The Intersect

Save Chuck, Eat Fresh

Fia — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:24:20 +0000

I’m coming out of hiatus to post this letter which was sent to me by Wendy Farrington, which details what I think is the most innovative “Save Chuck” campaign out there (and how much do I love that there are so many Save Chuck campaigns that I can’t keep track of them all?!)

Hi Everyone,

As I’m sure you’re aware Chuck is struggling to find an audience amidst a very competitive Monday 8pm line-up and is in danger of not being picked up for a 3rd season. I’ve done my duty and written my letters to the network, but given the economy and the Jay Leno effect, I’m not confident that will be enough. I wanted to request your help to promote a ‘Save Chuck’ strategy that goes beyond the standard fare of sending letters or bobbles to the networks. What I’m proposing is a consumer driven campaign that will lend a voice to all the loyal Chuck fans that are not represented by Nielson ratings.

With the changing media landscape, the key demographic that most advertisers are seeking is also the segment most likely to be viewing TV programming in non-traditional ways (online, DVR, iTunes, etc.). Nielson ratings are not as strong an indicator of advertising value as they once were, but they remain the industry standard because there are precious few ways to demonstrate and really capture the success of product promotion in this digital age.

As a non-Nielson viewer, I feel the most effective means of making an impact is to wield my consumer power in a way that NBC and their sponsors will be able to measure. I’ve noticed that Subway has worked with Chuck/NBC to incorporate product placement within the show. To demonstrate my gratitude to that franchise for their support of Chuck, I’m pitching a ‘Finale & FOOTLONG™’ campaign to all the Chuck forums and boards. I’m also sending this idea out to key TV critics who’ve been supportive of Chuck, asking them to write articles and raise awareness for this effort. Included below is a list of the boards, forums, and critics to whom I’ve sent this concept.

The ‘Finale & FOOTLONG™’ campaign will call on fans to show their dedication by pledging to purchase a $5 FOOTLONG™ from Subway on the evening of the Chuck season finale (which hopefully isn’t the series finale). If enough Chuck fans ban together to do this and Subway sees a rise in sales Monday April 27th as a result, it would give NBC/Universal an actual metric to gauge the fan dedication in relation to the return on investment of a key sponsor.

At the end of the day, the television industry is still a business and I hope other fans will recognize that fact and organize with me to show their support in a tangible way. I’ve sent in my ‘Save Chuck’ letters to Ben Silverman (NBC) and Angela Bromstad (Universal) including this idea, but I really need the help of other Chuck fans to drive this program and make it happen. To that end, I’ve also sent a letter to the Chief Marketing Officer at Subway (Mr. Bill Schettini) outlining the effort I’m putting forth to galvanize the show’s loyal fan base to reward their sponsorship of our beloved Chuck.

Chuck is in one of the toughest timeslots on television and continues to hold its own against fierce competition on every major network. The cast is fantastic, the story is compelling, and I truly believe the show deserves another season (hopefully on Wednesday’s at 8pm). The best way to save Chuck is to give NBC/Universal a legitimate business justification for keeping their quality programming on the air. It’s more likely that the network and sponsors will hear our pleas for a Chuck renewal if we speak their language…$$$. So fans, please write your letters, mention the campaign, and buy a $5 FOOTLONG™ from Subway on April 27th (bonus points for those that drop off a comment card saying they’re buying their sandwich in support of Chuck.)

Put a reminder on your calendar, alarm on your phone, whatever it takes to remember…personally I’ll be buying my sandwich from Newark International Airport after an 8hr flight on the 27th, but I’m going to do it! If the mods for this board or forum would be so kind as to post a reminder on April 27th as well, that would be phenomenal! Thanks for listening and I hope I can count on your support.

Warmest Regards,

Wendy Farrington

FYI – I swear on all that is holy, I do NOT work for Subway or any marketing/media based company. I’m just a lowly sales rep in the pharma industry, who happens to have an underused undergraduate degree in marketing and a deep affection for CHUCK.

Letters should go to…

Bill Schettini
Subway - Chief Marketing Officer
325 Bic Drive
Milford , CT 06461

Ben Silverman
Co-Chairman
3000 W. Alameda
Admin Building
Burbank , CA 91523

Angela Bromstad
President of Primetime Series
100 Universal City Plaza
Bldg 1320, 4th Floor
Universal City , CA 91608

Online Postings for Campaign: TWOP, Give Me My Remote, Futon Critic, NBC Forums, ChuckTV.net, Zach-Levi.net, and all LiveJournal communities related to Chuck and its cast.

List of Critics Contacted: Mo Ryan ( Chicago Tribune), Alan Sepinwall (Star Ledger), Michael Ausiello (Entertainment Weekly), Matt Roush (TV Guide Magazine), and the Mega Buzz Trio (TV Guide Online).

This is not awesome.

Fia — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:25:46 +0000

Life continues to chew me up and spit me out, but this is something I could not be silent about. From Ausiello: (part of his TV death chart)

Chuck
Number of deaths: 1
Time frame: End of season
The scoop: It’ll be “shocking,” declares exec producer Josh Schwartz.

Assuming that we’re talking about a regular character and not a basically disposable character like Chuck’s dad, Bryce or Jill, I know already I’m not going to like this.

What I can tell you right now, sight unseen, is that if it’s Casey, Morgan, or Lester, I’ll give you a hell of a deal on the URL for this blog, and I might even throw in my s1 DVDs for free. As charming as Zachary Levi is as Chuck, it’s Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez and Vik Sahay that keep me tuning in from week to week in spite of the writers’ apparent inability to portray women as much of anything other than flighty, fickle, fetishized, or evil.

