History Series / Wings

* {{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.

* BlackWidow: Subverted with Fay, though it's hard not to wonder since all four of her husbands were named George.

* AllJustADream: Spoofed in "The Big Sleep" and "Dreamgirl."
** "The Big Sleep" features a DreamWithinADream 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.
* AllUpToYou: 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.
* AllWorkVsAllPlay: Joe is All Work and Brian is All Play, most of the time.

* {{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.

-->'''Joe:''' Helen... He already explained why there can't be stairs.
* BlackWidow: Subverted with Fay, though it's hard not to wonder since all her husbands are named George.
* BlessedWithSuck: After an esteemed conductor tells Helen she's no good, Helen is initially devastated but is then thrilled, realizing she can finally give up the cello and get on with her life. Then he has a change of heart and informs her that she possesses "a glimmer of talent"... Which not only forces her to take up the cello again, but now she must sacrifice an even larger percentage of her time to the instrument than she ever had before.

* DeadpanSnarker: Roy, sometimes Brian.

* StealthPun: In "As Fate Would Have It", as Joe and Brian struggle to keep the plane in the air during a lightning storm, Fay tries to keep calm by doing a crossword puzzle. She asks for an eleven letter sports term that means "tiebreaker". The answer isn't stated out loud, but Roy is understandably unsettled. [[spoiler:"sudden death"]].

** In "Blackout Buggins", the group goes to Fenway Park to watch Roy sing the national anthem. After Roy finishes the song, a Red Sox player with the name Casey on his jersey is seen taking the field. The Red Sox have never featured player names on the back of their home jerseys.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "In "Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Man", Casey is trying to get Lowell to create more of his random-object art, but Lowell says he needs a special occasion like a birthday. Casey looks at a calendar and says that it is Creator/CharlotteBronte, [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Babe Ruth]], and [[Series/PoliceWoman Angie Dickinson's]] birthday. None of those three people have birthdays anywhere close to one another.[[note]]Their birthdays are April 21, February 6, and September 30, respectively.[[/note]]

** The red-headed woman who worked at Roy's counter was on the show throughout most of the run despite never uttering a single word.

-->'''Joe''': Way to go, Brian. You managed to get Helen, who you want to go out with, to fall for a guy who turns out to be a pilot so she won't go out with him, but with you instead.

-->'''Brian''': I think we may have underestimated his sensitivity level.
-->'''Joe''': Who knew he had one?

-->'''Helen''': How does this work again? The master bedroom is on top... And in the morning, we just ''slide'' down to the kitchen?
-->'''Joe''': Helen... He already explained why there can't be stairs.

* FullNameBasis: Played with by Fay, who almost always introduces herself as "Fay Evelyn Cochran." When you consider all the marriages she's been though, however, her ''actual'' full name is more accurately "Fay Evelyn Schlob Dumbly DeVay Cochran."

-->''''Brian''': You married a man named Dumbly ''and'' took his name?

* MondegreenGag: Antonio misheard the lyrics of a song to be ''My goat knows the bowling score'', when it's actually ''Michael row the boat ashore''. And then the next line (''Sister, help to mend the sail'') as ''Sid's new hair is in the mail''.

* MyNaymeIs: Subverted in "My Brother's Keeper". A visiting socialite has a brief relationship with Brian, who she calls "Brian With an ''I''"

* HollywoodDateless: The last couple of seasons seemed to have an awful lot of jokes about how [[TheCasanova Brian]] was having trouble scoring dates.

** 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 ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', he responds incredulously "Get out!" As if that weren't enough, he then mentions liking ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''... but the title ''StarWars'' does not ring even the tiniest of bells for him.

** In the episode "The Bank Dick," Joe tries to persuade Helen to let him use the box-seat Red Sox tickets she gave him while they were dating to take his new girlfriend to the game instead. He presents Helen with a new ticket for her to use and tries to claim the "obsvu" printed on the ticket is "Latin for 'excellent seat,'" but a bank patron reveals to Helen that it means "obstructed view" and the new ticket will probably have her sitting behind a pole.
** In another episode, Brian tries to win Alex over by claiming that [[CelebrityLie he is good friends with]] Music/ClintBlack and can therefore get tickets to his sold-out concert. Brian lucks out when he manages to buy tickets off of Lowell that the latter had previously acquired, but his truthfulness is still called into question when the seats turn out to be in the nosebleed section.

* AsHimself: Music/RayCharles, Music/ClintBlack, [[Film/{{Airport}} George Kennedy]], Creator/SteveYoung, Creator/OliverNorth, and [[Franchise/TheMonkees Peter Tork]] all appeared in episodes playing themselves.

* TheyDo: Joe and Helen get together for good at the beginning of Season 6 and marry at the end of that season. The ending of "The Love, Life, and Times of Joe and Helen" indicates to the audience that they will grow old together.

* SuperOCD: Joe's primary gag. He can't sleep if his shoes are touching one another, all the cups in his pantry have their handles pointing due north, and the first thing he did when he got his first bike as a kid was put away the box and fill out the warranty card. When Alex invites herself into Joe's office to share a drink with him, Joe takes it as a sign of personal progress that he was able to wait a couple of minutes before ripping two pages out of his desk organizer to serve as makeshift coasters.

