This is the first of a three-part chronicle of my visit to Hollywood, to attend the filming of the series finale of WINGS on 03/18/1997. This first person account is fairly exhaustive, since I wrote it more as a personal keepsake than anything else. Besides, it's after all, "THE" finale. Hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed being there and writing about it, and perhaps vicariously experience my good fortune. It is, however, strongly recommended that you get yourself a big-sandwich before you begin . OK, here goes...

First of all, I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Ellen Byron, who so graciously invited me as a guest to the finale. It was possibly the nicest thing she could have done for a longtime e-mail acquaintance, and I am truly fortunate. My thanks also to David Lee and Lori Kirkland for all their help in the days leading up to the event.

I flew into LA from Texas on 18th morning. It was nice to finally meet my cyberpal Norm at his office. He made me realize that some people do work for a living instead of jetting around to filmings . I was at the Paramount lot by 6 pm. Got to drive right on through the now famous big gates, and after parking at a visitor's lot inside, I was at the door of Stage 19. All of us waiting outside were let in at around 6:30 pm.

The seats inside were basically slightly padded, blue-colored bleachers. There were three sections, separated by two aisles. Each section had eight rows, with each row seating about eight people. The seating was taped-off (assigned), and I had the 3rd seat in the 4th row of the middle section, right opposite the terminal. There were two other WingNuts seated next to me, and one other email pal in the adjacent section. I noticed that Tim Daly's family was seated right in the front row. I could see Tyne Daly, Tim's wife, and someone who I think was Tim's mom. I also spotted Crystal's father in the rightmost section. The resident comic Robert Lee was present, as was the band on my far left. Leonard Garner Jr., who was called "Lenny" by those in the know and who has directed quite a few episodes in the past, was an audience member this time around and seated right in front of me. He seemed truly fun-loving, zestful, and more like someone who would hang around with Sinbad or act in sitcoms, rather than a director! I won't be surprised if he is indeed an actor turned director. At this time, I got to finally meet my host when Ellen came up to my seat and introduced herself. Then we were all shown clips from the 150th episode party, SW's flight with the Blue Angels, along with some past outtakes put together by "Entertainment Tonight", on the six TV monitors facing the audience. I also saw that the crew from ET was present that night.

The people on stage at this time, in addition to the crew, included most of the writers and producers, Angell, Casey and Lee, and such luminaries from years past as Dave Hackel, Ken Levine and David Isaacs. I think a couple of the cast members were also present. All of us (stage plus audience) were set for a preview of Part-1 of the finale, that had been filmed without an audience over three days the previous week. The finale of WINGS is entitled, "The Final Approach". I had been informed that Casey and Lee were involved in the story-breaking process, with the first and second parts written by Michael Sardo and Ian Gurvitz respectively. After watching Part-1, all I could say was, WOW! It was laugh-out-loud funny in almost every scene. This could very well be Mike Sardo's very best solo effort. As David had mentioned, Crystal did a fabulous job faking a truly difficult cello piece, though her playing wasn't really the focus of this part. The plot setup was complete, and the night was still young for what would eventually be a poignantly funny, truly memorable Part-2.