I’d also have a hard time sticking around if it turned out to be Ellie or Awesome, to be honest, but since the finale is supposed to feature their wedding, it sure would add to the shock value, wouldn’t it? I’d be disappointed if it was Jeff or Anna, but it wouldn’t make me question my loyalty to the Schwartz. So, speculation. Who do you think has a target painted on their forehead? Who do you hope it is/isn’t?

Petition to renew “Chuck”!

Fia — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:28:07 +0000

Petitions on the internet are a sketchy thing at times, but they can be a good indicator of interest by the general public to a network, so if you would like to see Chuck return for a third season, please take a moment to sign this one and show your support.

Is this thing on?

Fia — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:23:51 +0000

Due to personal issues, The Intersect is on hiatus, but I had to share this photo from Entertainment Weekly anyway, because in spite of the rough time I’ve been having, especially the last few days, it made me smile.

Zachary Levi joins ‘Chipmunks’ sequel.

Fia — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:52:06 +0000

Apparently Jason Lee’s Dave Seville has a cousin who looks an awful lot like Chuck Bartowski. From the Hollywood Reporter:

Alvin, Simon, Theodore and … Chuck?

Zachary Levi, star of the NBC action comedy series “Chuck,” has been cast opposite the computer-generated singing rodents of “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.”

Betty Thomas is directing the follow-up to Fox 2000 and Regency’s 2007 hit “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” which grossed $217 million in North America. Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman are producing, Karen Rosenfelt is executive producing, and Erin Siminoff is overseeing for Fox 2000.

Levi will play the cousin of Jason Lee’s character and gets tangled up with the tiny animated threesome. Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney again will provide the chipmunks’ voices.

Also new to the franchise will be the Chipmunks’ rivals, the Chipettes — Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor — who were introduced in the 1980s animated TV series.

Levi, repped by Endeavor and Hyler Management, also has appeared in “Big Momma’s House 2″ and “Shades of Ray.”

Vik Sahay talks to Media Blvd

Fia — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:28:27 +0000

Vik Sahay recently spoke with Media Blvd Magazine’s Christina Radish about his career, his character, and his hopes for the future of Lester.

On the NBC television series Chuck, Vik Sahay stars as Lester Patel, frenemy and rival to Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) — a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the governments most vital secret agent. When Chuck opens an e-mail subliminally encoded with government secrets, he unwittingly downloads an entire server of sensitive data into his brain. Now, the fate of the world lies in the unlikely hands of a guy who works at a Buy More Electronics store. Instead of fighting computer viruses, Chuck must now confront assassins and international terrorists while juggling shifts at the Buy More and keeping his Nerd Herd co-workers from discovering his secret.

Prior to joining the action/comedy series, the Canadian-born actor appeared in many television movies and series, including Without a Trace and Las Vegas. Prior to making the move to Los Angeles, Sahay played the lead character in YTVs Radio Active, and spent two seasons on the hit Canadian television series This is Wonderland, which won a Gemini Award.

Sahay recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about what an amazing experience it is to work on Chuck.

MediaBlvd Magazine> How did you get into acting, and when did you know it was something you wanted to make a career out of?

Vik Sahay> I am from Canada. I was born in Ottawa, and I moved through Montreal and Toronto, and now Im in L.A. I dont really know how I got into acting. I have no idea, honestly. Nobody in my family did it. Nobody I knew did it. My family are all highly intellectual, high-achieving people. I did a play when I was a kid, and someone saw me in that play and put me in a TV show. It was almost like I was following a compulsion. I dont ever remember making a decision to be an actor. Thats the thing. I just woke up one day, in my second year of theater school, and thought, I guess I do this. Theres no moment, or nothing I saw, that made me go, I want to do that. I feel like I was just following an instinct to do it.

MediaBlvd> How did you originally get involved with Chuck? Was it just through the regular auditioning process?

Vik> Yeah, it was the gauntlet of the auditioning process. Id worked in Toronto, Canada, but when I got here, I was nobody. I was right at the bottom of the ladder, so I started at the beginning. Its a massive process here, compared to Canada, where you have an audition and maybe a callback. Here its a 5-piece mountain climb. They were like, Lets see him again, when Id already been there for five hours. And, there were more and more people in the room, so it was just overwhelming. The thing with Chuck was that I read for a different role. I read for Morgan, and it came down to me and Josh Gomez for it, and Josh got it. That was heartbreaking and brutal, and I wept. A couple of days later, they called and said, Do you want to play this other role?, so I flipped through the pilot going, Whos Lester? Oh, wonderful, theres one line. And then, people were like, You have to go and do it, so I said, Okay, of course. I shot the pilot and it was an insanely amazing experience with the cast, the improving, and just working on it. Then, it got picked up and slowly the role got bigger and bigger and, in the second season, I became a regular on the series.

MediaBlvd> For those who might not have seen the show yet, who is Lester and what is his relationship to Chuck Bartowski?

Vik> Lester is a guy who works at the Nerd Herd. I see him as an over-qualified, smug, socially immature, smart, covertly ambitious guy. His relationship to Chuck is that he feels there is an unrequited rivalry between him and Chuck. Some part of Lester envies Chuck so much that he hates him. What Lester wants is respect. He wants love. And, with Chuck, he sees how effortless it is for him. Thats the dynamic he has with Chuck.

