Wings, S01E02, "Around the World in Eighty Years"

On Nantucket Island, at the Tom Nevers airfield, the Hackett brothers are arguing about Joe’s resistance to change. Brian thinks his brother could loosen up a little bit. Joe says he’s not opposed to spontaneity, but he’d just like “a little warning, so it doesn’t come completely out of nowhere.”

Helen’s dreams of playing music professionally take another hit when she fails at her recent tryout for the Cambridge Symphony. Brian thinks that it’s because of her boring dress and suggests that at her next tryout she trues wearing something a little sexier. Joe thinks she should rely on her talent as a cellist alone. Helen sides with Brian, gets a new dress, a callback, and an unexpected repair bill.

Meanwhile, Howard Banks, an elderly man on a solo flight around the world, has been hanging around the terminal for three days. Fay finds out that Howard is only a 40-minute flight away from completing his circumnavigation. Why isn’t he heading back to New Bedford? Because, he tells Fay, if he finishes his round-the-world trip, then he is going to die.

Lots of good gags in this one. Where to start?

How about at tofu?

When she arrives home from her first audition, Helen is asked by Roy what she thought of his new in-flight snack:

Helen: I meant to ask you, Roy, what was that?

Roy: Tofu. It can be anything you want.

Helen: Okay, I want it kept away from me.

Is hating on tofu still a thing? Does tofu as a punchline still elicit laughs? I’m not so sure. Tofu used to be a sign that a character was a flibbertigibbet of some sort, a hippie that wasn’t aware that the Sixties were over. Nowadays, I think most smart people keep a package of tofu or two in the fridge. My wife serves up a mean mapo tofu. I don’t think anyone could take a bite of that delicious, spicy, numbing, Sichuan dish and laugh it off.

In the first episode of Wings, Roy bemoans the fact that Jane Pauly was replaced by Deborah Norville as cohost of Today. In this episode, as he tries to sell Helen on sexing herself up, Brian says talent isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be: “Nobody sings better than Madonna? Nobody reads the news better than Maria Shriver?” A little product placement never hurt anyone. Right, NBC?

While Steven Weber is still the go-to guy for punchlines in this episode (Brian’s critique of Helen’s dress as a member of the barbiturate family is delivered with vaudevillian zest), we get a glimpse of what Thomas Haden Church is going to bring as “Lowell, the mechanic.” The character of Lowell is a walking non-sequitur, and he’s got a couple of nice turns here. My favorite is when he tells Joe about his newest hobby: karamandu, the ancient Indian art of face-reading.

Lowell: There are minute movements of facial muscles that mean nothing to you, but that speak volumes to me.

[Helen enters the airport dancing and singing.]

Joe: Now, here’s a challenge. What’s your reading?

Lowell: Either she did well at her audition or she’s drunk as a billy goat.

With the Howard Banks (played by Richard Erdman) storyline, Fay gets her chance to shine, as well. We get a little of her backstory – she used to be a stewardess. It’s nice to see the back-and-forth flirting going on between these two older folks. At one point, Fay calls Howard a “momo.” Had to look that up. It means “an idiot or irritating person.” I’ll have to file that one away for future use.

This is also a nice episode to watch the background extras strut their stuff. If you watch the scene where Fay finally gets the full story about Howard's reticence, you see one of the extras maybe following the action a little too closely. 

And can we just talk about Howard’s hat for a moment. It is, of course, glorious, and I want it.

Helen’s dress ain’t too shabby, either…but I doubt I’d wear it as well as that hat.

Okay, folks, it’s that time again. We are preparing to land at Tom Nevers Field. Won’t you please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright positions, your seat belts are securely fastened, and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins. Any unused tofu can be given to the flight attendants making their way through the cabin.

Our next flight will be “Return to Nantucket, Part 1,” the first of a two-parter (three episodes into a 6-episode season, and we already have a two-part episode?) where we meet the woman who broke Joe’s and Brian’s hearts, Carol.