What's up, Chuck?

FLASHBACK: Here's a look back at one of the shows featured at the 2008 Paley Festival

The spy thriller comedy Chuck was honored on March 18 (2008) as part of the 25th annual Paley Fest hosted by the Paley Center for Media (formerly known as the Museum of TV and Radio).


Cast and creators from the NBC freshman series showed up and revealed lots of fascinating tidbits about the series. Although the writer’s strike cut short the show’s first season, it has been renewed for a second season and will return in September. They start shooting the second season on May 1.

* Creator Josh Schwartz wanted to do a series about a 20-something trying to determine what to do with his life. However, Schwartz couldn’t figure out how to do that in an hour-long weekly format. Then he started wondering what would happen if Jack Bauer (the hero of the series 24) were coming into the office every day. That’s when the inspiration for the series materialized.

* Adam Baldwin, who plays NSA agent Major John Casey was the first person cast. Creators wanted to get an “Adam Baldwin” type for the stoic, no nonsense agent and were delighted when Baldwin himself was interested.

* Once Zach Levi was cast as the title character, all the other principle cast members had to read with him to insure they had the right chemistry with him.


* When Joshua Gomez tested with Levi for his role of Chuck’s best friend Morgan, the two had fantastic chemistry. In fact, after their initial read was finished, they kept going, doing a 40-minute improvisational comedy routine, even though the two had never met before.

* Lost creator Damon Lindelof, who served as the moderator of the panel, described Zach Levi as “embodying the awesomeness of Clark Kent without the flamboyant need to change into tights and a cape.”

* A 6-issue Chuck comic book is coming out from DC Comics.

* Josh Schwartz is trying to get Jean-Claude Van Damme to guest in the 2nd season premier episode.

* Producer McG says they work hard to amp up the drama at the Buy More, the Best Buy-type electronics/appliance store where Chuck works. McG says that Chuck’s “business life is every bit as dangerous as his spy life.”


* Yvonne Strahovski, who plays CIA agent Sarah Walker, is from Australia and learned to do an American accent at drama school. She’s gotten so good at it, when she flew to Australia to promote the debut of Chuck there, the Australian press didn’t believe she was a native. Meanwhile her family and friends Down Under say she’s lost so much of her native accent after having been in America so long.


* Ryan McPartlin, who plays Chuck’s sister’s live-in boyfriend, nicknamed “Captain Awesome” (because he describes everything as “awesome”), tries not to use the word “awesome” in his real life since it diminishes the impact of his character saying it on screen. McPartlin says he’s managed to cut down to just a couple dozen “awesomes” a day!