MediaBlvd> Did you do any research at all into what its like to work at an electronics store like the Buy More? Have you gotten any feedback from the employees of those types of stores?

Vik> Yeah. I am an insane research guy. I was in Toronto when I got the call, so I went into the equivalent of Best Buy in Canada and interviewed a couple of those guys, who had no idea what the hell I was talking about and why I was interrupting their work day. I got a little insight into who these people are. Theyre in the service game, but they are incredibly intelligent. Theyre incredible wizards with computers. Theyre so advanced and so quick. In terms of feedback, its been, Yeah, I know a guy like Lester, and Im like, Oh, thats tragic for you. Ive even had to use the Geek Squad, and they think theyre the #1 fans of the show. Theyre finally represented.

MediaBlvd> How much fun do you have, playing this character? Do you get to do a lot of improv?

Vik> Yeah. The writers are so good that, even though I do a lot of improv, its just me riffing and wrapping myself around their ideas and their text. The cast is just this crackling, whip-smart group of people. Theyre the fasted cast in the game, so you cant help but start bouncing off these guys, in the middle of a scene, and try to crack each other up. If they dont call, Cut! right away, we are going to go on and on, back and forth, until someone loses it. Its a blast! There are days when Lesters actions make me nauseous, but thats all part of the fun of it.

MediaBlvd> Whats it been like to work with this ensemble of actors, specifically Zachary Levi?

Vik> Zach is a nightmare to work with. No. Hes an amazing guy! Hes an incredibly intelligent actor and person, and so generous. He is our leader, in that sense. Hes funny, and he can do the dramatic stuff. We talk, all the time, about acting. Being new to the city and the world of American television, hes been a great source of information and guidance. And, more than all of that, hes just phenomenally talented. To get to do scenes with him is the thing. All of the popularity of the show, and getting to do all the other stuff, is the cherry on the cake of literally just going to work with that ensemble and Zach. Thats everything. I feel very, very lucky. There are so many shows and, as an actor, you cast your net wide. You try to be discerning and you want to say no to things, but you think, Okay, if something comes, Ill probably take it. Thats why I feel so fortunate that the thing that has come to me, and has been picked up, is this show where, every week, I look through the script going, Oh, my God! This is what were doing? Not to say anything about all the other shows, but on a procedural drama, youre like, Okay, whats the crime this week? When I read the script for the pilot of Chuck, I was like, This is the show I want on!

MediaBlvd> What has been the most enjoyable thing about doing this series, and what has been the most difficult aspect of it?

Vik> Very little is difficult. The only pseudo-difficult thing about it is wanting to be as brilliant as everybody else. You want to be awesome, and thats difficult, but thats the pleasurable kind of work. And, the most enjoyable thing is just going in and being able to ping-pong off the cast. When we get to do scenes altogether, and theres three or four or five of us in a scene, were howling and laughing and barely making it through takes, one-upping each other.

MediaBlvd> Did you enjoy Lesters brief stint as the Buy More assistant manager? Were you surprised he didnt last longer?

Vik> No, it didnt surprise me at all. One of the things about Lester is that he fancies himself a rock star and a superstar. He believes he deserves to be top dog, in every situation. Youll see later in the season when, once again, hes given something that puts him in a position where hes granted that. Theyre like, Okay, you think youre this? Here you go. And, he just doesnt have the nervous system to back it up. He doesnt have the goods. Who he thinks he is and who he is, often come crashing into each other. My image for him, initially, was that hes like a kid who puts on a Stetson thats too big for him, and he struts forward and falls on his face, repeatedly, in front of everybody. So, when he was given this Assistant Managership, I thought, This is going to end badly.

MediaBlvd> How different is your character now from what you originally thought he would be, when you started the show, or is he pretty close to who you thought youd be playing?

Vik> When I first got the pilot, there was not a lot there. What happened was that McG, who directed the pilot, was very encouraging about me improving, so I improved my relationship with Chuck. I dont know where it came from and why I made that choice, I just instinctively went with a rivalry with Chuck, as opposed to being another one of his buddies. When I started thinking about why he would do the things that he did, it was because he wanted to be in that position. As far as Im concerned, my approach as an actor, is that the show is called Lester, so everything that happens is from his point of view. And, one of the things that was happening was that this guy named Chuck was loved by everybody, and is kind of the leader in the Buy More. I just started improving on those scenes, and they started writing to it and for it, so thats how its come about. There has been some surprises, only because the writers are so great, but I feel like Im playing the same guy that we began with, just with more development.

MediaBlvd> Since you have given so much thought to your character, is there anything youd like to see Lester go through or have to deal with, before the show is finished?

Love! I want him to feel love. Everything and anything. I love playing him. I love being on the show. Its always just about wanting more to do and more to go after. Every once in awhile, you get clues from the writers, as to what theyre thinking, and you wrap yourself around that, as far as what this character is going through or who he is. And then, sometimes, in the editing, those things get cut, so youre playing an energy in other scenes thats based on something thats not there anymore. There was one moment, in the Thanksgiving episode, that was cut where Lester says, You know, Ive never been to a Thanksgiving. My parents were always too busy jet-setting between Mumbai and Tel Aviv. And, they had to cut that part. Hes this half-Jewish, half-Indian character, and thats brilliant. Id love to see his family dynamic exposed and explored.

MediaBlvd> Whats it been like to have Tony Hale on the show? How has he been to work with?

