties up loose ends with bittersweet nostalgia.  It's a perfect goodbye for any fan of Wings.

Cliff and Norm from Cheers visit Nan.tucket

Throughout 8 seasons, several guest stars added their own flavor to the show, especially those from the Cheers and Frasier universe.  Five characters from Cheers, Norm, Cliff, Frasier, Lilith, and Rebecca, appeared on the show.  No characters from Wings crossed over to any Cheers episodes, though Thomas Haden Church played an unrelated character on a Cheers episode before being cast on Wings.

In "The Story of Joe" (Season 2), Cheers' cast members George Wendt (Norm) and John Ratzenberger (Cliff) stumble into Nantucket for a fishing trip, only to get sidetracked at the bar.  Personally, I wasn't as much a fan of Cheers, but even I could tell there was something "extra special" when the cast of Cheers would stop by.  It was classic big-city Cheers meeting Wings' small-town vibe.

Dr. Frasier Crane is listening

In "Planes, Trains, & Visiting Cranes" (Season 3), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) and Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith) arrive on the island to host a seminar, clashing with Helen over past advice that ruined her life.  Kelsey Grammer's performance was so good in this episode that he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.  I love that they tied Frasier to Helen running off to New York to try her hand at the cello, explaining her sudden departure.  It really tied the universe together among the three shows.

In the Cheers episode "License to Hill," which aired the same night as that particular Wings episode, Frasier even mentions that he and Lilith are going to Nantucket, foreshadowing their crossover appearance.  An additional note - Nine years later, at the beginning of the Frasier episode "Bla-Z Boy," Niles plays the Wings theme song on the piano. 

Rebecca Schull guest-starred on Frasier in 2000, in one of my favorite episodes, "Road Warrior (RDWRER)."  

Kirstie Alley (Rebecca) shows up in "I Love Brian" during Season 4 as Brian and Alex head to Boston as he tries to convince her that he knows Clint Black, the country singer.  Rebecca shows up and asks Clint to come back to the bar with her, a nod to Cheers.  Black responds, "Maybe next year," causing Rebecca to exclaim, "But none of you know where we're going to be next year!" as a reference to how Cheers was in its final season.

Other notables include Jay Leno as himself in "The Houseguest" (Season 5), Ray Charles serenading in "A Decent Proposal" (Season 5), and Jonathan Frakes as a sleazy ex in "Business or Pleasure" (Season 4).  These cameos enriched Wings' history, blending star power with its unique charm.

While Wings never "flew" to the heights of critical acclaim of Cheers or Frasier, it still earned three Emmy nominations.  Unfortunately, one was for makeup, and two were for guest appearances (Kelsey Grammer and Tyne Daly).  It's even more disappointing to compare the 3 Emmy nods to Cheers' 28 and Frasier's 37.

Early reviews praised the cast but often dismissed the show as a "formulaic sitcom." Critics praised the cast but dismissed the writing as "simplistic" and lacking any "edge." Tim Daly once said, "For whatever reason, Wings never got the respect it deserved."  The Nantucket setting was praised for originality, but couldn't strike the nearly universal appeal of a bar in Boston or the culture clash of an upper-class son dealing with his blue-collar living in his Seattle penthouse.

There was a British remake in 1996 on the UK's Channel 3, shifting the setting to Jersey.  The show was called The Legacy, and the only episode made has been mostly lost to time.  It was an almost word-for-word remake, with some elements taken from Season 2's premiere, "The Puppetmaster." The brothers were renamed Steven and Michael, and Roy, Helen, and Faye were all in the show.  The airline's name was also Sandpiper Air, but AeroMass was changed to Goldhawk Air, and Lowell was renamed "Noel."  

For fans of Star Trek and trivia, in an episode of Wings, Helen watches home movies of one of her childhood birthday parties, and young Brian is seen wearing a T-shirt saying "STAR TREK LIVES." Steven Weber would later guest star on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, while Tim Daly's father, James Daly, appeared on the original Star Trek series in 1966.  Like Wings, Star Trek episodes were all produced by Paramount Television (originally Desilu Productions).   In another connection, Steven Weber co-starred with Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) in the film Jeffrey in 1995.

In years past, many fans and media outlets have reframed Wings as an underrated gem.  Consistency was its strength, and I honestly think it holds up better than most sitcoms of its era.  It's not too dated, and never did topical episodes.  The storylines were clever enough, and the jokes were funny.

For an aviation nerd like myself, the show may have been based at an airport and an airline, but I felt there was too much focus on "the people" and not enough on the airline.  Sure, there were a few episodes where crazy customers or taking the plane somewhere made up the bulk of the episode, but the plane and flying were usually an afterthought.

