(Power Rankings sum up: Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules). Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)
Wings lasted for eight seasons and 172 episodes and I have never seen a single episode nor even knew it existed while it was airing, from 1990 to 1997. Since then I’ve been made aware of the show and have picked up a couple of facts about it, like the name of the airline (Sandpiper) and the name of the airport (Tom Nevers Field), but still best know the show for a couple of actors who made their bones there before showing up elsewhere.
9. David Schramm (as Roy Biggins) – After last week’s all around success story, it’s nice to get to a good old fashioned power rankings loser. Schramm has a mere one credit after the end of Wings, a voice role in an episode of Hercules in 1998.
8. Crystal Bernard (as Helen Chapel-Hackett) – While Schramm’s work makes Bernard seem prolific, Bernard’s post Wings work pretty much consists of a series of TV movies – Grave Misconduct, The Secret Path, A Face to Kill For, To Love, Honor & Betray, Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus and its sequel Meet the Santas. She appeared in an episode of According to Jim. Yikes. She also had a #25 single on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1999 with “Don’t Touch Me There.”
7. Rebecca Schull (as Fay Cochran) – Almost 80 now, I’m giving her the tiebreaker against Bernard if for no other reason than for her age. She has been in episodes of Frasier, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Damages, and three of Suits. She’s also appeared in The Odd Couple II, Analyze This, Analyze That, United 93 and Little Children.
6. Farrah Forke (as Alex Lambert) – Forke had the smallest role on Wings for anyone I included, as she was a main cast member for just one season and was off the show by 1995. Afterwards, she had a recurring role as district attorney Mayson Drake on Lois and Clarke: The New Adventures of Superman. She was a main cast member in two subsequent one season sitcoms, 1995’s Dweebs, as an office manager of a software company and as a guidance counselor on 1996’s Mr. Rhodes. She was in an episode of Ned & Stacey, one of Jenny, one of the Fantasy Island remake and in three of Party of Five. Since the turn of the century the only role she’s had is voicing heroine Big Barda in one episode of Batman Beyond and two of Justice League.
5. Amy Yasbeck (as Casey Chapel Davenport) – Immediately after Wings, Yasbeck co-starred in the one season Alright Already which doesn’t even warrant a wikipedia page. In 2005, she co-starred in the equally short-lived Life on a Stick. She’s also been in episodes of It’s Like, You Know, Just Shoot Me!, That’s so Raven, Hot in Cleveland and Worst Week. Yasbeck gets the nod over Forke for having appeared in person in a role after 2000.
4. Steven Weber (as Brian Hackett) – There’s a huge jump between Yasbeck and Weber. The top four on Wings have all had exemplary post-Wings careers and the rankings would be almost more accurate listed simply in two tiers than in numbering further. That said, we must rank on. Weber was a voice in the All Dogs Go to Heaven TV series and acted in a number of TV movies including Thanks of a Grateful Nation, Love Letters, Late Last Night, and Common Ground. He was in episodes of The Outer Limits, The Simpsons, Extreme Ghostbusters and Stark Raving Mad. Weber starred in a failed sitcom fittingly called The Weber Show in 2000. He had a recurring role in nine episodes of Once and Again as Billy Campbell’s friend. He was then in episodes of Monk, The Lyon’s Den, American Dad and Will & Grace. He co-starred in high-priced flop Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as network head Jack Rudolph. He appeared in one episode of Psych, three of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and four of Without a Trace. He was in eight episodes of Brothers and Sisters, three of In Plain Sight and Falling Skies, and one of Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Party Down as a gangster of indeterminate eastern European origin who was just acquitted of murder. He was in the main cast of unsuccessful 2010 midseason replacement Happy Town. He’ll be voicing Norman Osborn in the upcoming Ultimate Spider-man cartoon series.
3. Thomas Hayden Church (as Lowell Mather) – Church left Wings after the fifth season, after which he starred in sitcom Ned and Stacey alongside Debra Messing for two seasons. He appeared in movies George of the Jungle, 3000 Miles to Graceland, The Specials, Spanglish and Idiocracy. His most notable film roles may be that of Jack in Sideways and of Sandman in Spider-man 3. He had voice roles in Over the Hedge, Charlotte’s Web and Aliens in the Attic. He appeared in episodes of Lucky and Miss Match and in miniseries Broken Trail. Most recently, he’s been in films Smart People, All About Steve, Easy A and will be in We Bought A Zoo.
2. Tim Daly (as Joe Hackett) – After the end of Wings, Daly appeared in The Object of My Affection and in four episodes of astronaut mini-series From The Earth to the Moon as Jim Lovell, who Tom Hanks portrayed in Apollo 13. He starred in Stephen King mini-series Storm of the Century which I watched while on vacation as it aired. He voiced Superman in the popular ‘90s animated series, most of which aired after Wings ended. He starred in several failed series including 2000’s remake of The Fugitive, where Daly played Richard Kimble, 2005 ABC private investigation series Eyes, and 2006’s bank heist drama The Nine. He had a memorable recurring role in The Sopranos as J.T. Dolan, a drug-addicted screenwriter, who Chris bonds with in rehab and then has beaten up when Dolan doesn’t pay back money on time. He was in episodes of Monk, Chasing Amy, and Commander in Chief. He currently co-stars in Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Private Practice as Pete Wilder who has lots of crazy affairs and events over the course of the five year run of the show if his character’s wikipedia page is to be believed.
1. Tony Shalhoub (as Antonio Scarpacci) – You might say Shalhoub’s done okay since Wings ended. Before the ‘90s were out, Shalhoub appeared in films Men in Black, Gattica, A Life Less Ordinary, Primary Colours, The Siege, A Civil Action and Galaxy Quest. He also appeared in an episode of Ally McBeal and starred in the short-lived sitcom Stark Raving Mad with Neil Patrick Harris. In the 2000s, he appeared in Men in Black 2, the Sky Kids series of films, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Thir13en Ghosts, Life or Something Like It, 1408, and as a voice in Cars. In 2002, he landed his biggest role as the star of USA’s Monk, which lasted eight seasons and starred Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, a retired but brilliant detective with obsessive compulsive disorder who helps the police solve murder cases in San Francisco. He won three Emmy awards for the role. Post-Monk he has so far appeared in film How Do You Know and HBO movie Too Big To Fail.
Television, the Drug of the Nation 