Vik> Just average. It made no difference. No. A year and a half ago, I was sitting in my Toronto apartment, watching Arrested Development going, Oh, man, that guy is such a genius! With Chuck, suddenly Im working with those people that I watched and admired on TV, and Tony Hale was one of those people. Hes so funny and so quirky, and hes got such an incredible angle on things. He threw a grenade of energy into the Buy More gang. Its been amazing!

MediaBlvd> If you had your choice, are there types of roles or specific genres that youd like to work in, that you havent gotten the chance to yet?

Vik> Before I did Chuck, I shot this really gritty, deep, dark drama. It was a Canadian film that we shot in India, called Amal, and it took everything of me. I did this scene where I was bawling and I was on the ground, on the streets in India, and I got up and brushed the dust off. And then, two months later, I was on this crackling comedy, on a set at Warner Bros., in California. But, I love that! Its got a culture shock to it. What I really want is good and varied work, and Id love to work with the greats. I love playing Lester and, if in between playing Lester, I get to do something else too, thats the goal. Thats the dream.

Adam Baldwin talks Casey, Jayne and more

Fia — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:11:52 +0000

Steve Heisler, from avclub.com, spoke with Adam Baldwin about a number of his roles, including Major John Casey and Firefly’s Jayne Cobb.

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we ask actors for memories about roles that defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

The actor: Adam Baldwin, currently the stoic, wisecrackin’ government agent on NBC’s Chuck, which returns from its mid-season break with a 3D episode on Monday, February 2. Baldwin is perhaps best known for playing Jayne Cobb in Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity (another largely wisecrackin’ stoic role), and he got his start in 1980’s My Bodyguard when he was still in high school.

Chuck (2007-2009)”John Casey”

Adam Baldwin: The role came up in the normal process of television pilot season. Before that, I’d been on a few series which had gone half a season. So I just went in after Day Break went down, and back into normal casting sessions. Chuck bitapparently [co-creator] Josh Schwartz and everyone liked my work. They were rooting for me. It was nice to see Zack Levi at the testing session. He’s tall, about 6′3″, I’m 6′4″, so when you’re cast opposite people of the same height, it’s helpful. Especially for the cinematographer. I don’t want them to carry around an apple box, and I don’t want to have to carry around a shovel.

The A.V. Club: You corrected another interviewer once for calling it a “geek show.” You said, “We prefer ‘nerd show.’” What’s the difference?

AB: There’s the geek squad and we’re the nerd herd… Nerd’s a nicer word.

Day Break (2006-2007)”Chad Shelten”

AB: Long hours, night shoots; when we came out and our ratings were low, we thought we were under the gun. I think what hurt the show was that it didn’t have enough of a sense of fun. No sense of humor. Too dark and brooding to hold an audience. There’s not a lot of real estate out there when it’s up against baseball and Dancing With The Stars and American Idol. It’s also a complicated storyline. You come in two episodes late and you’ll go “Huh?” But I think it holds up well as a box set.

AVC: Is that the type of role you prefer to play? Dramatic but with a sense of humor, kinda multi-dimensional?

AB: Absolutely. It’s great to be able to pretend you’re tough but funny at the same time. Dry humor. The straight man is already kind of in my wheelhouse. It’s a pleasure to play that. I’m not one to start rambling on a Neil Simon soliloquy. I’m no Jack Lemmon. The guys I grew up with, my cinematic heroes, have always been men of few words, but of action. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach.

My Bodyguard (1980)”Linderman”

AB: I like to think about that as the role that saved my sanity. I was having a tough time in high school, as most people do. Acting had always been the social scene I’d fallen into. It was sort of a merry band of band geeks and theater nerds. They were a rambunctious band of misfits, and they were very forgiving of your screw-ups. That show came along, and I auditioned for it just as a stupid high-school kid, and went through some screen tests. There were yesses and nos and we’re-not-sure’s. And then they gave it to me.

AVC: Was anything about the process upsetting?

AB: I never thought I’d get the part, so I didn’t really care. It was May 1979, and they’d sent out some guys from local agencies to find high-school kids, and the guy that came to our school auditioned about 30 of us. I tried on a lark, he called five or 10 of us back to talk to the casting director at the Ambassador East, and they just sort of weeded it down. They tried a lot of different cities, though. Dallas, L.A., Toronto, New York. But they wanted to shoot in Chicago. But maybe it came down to the fact that they could pay me scale. They saved a lot of money on me, I’m sure, because I could live at home and commute by train.

AVC: How long was shooting?

AB: Fifty-two days of shooting in the summer of ‘79, which was the summer of Breakfast In America by Supertramp. In Through The Out Door by Led Zeppelin. I had tickets, but Bonham died. That’s how I remember it music-wise. The visceral remembrances were very heartfelt. We shot a lot in the Lincoln Park Zoo, and I understand that whole lakefront area is completely transformed. There’s an ape house there or something. I haven’t been back, but I hear you couldn’t reshoot that scene if you wanted to now.

AVC: What were your normal summer plans before the movie?

AB: I worked at a hardware store. I had a paper route. We played Frisbee. There was a Frisbee-golf course out in Wilmette [Illinois]. It was the mid-to-late ’70s. There was some stupidity going on… Youthful exuberance, you know? We had a ball.

AVC: Were you in school when the movie came out?