Not related to the 1927 Academy Award winning film ''Film/{{Wings|1927}}'' (also produced by Creator/{{Paramount}}), [[Music/{{Wings}} Paul McCartney's '70s solo group]], the final volume of the ''Literature/NomesTrilogy'', the Creator/DiscoveryChannel show about military airplanes which eventually spawned its own network (now known as the Creator/MilitaryChannel) or WingedHumanoid.

Not related to the 1927 Academy Award winning film ''Film/{{Wings}}'' (also produced by Creator/{{Paramount}}), [[Music/{{Wings}} Paul McCartney's '70s solo group]], the final volume of the ''Literature/NomesTrilogy'', the Creator/DiscoveryChannel show about military airplanes which eventually spawned its own network (now known as the Creator/MilitaryChannel) or WingedHumanoid.

* [[ShoutOut/LiveActionTV Shout Out]]:

** Carlton Blanchard was named after a character from the 1927 [[Film/{{Wings}} film]] that shares its name with the series. Incidentally, Carlton's actor, William Hickey, was born that same year.

Other characters included Helen Chappel (Creator/CrystalBernard), the proprietor of the airport's lunch counter, a lifelong friend of both Hackett brothers and eventually Joe's wife; Lowell Mather (Creator/ThomasHadenChurch), the lovably dumb airport mechanic; Fay Cochran (Creator/RebeccaSchull), a daffy retired flight attendant now working as Sandpiper Air's ticket clerk and flight announcer; and Roy Biggins (Creator/DavidSchramm), the greedy owner of rival carrier Aeromass. Later additions to the cast included sad-sack cab driver Antonio (after Creator/TonyShalhoub scored in a small role as a waiter), who joined the cast in the third season and remained for the rest of the show's run; Alex Lambert (Creator/FarrahForke), an ex-Army helicopter pilot who dated Brian for a while; Helen's neurotic sister Casey (Creator/AmyYasbeck), who joined for the final three seasons after Forke left; and Budd Bronski (Creator/BrianHaley), brought in as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Lowell after Thomas Haden Church left at the end of the sixth season for a lead role on ''Series/NedAndStacey''.

* BuxomIsBetter:

** There's an even stronger case of cast derivation from ''Wings'' [[SpiritualSuccessor Spiritual Predecessor]], ''{{Series/Taxi}}'': Joe/Alex is the StraightMan to {{Schemer}} Brian/Bobby, JerkAss Roy/Louie messes with the others, FunnyForeigner Antonio/Latka and CloudCuckoolander Lowell/Reverend Jim each serve as an EnsembleDarkhorse, Helen/Elaine is TheChick, and Fay/Tony is the affable {{Ditz}}.

* ShesGotLegs: 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.

* UnEntendre: 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.
-->'''Roy''': Helen, I'm curious about your teaching methods. Do you lecture the students or do you prefer the 'hands-on' technique?\\
'''Helen''': Oh, definitely the hands-on. I like the personal contact.\\
'''Roy and Brian''': (''laughs'')\\


-->'''Roy''': Say, I think R.J's gonna get a lot out of this. He's been awful shy about performing.\\
'''Helen''': Don't you worry Roy. When I get through with him, he'll be taking out that [[UnusualEuphemism instrument]] and be entertaining the whole family.\\
'''Joe and Roy''': (''laughs'')\\


-->'''Helen''': Why don't we get to the hangar and get started?\\
'''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 the different positions.\\

* DisproportionateRetribution: 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.

* CourtroomAntics: 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.

* ReallyGetsAround: In "There Once Was a Girl from Nantucket", Brian sets Joe up with a woman named Cindy who's an exaggerated version of this. She had slept with almost every men on the island - except Joe. This is deconstructed later on, though, and Cindy moves to Boston by the end of the episode to have a fresh start.

* RageBreakingPoint: In the first part of "Joe Blows", Joe completely explodes after an annoying customer says the RantInducingSlight of demanding that Joe pay for a minor scratch on his briefcase.

Set at Tom Nevers Field on the island of Nantucket (part of Massachusetts), ''Wings'' focused on the complicated relationship between idealistic young pilot Joe Hackett (Creator/TimDaly), owner of the struggling one-plane airline ([[Radio/CabinPressure or air dot]]) Sandpiper Air, and his oversexed, layabout brother Brian (Creator/StevenWeber).

Other characters included Helen Chappel (Creator/CrystalBernard), the proprietor of a nearby lunch counter, a lifelong friend of both Hackett brothers and eventually, Joe's wife; Lowell Mather (Creator/ThomasHadenChurch), the lovably dumb airport mechanic; Fay Cochran (Creator/RebeccaSchull), a daffy retired flight attendant now working as Sandpiper Air's ticket clerk and flight announcer; and Roy Biggins (Creator/DavidSchramm), the greedy owner of rival carrier Aeromass. Later additions to the cast included sad-sack cab driver Antonio (after Creator/TonyShalhoub scored in a small role as a waiter), who joined the cast in the third season and remained for the rest of the show's run; Alex Lambert (Creator/FarrahForke), an ex-Army helicopter pilot who dated Brian for a while; Helen's neurotic sister Casey (Creator/AmyYasbeck), who joined for the final three seasons after Forke left; and Budd Bronski (Creator/BrianHaley), brought in as a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute for Lowell after Thomas Haden Church left at the end of the sixth season for a lead role on ''Series/NedAndStacey''.