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[[File:Wings_7454.jpg|frame]]
An underrated, underappreciated sitcom from producers of ''[[Cheers]]'' and future creators of ''[[Frasier]]'', David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee. Set at Tom Nevers Field on the island of Nantucket, ''Wings'' focused on the complicated relationship between the idealistic young pilot Joe Hackett (Tim Daly), owner of the struggling one-plane airline ([[Cabin Pressure|or air dot]]) Sandpiper Air, and his oversexed, layabout brother Brian (Steven Weber).
Other characters included lovably dumb mechanic Lowell (replaced in the show's penultimate season by [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] Budd Bronski), daffy clerk Fay, greedy rival Roy, and Helen, the owner of a nearby lunch counter (and later, Joe's wife). Later additions to the cast included sad sack cab driver Antonio (after [[Monk|Tony Shalhoub]] scored in a small role as a waiter) and Helen's neurotic sister Casey.
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* [[Actually Pretty Funny]]: In "Miss Jenkins", Roy's mother is almost tricked into marrying a con man, but the con man dies of a heart attack. He was leading a game of Simon Says when he had the attack. He said, "Call an ambulance." No one moved, because he didn't say "Simon Says". When Roy tells everyone the story, he starts laughing. Everyone calls him cruel for that, but then they begin laughing also.
** This exchange from "This Old House":
{{quote|
'''Roy''': No, it's Thomas Edison's birthday, so we gave all our light bulbs the day off.
'''Lowell''': You know, Roy, sarcasm is the lowest form of humor. (''chuckles to himself'') That's a good one, though. }}
* [[Adored by the Network]]: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was good reason that the [[USA Network]] was nicknamed "The Wings Network", and ReelzChannel is quickly taking the same title with their airings of the series in 2012.
* [[Alliterative Name]]: Budd Bronski, and Helen Hackett (after she got married).
* [[All Just a Dream]]: Spoofed in "The Big Sleep" and "Dreamgirl".
** "The Big Sleep" features a [[Dream Within a Dream]] within ''another'' dream. Joe and Helen fight over the plans for their new house and go to bed angry. The next day at the airport, Joe tells Brian that he dreamed last night that he died in a plane crash; Brian warns Joe not to fly that day. Joe tells Helen that they can't fly to Boston to see their architect, but Helen assumes that Joe is simply trying to get out of having to change the house plans back to the way she wants them. She forces him to fly anyway, and the plane really does crash... but before they die, Joe wakes up in bed. He then wakes Helen up and tells her about the dream. Helen comforts Joe, tells him the house plans can stay the way Joe wanted them, and then the two have sex. Cut to Joe waking up ''again'', for real this time. He rouses Helen in the hopes of duplicating what happened in his dream. It doesn't work.
* [[All Up to You]]: The episodes "High Anxiety", "My Brother's Back and There's Going to Be Trouble", and the two-parter "Joe Blows" involves Joe somehow unable to keep Sandpiper Air in business, and Brian has to take the responsibility. Also, "Airport 90" involved Helen having to land the plane since Joe isn't there and Brian hit his head on the plane ceiling.
* [[All Work vs. All Play]]: Joe is All Work and Brian is All Play, most of the time.
* [[Almost Kiss]]: Repeatedly in "Friends or Lovers?", including a sudden cramp, an interruption by a teenager, but mostly by Helen's laughing. Eventually subverted, as they share a long, hot kiss afterwards.
* [[And a Diet Coke]]: Done with an overweight country music singer in the episode "Wingless, Part 2".
* [[Anguished Declaration of Love]]: With Joe and Helen, of course. Ironically, the first time he does this is in a very quiet, subdued manner. The second time, he has followed her to New York to stop her from accepting another man's proposal. Helen tries to blow him off and insist that previous night (when they slept together) was a mistake, but Joe finally loses it:
{{quote|
* [[Annoying Laugh]]: In "Exit Laughing", Helen dates a man with a laugh like a braying hyena.
* [[Arranged Marriage]]: In "She's Baaack", Sandy Cooper arranges a wedding of herself and Joe since she couldn't accept the fact that Joe and Helen were engaged. She hides this perfectly in front of the others.
{{quote|
** Antonio's parents were married because their families decided it should be so. The two did not meet until the day of their wedding, yet eventually grew to love each other.
* [[Artifact Title]]: Originally, the plot of the episode "Try to Remember the Night He Dismembered" involved Roy tricking the others into digging a space for his hot tub by telling them, while apparently hypnotized, that he had dismembered his late wife and buried her in his back yard. After a disastrous table read, the writers decided the subject matter was too dark and instead had Roy confessing to stealing a large sum of money and burying it. The title remained unchanged despite the fact that it was no longer descriptive of the episode's plot.
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** In the same episode, Fay mentions that she had so many bad dates that she managed to buy a snowmobile with the money she gained.
* [[Bad Impressionists]]: Lowell attempts to do some impressions for Roy, all of which consist simply of him speaking in a slightly gruffer version of his normal voice and saying, "Hi, I'm (celebrity)!"
{{quote|
'''Roy:''' Lowell, that is the worst Jack Nicholson impression I have ever heard.
'''Lowell:''' But you knew who it was! }}
* [[Bad Job, Worse Uniform]]: In "Moonlighting", Alex is thoroughly embarrassed when she has to take a second job as a server at a medieval-themed restaurant, complete with humiliating outfit.
* [[Bait and Switch Comparison]]: Helen, regarding Roy's Russian mail order bride. "Could you imagine your only two choices in life being Roy and Siberia? One is cold, vast, and depressing, and the other is way the hell in Russia."