AB: I didn’t go back and finish senior year. I was so far behind. I was the kind of guy who got either As or Fs. If I didn’t like the teacher, I wouldn’t go back. It was such a big school that you could fall through the cracks real easy. I remember my junior advisor saying, “You’re not gonna go to summer school? You’re never gonna graduate.” So I said, “Screw you, I’m gonna do a movie! I’m gonna have a movie career!” Not a big fan of public high school here. It served its purpose.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)”Animal Mother”

AB: The hours can get long, but I feel very blessed that I’ve been doing this kind of work this long, and been able to survive. I think a lot of it has to do with a conscious decision I made to stay below the radar publicity-wise. There were some chances to do that with Full Metal Jacket or even with My Bodyguard. I could’ve gone to Hollywood and hit it hard, but I was scared to death. I was 19. I think that’s something that gave me some longevity. I’ve been doing it 30 years. That’s a pretty good run. What I try to do is to appreciate every job I have while I’m working on it. [Stanley] Kubrick taught me that on Full Metal Jacket. He said I wasn’t patient enough. We were a bunch of cocky young actors. “We’re in a Kubrick film! We’ve made it!” Big arrogant fat-headed idiots in green fatigues. I’ll always reflect back on that. He showed me you should appreciate what you have while you have it.

AVC: Can you give an example?

AB: He walked that walk. He was in it for the long haul, and he wanted to make a project the best he could. So there were moments as a 23-year-old asshole arrogant kid while on the set… as were we all. I think a lot of it came down to a communication breakdown. We didn’t realize, as the cast, that his plan was to extend the shooting period. When I was contracted in August 1985, I was supposed to be done around Thanksgiving. Wound up being nine months. We got restless. We didn’t realize, as stupid kids, that what he needed was the right light. We shot in England, so you’d have gray skies coming in. You’d have to wait until the sun cleared the cloud deck, and you’d have 45 minutes or an hour to shoot in a day. But he never really explained that to us. Then it was over and back to racing along and doing a movie in 18 days. Then you go, “Wish I could have that back again…”

We all felt unique and lucky working on a Kubrick movie… But everyone’s human. It’s not like we got there with these expectations that we’d be working with Kubrick, the master, the God. He’s only human. Familiarity breeds contempt. We just wanted to know when it was gonna be done, and he would just say, “I don’t know.” We were young and unwise. We didn’t know it would end at some point, but we should have realized. We should have enjoyed it while we were there. Sal Lopez really appreciated it. He was one of my roommates; they put about five of us in a giant mansion-y apartment building up in Chelsea.

AVC: What was that like?

AB: I took the maid’s quarters on purpose so I could be hunkered down and away. The guys were bangin’ parties and they had girlfriends. I participated, but I could always go down into my little maid’s quarters and get away. When I was working up to My Bodyguard, my mom had a three-flat and I lived in the basement apartment. I’m kind of a hermit like that. Getting elbowed around bugs me. I need my comfort zone. I think I blew out my ears listening to Led Zeppelin in my headphones, living in my basement apartment, so I don’t hear too well in crowds. I like having conversations where I don’t need to go, “Huh? What?”

The X-Files (2001-2002)”Knowle Rohrer”

Firefly, Serenity (2002-2003, 2005)”Jayne Cobb”

Starquest II (1997)”Lee”

AB: I’m under the impression that getting the job [on Firefly] was an outlet from having done some guest work on X-Files. I was in kind of a funky stage in my life. My kids were young, I was hanging out with them, playing a little golf. Being a slacker. My manager called up and said I had to meet the guys from X-Files. I’d auditioned for the Robert Patrick role, but I guess I was wrong for it. Wrong age, wrong type, or just too tall for Gillian Anderson. They liked the audition, though. They brought me back for something else, so Joss [Whedon] had seen my work on the network. So I was on their list, too. I read for him, it went by pretty quick. You read two scenes; if they like you, they test you within a week, and bang, you’re off and running. I remember that Joss knew we were under the gun [with Firefly] from the get-go, because they weren’t too thrilled with the pilot. So they gave us Fridays at 8 p.m., they didn’t want to use the two-hour pilot, because it wasn’t finished. That’s a reminder that you don’t want to give your boss an unfinished product. There was a battle sequence that was supposed to open the show that wasn’t in the pilot, so I guess it felt kind of plodding. We were thrown into a perfect storm of baseball playoffs and American Idol’s first season. The ad campaign was a little misleading. When you get below a 3 or a 2.5, you’re on the block. It’s just numbers.

AVC: Did the low numbers manifest on the set?

AB: It’s easy to point fingers when you don’t have numbers. But ultimately, you can’t control the audience. When you’re on the air and they’re not coming to the party, it’s time to shut down the party. Yeah, you can feel the pressure. You want to get an audience and get word of mouth going. But especially these days, if you don’t launch well with a base audience, you’re not gonna hold them. If you première at a 3, you probably won’t make it to a 10. But I’m just speculating. That’s above my pay grade.

AVC: You’ve speculated a lot on things “above your pay grade.” You called Starquest II the worst movie ever made.

AB: Well, that criticism really hasn’t gotten me into too much trouble. I have the highest regard for Roger Corman, irrespective of that movie. I don’t blame him. What are you gonna do? I speak the truth. I’ve got about 92 films on IMDB. Some of them have to be crap. I’m sure Roger Corman would poke fun at that movie himself. He hasn’t hired me since, so…

AVC: What was your inspiration for Jayne Cobb?

AB: I had just been trying to do Warren Oates from The Wild Bunch meets Eli Wallach from The Good The Bad And The Ugly. Guys like that. Those are guys I was trying to impersonate, mixed in with some Strother Martin. Those are great Western guys. I just always approached it as a Western, with that sensibility. You can shoot someone in the back and rationalize it, because you’re out on the frontier, and survival of the fittest. No honor among thieves. It was up to Joss to infuse him with a little bit of a heart of gold and honor for [Nathan Fillion's character] Mal. The rest of them, he could take or leave them. And later I saw Alien again, and it turns out I was just doing Yaphet Kotto.

