Crystal Bernard's Helen is an absolute wonder. Delivery, pacing, execution is as good as it gets. Helps a lot that she's given equally good dialog and staging. The rest of the female ensemble (Faye, Alex, Casey and Bunny) is almost as good in both categories. Good writing, exemplary performances.The secondary male cast is tolerable: Ray, Lowell and Antonio are often good as foils, occasionally intrusive and, rarely, just plain irritating.Then there are the misnamed brothers, the Brain who should be named Joe and the Joe who should be named Brain. Oh! that they should have been named correctly and Oh! that they should have been written as secondary foils instead of principles.The idea was, obviously, to play Brian's narcissism and egocentricity off against Joe's anal retentiveness, the name thing being part of the joke.Doesn't work on any level and both of them borderline on sociopathology in many, many episodes. Like the one in which Helen is bedridden after a particularly nasty root canal. Joe keeps running off to some kind of male bonding party with guys he doesn't give a damn about. It's obvious that it's the ritual of Males Watching Basketball on TV that he's into and nothing wrong with that, except that he keeps trying to pretend that he's tending Helen in her sickbed. When exposed, he expresses neither remorse for 'abandoning' Helen or any sense of guilt for trying to deceive her, just irritation at being caught.Easy to see what the writers were trying to do, playing the dichotomy for laughs and, while Singer could have pulled it off, it's just irritating here, to the point of wanting to put a bullet in Joe's head.Contrast that with Bernard's bedridden Helen which is a beautiful example of schtick.Brian is even worse. While the writers occasionally try to invest him with a modicum of empathy, those attempts are overwhelmingly overridden by his native egocentricity. In reality both Brian and Joe are written as borderline sociopaths, period.Again, the writers' intent is obvious; just as it is obvious that they miss the characteristic that allowed Singer in particular and Yiddish theater in general to succeed with these types: an understanding of all of their characters' innate humanity, regardless of their individual personality flaws. For some reason, while the writers get it with everyone else, they completely miss it with Brian and Joe and wind up with two totally unsympathetic characters who, thank God, are frequently underplayed, allowing the rest of the cast to shine.Despite the twin sociopaths, Wings is still a first-rank comedy on a level with Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart (the first series), Dick Van Dyke et al.When Brian and Joe are absent or secondary, it's an unquestionable 10.

QUAGMIRE: What we need out there now is another Tim Daly.CLEVELAND: Who's Tim Daly? JOE: I don't even know who that is.QUAGMIRE: From Wings...PETER: Nope.QUAGMIRE: Tim Daly! He was on Wings! What - oh, nobody here watched Wings.PETER: Is that the one where there's a guy, and he's like a, he's a, he's a pilot or somethin'? QUAGMIRE: There's two guys. They're brothers, and they're both pilots.JOE: Hey, wasn't there a fat guy with a moustache? QUAGMIRE: That was "Roy." He's hilarious.CLEVELAND: Was this a cartoon? QUAGMIRE: No! My - oh my God, NO! No, no, it took place in an airport. It was the - it was - the thing was on for ten years! And the, and the funny repair guy was Lowell. ...It made Tony Shalhoub's career! PETER: Who? CLEVELAND: The tennis player? QUAGMIRE: Yeah, you know what? Sc*** you guys. I don't even know you. (Quagmire storms away naked from the brewery.) ...Crazy people. Livin' under a rock, don't know Wings. ...I love Wings!

The cast in this TV series is top notch, and the writing regarding a small independent New England airliner is a welcome premise. The eclectic collection of characters is the usual successful mix for a situation comedy that teethes with clever intellectual humor mixed in with slapstick. Written as a loose tie in with the Cheers/Frasier milieu, the characters of Sandpiper Airlines cater to the escapist adventurer seeking a New England holiday. The situations are typical for sit-coms; the mundane are turned onto their heads and hilarity ensues.If I had one gripe with the series it's that as with all situation comedies a few characters left after the first few seasons, the situations seemed to be more contrived, and the presentations less spontaneous. Even so, even though the energy was more refined in the later seasons, I still tuned in on occasion for some good old fashioned laughs at the expense of the employees of Sandpiper Airline.I don't have too much else to say about the show. I liked it for what it was, and watched it regularly until the show started to shift somewhat. For the time I watched it, Wings reminded me of the classic situation comedies of old, and delivered humor on all levels.I haven't seen the show since it first aired. A reviewing would be inviting at this point.

wings is not one of my favorite sit-coms. it IS my favorite sit-com. it is not only unique in that it's not set in a worn out new york or los angeles, but on the small island of nantucket, which orders up much more creativity and imagination from its writers, but it's also one of the best ensemble casts ever put together. few shows have beckoned me to fall in love with and care about the plight of such endearing characters. and it was such a disappointment when thomas hayden church left the show. he had truly honed a lovably unique and funny character on the show. the flaws and strengths of all the characters are so aptly attended to. wings is intelligent and witty with superb writing and superb conveying and interpretation of that writing in its fine actors. it is the only show that makes me feel like i'm with family when i join it... that makes me want to be a part of that family, joe, helen, brian, lowell, casey, antonio, alex, roy and faye. it's heartening to know that many others would like to see this fantastic piece of work come to DVD. so please...give our spirits WINGS!