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Chuck Facts & Trivia
Chuck Overview
Chuck is an action-comedy television program created by Josh Schwartz
and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average
computer-whiz-next-door" who receives an encoded e-mail from an old
college friend now working in the CIA; the message embeds the only
remaining copy of the world's greatest spy secrets into Chuck's brain.
Plot
Chuck Bartowski (Zachary
Levi) is a socially awkward twenty-something in Burbank, CA who
works as a computer expert at the Nerd Herd at his local Buy More (a
parody of Best Buy's Geek Squad), a local electronics retailer (a
CompUSA store was used), with his best friend, Morgan Grimes (Joshua
Gomez). Chuck's sister Ellie (Sarah
Lancaster) is a doctor who is constantly looking out for his best
interests and wants to help him find a girlfriend. Also in the cast is
Ellie's fiancé, Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb (Ryan McPartlin), also
a doctor looking out for Chuck's social life. On the night of his
birthday party, Chuck receives an e-mail from his former Stanford
University roommate, Bryce Larkin (Matthew
Bomer), who is now a "rogue" CIA agent. When he opens it, the entire
database of all the US government's secret information — a neural
supercomputer called the Intersect — is subliminally embedded into his
brain. Both the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence
Agency want the intelligence returned to them and dispatch agents of
their own — Major John Casey (Adam
Baldwin) and Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) — to retrieve the
data.
Since the disk with the government information was stolen by Bryce and
destroyed in his attempted escape, and since Chuck experiences "flashes"
of information from the database activated by certain triggers around
him (such as faces, guns, watches, and other objects), he must use the
knowledge he now possesses to help the government thwart assassins and
international terrorists — upending his previously uneventful life. In
order to preserve their safety, Chuck must keep his new-found occupation
a secret from his family and friends, forcing Casey and Walker to
establish an uneasy alliance and secret identities (Walker poses as
Chuck's girlfriend and takes a cover job at the local restaurant next to
the Buy More (formerly Wienerlicious, currently Orange Orange) while
Casey gets a job at the Buy More), with the shared goal of protecting
Chuck at all costs.
In the meantime, the government is in the process of rebuilding the
Intersect computer. As it nears completion, Casey is ordered to kill
Chuck as soon as the new Intersect is ready. However, in the premiere of
season 2, it is destroyed using a computer virus, keeping Chuck alive.
As the series progresses, it is revealed that Bryce is still alive and
that a rival agency called "Fulcrum" is in search of the Intersect,
which they believed to still be in the possession of Bryce, not Chuck.
It is also discovered that Fulcrum are the ones who destroyed the new
Intersect. In the episode "Chuck vs. Santa Claus" (season 2, episode 11,
aired 12/15/08), a Fulcrum agent known as Mauser discovers that it is
Chuck, in fact, who is the Intersect. This discovery, however, does not
last long, as Sarah kills Agent Mauser before he is able to notify
anyone else in Fulcrum. (This sparks a subplot covering multiple
episodes involving Chuck having witnessed Sarah committing the
cold-blooded (if necessary) murder and coming to terms with it.)
In the episode "Chuck vs. The Suburbs" (2/16/09), Chuck had the implant
of all Fulcrum secrets that they had developed implanted into his head,
making him a target for Fulcrum.
Episodes
Main article: List of Chuck episodes
Cast and characters
Main article: List of characters in Chuck
Conception
Josh Schwartz and newcomer Chris Fedak wrote the script for the first
episode which was initially given a put pilot commitment by NBC before a
pilot order was green lit by the network in January 2007. Schwartz and
Fedak both attended the University of Southern California and the latter
pitched the idea to Schwartz who agreed to develop the project with him.
Joseph McGinty Nichol, Schwartz's fellow executive producer on The O.C.,
directed the first hour of the series and consequently became an
executive producer via his production company, Wonderland Sound and
Vision. Fedak, Peter Johnson, Scott Rosenbaum, Matthew Miller and
Allison Adler also serve as co-executive producers. NBC gave the series
an early pick-up and a thirteen-episode order on May 10, 2007. On
November 26, 2007, TV Guide reported that NBC had picked up the series
for a full, 22 episode season.
