Lifeboat is the second part of a two-part episode arc and the first episode of the fourth season on Wings, and the 51st episode overall in the series.
Synopsis[]
After surviving the plane crash, the crew sits aboard a lifeboat in the Atlantic waiting for rescue. Luckily they are rescued by the Coast Guard after being in the water for 8 hours. Unfortunately, Joe cannot rent or buy a new plane and the insurance won't let replace his old plane meaning the Sandpiper Air is out of business. Depressed, Joe decides to fold the business and move to the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. Joe even convinces Helen to come with him. However, Joe is quickly brought back to reality when he sees him plane that Lowell's friend (who owns a salvage company) was able to dreg up from the ocean, where it luckily had landed on a sandbar.
Credits[]
Main Cast[]
- Tim Daly as Joe Hackett
- Steven Weber as Brian Hackett
- Crystal Bernard as Helen Chapel
- Thomas Haden Church as Lowell Mather
- David Schramm as Roy Biggins
- Rebecca Schull as Fay Cochran
- Tony Shalhoub as Antonio Scarpacci
Guest Cast[]
- Amber Kelleher-Andrews as Woman in Fantasy
- Trish Monaco as Aeromass Gal (uncredited)
Quotes[]
- Fay Cochran - "So after the plane crashed Joe got the lifeboat inflated, and the we all climbed in. Isn't any of this coming back to you?"
Lowell Mather - "Not really Fay, but not to worry. You know what they say about severe head trauma."
Fay Cochran - "What's that?"
Lowell Mather - "What's what?"
- Roy Biggins - "I can't stand this. We are in the middle of nowhere, I'm desperate and frightened, and you expect me just to sit here with my hands tied?"
Brian Hackett - "Now you know how your dates must feel."
- Brian Hackett - "Morning, Lowell, Helen. Attractive stranger in the tartan pullover."
Lowell Mather - "Well, you're certainly chipper, Brian."
Brian Hackett - "Oh, Lowelly, Lowelly, I'm a changed man. Ever since that plane crash, I got a new appreciation for life."
Lowell Mather - "I know just what you mean. The simple beauty of a child's laughter."
Brian Hackett - "Aw, there you going."
Lowell Mather - "Spending the entire day watching a tree grow"
Brian Hackett - "Absolutely."
Lowell Mather - "Well, I don't have time for that stuff anymore! I've got people to see, women to bed, why, I've never even been to Canada."
- Fay Cochran - "Oh, what is it with people? You crash one plane and they act like you're trouble."
- Helen Chapel - "How was your trip?"
Antonio Scarpacci - "Oh, the worst. First, we are delayed for 12 hours in Rome. Then a screaming baby sits behind me the entire way. Then they lose my luggage."
Helen Chapel - "Oh, Antonio."
Lowell Mather - "We were in a plane crash."
Antonio Scarpacci - "Must you always top my story?"
- Helen Chapel - "I can't just pick up and go, I have a life."
Joe Hackett - "Oh, Helen, you work at a little greasy spoon in an airport. Your music career is at the bottom of the ocean. The last guy that asked you out was a tourist wearing sandals with black socks and legs whiter than altar linen. You call this a life?"
Helen Chapel - "Well, it's life...like."
Trivia[]
- This episode is the second part of a two-part arc started in As Fate Would Have It.
- The title of this episode is a homage to Lifeboat, a 1944 American survival film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on a story by John Steinbeck. Roy directly references the similarities, but Lowell mistakenly believes he's talking about The Birds.
- Helen's cello sinks and she doesn't get a replacement until The Gift (Part 1).
- After being absent for the previous two episodes, Antonio returns from visiting his family in Italy.
- To explain why he's carrying $7,000 dollars, Lowell mentions Charles Keating. Keating was made infamous for his involvement in the Savings and Loan Scandal and resulting financial crisis of the late 1980s, where over 23,000 of Keatings customers alone were left with worthless bonds.