Nantucket on Screen

For a small island thirty miles out to sea, Nantucket has made a surprisingly large imprint on American popular culture. From sitcoms to summer blockbusters, this remote sandbar has captured Hollywood's imagination for decades. But no production has done more to put Nantucket on the pop culture map than Wings, the beloved NBC sitcom that ran for eight seasons and made a tiny island airport one of the most recognizable settings in 1990s television.

Wings premiered on NBC on April 19, 1990, and ran for eight seasons and 172 episodes until May 21, 1997. Created by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee—the same team behind Cheers and later Frasier—the show centered on brothers Joe and Brian Hackett, who operated the small commuter airline Sandpiper Air out of the fictional Tom Nevers Field on Nantucket.

The show starred Tim Daly as the responsible older brother Joe and Steven Weber as the roguish, unreliable Brian. Crystal Bernard played Helen Chappel, the lunch counter operator and Joe's eventual love interest. The ensemble cast included Thomas Haden Church as the dim-witted baggage handler Lowell Mather, Tony Shalhoub as the eccentric Italian cab driver Antonio Scarpacci, and Rebecca Schull as the acerbic ticket agent Fay Cochran.

Wings was part of NBC's legendary Thursday night lineup during the network's dominance in the 1990s. While never the highest-rated show, it developed a devoted following and earned multiple Emmy nominations. The show's warmth, witty writing, and likable characters made it a comfort-food classic that continues to find new audiences through streaming.

The Cheers Connection

The creative team's Cheers pedigree showed throughout Wings. Like Cheers, the show was essentially a workplace comedy set in a single location, with a core cast of quirky regulars. The shows shared more than DNA—several Cheers characters made crossover appearances, most notably when Norm Peterson, Cliff Clavin, and Frasier Crane visited Nantucket in various episodes. After Wings ended, the creative team launched Frasier, completing an unofficial trilogy of beloved NBC comedies.

Like most television productions, Wings blended reality and Hollywood magic. The show's exterior establishing shots featured the real Nantucket Memorial Airport, giving viewers authentic glimpses of the island's small terminal and distinctive surroundings. These brief shots helped establish the show's sense of place and introduced millions of Americans to Nantucket's remote charm.

However, the interior scenes—the terminal, lunch counter, Sandpiper Air office, and hangar—were all filmed on Stage 19 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The sets were designed to evoke the casual, weathered feel of a small New England airport, even if they never actually existed on Nantucket.

Sharp-eyed viewers and Nantucket locals have long noted one geographic liberty the show took: Tom Nevers Field, the fictional home of Sandpiper Air, shares its name with a real Nantucket location—but it's not an airport. Tom Nevers is actually a neighborhood and conservation area on the island's southeastern shore, known for its beaches and the Tom Nevers Head area. The real airport on Nantucket is Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK), located in the center of the island.

Despite these creative liberties, the show captured something authentic about Nantucket: the intimacy of island life, the eccentric characters who populate small communities, and the challenges of running a business in a remote location dependent on unpredictable weather.

Perhaps the most remarkable piece of Wings trivia is that you might actually fly on the Sandpiper plane when visiting Nantucket today. The Cessna 402C that appeared in the show's opening credits, registration number N121PP, is still in active service with Cape Air, the regional airline that provides the majority of flights to and from Nantucket.

In the show, the plane was painted in the livery of Express Air (the fictional rival to Sandpiper Air) during filming. Today, it wears Cape Air's distinctive blue and white colors and continues making daily flights to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and other Cape and Islands destinations. Aviation enthusiasts and Wings fans occasionally track the plane's movements, hoping to book a flight on TV history.

Cape Air's Cessna 402s provide an experience similar to what Wings depicted: intimate nine-passenger planes, co-pilots sitting next to passengers, and spectacular views of the Cape Cod coastline and open ocean. If you've ever wanted to feel like a character stepping onto a Sandpiper Air flight, booking a Cape Air trip to Nantucket is the closest you'll get to living the dream.

While you can't visit the actual Wings sets (they were dismantled after the show ended), you can explore the real locations that inspired the series and appeared in its exterior shots.

Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK)

Start your Wings pilgrimage where it all began—the real airport that stood in for Tom Nevers Field. The terminal has been updated since the 1990s, but the intimate scale remains. Grab a coffee, watch the Cape Air Cessnas taxi past, and imagine the Hackett brothers arguing about the manifest. The Cape Air terminal in particular evokes the Sandpiper Air atmosphere.

Tom Nevers (The Real Place)

Visit the actual Tom Nevers area on the island's southeast side. While there's no airport here, you'll find beautiful beaches, conservation trails, and a quiet residential neighborhood. It's a pleasant irony that the fictional airport's namesake is one of the more peaceful, undeveloped parts of the island.

Downtown Nantucket

While the show focused primarily on the airport, occasional establishing shots featured downtown Nantucket. Walk the cobblestone streets of Main Street and the harbor area to see the charming New England setting that the show's creators wanted to evoke. The Nantucket that Helen, Joe, and Brian would have known on their days off looks remarkably similar today.

The Cape Air Experience

The most immersive Wings experience is simply flying to Nantucket on Cape Air. The small planes, the views, the slightly adventure-ous feeling of island hopping by air—it's all straight out of the show. Book a window seat and keep your eyes peeled for N121PP on the tarmac. You might just get lucky.

While Wings remains Nantucket's most sustained appearance in popular culture, the island has featured in numerous other productions over the years.

The 2015 film In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth, brought the story of the Essex whaling disaster to the big screen. Based on Nathaniel Philbrick's National Book Award-winning account, the film depicts the Nantucket whaling community in the early 19th century and the harrowing ordeal that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

Nantucket has also served as a setting (if not always a filming location) for numerous novels adapted for screen, including several Elin Hilderbrand bestsellers. The island's combination of wealth, isolation, natural beauty, and small-town dynamics makes it an irresistible backdrop for storytellers across media.

Television commercials, travel shows, and documentaries have frequently featured Nantucket, reinforcing its image as the quintessential New England summer destination. The island's photogenic qualities—historic architecture, pristine beaches, classic lighthouses—make it a natural choice for productions seeking an idealized coastal setting.