EDITORIAL ROUTING 8-2-92 TO: ENTERTAINMENT Prop job Steven Weber enjoys having ‘Wings’ By Frank Lovece Has “Wings” ever really taken off? ‘The Thursday-night NBC sitcom — moving to Tuesdays next month, paired with “Frasier” — has long been to the network what “Coach” is to ABC: A consistently top-rated show that nobody much notices. Revolving around a one-plane com- muter run by two brothers. (played by Tim Daly and Steven Weber), “Wings” has a “Cheers”style workplace ensemble cast: a Woody-like naif (Thomas Haden Chureh as me- chanic Lowell Mather), a Carla-like ogre (David Schramm as competing airline owner Roy Biggins) and a Re: Decca-like sexy reg'lar gal (Crystal Bernard as airport-diner owner Helen ‘Chappeb. It was even created by three ex-"Cheers” producers. But still, even Weber agrees, something's missing “Its weird,” he muses in his chat tily good-natured way. “I think the show has always been strong, but i's served, and served well, in its ca- pacity fo be a kind of a warmup show, 8 lead-off batter, for critically more acclaimed and higher profile shows. ‘And that's been something the actors = egomaniacs all! — have had to rec oncile ourselves to.” Part oft comes from the very thing that should keep “Wings” going end: lessly in syndication: its lack of topi cality, which keeps it from becoming dated. “Many other shows go for top- ical or sensational topics,” Weber ob- serves. “This show doesn’t engage you in that way, for better or worse. ‘The writers, and we have some really hip writers, they try to Keep to what is perceived to be what the ‘Wings’ viewing public wants, which is not a "Roseanne,’ which is not ‘Frasier’ even. It has its own flavor, kinda homespun, kinda stupid, with occa sional flashes of insanity and wit.” ‘That could deseribe Weber himself. ‘An endearingly young-actorly combi nation of angst-ridden and happy-go lucky, he grew up in a showbiz family. His late dad managed Borscht Belt comedians, and his mom sang in nightclubs under the stage name Fran Leslie, “an amalgam of her and her sister's’ name,” Weber explains. “She'd been on Arthur Godfrey and other (TV) shows, then she was a Copa girl.” His father “was always on the phone cursing out various hotel owners over rubber checks.” It was a boyhood straight out of “Broadway Danny Rose,” the Woody Allen film. “You know that opening scene at the Carnegie Deli?” Weber says, “He handled several of those guys.” After attending New York City's ‘Many other shows go for topical or sensational topics. This show doesn’t engage you in that way, for better or worse.... It has its own flavor, kinda homespun, kinda stupid, with occasional flashes of insanity and wit.’ High School of the Performing Arts, Weber became a theater major at the State University of New York at Pur- chase, leaving two weeks before grad- uation. “T had a Shakespeare seminar and a (James) Joyce seminar, and there was no way I'd finished the read- ing,” he says regretfully. “Then I got ‘a job” — Mark Twain's *Puddin’ Head Wilson” for PBS — “and I figured this was what I wanted to do, s0.." He went on to New York theater, working alongside Geraldine Page and other luminaries, and spent the better part of a year on the soap opera “As the World Turns.” “After I got killed-slash-fired, they threw me @ bone and let me do two days of “Guiding Light,” he recalls. ‘On “As the World Turns,” he met actress Finn Carter (“Tremors”), to whom he was then married for four: and-a-half years. “We were young and had personality traits that laid dor- ‘mant until a couple of years into mar. riage,” he reasons. “And we're both actors, and that’s a hard match be- ‘cause your head is in La-La Land. A Steven Weber lot of behavior then comes out that’s symptomatic of your discomfort — a Jot of battling. But life does go on. 1 did my share of brooding, I have a ro: ‘mantie streak and this ean crush you.” ‘Since then, he's begun dating Juliet Honen, an MTV reporter-producer. “She's informed me it is possible to be happy,” Weber says with relief, “a concept that’s eluded me for many years, I's a matter of making choic- es, not being afraid to sacrifice cer- tain things. Like sacrificing sadness — it was easy for me to brood. 'm a romantic, and therefore a little eyni- cal, a litile in love with death and darkness, always wanting to be a tragie figure, Well, T got my dose of tragedy,” he says, laughing, “and it sucks!” Weber broke into films with the 1987 Vietnam drama “Hamburger Hill,” but didn't gain real attention until playing John F. Kennedy in the 1990 ABC miniseries “The Kennedys of Massachusetts.” Then, after having done an unsold pilot called “When We Were Young,” he landed on “Wings.” He's since done films including “Single White Female” and “The ‘Temp,” and several TV movies that have showcased him as rather a good and affecting dramatic actor. Weber's next film is “Jeffrey,” an adaptation of Paul Rudnick’s raucous off-Broad- way, AIDS-era romantic comedy. ‘Then, back to “Wings” — a job he enjoys despite the fact “we're not gonna be on lunchboxes.” And look: ng ahead to when his show finally flies into sitcom heaven, Weber re- ‘mains unworried, He's got plans. “I wanna be an actor,” he says, “when T grow up.” 01996 NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN. STAR VIEW FRANK y LOVECE “vis sprung ‘wonmponry eatin median Jo sommes visor perros ued aw sooner [= 918b-12Z (008) 99TOL AN ‘NIOA Men “ony ed 0OZ NOILVIOOSSV ASTUdUaLNA WadvdSMAN