What happened to Lowell?? - Wings (1990) Discussion

[–] k-man-3 9 years ago

There is an episode where he is written out. He sees a mob hit. He ends up wanting to testify but must enter the whiteness protection. It's in season 7 at the start of the season.

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[–] Julie-30 9 years ago

I think you mean WITNESS protection, not WHITENESS.

http://currentscene.wordpress.com

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[–] Doom 9 years ago

Quite. How racist.

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Yeah, Lowell leaves in Season 7, Episode 4:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0749329/combined

It's a good (and sad) episode.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

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[–] jimborambo88 9 years ago

lol I'll have to go and watch that episode again. Sometimes I play episodes while I'm working and I miss a bunch of things. Thanks!

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] HansWind 8 years ago

Given its Lowell we're talking about, I'd say it was probably the 'Witless' protection program...

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[–] zeligtony 9 years ago

Thomas Hayden Church left the show to star in his own sitcom, "Ned and Stacey".

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[–] lockon_stratos 8 years ago

Which ended the same time as Wings after only two seasons.

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[–] muchmeow 8 years ago

I wish he had stayed all the way to the end. The show just wasn't the same without him. Guess he slipped up and stepped into one of those cosmic potholes : D ... (from episode Around the world in 80 years)

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[–] matthew_cantrell21 8 years ago

No way would that have happened, Church often expressed the dislike of playing Lowell Mather. He wanted to be a character who was more than the village idiot, but NBC wouldn't take him seriously. A lawsuit would be thrown at him if he backed out of the contract, when his contract did expire he made the decision to leave the series. They invited him to make a cameo in the series finale, but he declined. Most likely because he saw it as the producers spitting in his face. He did however sit in the audience during the filming. Shame he threw away a promising career, nowadays he hardly acts.

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[–] morrell2000 8 years ago

I don't know....he was nominated for an Oscar a few years ago. Not too bad, but he definitely passed up a great opportunity to continue on with Wings----at least he was quite popular with fans of the show. Ned and Stacy wasn't much of a show.

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[–] CarolTheDabbler (575) 2 years ago

He wanted to be a character who was more than the village idiot....

I saw him that way at first, but gradually realized that he was actually a complex character with his own very logical way of looking at things and a tendency to see the best in everyone.

I'm tempted to say if Bunny doesn't appreciate him, I'll take him -- but I'm not sure I'd have the energy to deal with his creative viewpoint for longer than 30 minutes at a time.

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[–] CarolTheDabbler (575) 2 years ago

Seems to me that Lowell has changed since I wrote the above. We're into season 4 now, and as often as not they're writing him as just plain stupid, rather than the complex character that he was originally. (The episodes themselves have gotten stupider as well.)

If they didn't revert to the complex Lowell later on, it's no wonder that the actor wanted out!

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[–] [email protected] (5918) 2 years ago

That sums up a lot about Lowell. He did have his own way of seeing things. Who can forget the hilarious Trivial Pursuit game and his insistence on answering every question with "Ann-Margret"?

Roy: "The biggest user of silver"? Lowell:" Have you seen her Vegas act? The woman has some jewelry."

" I played this game before and I know one of the answers is Ann-Margret."

Lowell did exhibit some smarts, like the time he said he didn't look at the Polaroids of the Hackett's high school coach. You know, the one when they dressed the coach as a woman and he was found dead (in a dress and make-up).

A few seconds later, he leans back in Joe's chair and declares it's time to start discussing his raise. Not so dumb!

I often saw Lowell as a male version of Edith Bunker. They seem clueless and out of touch. But they possess their own internal logic and sometimes see right through to the heart of the situation. Also, like Edith, Lowell seemed to like almost everyone. He had a childlike naivety.

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[–] CarolTheDabbler (575) 2 years ago

I often saw Lowell as a male version of Edith Bunker. They seem clueless and out of touch. But they possess their own internal logic and sometimes see right through to the heart of the situation. Also, like Edith, Lowell seemed to like almost everyone. He had a childlike naivety.

That's a very good analogy! Neither one of them is stupid, just different.

I remember one episode of All in the Family when Edith tells Archie that she's making beef-tongue sandwiches for his lunch because they're all out of lunch meat. He says he doesn't want anything that's been in a cow's mouth, just give him a couple of hard-boiled eggs. And she looks at him in the most peculiar way! Nope, she's not stupid.

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[–] [email protected] (5918) 2 years ago

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[–] newyorknyny 8 years ago

Thomas Haden Church went on to do Ned And Stacy with Deborah Messing. That's why he was written off.

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[–] BillyRosewood84 (20) 9 months ago

I don't think he so much wanted to do Ned and Stacy as much as he wanted to get away from Wings and be the lead of his own show. Ned and Stacy was sort of a poorer precursor to Will & Grace with its plot line (which makes sense why Messing ended up on that show). But from what I read since the very beginning of season 1 Church wanted off Wings, but had to fulfill his contract.

Should have counted himself lucky because outside of Sideways, he's sort of an odd actor with his harder looks and country tone to his voice. With Lowell it gave the writers an outlet to write non sequitur oblong jokes knowing he could sell them. Although it's odd that he is often cited as the favorite Wings character among fans even though Lowell was a completely one-dimensional personality.

As far as his departure the writers obviously just decided to neglect the fact that Lowell had two kids that he was so effortlessly leaving behind.

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