AVC: What was it like reprising the role for Serenity?

AB: It fit like a glove. I still had the boots from the series. I slipped right back into those, and a couple of the T-shirts. We upgraded them a little bit, and put on some cooler beltwork and weaponry. The gun sling that the prop guy made for the movie used a quick-release parachute capo. That was pretty cool. It was great to have that group back again, because at that point, we all appreciated what it was. It was probably the most fun job I’ve ever worked on. It was so sweet. Such redemption. I’m sorry the movie didn’t make more money at the theaters. If we’d had three more million viewers for the show, we’d still be on the air, and if we’d had three million more butts in the seats, we’d probably have made a sequel or two.

AVC: People might not have been familiar with the series.

AB: Yeah. I think the movie title was also kind of misleading. I mean, Serenity is the right title, but also the wrong title. It sounds like a yoga class to the uninitiated. Also, the movie is much darker than the series. There wasn’t as much camp and fun. That may have hurt it too.

AVC: Has your scar typecast you as a badass?

AB: I think it’s more my height. I’m just tall, so that’s what it gets me. My wife asks me, when I get home from auditions, if they asked how tall I am. And if I say “Yes,” then she says, “Okay, you didn’t get that job.”

Angel (2004)”Marcus Hamilton”

AB: [Joss Whedon] would come by and say hi, but he never directed episodes. That was a job where I called him up and said, “Dude, I need a job.” That was early ‘04. Firefly was cancelled in ‘02, and ‘03 was a tough year for me. I needed a job. There just wasn’t a lot of work to be found. I did videogame work and some Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon voiceover work. That’s what saved my nut. Joss was kind enough to come along and give me a cool part. He has been very good to me. He’s pretty loyal that way, if you don’t piss him off too much.

AVC: Any memories about being on that set?

AB: I love [David] Boreanaz. I think he’s a sweetheart. Real professional. One of those jobs where the crew has been together forever. There were some hot girls on there, too. J. Richards and Amy Acker and Andy Hallett were all really great.

Drillbit Taylor (2008)”Disgruntled Bodyguard”

AB: There’s a little clip out there on YouTube if you Google “Drillbit Taylor Bodyguard interview.” Steve Brill, Michael J. Fox, Richard Dean Anderson, and I would all play hockey in a local actors’ league together. Steve knew me from that, so he threw me in for a cameo. But I had to convince them it would be okay to let me wear the My Bodyguard jacket, which I still have. Their idea was to throw me in that cameo montage, but I figure if I’m gonna do it, I might as well do the character with the dirty white T-shirt and the jacket. It’s a laugh for the parents taking their kids to see the movie who saw My Bodyguard in theaters. A friend of mine said, “Oh! I laughed when I saw it. My kids didn’t get it, but I did.”

AVC: Was it a retrospective moment, donning the jacket again?

AB: It still fits!

AfterEllen.com features Anna

Fia — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:56:50 +0000

AfterEllen.com’s Sarah Warn answers a reader question about Anna, after the jump.

Question: Is it true that the character of Anna Wu on Chuck is bisexual? … I’m a sucker for bi women in sci-fi shows, so I’m wondering if this one should be on my radar.

— Sarah

Answer: Yes, “Buy More” employee Anna — played by Julia Ling — is bisexual, although it’s understandable if you missed it: Anna’s bisexuality has only been referenced once so far, in the first season when Anna quipped “speak for yourself!” to a comment from Morgan about none of them having sex with a beautiful woman. It’s also referenced again in next week’s episode.

I asked Chuck co-executive producer Allison Adler a few questions about the character, including whether there’s any same-sex relationships in Anna’s future:

Not this season, because we’re exploring the Morgan-Anna relationship, which will come to a head sometime this season. But maybe next season. It’s nothing we’ve really played with in the present because she’s always had this Morgan crush, but in the absence of Morgan, we’d love to explore any of that.

“We really appreciate [Ling],” Adler added, “and think she’s a tremendous addition to our cast.”

What about Chuck’s chances for a third season? “We have our fingers crossed,” Adler said, “and hopefully we’ll be able to explore all these things in a third season.”

Chuck’s one of the shows that I was iffy about at first, but it grew on me, especially in the second season. It’s nice to see an Asian American female character in a semi-prominent role on TV, even if Wu doesn’t get a girlfriend.

In an interview with TV Guide in December, Ling said about playing Anna, “I love the skirts, the boots — her outfits are so sexy. I like dressing all Goth, and I like the ass-kicking.”

The 25-year-old actress speaks Mandarin, the Chinese dialect Trieu Chou, and German; graduated in second place in her California high school class, with a 4.0 GPA and perfect SAT scores; and describes herself as, “a nerd my whole life.”

Smart, outspoken, and had her TV debut on Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I’m sold!

[Source]

Lester character development?

Fia — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:58:54 +0000

Josh Schwartz better not be teasing in this interview with HitFix.com’s Daniel Fienburg! “There’s a coming episode, next week’s episode, where you’ll get to see a little bit about what Lester hopes and dreams about.” GLEE!!! I can’t wait to see what Vik does with it.

The full text of the interview is after the jump.