* [[Batman Gambit]]: In "The Puppetmaster", Brian hires an actor to play Helen's ideal man, who is supposed to make Helen fall in love with him, then he'll confess that he's a pilot so that Helen erases the 'no dating pilots' rule, and she'll no longer be able to use that excuse for Brian. This [[Hilarity Ensues|fails]] later, of course.
{{quote|
* [[Big Eater]]: Helen in the past, which was the reason she was so overweight. She got better, though she's shown to still go on binges whenever she gets upset.
* [[Big Ego, Hidden Depths]]: Roy got this quite a bit. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "Sports and Leisure" when he cries after being disinvited from a group get-together.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': Who knew he had one? }}
* [[Big No]]: In "The Tennis Bum", Lowell does this after seeing his destroyed blimp.
* [[Billing Displacement]]: Tony Shalhoub's later success in movies and the TV show ''[[Monk]]'' has led many to retrospectively consider him one of the leads on ''Wings''. Despite the fact that he did not become a regular until the third season, he is featured prominently on the box art for ''all'' ''Wings'' DVD releases, while David Schramm and Rebecca Schull, regulars throughout the show's run, are not.
* [[Bizarrchitecture]]: In "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wrong", Joe and Helen hire a famous architect to build their house for them... but are less than thrilled when the house he designs is shaped like a 7.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': Helen... he already explained why there can't be stairs. }}
* [[Black Widow]]: Subverted with Fay, though it's hard not to wonder since all her husbands are named George.
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* [[The Boxing Episode]]: "Raging Bull%$%#". Joe signs up for an amateur boxing tournament, expecting to get some revenge on a childhood bully, while Brian signs up as an alternate in case Joe backs out. However, when the other fighter backs out instead, the brothers find themselves pitted against one another.
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: Helen invokes this in "The Puppetmaster":
{{quote|
'''Brian''': Oh, really?
'''Helen''': We went on a date last night and I had the best time. Candlelight dinner, cappuccino on the works, terrific sex...
'''Joe''': ''What''?
'''Helen''': Just testing if you're listening. You know I hate cappuccino. }}
** This is subverted in "This Old House" after Lowell eats some spoiled food.
{{quote|
'''Lowell''': No, I pretty much followed my usual routine. Watched a little television, took off my shoes, threw up, and went to bed.
'''Helen''': That's your usual routine? Throw up and then go to bed?
'''Lowell''': Yes, I've found that to be far and away the best sequence. }}
* [[Briefcase Full of Money]]: Double subverted. The pilot episode has the briefcase containing a picture of Joe and Brian with the writing "You're rich". Fast forward seven years later, it turns out that the lining of the briefcase contains money, which kicks off a treasure hunt that eventually makes the brothers $250,000 richer.
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* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: In an early episode, an unimpressed Fay mentions how Helen once gave her a Debbie Reynolds workout tape for a gift. Reynolds later guest starred in an episode, playing Helen's ''mother'', of all people.
* [[Censor Suds]]: Done in "Divorce, American Style" with Helen.
* [[Cerebus Retcon]]: Done in the final flashback "This Old House", when we see the dinner scene of the then-happy Hackett family in their new home.
{{quote|
Yeah. I think we're gonna be happy here for a long, long time... }}
* [[Chain Letter]]: Antonio, Roy, and Fay each get one in "B.S., I Love You". Roy and Fay maintain the chain and prosper, while Antonio ignores it and suffers.
* [[Chain of Corrections]]:
{{quote|
'''Roy:''' I think you're confusing [[Bob Dylan]] with Dylan Thomas.
'''Lowell:''' Don't be silly, Roy. Dylan Thomas was the poet laureate of Wales. Bob Dylan was the star of ''[[Gilligan's Island]]''.
'''Roy:''' No, no, no, that's Bob ''Denver''!
'''Lowell:''' No, Bob Denver was the guy who sang "Rocky Mountain High".
'''Roy:''' Oh, right. }}
** Incidentally, [[Genius Bonus|that was actually]] ''John'' Denver.
** In "Blackout Buggins", the group sees the national anthem being performed on television by a fictional rapper named "Ice Tray", leading to the following conversation.
{{quote|
'''Helen:''' No, that's [[Ice Cube]].
'''Antonio:''' Then who sang the song about the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|ninja turtle]]?
'''Brian:''' That was [[Vanilla Ice]].
'''Antonio:''' Wait. Isn't Ice Cube the basketball player?
'''Helen:''' No, that's [[Ice T]].
'''Brian:''' No, that's the Ice ''Man''.<ref>George "The Iceman" Gervin, a Hall of Fame basketball player.</ref
'''Antonio:''' I wonder if Ice T is related to [[Mr. T]].
'''Lowell:''' I wonder if Mr. T is related to Mr. Coffee.
'''Roy:''' (''to Lowell'') I wonder if your mother is related to your father. }}
* [[The Chains of Commanding]]: after Joe leaves Nantucket in 'Joe Blows' due to being overworked, Brian discovers how difficult it is to operate a business. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XimRwOSEfcc\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrOmco1loeU\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TxTr_plc-k\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db5tpC0VD34\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74KVIP_zJwU\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHyNcmHjLg\]
* [[Chekhov's Gag]]: In "Crate Expectations", Joe is on the phone with his girlfriend, thanking her for his birthday present. [[Funny Background Event|In the background]], we see Lowell pulling said present, a gaucho hat, out of the garbage and trying it on, expressing pleasure with the results. We don't see Lowell wearing the hat again after that, but later in the episode, this exchange takes place regarding an unrelated matter.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': Still you.
