Last night The Paley Center presented the creative team and cast of NBC’s CHUCK as part of their Paley Fest 2008. Kath and I were front and center for the action and it was one hell of a panel. Yesterday was the first day back for the Chuck writing team so they didn’t have a ton of information to spill for the fans but really who cares because it’s all about watching these guys in action (both on the show and in person).

The WGA Strike imposed hiatus has left these kids nutty! Zac Levi (Chuck) and Josh Gomez (Morgan) are seriously in the biggest bromance this side of Make Me a Supermodel’s Ronnie and Prison Ben. They’re frik-n-frak and I’m happy they’ve found each other. God bless the women that dare come between these two. It could get ugly.

Production must be a bear to keep on schedule because its non-stop one-upping between not only Zac and Josh but the majority of the cast. They seem to have created an incredible family and it was fun getting to watch their reunion of sorts.

Production on Chuck Season 2 will begin toward the end of May and they are confirmed for Comic-Con this July where they hope to show a bunch of new clips instead of an entire episode.

Some Quick Highlights:

*UPDATED: Thanks to reader/pal Vlada for finding the Futon Critics transcipt of the Alan Sepinwall dare question to Josh Schwartz about the Weinerlicious outfit.

“To me it’s obvious, Chuck like Seth Cohen before him is the central character in a Jewish assimilation fable, grappling with his place in the secular Gentile post-Holocaust world. The CIA or NSA, I can never remember who works for whom, has obviously done deep psychological profiling on him, having read the works of Saul Bellow and Phillip Roth…” Head on over to the Futon Critic for the full question.

You know how on the show Capt. Awesome and Morgan are essentially each other’s nemesis? In real life I’m pretty sure smokin hot Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome) is the nemesis of Josh Gomez, in a very brotherly way though. They were slaying the crowd last night with their Odd Couplesque relationship. Ryan is very much the deadpan straight man and Josh is every bit the ham you see on television. Good times.

The Great Beard Debate was entertaining. Currently Levi looks like he’s about to take on the remake of Serpico and he’s determined to convince not only a protesting Josh Schwartz but the network to let him keep the beard for the first episode and then go all Jack Bauer on us and shave it off as he gets back into duty.

The show will jump in time to address the time its been off air. Hence, the Levi/24 Beard issue. I have to say, the audience was with the network, Schwartz and Awesome on this one… