Brian Michael Hackett was a pilot at Sandpiper Air and serial philanderer on Nantucket. He was played by Steven Weber.
Bio[]
Brian Hackett is the youngest son of Donald Hackett and Mae Hackett, and the younger brother by two years of Joe Hackett. The carefree of the two Hackett brothers, he had a high tendency of irresponsibility that was often a source of consternation to Joe when they were growing up. Because of Joe's adherence to rules and tidiness, Brian used numerous practical jokes trying to get his brother to "loosen up," but as these attempts mostly humiliated Joe, they actually reinforced his buried hostility toward him.
When Brian was a baby, his mom, Mae Hackett, used to put a little alcohol in his warm milk at night to help him sleep, but she ran out on the family when he was only ten, and Joe took care of him as their father eventually became unstable. He reacted to his mother's absence by sleeping under his bed (a bunk bed which he shared with Joe, who had the top bunk) for a couple months and telling everyone his real mother was Shirley Partridge. As a boy, he used to look at and memorize his father's Playboy magazines kept hidden behind a bedroom baseboard.
Mostly devoted to uncommittal relationships, Brian is probably best known for pulling mean-spirited practical jokes and sophisticated schemes toward others, but his main target is usually Joe or Roy Biggins. He has a classic Peter Pan-complex, believing himself forever youthful, using pranks as a way to keep alive his boyish spirit. He once painted Joe blue while he was asleep, and in his youth, he tripped Joe into Helen's birthday cake, later vehemently denying it as a grow-up.
His favorite television shows are "The Six Million Dollar Man," but he called it, "The Bionic Man." He also enjoys "Fugitives from Justice" and "Captain Kangaroo." He often wrote letters to Captain Kangaroo and would watch the program each and every morning to see if one of them would be read on the air, but Joe had been hiding all of the letters and telling Brian they were mailed to spare him embarrassment. Brian was so mad that none of them were ever read that he once gave Captain Kangaroo the finger in New York City.
As an adult, Brian received a scholarship to Princeton, where he even almost made the freshman tennis team. He didn't make the team because of some story about Ben Gay in the coach's jock strap, but he denied doing it because at the time he was dressing a pig while wearing the coach's wife's lingerie. His college roommate now works in the Public Relations department with the Boston Red Sox. He soon dropped out, and was accepted into the astronaut training program at NASA and was soon expelled for taking a date into the flight simulator. Over the years, he has lost other lucrative opportunities due to his reckless nature.
Brian eloped with Carol, which caused a rift between the brothers. Ironically, that marriage seemed to have brought stability to his life, as he got a job as a charter pilot in Mustique, and held down that job steadily for three years. However, when Carol left Brian, he dejectedly returned to Nantucket, and Joe was eventually persuaded to allow him not only to give Brian a job at Sandpiper Air but also to give him a room at his house.
Trivia[]
- Brian's full name was revealed as Brian Michael Hackett in Love Means Never Having to Say Geronimo when he almost married Gwen Holmes.
- When Brian's father bought him his first Schwinn bicycle, he loved it, slept with it, and couldn't stand being away from it.
- Brian and Joe spent the early part of their childhoods living in an apartment, before moving to 427 Madaket Way, the family's first real house (This Old House).
- Brian's childhood dream was to be an international spy like James Bond (Life Could Be a Dream).
- In high school, Brian wore braces.
- Brian was the youngest person ever accepted into NASA, but he got kicked out when he supposedly brought a date into the shuttle simulator.
- Brian used to fly planes for Iguana Airlines (The Story of Joe).
- When his brother Joe was grounded due to hypertension, Brian left Sandpiper after he was called irresponsible and undependable. He was hired by TWA, but he turned down the job to come back to work at Sandpiper when he found out Joe was selling the airline to Roy Biggins (High Anxiety).
- Brian borrowed Lowell houseboat to impress Alex and ran into a sixty foot cabin cruiser. The boat sunk, and Lowell moved in with Brian and Joe.
- Brian likes to have a snack in bed at night.
- Brian once flew Oliver North to Nantucket, and Oliver gave him an autographed copy of his book.
- Brian once confused Fay with a female serial killer named Florence Chambers in Murder She Roast.
- Brian Hackett always springs for the ten-foot Big Sandwich (Is That a Ten Foot Sandwich or Are You Just Glad to See Me?).
- After Alex left him, he saw a psychiatrist named Dr. Grayson (The Shrink).
- Brian went on a date and had sex with his old ninth grade teacher, Miss Jenkins (Miss Jenkins).
- Brian is afraid of heights.
- Brian considers Kevin Costner to be the handsomest man in the world.
- Nicknames: Slick (by Alex Lambert)
- Good Luck Charms: a piece of his little blue blanket from childhood.
- Fellow co-star Thomas Haden Church is reported to have initially auditioned for the role of Brian, before being cast as Lowell Mather.
- In Ms. Write, Brian revealed that his favorite book was Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