'''Brian''': I know, but I think Lowell's gaining. Have you seen that hat he's been wearing? }}
* [[Chew Toy]]: Antonio during the later seasons. And the more screentime he got, he more pathetic he became, culminating in the final episode when he's ''attacked by a pack of wild dogs.''
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* [[Comfort Food]]: Everything, according to Helen. Every time she's anxious, worried or depressed she would eat a lot. A deconstruction, because it caused weight problems for her.
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: In "2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten", Joe finds a teddy bear hung on his office (in a similar position to a person committing suicide by hanging) with a note that says "Joey Bear; Till death do us part". Joe is extremely concerned about this, but Brian, Alex and Helen make numerous remarks about the bear.
{{quote|
'''Helen''': "Yeah, maybe Joe's right. This is pretty weird."
'''Brian''': "Let's not jump to conclusions, okay. Maybe it's suicide, check the bear for signs of a struggle. }}
** Helen nearly subverts this:
{{quote|
** Also, in "Joe Blows" part 2, we see Helen and Lowell both calling in a missing person report. Helen is calling for Joe, describing him, while Lowell is calling for his Harley Davidson which Joe rode away on.
* [[Coming Out Story]]: "There's Always Room For Cello" has Roy's [[
* [[Convenience Store Gift Shopping]]: In "Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Man", the gang throws an office birthday party for Casey. Not wanting to go to any effort, Brian just takes a book off his bookshelf and gives it to her. Which he might have gotten away with, except the book turns out to be called 101 Ways to Pleasure a Woman. Roy, on the other hand, simply grabs a jar of charity money off of his counter and hands it to her as-is. When Joe takes offense to this, Roy admits that it isn't a real charity anyway; he made it up.
* [[Cool Old Lady]]: Fay ([[Overly Long Name|Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay]]) Cochran can be this, especially in the later seasons when her wacky side was emphasized a lot more.
* [[Could Say It, But...]]: In "Noses Off", Brian debates having plastic surgery to fix a bump on his nose while Joe tries to talk him out of it. On the day Brian leaves to have the procedure done, he swears Antonio and Lowell to secrecy.
{{quote|
'''Lowell''': Yeah, Joe, he went-
'''Antonio''': Lowell, Lowell, Lowell. He told us not to say.
'''Lowell''': Right.
'''Joe''': What do you mean? I need to talk to him.
'''Antonio''': (''to Lowell'') Well... perhaps we could tell him without really telling him. (''to Joe'') Where's Brian? Nobody ''nose''.
'''Joe''': (''realizing what has happened'') I don't believe this.
'''Lowell''': [[Comically Missing the Point|Really? I thought Helen gave him a ride over to Dr. Lasker's.]] }}
* [[Courtroom Antics]]: When Joe accuses Helen of faking her injuries to get sympathy from the judge in "Is That a Subpoena in Your Pocket". Turns out she isn't.
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* [[Crazy Jealous Guy]]: Matt, a hired actor in "The Puppetmaster" ends up becoming this towards Helen and Joe. It's all a fake planned by Joe.
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] in "Lifeboat" when the gang is adrift in a lifeboat after making an emergency water landing:
{{quote|
'''Brian:''' [[Genre Savvy|Wait]]. You keep a little something in your purse in case you're stranded at sea in a lifeboat in an evening gown?
'''Fay:''' Oh, shut up. }}
* [[Crossover]]: With ''[[Cheers]]'' - Norm and Cliff in "The Story of Joe", Frasier and Lilith in "Planes, Trains, and Visiting Cranes", Rebecca Howe in "I Love Brian".
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* [[Defenestrate and Berate]]: Casey dumps her husband's money out the window of his yacht when she finds out he was lying about being poor. She eventually throws him overboard as well.
* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Joe says this in "2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten" when he tries to make an excuse for not going to the Club Car with Sandy Cooper.
{{quote|
** Helen once worked in a New York strip club called "Totally Nude Nudes", which Brian lampshades.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': "I just found out. Let's go!" }}
* [[Did They or Didn't They?]]: The entire focus of "It May Have Happened One Night" is the other characters trying to find out if Joe and Alex slept together. Even Alex doesn't know (she was very drunk the night in question).
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Even if you could argue that Helen driving her jeep through Joe's office after the revelation that he was seeing another woman was justified, she then did it a second time for no other reason than that Joe was gloating over beating her in court.
* [[Dresses the Same]]: Used in the episode "The Waxman Cometh." When Casey goes to the grand opening of Lowell's new wax museum, she is mortified to see that the museum's wax figure of Eva Gabor is not only wearing the same dress as her, but also has better jewelry.
* [[The Dutiful Son]]: Joe. In the first episode Brian points out how Joe has remained on Nantucket instead of following his dreams. Later in 'Joe Blows' Joe cracks under the presssure of a miserable day and leaves in a rage.
* [[Dysfunctional Family]]: Joe and Brian's father went insane, their mother left them, leaving Joe to take care of Brian and his father. And their aunt Sarah smells like play-doh. Helen lampshades this by saying that Joe's life is just a tiny step away from being a Greek tragedy.
* [[Easy Amnesia]]: Discussed by Antonio in "Joe Blows" part 2:
{{quote|
* [[Elegant Classical Musician]]: Helen and her cello.
* [[Embarrassing Slide]]: In "Portrait of the Con Artist of a Young Man," Brian decides to play a joke on Joe by taking a close-up shot of a certain private portion of his anatomy with Joe's camera. The joke's on him when he finds out that Joe sent the film to Helen's parents.
