Antonio Scarpacci is a fictional character from the TV-series "Wings." He was played by Tony Shalhoub.
Bio[]
Antonio Scarpacci is the son of Angelo and Anna-Maria Scarpacci from Positano, Italy. His grandparents were married for eighty-one years, and as a kid, his cherished memento was a yellow blanket. He confesses that growing up his family never had much money. Every Christmas, as a child in Italy, his family would decorate the tree and then carve the traditional Christmas eel.
Antonio has a quite large family. He has an unnamed uncle who is a plumber, and an Uncle Carlo, who is a very wealthy, well-to-do cobbler, another uncle named Carmine and an Uncle Paulo, who drove a beat-up old station wagon. One of Antonio's uncles made genuine calfskin gloves in Italy for ten dollars a pair. His Uncle Sal owns a girdle shop. Antonio's Cousin Angelo worked with him at Pontrelli's and was once on television for robbing a convenience store. His Cousin Dominick owns a successful leather business in America, and he has a Cousin Vincenzo with a less than handsome baby whom he is the god-father to. Antonio is charged with the duty to see the the baby is raised as a good Catholic. This gave him motivation to become a better Catholic himself and began going to Mass every Sunday.
At some point, Antonio came to the United States in a small box with his brothers. In Italy, he worked in his Uncle Sal's girdle shop where he introduced hosiery. His first job in America was as the head waiter at Pontrelli's, a local restaurant on Nantucket, where he first met Joe Hackett and Helen Chapel. Antonio was driven from the restaurant business by a "Dee" (Maitre'd). He later saw beneath the tux and realized Dee's were just people similar to the waiters. While working at the restaurant, a man died choking on a chicken bone, and his widow sued the restaurant for $500,000. Antonio soon became a cab driver, servicing people to and from the airport. He once briefly worked as a salesman for the Whispering Pines Mortuary selling coffins and burial plots. For a few days, he was a chauffeur for local businessman Don D'Carlo making $500 per day, but he got scared when he believed he was working for a mobster. When António asked about the last driver, Paulie, Don said he bought the farm. When Antonio pressed him about his suspicions, Don explained that Paulie bought a dairy farm and that he was a diamond broker. Don lost trust in Antonio as a result and fired him afterward, leaving him in debt at the suit shop as he had three suits on layaway.
Antonio is mostly known for his bad luck and misfortune; throughout his life, he has had many unfortunate accidents. From Roy backing into his car into his cab, and his cab ending up in a sinkhole and everything in between. Once he upsets the sun god Ra when he refused to respond to a chain letter he received from Roy. Antonio once cracked his tooth after getting his income tax refund check of $1000 and ended up spending it on tires, rims, towing and the tooth. When everyone is experiencing happy endings and solutions to their problems, Antonio is plagued with anguish. Before bed, he confesses to Helen that he goes into fits of rage thinking about their happiness. Even in childhood, he was ridiculed for wearing a dress after his classmates spotted him through a window. Eventually. Antonio goes deaf for a brief period and needed his ears drained.
Antonio was nearly got deported because the government refused to renew his Visa, and he married Helen in order to stay in the country. Roy later reveals that he called immigration in response to Antonio's wise "crack" about Roy needing Greenpeace to cleanup his oily hair. At the time, Congress had ordered a lottery of green card applicants that year, and Antonio turned out to be one of the winners. He later revealed that he had hoped that Helen would genuinely fall in love with him, and he kept the change in immigration policy a secret. When Helen and Joe later making plans to get married, Helen eventually realizes that she was still married to Antonio, and she is denied a new marriage license. She and Antonio find their divorce papers under her cash register after three years. Helen and Antonio had spilt champagne on them while celebrating the divorce and Helen put them under there to flatten out. This prompted a trip to Mexico where they can get a "quickie divorce" from Roy's mysterious friend in Tampico, Senior Pepe, since Massachusetts requires 120 days to process a divorce, and they only have five weeks. By this point, Antonio is not the same person, and his deeply held religious beliefs require the marriage to be annulled by a priest, "father fix-it". Antonio believes he will be FedExed to hell if he tells the priest he made a mockery of the sacrament of marriage. Antonio wrestles with his faith throughout this time. He drives a nun around the island for six hours free of charge on Christmas eve following a vision she had. At one point in the ride, he confronts the nun and confesses he does not believe she is a nun or that she had a vision and attempts to "stump the nun" with biblical questions. After correctly answering the questions and receiving a call from his girlfriend, he is once again a believer.
Antonio is mild-mannered, deferential and hopelessly romantic; he falls head-over-heels for Helen's older sister Casey when she returns to Nantucket, comparing her to Venus, though his feelings are not reciprocated. He feels betrayed by Brian after he shares a bed with Casey. After Brian tells Antonio that it was a mistake to sleep with his sister-in-law, Antonio makes one last desperate attempt for Casey at Helen and Joe's wedding where he gets drunk and is not seen for days. He is later asked out to lunch by Casey, only to be crushed by the news that Brian and Casey slept together again. He later falls in love with his Cousin Dominic's fiancé, Theresa, when she is reminded of the old Dominic. He cooks for her like Dominic used to do and wears cotton as Dominic only wears leather being the owner of a successful leather business. He also had a long term relationship with Edna, better known as "The Big Face Girl, but she dumps him due to her dissatisfaction sexually. Antonio is soon caught in a love triangle in an "insanity clause" where he finds out he was sleeping with the wife of Bob, a Sandpiper employee. Antonio soon finds his dream girl and forces everyone to help him find her, accidentally outing her status in the Witness Protection Program. Eventually, Joe and Brian take Antonio out for drinks at the Club Car where they are deceived by a hooker. When Brian and Joe discover that Antonio is planning to take her to Italy and propose to her, she reveals to him she's a prostitute. Antonio later falls in love with a girl who called while he was volunteering at the suicide hotline, and attends a singles dance after receiving a invitation on his windshield which he is excited to attend. However, he becomes the first person ever to receive a refund and is asked to wait in the office until the conclusion of a storm keeping everyone at the dance. Antonio saved the day when he seduced an insurance investigator. Despite his harmless self-deprecating demeanor, he is often given to moments of ego to the point of being obnoxious when given control over others, leading to him unwillingly causing humiliating incidents followed by an accompanying period of self-regret and self-loathing.
Trivia[]
- Most of his evenings include a flashlight and some very strange shadow puppets.
- Antonio gets his clothes dry cleaned at Jiffy Cleaners.
- Antonio can play a little bit on the guitar, but he only knows one song, "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore."
- Antonio once saved a man's life by making his life seem more pathetic so the guy would not commit suicide.
- Antonio claims to never let anyone see him cry, although he might have been in tears after finding out he would get deported.
- According to Marriage, Italian Style, Antonio considers himself a butt man.
- Antonio wears the same size clothing as one of Fay's dead husbands (She's... Back).
- Wednesdays are Antonio's days off. Fridays are his busiest days.
- Antonio's house has a little trellis with Morning Glories on the porch and an apple tree in his front yard. His neighbor has a the Yard Demon 742 Leaf-Blower.
- Antonio is not very good at face-to-face confrontations.
- In I Ain't Got No Bunny, Antonio reveals that he allergic to clams. If he eats one, his tongue begins to swell up, his throat constricts, and he often has to seek medical help.
- He hates being late for airline flights.
- Antonio likes a grilled cheese sandwich with double pickles.
- Antonio considers Sylvester Stallone to be the handsomest man in the world.
- He is often seen wearing a bow tie when in more formal clothes.
- Antonio first made a guest appearance in the second season in this role before becoming an official cast member in the third season (by which time he had changed professions).
