Joe Montgomery Hackett (played by Timothy Daly) is often considered anal and a bit compulsive. Through the years he has lightened up quite a bit, but still often demonstrates his old self. All his life he has taken crap for being too serious, for being too uptight. Probably because of his mother's abandoning the family. He began Sandpiper Air and always struggles to keep it in business. Lately, business seems to have been getting better. He married Helen Chappel, and the two live in Joe's old house with Casey and Brian since Helen's house burned down in a fire.

INTERESTING FACTS of Joe Hackett

• Joe Hackett has spent his entire life on Nantucket. His family moved to 427 Madaket Way when he was twelve, just before his mother ran out on the family. He has a two year younger brother named Brian.
• Mae Hackett, Joe's mother, left when he was only twelve years old. He thought she left because he broke the antique pitcher given to her by her mother. That day, he made a new pitcher at school out of clay, but his mother had left before he arrived home to give it to her.
• As a child, he hated his aunt Sarah, saying she smelled like Play-doh.
• Joe has a birthmark on his left thigh.
• Joe used to keep issues of Playboy in a secret compartment by one of the floor boards in his and Brian's bedroom wall. With them, he kept all the letters his brother had written to Captain Kangaroo that Joe claimed to have mailed.
• On the day the Hacketts moved into their new house on Madaket Way, they met their neighbor Helen Chappel, Joe's future wife. His first words to her were "Boy are you fat!"
• His childhood dream was to be the most famous baseball player ever. He even dreamt that the island would be renamed Nanhackett.
• After a spring dance, when Helen was only asked by someone because of a bet, he walked her home and she cried on his shoulder. He told her, "Any guy who would hurt a girl like you has got to be a real jerk."
• Joe met Carol and the two got engaged. They eventually planned to start an airline together, with Joe flying the plane and Carol doing all the ground work.
• Unfortunately, Carol left Joe just before they were wed, and ran off with his brother. It nearly killed him.
• On a flight to Hawaii, just after Carol left him, Joe first encountered his future employee Fay Cochrane. She begged him tell her his story of woe, and she, being drunk, said the two of them should begin their own business together. Joe quit the charter company he worked for and that is how Sandpiper Air came into business.
• For a little while, Joe was grounded by the FAA for hypertension, high blood pressure. During that time he nearly sold Sandpiper to Roy Biggins, the owner of Aeromass, just to start a frozen yogurt shop.
• Joe cannot sleep at night if his shoes in the closet are touching.
• Joe loves fly fishing and collecting all sorts of airplane memorabilia.
• Joe considers Peter Jennings to be the handsomest man in the world.
• As a friendship gift, before they ever dated, Joe gave Helen his mother's cameo pin to make up for a fight they had.
• Joe considers his most negative quality to be that he is a control freak.
• He has his own filing system.
• Joe thinks eyes are the sexiest body part.
• Off-season jobs: Delivers pizza from Boston to rich lawyer on Nantucket named Mr. Pike.
• Nicknames include: Ace (created by Alex Lambert), Pretty Boy, Pope (Brian calls him this sometimes).
• Good Luck Charm: A pair of plastic wings given to him by a stewardess when he was a child