** In "Wingless, Part 3", Cord prepares a slide show for Sandpiper's business presentation during an all-night pizza and soda binge, then bails on the meeting, forcing Joe and Brian to give the presentation in his absence. There are several slides which leave the brothers absolutely baffled (such as photos of a half-eaten pizza, a dog, and an extreme close-up of Cord's face).
* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: Fictional example; Joe surprise kisses Helen during their elaborate act in "The Puppetmaster". It is strongly implied that both of them ''wanted'' to do so, as indicated by the exchange below.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': We [already] talked about the kiss.
'''Helen''': No we didn't.
'''Joe''': I could swear we did.
'''Helen''': I think I would've remembered. }}
* [[Epic Fail]]: Brian's plan in "The Puppetmaster". His goal is to make Helen fall for Matt, a hired actor who is her ideal man, except that he's a pilot, hoping to make Helen erase the rule of not dating pilots. His plan seemed to be going well, until Helen declares that she's in love and plans to go serious, and Matt's also falling for Helen. When Brian and Joe goes to stop them and gives out the truth, Helen doesn't care. Joe objects to this by (fake) confessing his love for Helen. Matt doesn't take it well, and pulls out a gun. Eventually, it seems like he died after a fight with Joe, but it's all a staged act planned by none other than Joe.
* [[Erotic Dream]]: "All's Fare" opens with Brian having a sexy dream about Helen. This irks Joe, who by this point in the series is engaged to her. Helen, on the other hand, has no problem with joining Brian in teasing the elder Hackett brother about it.
** In "The Late Mrs. Biggins", Lowell references a dream he had about him having sex with various celebrities. Antonio demands to know what Lowell had for dinner that night in the hopes that he can have the same dream himself.
* [[The European Carry All]]: In "Just Call Me Angel", Joe carries around what looks very much like (and what the other characters keep referring to as) a makeup case. However, he keeps insisting it's a man's travel bag.
* [[Everyone Went to School Together]]: Most of the characters not only went to the same high school, they all have their reunion together, despite being different ages. This is [[Handwaved]] by saying that the school was too small for individual classes to have separate reunions.
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* [[Filth]]: Brian could be counted on for many a racy joke over the course of the series. Roy as well, though he tended to be more blunt about it.
* [[Five Stages of Grief]]: Parodied in "Goodbye Old Friend". When Lowell refuses to believe that his friend Weeb is dead, Brian notes that he's in denial and explains that over the next few weeks, they can expect to see Lowell go through the remaining stages: anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Lowell then comes back into the room and expresses each stage one after another, in order, in the space of a few seconds.
{{quote|
* [[Flashback Cut]]: Repeatedly in "It's Not the Thought, it's the Gift". The scenes would regularly cut to a home video of Helen's twelfth birthday, which was distinguished by the [[Timeshifted Actor|younger characters]] and the sepia-like tone.
* [[The Fool]]: Lowell.
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* [[Forgotten Birthday]]: A variation occurs in "Crate Expectations". Joe tells his friends not to throw him a party, [[Schmuck Bait|but he actually wanted one]]. Fay takes the bait, but nobody can make it that night, so they move the date forward by a day. Joe overhears Fay ordering the cake but doesn't find out that the party is the next night, so he stays at the office anticipating a surprise party that never happens. A crate is delivered to the hangar, but Joe embarrasses himself by assuming that his friends are in the crate when they aren't. Joe stays late again the next night, where another crate is delivered. Joe is positive his friends are in the crate this time, but again, they're not. They're in ''a'' crate, just not the one being delivered to the hangar; it turns out that the crate was accidentally switched with one being shipped to the mainland.
* [[Formerly Fat]]: Helen.
* [[Fragile Flower]]: Male example; Helen dates a man who cries when she mentions her dead dog, finding his sensitivity to be attractive. She becomes disillusioned when she realizes he cries at ''everything''.
{{quote|
* [[Frank Lloyd Quite]]: Y. M. Burg, played by [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Edward Herrmann]]. Helps that the episode is called "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wrong".
* [[Freudian Excuse]]: In "Mother Wore Stripes" Joe blames his mother abandoning him as a child for him growing up to be a nervous tightass. In "This Old House", Brian discovers the letters he wrote to Captain Kangaroo that he wrote when they were kids and that Joe was supposed to send and then expounds an elaborate theory about how believing he had been ignored by his hero eventually led to all his failures in life as an adult. Joe is skeptical.
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** "Joe Blows, Part 1" opens with Joe face down in a pool while a voice-over discusses how he never expected this to be his fate. The rest of the episode shows the events that led to him being there.
* [[I Can Live With That]]: In "Roy Crazy".
{{quote|
'''Brian''': "Exactly."
'''Roy''': "I can live with that!" }}
* [[Idiot Savant]]: Lowell.
* [[Ignore the Disability]]: In one episode Fay helps a passenger named Tupperman with a very bad toupee. Although she's distracted by it, she manages to get through the conversation without mentioning it... until the end, when she accidentally calls him "Mr. Toupee-man."
* [[I Have This Friend]]: An interesting variation, wherein the person being addressed assumes that they are the friend in question.
{{quote|
'''Roy''': (''becoming nervous'') "What are you looking at me like that for? What did you find out? Damn it, those records were supposed to be sealed! Don't you believe in a fresh start?" (''walks away, leaving Brian dumbfounded'') }}
** In "Et Tu, Antonio", Antonio tries this when asking Lowell for love advice. Lowell tells Antonio that he isn't fooled, he knows exactly who this "friend" is... and then promptly makes several wrong guesses, never realizing that Antonio is talking about himself.