Casting
Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin were the first two to be cast in February
2007 in the roles of Chuck Bartowski and veteran NSA agent Major John
Casey, respectively. Fedak always had Baldwin in mind for the role of
John Casey and the producers found that the actor was a "perfect fit"
for the character during the first casting session. Relative newcomer
Yvonne Strahovski, an Australian, was chosen for the female lead role of
CIA officer Sarah Walker in the same month. Casting continued throughout
March with Sarah Lancaster, Joshua Gomez, and Natalie Martinez landing
the parts of Dr. Ellie Bartowski (Chuck's older sister), Morgan Pace
(Chuck's best friend), and Kayla Hart (Chuck's neighbor and love
interest), respectively. The Kayla Hart character was dropped before
filming because creators Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz found it unlikely
and too complicated to the storyline that two women would be pining over
Chuck. Morgan's surname was later changed to "Grimes" and Sarah's
surname was changed to "Walker" as it was previously "Kent".
On September 14, 2007, Rachel Bilson, of The O.C. (which executive
producer Josh Schwartz also created) signed on for a multi-episode arc
which aired in late October 2007.
On November 24, 2008, TV Guide reported that Tricia Helfer guest-starred
on the show as Chuck’s new handler.
Broadcast history
Main article: List of Chuck episodes
The first showing of the pilot occurred on July 27, 2007 at Comic-Con
International in San Diego. The series was originally slated to air on
Tuesday nights at 9PM/8c as announced at the 2007 Upfronts but this was
later changed to Monday nights at 8PM/7c as announced during the 2007
Television Critics Association summer press tour. The season premiere
aired on September 24, 2007 on NBC. The pilot was leaked onto torrent
websites on July 22, 2007. All thirteen episodes produced before the
2007 Writers Guild of America strike have aired. The last two episodes
of the original thirteen aired on January 24, 2008, with episode 12
airing at 8PM/7c and episode 13 at 10PM/9c, three days after they aired
in Canada. Season Two premiered on September 29, 2008. While the series
originally had a 13 episode order, NBC went ahead and ordered another
nine, ensuring the series will get the full 22-episode treatment
Awards and critical reception
Chuck is mentioned multiple times in IGN's 2007 year in review awards.
Along with winning the honor of best New TV Series, Sarah Walker won the
award for best TV character, and Chuck & Sarah as a couple won the
"Couple That We Rooted for the Most" award. Chuck was also nominated for
"Best New TV Comedy Series" at the 2008 People's Choice Awards which
aired on January 8, 2008 but lost to Samantha Who?.
The series stunt coordinator Merritt Yohnka won 2007 Primetime Emmy for
"Outstanding Stunt Coordination". Chuck was also nominated for
"Outstanding Main Title Design" that year, but didn't win.
In December 2008 Time magazine named the show as one of the top 10 TV
series of the year. It also made the year-end top 10 list of Chicago
Tribune, Television Without Pity's list of TV Shows We Wish More People
Watched, The Star-Ledger's Top TV shows of 2008 (#4),The Miami Herald's
TV's Top 5 list, The New York Observer's Top 10 TV Shows of the Year
(#6), and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentions Chuck as one of the few
bright spots in television in 2008.
The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan praises the show's ability to blend
comedy with storytelling: "the show pays attention to the mechanics of
storytelling and doesn't just try to coast on the comedy. ... [Given]
the level of attention paid to all those other things -- emotion,
suspense, plotting, character -- Chuck ends up being one of the TV
scene's greatest pleasures at the moment.
Other media
Marketing
In May 2007, NBC announced that their official website would launch "MyNBC"
allowing users to be more interactive with selected shows. MyNBC will
allow fans to delve inside Chuck's "brain" which will host hot spots of
top-secret government information that the title character possesses. It
will also have bonus video features. In addition, NBC further announced
in July 2007 that tie-in micro websites where fans who log onto Buy-More.net
would be directed to NerdHerdHelp.com giving them access to exclusive
content of the show and a blog written by the title character's best
friend and sidekick, Morgan, would be launched in September 2007. NBC is
reportedly expected to spend about $8 million in total promoting the
show.
Comics
Wildstorm, a DC Comics imprint, will be producing a six-issue
mini-series written by Peter Johnson and Zev Borow (series co-executive
producer and writer, respectively), with art by Jeremy Haun and Phil
Noto. It began in June 2008. It also includes a public service
announcement on brushing one's teeth from Captain Awesome and two gag
adventures with Morgan based on film noir and The Odyssey.