I think timing may have played a significant role when considering why the show never got the same respect as its siblings did.  Cheers had years to become a cultural icon by the time Wings debuted in 1990.  Three years in, including Wings' short 6-episode first season, Frasier was born and became an instant hit.  Wings suddenly became the middle child.

One Reddit user on the Wings subreddit comments that "Cheers gets referenced frequently nearly 20 or 25 years later, but Wings is always just 'that show always on Nick at Nite.'" He also asked, "Am I weird for finding it (Wings) wittier?" I'd agree, especially since I always thought Cheers was 'basic' or 'mid' (as the kids say), but maybe that's just me.

Another Redditor replied, suggesting the airport and lack of big celebrity names kept the show from primetime glory, thinking it resembled The Mary Tyler Moore Show more than Cheers.  They continued, "Cheers had amazing characterization right from the pilot, while Wings felt more daytime TV." In my humble opinion, though, for its many likeable characters, even the curmudgeonly Roy, offered a charm that Cheers' bitterness and dry wit sometimes lacked.

For us fans of Wings, it's a cozy companion when we have nothing else to watch.  One X/Twitter user remembered it as "...my parents' go-to comfort show when I was a kid.  No one I talk to remembers it, but I find it quotable as hell.  The day I quote Lowell and someone gets it will be magical." Message boards and social media threads buzz with memories of USA Network marathons, dubbing the USA Network of the mid-90s as "The Wings/WWF Network."

On Facebook, fans share stories of visiting Nantucket's Club Car or flying on Cape Air's N121PB (until it was retired in 2023).

Kevin Koperski built a trivia site in the '90s, including even a tour of the studio in 1997, but unfortunately, there isn't much left of his site.  In the early days of the internet, we had to create our basic websites on hosts like Geocities, Angelfire, Mindspring, or the like, but those sites went the way of the wind and took our work with them.  His current website has an article and video about his love of Wings from ten years ago on the 25th Anniversary, which you can find by clicking here. 

After Wings ended, the cast's career paths varied. 

Tim Daly appeared in several television roles, most notably as the voice of Superman in Superman: The Animated Series.  He starred in the hit series Madam Secretary alongside his wife, Tea Leoni.  He also made memorable appearances in The Sopranos as a degenerate drug addict screenwriter.

Steven Weber starred on The CW's iZombie and has been on NBC's Chicago Med for several years (as of writing).  These days, he is very active as a voice actor in animation and video games.

Crystal Bernard retired from acting and focused on her music instead.

Unfortunately, David Schramm passed away in 2020 at 73 after a long stage career, but will forever be remembered as Roy Biggins.

Rebecca Schull still occasionally acts, even at 96, although her schedule has significantly slowed.  Most recently in 2022's Meet Cute.

Thomas Haden Church has kept busy, most memorably as Sandman in Spider-Man 3.  He's appeared in several other films, including We Bought a Zoo, Hellboy, and 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.  He also regularly appears on television.

Amy Yasbeck, who played Helen's sister Casey in later episodes, is an advocate against heart disease after suddenly losing her husband, John Ritter.

Farrah Forke, who joined the cast as Alex the helicopter pilot during the fourth season, sadly passed away in 2022 at the age of 54 from cancer.

Despite the success of the other cast members, Tony Shalhoub may have had the most notable career of any post-Wings.  His successful film career included movies like Men in Black and countless others.  He's also provided voices in the Cars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.  Still, Shalhoub will forever be remembered as Adrian Monk, the OCD-stricken detective in the television series Monk.

Tim Daly appeared as himself in an episode of Monk.  He and Monk were passengers on a plane, and there were several references to their roles on Wings.  Steven Weber also guested in an episode of Monk, as Max Hudson, an obnoxious "shock jock" radio talk show host who murders his wife but has an "air-tight" alibi.  

Modern-day Cape Air still fills a tangible layer to the show's legacy.  Still flying a handful of Cessna 402s in the same paint scheme used for Sandpiper Air, Cape Air flies passengers along routes in and out of Boston and several other cities around the country.  They can still be seen several times a day in Nantucket and at several of Sandpiper's "fictional yet real" destinations.

At 35, Wings still stands the test of time.  Created by Cheers alumni, enriched by a stellar cast and guest stars, and sustained by a loyal fanbase, it overcame the modest acclaim and left a lasting mark on television.  As Ken Levine writes on his blog, "I'm as proud to have worked on Wings as Cheers and Frasier." Its Nantucket-based hangar may not echo the fame of a Boston bar, but its steady ratings and memorable episodes prove even a quiet sitcom can succeed.