* [[I Need to Go Iron My Dog]]: Numerous. In "It's Not the Thought, It's the Gift", where Joe and Brian [[Sibling Rivalry|compete]] over who can give Helen the better birthday gift, Joe wants to leave to get a better gift without making Brian aware of his intentions.
{{quote|
'''Brian''': Joe, [[Genre Savvy|this wouldn't be another of your clever fibs,]] [[Tempting Fate|would it?]]
'''Joe''': (''long pause'') [[Bad Liar|No.]] }}
** Another one in "2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten":
{{quote|
* [[I Never Got Any Letters]]: In "This Old House", Joe hides all the letters Brian wrote for Captain Kangaroo.
* [[Insatiable Newlyweds]]: After Joe and Helen get married.
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* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Roy usually refers to everyone using their last names, unless he's trying to suck up to them for some reason.
* [[Leap Day]]: Roy was born on Feb 29 and holds a birthday party for himself every 4 years, where he pretends to be one quarter of his real age. While Roy acknowledges his real age, he demands that everyone follow the tradition of throwing him a kids' party based on his Leap Year age.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': Yeah. But a word of advice. He hates clothes, school supplies, and he got all the Batman stuff when he turned 11. }}
* [[Least Rhymable Word]]: In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To9LRUGtnRQ this scene], Brian tries to win Alex back by improvising a song over the terminal microphone. His plan hits a snag when he realizes "nothing rhymes with Alex." Nevertheless, he gets a round of applause at the end (but doesn't win her back).
* [[Leno Device]]: The episode "The Team Player" involves Antonio, manning the Sandpiper ticket counter while Joe and Brian are attending a hockey game, refusing to let a star Boston Bruins player on the plane when he shows up right before takeoff. The Bruins lose the game and a public relations disaster ensues, capped off by the characters seeing Leno make a joke about the incident on The Tonight Show.
* [[
* [[Light Bulb Joke]]: In "Gone But Not Faygotten", Fay retires and the Hackett brothers hire Casey to replace her as Sandpiper's ticket agent. When Fay wants to come back, neither Joe nor Brian has the heart to tell her no, but they can't bring themselves to fire Casey either, so they let them both run the counter, even though the job can easily be handled by one person. Roy comments on the situation.
{{quote|
* [[Like an Old Married Couple]]: Joe and Brian. They've also been [[Mistaken for Gay]] several times.
* [[Line-of-Sight Name]]: Episode "Lynch Party," Helen recalls her (failed) attempt to break off her engagement with Davis Lynch so that she could marry Joe; not wanting to tell him the truth, she claimed that she had a disease, which she named "Faulkner's Syndrome" after spotting a Faulkner novel on Davis' table. The trope is compounded when Davis offers to find her a doctor, and she claims to have already seen the "top Faulkner man," named "Dr. Dickens."
* [[Literal Metaphor]]: Used in the episode "Plane Nine From Nantucket":
{{quote|
'''Helen''': "Fay licked me."
'''Joe''': "She beat you, huh?"
'''Helen''': "No, she licked me. She literally licked my hand. I was so startled, she caught me off-guard, pinned me to the table." }}
* [[The Loins Sleep Tonight]]: In "Miss Jenkins", when Brian dates his old teacher. Then something happens which has never ever happened to him before - "I got an incomplete".
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* [["Ma'am" Shock]]
* [[The Maiden Name Debate]]: Fay kept all the last names of her husbands (making her name Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran, though she's usually called Fay Evelyn Cochran). Before she married her first husband, her name was Fay Evelyn Schlob - not that her husband's last name (Dumbly) is any better.
{{quote|
* [[Make-Out Point]]: Joe takes Helen to this in "Friends or Lovers?".
* [[Mattress Tag Gag]]: Brian complains about what a goody-two-shoes his brother is.
{{quote|
'''Joe:''' It says ''"DO NOT REMOVE!"'' }}
* [[May-December Romance]]: Joe dates 19-year-old Courtney in "Hey Nineteen". She then dumps him for a man who's 12 years older than Joe.
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* [[Minor Flaw, Major Breakup]]: In "Exit Laughing", Helen decides to dump her boyfriend because of his [[Annoying Laugh]]; however, he ends up dumping her first, because he [[Irony|cannot stand her Southern accent.]]
** A subversion occurs with Lowell.
{{quote|
'''Helen:''' I thought it was because Bunny slept with other men.
'''Lowell:''' Okay, make that two annoying habits. }}
* [[Missing Episode]]: "There's Always Room for Cello", in which Roy's son comes out of the closet, was the third episode produced but was not broadcast until halfway through the second season. Homosexuality was still something of a taboo topic for a sitcom in 1990, and NBC had reservations about such a relatively new show tackling the issue.
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* [[My Nayme Is]]: Subverted in "My Brother's Keeper". A visiting socialite has a brief relationship with Brian, who she calls "Brian With an ''I''"
* [[Naked Apron]]: When Joe and Helen, having kicked Brian and Casey out of the house, decide that they will celebrate their newfound privacy by being "all nude, all the time" while at home. This later leads to an argument when she comes out of the kitchen wearing an apron, but nothing else. (He's covered up by a newspaper he's conveniently reading ''at arm's length'' while walking down the stairs.)
{{quote|
'''Helen:''' I am ''not'' cooking bacon naked. }}
** The rest of the episode was one [[Scenery Censor]] gag to another, until their neighbors' perverted kid managed to get blackmail photos of them... cleaning the rain gutters in the nude.