HitFix Interview: Josh Schwartz talks ‘Chuck’
Posted by Daniel Fienberg

I interviewed “Chuck” co-creator and executive producer Josh Schwartz for the show’s Monday 3-D episode and this article here. Ultimately, though, the discussion of “Chuck Versus the Third Dimension” was only the tip of the conversational iceberg.

Following the structural inspiration of friend-and-colleague Maureen Ryan, I’ve assembled, in very-slightly-edited format, the rest of my Q&A with Schwartz. We cover some of what viewers can expect for the rest of this “Chuck” season, plus his hopes for the show’s future. I think it’s interesting stuff.

Obviously some of what we talked about constitutes spoilers, though I’m not sure how concrete the spoilers actually are. Like any good storyteller, Schwartz is usually pretty close to the vest with such things.

Follow through after the bump for the full interview…

So what are the big questions you feel you need to answer before the end of the second season?

What does Jeff look like shirtless? We’ve gotten inquiries about whether or not Anna’s a bisexual.

[He pauses.]

What is Fulcrum? Our SPECTRE evil organization, what are they up to? Will Chuck ever be able to have a normal life? On a personal front, will Chuck ever be able to find their dad, as he promised, for the big wedding that’s coming between Ellie and Awesome? I would say that a lot of it has to do with Fulcrum and the Intersect and the future of our nation’s national security.

After the events of the Christmas episode, Fulcrum knows something is up at the Buy More, right?

The heat is on, as the Pointer Sisters once famously said. Did they say that? Definitely the ante’s up as we go into the home stretch. As well as they’ve been able to keep Chuck’s identity secret from Fulcrum, certainly Fulcrum is now feeling the heat as well and you’re gonna see a real race to the finish line between these two organizations to sort of solve who the other one is at the risk of their own lives and security.

Chuck’s been mighty public as Agent Charles Carmichael. Surely that has to jeopardize the cover at a certain point?

They’ve been very good at being able to kill or detain anyone who might actually be able to really connect him back to the Buy More. There’s a SuperMax Prison out there that holds all of our bad guys.

Will that be Season Three?

It’s in the comic book, actually.

With the Chuck and Sarah relationship, how do you prevent the will-they/won’t-they aspect of things from becoming an albatross?

Yeah, that’s something we’re sensitive to. The good news for us, as writers about Chuck and Sarah, is that there are a lot of natural obstacles preventing them from being together despite their yearning. But it’s a balance and it’s definitely something we’re going to own, especially in the latter half of the season.

And how does the Ellie/Awesome wedding fit into things?

Let’s just say Awesome is implicated in a larger spy story that in order to create a cover could jeopardize the Ellie/Awesome wedding and never before has Chuck’s personal life and job been more in the crosshairs. Certainly the hunt for dad is also something that’s driven by the impending wedding.

Talk about finding the Buy More team this season. How much did you know about Jeff and Lester last season and how much are you still learning?

They’re just great comedic actors. Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky are just so fun to watch and they’ve become this demented Laurel and Hardy team. For us it’s been really fun being able to explore their relationship and explore those characters in more detail. We knew they liked to go to Bennigans and that Jeff was probably an alcoholic, but to be able to do the Missile Command episode was an opportunity explore Jeff’s past and have some fun at his expense certainly, but also by the end have some sympathy for the guy. Dare I say, I believe we achieved some pathos on Jeff’s behalf. There’s a coming episode, next week’s episode, where you’ll get to see a little bit about what Lester hopes and dreams about.

As those characters become more popular, how Jeff-and-Lester-centric can an episode get?

They’re very good at complicating stories, creating trouble and driving B-stories. I will say that you’re headed for a major collision course between [Tony Hale's] Emmett Milbarge and the rest of the Buy More staff, where we’ll really be able to take advantage of Tony Hale’s incredible comedic gifts.

And what has having Tony around this season done for the Buy More dynamic?

He’s a great antagonist and villain. He’s a great comedic talent. Everybody raises their game when Tony’s on screen and that kind of antagonistic force in the Buy More that Harry Tang provided last season, Tony provides us this season and it’s going to reach Shakespearean heights by the end of the year.

Sticking within the Buy More just for another second. Will Anna’s martial arts skills return?

Well, you’ve not seen the last of them.

This season has been very guest star-heavy, but it hasn’t been a “Will & Grace” “Look at us!” kind of thing. Everybody has fit in with the show. What kind of actor fits into the “Chuck” universe?

It has to be an actor who can get the tone of the show and can be funny. Sometimes you get actors you know are funny like John Larroquette or Gary Cole or Melinda Clarke. Sometimes it’s people we suspect have been funny because they’re funny in real life, like Nicole Richie. And sometimes we like to cast comedic actors and have them play different kinds of parts than you’ve seen them in before, like Andy Richter coming up and Jenny McCarthy, Chevy Chase. A coouple people, like Dominic Monaghan, were worried they’d never done straight comedy before and turned out to be really really funny.

Who surprised you?

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by everybody. I have a great casting director in Patrick Rush and the writers, we always talk about not wanting to go to that place of feeling like we’re sacrificing the show for stunt casting, so we always start with the character first and then try to find the actor who would fit that role. But everybody’s come in and played something we haven’t seen them play before. John Larroquette, we were really thrilled with how he brought Rowan Montgomery to life. Jordana Brewster brought a real soulfulness and sweetness to her portrayal of Jill, to the point where you were really bummed when you found out she was bad. Nicole Richie was great. Gary Cole was great. Scott Bakula, thus far, has been terrific and just reminds you every day of why that guy has always been a great actor. I’m forgetting a lot of people, I’m sure, but everyone we’ve had on the show this year has been terrific. And the football players have have been really good, which was a huge surprise. Michael Strahan and Jerome Bettis were both hilarious.

