Brand New Year, Same Old Resolutions

It’s the New Year, so it’s time to make resolutions that, more than likely, will never be fulfilled. My New Year’s resolution for 2021 is pretty much the same one I make every year…

Not quite, Brain.

My resolution is to write more. More letters to friends, more short stories, more chapters to my novel (which, dammit, I will finish this year). And, of course, more blog posts.

To help me with that last goal, I’ve decided to stack the writing project deck in my favor, so to speak, and review a multi-season television series. It’s a little easier to get into the groove of writing when what I have to write about next is already chosen for me.

The series I’ve chosen is Wings (1990-1997). Eight seasons of quaint hilarity starring Tim Daly, Steven Weber, and Crystal Bernard seem to be just what the doctor ordered for these COVID-crazed times.

Created by a trio of veterans from Cheers – David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee – Wings never garnered the critical or popular attention that other NBC comedies of the 1990s received. It wasn’t as hip as Seinfeld or Friends, and it wasn’t as intellectual as Frazier, but that’s okay. Like the tiny island of Nantucket, where the Hackett brothers make a go of it with their single-plane airline, Wings sits outside of fads and fashions and moves at its own pace.

Next time, there won’t be any fooling around. We’ll jump into the ol’ Cessna 402 and fly right into Season 1, Episode 1: “Legacy.”