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* [[Never Recycle a Building]]: Double subverted in "This Old House". It seems that the Hackett brothers' old house is being demolished for good (it was in very poor condition), until Fay revealed that Herman Melville lived there for some time, which made the house a historical landmark. The others didn't get this information before they totally destroyed the house, though.
* [[Nixon Mask]]: In "The Bank Dick", the bank is robbed by an unknown man wearing a Nixon mask, though he's eventually caught.
{{quote|
'''Brian''': You dreamed that you were in a bank during the time of a robbery?
'''Lowell''': No, I dreamed I met Nixon! }}
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Done from time to time. One example is when the Hacketts fly a charter plane for country music duo The Todds, a reference to the real life country act The Judds.
* [[No Matter How Much I Beg]]: When Brian and Alex decide to date exclusively, Brian gets nervous about being able to live up to the commitment. So when Joe throws a party at the house for a bunch of gorgeous girls, Brian instructs him to lock him in his room until morning. After he does so, a girl walks out of the bathroom wearing [[Modesty Towel|only a towel]].
* [[Noodle Implements]]: Roy finds the subject of [[Primal Scene|one's parents having sex]] distasteful:
{{quote|
** Subverted in the second half of "Joe Blows", when Brian explains each of the [[Noodle Implement|Noodle Implements]] that ended with trout fishing.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: The series did this more than once.
{{quote|
'''Joe:''' Brian, the last time you said, "Trust me," I wound up [[Naked People Are Funny|naked]] on I-95 trying to flag down oncoming traffic.
'''Brian:''' But who pulled over for you? }}
{{quote|
'''Joe:''' No. No. No. Not again. The last time you had a project, I had to go to court.
'''Brian:''' Oh, yeah. Thanks a lot, Mr. Witness for the Prosecution. }}
{{quote|
'''Lowell:''' Once, when I was out of underwear... ''[Everyone in the airport protests]''
'''Brian:''' Lowell, what is your fondest memory?
'''Lowell:''' Once, when I was out of underwear... }}
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* [[Orphaned Punchline]]: "So the hooker says to the gynecologist, 'My hourly rates might be higher, but...'"
* [[The Other Darrin]]: In flashbacks, the Hackett parents were played by different actors than the ones who played them in the series proper.
* [[Outdated Outfit]]: In "She's Baaack", Fay gives [[Butt Monkey|Antonio]] her third husband's 70s wardrobe. She thinks that he looks great in it, never noticing that the clothes are hopelessly out of style.
* [[Out-Gambitted]]: Occurs near the end of "The Puppetmaster".
* [[Overly Long Name]]: Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran. She's been married three times and apparently kept all her names, though Fay Evelyn Cochran is what she actually goes by.
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** An almost-literal example is seen in another episode, when Roy is shown petting his "hamster" (a stress toy that his doctor gave him) when talking to Fay about how his wife left him.
* [[Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure]]: In "Stew in a Stew", Antonio reads ''Scarlett'' and raves about it, but finds himself wanting to know more about what happened to Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler during the Civil War. When Helen and Roy inform him of the existence of ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'', he responds incredulously "Get out!" As if that weren't enough, he then mentions liking ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' and ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''... but the title ''[[Star Wars]]'' does not ring even the tiniest of bells for him.
* [[Porn Stash]]: Joe has Playboy magazines hidden in his secret compartment at his old house, along with Brian's letters he was supposed to send Captain Kangaroo.
** Roy has a stash of Playboys in his office.
** Joe and Brian's father had one, so Brian didn't have to buy them.
* [[Posthumous Narration]]: Subverted in "Joe Blows". The episode opens with Joe face down in a pool in a shot intentionally reminiscent of the opening of ''[[Sunset Boulevard]]'', with a voiceover from Joe telling us that he's going to show us how he got there. At the end of the episode (Part I of a two-parter where Joe leaves Sandpiper Air and Brian, Lowell and Helen have to figure out how to track him down and convince him to come back) it's revealed that he was face down in the pool because he was setting a new breathholding record at a wild party.
* [[Practice Kiss]]: Helen does this to Joe in the end of "The Puppetmaster" to show what a 'stiff lipper' Joe is. Also, for [[Ship Tease]].
{{quote|
'''Helen''': Don't be stupid, this is just an [[Lampshade Hanging|acting exercise]]. Now just relax, and don't pucker up like that. Just relax your lips... (''they kiss'')
'''Lowell (through a suddenly on walkie-talkie)''': Moon river, wider than a mile. I'm crossing you in style someday... God, I love that song!
'''Joe''': (''finished'') Like that?
'''Helen''': That was better, that was ''much'' better.
'''Joe''': Well, thanks for the tip. Goodnight.
'''Helen''': Goodnight.
'''Joe''': ([[Post-Kiss Catatonia|''tries to walk out and trips on a row of chairs'']]) Chairs.
'''Helen''' (''smiles, then sips from a glass of ice water before spilling the ice in her blouse, then walks away'')
'''[[Brick Joke|Lowell]]''': Hey, look at that. I just saw a car exactly like yours go by, Roy. Who would've guessed there are two purple El Camino in Nantucket? We're after the same rainbow's end, waiting 'round the bend, my huckleberry friend... Roy, are you my only friend? }}
* [[Primal Scene]]: Roy witnessed his parents have sex once.
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* [[Quietly Performing Sister Show]]: ''Wings'' never got the critical acclaim or the ratings that its companion pieces ''[[Cheers]]'' and ''[[Frasier]]'' did, but it ran for eight seasons and had a ''very'' loyal fanbase.
