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 took the same title with their airings of the series in 2012.
Billing Displacement: Tony Shalhoub is featured prominently on the box art of all Wings DVD releases, including the Season One and Two set, which featured him in only one episode (he made a single guest appearance in the second season before officially joining the cast in Season Three).
Contractual Obligation Project: Thomas Haden Church originally auditioned to play Joe and wasn't completely happy being cast in the supporting role of Lowell. However, he'd signed the contract and had to honor it until it expired.
Tony Shalhoub, Lebanese by birth, played Italian cab driver Antonio Scarpacci.
Antonio's cousin Dominic was played by the not even remotely Italian Maurice Godin.
And the woman they fought over was played by Argentine model Fabiana Udenio.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The only way to watch the series in its entirety is if you own the DVD sets since 22 episodes couldn't be cleared for streaming (see Missing Episode below). Paramount, who owns the series, couldn't even clear the episodes for its own streaming service Paramount+.
"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.
When the show was made available for streaming on Netflix (and later Hulu and Paramount+), 22 episodes were missing. Most notably "Twisted Sister", the episode that introduces Casey, and part 2 of "Remembrance of Flings Past".
The Other Darrin: In flashbacks, the Hackett parents were played by different actors than the ones who played them in the series proper.
Out of Order: In "Just Call Me Angel", Antonio mentions having recently moved in with Brian. The episode where this takes place, "House of Blues", was produced earlier but would not be broadcast until afterward.
Recycled Script: The three Sandy Cooper episodes all followed the same basic template: Sandy comes to town, Joe freaks out and tries to tell everyone that she's crazy and obsessed with him but nobody believes him, the others finally get Joe to calm down only for Sandy to corner Joe alone somewhere and proceed to act out a fantasy scenario based on her delusions that she and Joe are in love with each other, Joe escapes but cannot convince anyone else what happened, then finally Sandy leaves, but on her way out, she makes a small comment to Joe indicating that she isn't finished with him yet.
Soundtrack Dissonance: The CBS Paramount Television logo plasters the Paramount Television logo on seasons 4 and 5 on DVD. Both parts of "Joe Blows" from the latter season retain the latter's theme over the former logo due to a plastering error.
The show’s working title was Blue Skies, and the producers envisioned using the Irving Berlin song of the same name as its theme, with a different singer performing it each week. However, Berlin denied permission for the song to be used, which made them decide on their second-choice title instead, Wings.
The original pilot script was rejected by NBC president Brandon Tartikoff. Although he liked the show's concept, Tartikoff felt the initial script was merely a series of individual scenes introducing each character; it lacked a developing storyline. Co-Creator David Lee later admitted this was a rookie mistake.
The show was initially planned to debut in the fall of 1989, but casting issues forced the date to be pushed back. After the cast was finally assembled, Crystal Bernard had other commitments which delayed shooting the pilot for yet another three months. The series ultimately didn't begin airing until April, 1990, and only seven episodes were shot for its first season (one of which was held back for season 2).
Helen Chappel was originally conceived to be of Greek descent and the producers had Peri Gilpin (best known for playing Roz Doyle on Frasier) in mind for the part. NBC president Brandon Tartikoff felt Gilpin lacked experience in leading roles and suggested Crystal Bernard instead. Since Bernard had a Southern accent, Helen was rewritten as a transplanted Texannote Ironically, Gilpin is from Texas as well and also has a Texan accent, though admittedly not as pronounced as Bernard’s, and Gilpin instead appeared in the third season episode "Four Dates That Will Live In Infamy". Also, Joe and Helen were initially envisioned as an already-divorced couple, but NBC nixed this idea.
The initial concept actually featured a cab driver as a series regular, and Stephen Tobolowsky even received network casting approval for the pilot. However, Tobolowsky changed his mind and backed out. This, combined with the eventual creation of Lowell for Thomas Haden Church, ultimately made the cab driver feel superfluous, so the idea was dropped. It would, of course, be resurrected in season 3 for Tony Shalhoub’s role as Antonio.
Thomas Haden Church initially read for both Joe and Brian. Though the producers didn’t feel he was right for either role, they still liked his unique style, and created Lowell especially for him. According to Peter Casey, Church never quite got over landing a supporting role when he’d auditioned for a lead, and was ready to leave the series after the first season wrapped. Due to his ironclad contract, however, Church ended up staying through season 6.
Brian Haley's Suspiciously Similar Substitute Budd Bronski was intended to fully replace Lowell in the cast, but the producers decided to focus more on Antonio instead.
A pilot for a proposed British remake was produced in 1996 but was not picked up to series. Excerpts were included in the season 7 blooper reel, jokingly presented as “Wings: The Movie”.
