Helen Chapel is a fictional character and one of the main characters on the NBC TV-Series, "Wings." She was played by actress and musician Crystal Bernard.
Bio[]
Helen Chapel is the beautiful petite blonde owner of the Lunch Counter at Tom Nevers Field. A long time Nantucket residence, she was actually born in Texas, later moving to Nantucket when she was ten years old. She has a older sister, Casey (and possibly another sister named Lorraine). As a child, she was fairly overweight and still had her Texas accent, which made her ostracized and teased by her classmates at Siasconset High School, particularly Carol, a former classmate. Because of her unresolved teenage angst, she can have an explosive temper, but most of the time, she can be sweet and caring with an accompanying sarcastic tone. When Joe Hackett and his brother, Brian Hackett, moved to the island, she immediately became friends of them. Her first words to them were: "Hi, I'm Helen Chapel. Wanna wrestle?"
During her friendship with Joe, they became especially close as friends and even hung out a lot at the local pond. At some point, because of Joe's kindness, she developed a crush on him, and hoped to marry him, but she may have outgrown this infatuation. To forget about the abuse from her classmates, she turned to music, receiving her first cello when she was eight years old. Although she was fond of Joe, her friendship with Brian was more platonic as he treated as his little sister, once calling her and pretending to be one of the Apollo 13 astronauts, but she knew the entire time it wasn't him.
At her high school's spring dance, Helen was excited when classmate Phil Stephan asked her to go with him just to win a bet Joe walked her home that night, and she cried on his shoulder. After high school, she took some law classes in college, but her dreams were really of playing the cello in a large symphony orchestra. She had been in the orchestra at Siasconset High School and Winston Catlow was her old cello teacher. However, after college, she ended up working at her father's the lunch counter in the airport terminal, later taking over his position when he retired. She never really manages to get a music career off the ground; occasionally, giving music lessons to the local children. She still lives in her parent's house, but she seems to have extreme bad luck in trying to launch her music career. Every time she hears good luck about her talent, something happens to crush her potential career. Her first ever call back about a cello audition was from the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra. She played the cello religiously, and claimed to have played for over ten thousand hours. The closest she ever came to playing in a respected orchestra was for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but did not make it because her plane went down in the ocean. Once, she even played for Edward Tinsdale, the conductor of the Minneapolis Philharmonic. She was also once asked to join a string quartet of neurotic individuals, but only because that was the only group at the time who would accept her. She was also close to getting accepted to a state-run symphony, only to soon learn the state legislature eliminated the funding and the position, and her chance to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra resulted in a plane crash en route. One symphony conductor appreciated a cassette of her cello playing but lost the label and had no way to find or contact Helen.
Helen also constantly battles a compulsive eating habit based on her insecurity which caused her to be morbidly obese in her youth. Though successful at losing the weight sometime after Brian eloped with Carol, it is still a specter in her life and a blight on her self-image. She has a volatile anger issue, often attacking other without provocation. However, she has been a lifelong friend of both the Hackett brothers and even dreamed of marrying Joe from a young age.
Trivia[]
- Helen's birthday is August 3; the same day Sir John Speke discovered the source of the Nile according to Lowell Mather.
- Helen's sister Lorraine was mentioned in A Terminal Christmas, but she has never been seen or referenced again, but whether this was meant to be Casey or another sister has never been resolved. Helen's mother, Dee Dee Chapel, failed to mention her when she visited the island.
- Unlike Helen, both her mother and her sister seem to have outgrown their accents.
- Helen took over the terminal's lunch counter from her parents. She said her mother taught her everything she knows.
- As an adult, her address is a one story house with attic rooms at 612 Elm Street, but Lowell gets it mistaken with 614 Elm Street.
- She auditioned and earned a spot playing the cello for the Maine State Symphony. Unfortunately, the orchestra lost its funding and the job was canceled, so she left the island for New York after her and Joe had a big argument.
- In New York, she worked as a waitress in a strip bar.
- While living in New York, she attended a seminar with Dr. Frasier Crane, and claims he ruined her life.
- After Joe sued her for crashing her jeep into his office, she did it again.
- In Marriage, Italian Style, Helen married Antonio so he would not be deported. She wore his mother's wedding dress.
- She became a member for a very short time in the Nantucket String Quartet after Winston Catlow was voted out. She was the quartet's third pick. She played with an expensive antique cello Brian and Joe bought for her. (Brian had only gone to one store.)
- She once had to land Joe's plane when Brian was knocked out cold.
- She laughs like a chipmunk.
- Helen considers the sexiest male body part to be buns.
- She dated Davis Lynch for a year, and even agreed to marry him until Joe asked her to marry him.
- In The Love Life and Times of Joe and Helen it was revealed at the end of the episode Joe and Helen have a granddaughter and grandson to unknown parents that never were mentioned in the series nor did Helen get pregnant.
- Behind the Scenes: Helen Chapel was a last-minute addition. In the original script of Wings, Helen's backstory was completely different. Originally Helen was to be born to a family of Greek immigrants. Her talents were different, but she would still be working the lunch counter. Her role as Joe's love interest would be of conflicting backgrounds: her "new American" status versus Joe's "old American" status of being descended from Mayflower settlers. This character was written in mind for one specific actress: Peri Gilpin, who had worked with the writers on Frasier and Cheers. However, Gilpin still had multiple contracts to expire and could not commit to Wings. As a result, auditions were held for this role and the writers would rework Helen to whomever gave the best reading. This turned out to be Crystal Bernard, and the character of Helen was reworked to be a Texan.