* [[Rage Breaking Point]]: In the first part of "Joe Blows", Joe completely explodes after an annoying customer says the [[Rant-Inducing Slight]] of demanding that Joe pay for a minor scratch on his briefcase.
{{quote|
'''Brian''': "Joe, take it easy, Relax!"
'''Joe''': "Relax? I can't relax! If I relax, who's gonna take care of this damn airline in business? Certainly not ''you''. Oh, no. You're too busy wrestling with life's greater problems, such as your recent battle with mediocre sex!"
'''Brian''': "Little louder Joe, I don't think everyone can hear you!"
'''[[Deadpan Snarker|Roy]]''': "No, I can hear fine, thanks."
'''Helen''': "Joe, stop it!"
'''Joe''': "No, '''you''' stop it Helen! Stop coming to me every time you have a problem with your boyfriend! Did it ever occur to you that I'm alone here, and I don't want to hear about it? I am '''''sick''''' of everyone running to me every time they have a problem! Fay has a crisis, run to Joe. Antonio wants to buy a new cab, run to Joe. Roy wants to gloat, run to Joe. Where do ''I'' run to? Where do I go?! Where do I go? When my dream, of flying jets, turns into the nightmare of being a baggage handler, huh? Somebody tell me. Where do I go? When it finally dawns on me, that my life ''sucks''!" }}
* [[A Rare Sentence]]: After the gang has learned that [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Lowell's family possesses a huge family trust which all Mathers get a huge payout from upon turning 31 1/2 years old:
{{quote|
'''Joe:''' Now there's something you don't hear every day. }}
* [[Real Life Relative]]: Tim Daly's sister Tyne appeared in an episode, as did the spouses of Daly, Tony Shalhoub, and Amy Yasbeck.
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* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Invoked by Brian with a hired actor in "The Puppetmaster".
* [[Serendipitous Symphony]]: The opening for episode "Date Package Number Seven" starts with everybody bored because the airport is fogged in. Antonio is clinking his spoon in a coffee mug, Joe is noodling on a guitar, and Brian is flipping through a magazine. Then Lowell starts sanding the door frame nearby. His rhythmic sanding coincides with Antonio's clinking beat. Suddenly Brian starts scatting, and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1dWkr2s6L8&feature=more_related they're doing a full-on Bossanova number.] Eventually they realize what's happened and pause——before continuing right on with the music.
* [[She
* [[She's Got Legs]]: In "All for One and Two for Helen", after telling the Hackett brothers she won't date them because they're pilots, Helen turns and walks away. All Joe and Brian can think about as Helen leaves is how great her legs look.
* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Subverted with Antonio in "2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten". He takes off his shirt... only to reveal another shirt underneath. [[YouTube]] viewers were ''not'' happy with this.
* [[Shout-
* [[Sibling Triangle]]: Joe and Brian are involved in a number of them: Joe/Brian/Carol, then Joe/Brian/Helen, then Joe/Brian/Alex.
* [[Sibling Yin-Yang]]: Joe and Brian, especially in the early seasons.
* [[Sitcom Character Archetypes]]: Joe's '''The Square''', Brian's '''The Wisecracker''' and '''The Charming''', Roy's '''The Bully''', and Fay and Lowell are '''The Goofballs''' (though Lowell usually fills the role).
* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: Joe and Helen during their break-up. The slapping was done with meat, apparently.
{{quote|
* [[Something Only They Would Say]]: In "The Bank Dick", Brian is caught in a bank robbery and hears the masked robber use the unusual phrase, "We'll all be sitting in butter!" Later, as he flies an unknown client back to the mainland, the client uses the same phrase, cluing Brian in to the fact that he's transporting the robber.
* [[Stalker with a Crush]]: Sandy Cooper, at least in the high school years. See Yandere for the version that appears during the three separate episodes.
* [[Stepford Smiler]]: Sandy Cooper is a Type C. In "2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten", she locks Joe in the basement to a weird re-enactment of the prom, which Joe never asked her to.
{{quote|
'''Sandy''': "Since June 5th, 1978." }}
* [[
* [[Stripper Cop Confusion]]: In "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun", Helen ends up handcuffed to the stripper cop hired for her bachelorette party.
* [[Stupid Sexy Flanders]]: In "Noses Off", while the guys are having a bull session about famous men they think are handsome, Antonio goes a little overboard in praising gymnast Mitch Gaylord. Brian's attempt to establish plausible deniability on [[Kevin Costner]] may go even worse. Antonio finally exits the conversation, saying, "Excuse me. I have to go pick up a copy of something with naked women in it."
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Budd Bronski, the replacement character for Lowell.
* [["Take That!" Kiss]]: Inverted. There had been a couple of (male-to-male) kisses simply because one person had no other way to express their happiness.
{{quote|
'''Joe''': ''(kisses Lowell)''
'''Lowell''': ''(to a reporter for a school newspaper standing nearby)'' I'd appreciate if you'd keep my name out of this. }}
* [[Tempting Fate]]: Lampshaded in "As Fate Would Have It". As the gang is flying over the ocean, a storm whips up and one of the plane's engines dies and the plane struggles to stay in the air. After jettisoning a bunch of the plane's seats, the plane levels itself out and the crisis seems to be over, until Helen opens her mouth.
{{quote|
* [[Theme Twin Naming]]: Lowell is asked to name his pregnant cousin's child, and she has twins, which gives him some trouble, since what with Lowell being what he is, he thinks the names have to rhyme. Not long after, Joe jokingly throws out Nancy and Fancy, which Lowell immediately loves, leading to the line:
{{quote|
* [[This Is Sparta]]: Sandy Cooper does this a lot during her violent mood swings. Overlaps with [[Compelling Voice]] at times.