Who do you want to have back?

We’d love to have everybody back. We’d love to have Rowan Montgomery back and Sarah’s dad back and Jordana Brewster may be returning. The door is open.

Following up, how do Jill and Bryce factor into the rest of the season?

Uh… I can’t really say, except to say that you may possibly see them again.

This season has felt like a checklist of things y’all find cool in the writers’ room. Is it liberating to be able to say, “Heck, let’s build an episode around a Rush song?’ and then to be able to do it?

Absolutely. We were children of the ’80s on this show and we’re fulfilling all of our dreams, working with actors we’ve always admired. I mean Chevy Chase for us is like, one of the fundamental actors in the Chuck DNA. We talk about ‘Fletch’ and ‘Spies Like Us’ all the time, so to be able to work with him is this great honor. To be able to reference all of those things that we love, the kinds of movies we loved growing up, music we loved — Huey Lewis has obviously played a very important role in the show this year — has been tremendous fun. We have more fun making this this show than I think anybody does making anything.

With your finale on April 13, does that mean you’re rushing a bit?

We were always supposed to end then. Even before we premiered this fall, our 22 episode schedule laid out that we would be done in April, because we wanted to be able to run as many original episodes in a row as we could through the spring and even doing that we still had to go off the air for six weeks to get to April.

Are you looking at the ratings as much this season? Or have you stopped looking?

I will never stop looking! Last year looking at the ratings was really encouraging. Before the strike, we were neck-and-neck with the CBS comedies. We were doing pretty well. Obviously the strike impacted us. It impacted a lot of shows. We’ve been fortunate that we weren’t quite as intensely impacted as some other shows unfortunately were. That coupled with having to be the lead-up show is a challenge and obviously the time period couldn’t be more crowded. It’s kind of incredible. But we feel like we have a loyal audience that stuck with us. The number we started with in the fall, we basically ended with. We actually grew. We actually finished in December with more viewers than we had in September, so that was bucking a fair amount of trends and I’m just hoping that we can hold onto the audience that we had in the fall given this increased competition.

How’d you react when you heard “House” was now also moving Monday nights?

I drove to the train tracks and considered laying down on them. I was very depressed. I didn’t understand why Kevin Reilly would do that to us. He developed the show. But, you know, it made sense from their perspective and Preston Beckman at FOX has always made scheduling moves to hurt my feelings, whether I’m on FOX or not.

Staying on reactions, how did you react to the Jay Leno news?

Again, it makes a lot of sense for them, but having five less hours that they need to program makes it more competitive for “Chuck,” but that’s live in TV, man. Nobody said it was going to be easy. But I remain optimistic.

So when NBC executives are in their smoke-filled rooms in May, what would you hope they consider when they look at “Chuck”?

I have to say that NBC’s incredibly supportive of the show creatively, and I think they understand the difficulty of the time period and the fact that we do alright given the competition. I think they really believe in the show creatively. I think it’s a very broad appeal show and has the ability to draw in a lot of different kinds of audience. I’m always stunned at how varied people are who watch the show in terms of age, gender, the whole rigamarole, so I think we just need a little bit of daylight that we could catch on.

Do you think that networks are beginning to have different expectations now than they may have two or three years ago?

Look, it’s very hard to make a good show and I think this is a show that really found its creative footing and we’re only more and more excited about what’s to come in the future. I think we speak very successfully to a specific audience even though we have the ability to speak to broader audience. I think if you look at iTunes, if you look at the DVR numbers, there’s a real audience for this show. Given the time slot competition, people have to find it sometimes via different avenues, but overall I think our cast is incredible and the concept and tone of the show are something that can appeal to a wider audience. For the networks, making a good show, a show that has a loyal audience, is important, especially as things get more and more fragmented.

The “Lost” guys have gone on and on about how liberated they became when they knew an end date. As a storyteller, would you want to know when the end was going to be?

It’s obviously helpful creatively to know that. “Chuck” is a very different show from “Lost,” so I don’t actually want to know when it’s going to end, because I want to believe it will go on forever.

Sure, but would you want the ability to wrap things up neatly?

Yes. Of course. You want to be able to deliver the most satisfying conclusion to your story that you can. There will be nothing in this season’s finale indicating that we think it’s over. It will resolve some things, but it will also kick the show off and up into a whole new level and set the table for what will be a well exciting, surprising Season Three.

So you aren’t going to go all “Jericho” and instigate fans to tear down the NBC offices?

No, we just wanted to come up with the best possible ending. This is an ending for this season that we’ve had planned for a really long time. That said, if it inspires a riot, God Bless America.

Super what?

Fia — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:05:55 +0000

The Chuck 3D promos from last night’s big game fell flat, as anyone with any concept of dimensions went, “What? That’s 2D! Did you people fail geometry?”

But the Chuck/Heroes/Medium musical number ROCKED SO HARD that I had to share it with you here:

(I am not-so-secretly a Sylar fangirl, and I wanted to scream like he was Elvis when he mouthed the first lyrics. Holy crap.)

We need a musical episode. Chuck can be sick/injured/knocked out/in a coma (à la The Wizard of Oz) and his friends can dance and sing their way through his subconscious! Come on, who’s with me? (I’m mostly joking, but seriously this would be made of awesome, okay.)

Also, if you’re not reading Devon’s blog, Captain Awesome’s Tips for Being Awesome, you should be.