* [[This Is Wrong on So Many Levels]]:
{{quote|
* [[Time Skip]]: There was a 10 month [[Time Skip]] between the finale of season 2 ("Duet For Plane and Cello") and the premier for season 3 ("The Naked Truth"). Nothing much happened, besides that Joe found a new girlfriend ([[Romantic False Lead|Gail]]) and Helen ran out of money in [[Big Applesauce|New York]].
** One episode ends with a [[Time Skip]] to many years in the future and shows Joe and Helen's grandchildren watching the engagement video of them that Brian had been making throughout the episode.
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* [[Tomboyish Name]]: Alex
* [[Took a Level In Dumbass]]: Joe's intelligence and competence declined markedly in the later seasons.
* [[Trivial Pursuit]]: Used in "Sports and Leisure".
* [[Un Entendre]]: After Roy mentioned that his son R.J had a crush (read: dirty thoughts) on Helen in "There's Always Room For Cello", the next few sentences that Helen said were made to sound like euphemisms for sex. The guys took joy in pointing that out. Eventually it was revealed that R.J's gay, and he was lying to take cello lessons from Helen.
{{quote|
'''Helen''': "Oh, definitely the hands-on. I like the personal contact."
'''Roy and Brian''': (''laughs'') }}
{{quote|
'''Helen''': "Don't you worry Roy. When I get through with him, he'll be taking out that [[Unusual Euphemism|instrument]] and be entertaining the whole family."
'''Joe and Roy''': (''laughs'') }}
{{quote|
'''R.J''': "Okay, but I gotta tell you I don't know anything about this. I mean, I don't even know where to put my hands."
'''Helen''': "Don't worry. I've got this great book that tells you about all this great positions." }}
* [[Undisclosed Funds]]: When Joe and Helen go to a meeting with the insurance adjuster after the loss of their house and all its contents in a fire. The meeting doesn't go so well, and the adjuster finally writes something on a check and says "I'm sorry, but we can't do any better than this.", and gives it to them. After they see it, they shrug, and then begin spontaneously chanting "We're rich! We're rich!"
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* [[Visit by Divorced Dad|Visits By Divorced Mom]]: Invoked in "Mother Wore Stripes" by Brian, Joe and Brian's mother (who abandoned them) visits Nantucket after 18 years. Joe is very bitter about this for a good reason, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|but it all ends well]].
* [[Wacky Marriage Proposal]]: Joe proposes to Helen with his arm stuck in an elevator door. Apparently this was an omen, because he later married her with his hand stuck in a toilet.
* [[Walk On the Wild Side Episode]]: In the two-parter "Joe Blows", Joe decides that 35 years of being responsible is enough, so he takes Lowell's motorcycle and goes to a beach to hang out with women barely half his age, leaving his party-boy brother Brian stuck running their airline.
* [[Wealthy Ever After]]: The finale has the brothers discovering the $250,000 in the lining of the suitcase (from the first episode).
* [[What Does She See in Him?]]: Done in a very odd way with Roy, who gets set up on a [[Blind Date]] with a lovely woman who laughs at his jokes, tells him he's handsome, and basically seems infatuated with him. He keeps asking her what her problem is, until she finally loses her temper with his insecurity and stomps off... leading Roy to smugly tell his fellows that, "I KNEW she was too good to be true!"
** Done with Roy again in "Roy Crazy", when it appears that his ex-wife Sylvia wants him back. It turns out, however, that she's only dating him to get back at her cheating husband.
** Done with Roy yet again in "Let's Talk About Sex" when he dates a talk show host whom Antonio idolizes, causing the latter to have something akin to a mental breakdown.
{{quote|
* [[Whole-Episode Flashback]]: The main plot of "This Old House". That, and the characters destroying the Hackett brothers' old house.
* [[Who's Watching the Store?]]: Joe and Brian are the owners/only pilots in Sandpiper Air (save for a young one, who didn't last long), and half the time they're hanging around the airport or flying the plane for non-business reasons. Although, the episodes might as well highlight the 'funny' parts of their lives - the business flights are cut off, unless they're important to the plot. This is occasionally [[Handwaved]] by having one of them say it's the off-season or that business just happens to be slow at the moment.
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* [[Work Com]]
* [[Wrench Wench]]: Alex
* [[Written
* [[Yandere]]: Sandy Cooper in all three episodes focusing on her. Not so much on the high school years.
* [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame]]
** The episode "Ex, Lies, and Videotape" involves Brian going on a talk show and being depicted as a sexist, chauvinist pig. When he returns to the airport following the broadcast, Fay gives him a bunch of phone messages he received: "You got three death threats, ten calls from women who think they can change you, and an 'Atta Boy' from Andrew Dice Clay." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqOYIy3kbXU\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPr8YXkeVkE\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdWi6KVO43w\]
** A humorous version of this trope is used in the episode “My Brother’s Keeper”. When Brian starts dating Mimsy Borogroves, an older woman who decides to invest millions of dollars in Nantucket, all of the main characters are delighted except his brother Joe. Joe’s shame vanishes after Borogroves offers to give him money for a new airplane. However, when Brian tells Joe that he has taken Joe’s advice and ended the relationship, [[We Want Our Jerk Back|everybody loses]] as Mimsy then refuses to invest her money and leaves the island. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZuAgFocuF8\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az_yUt192dY\], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBmMhi5csIA\], [
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Work Com]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Wings]]▼
[[Category:TV Series]]
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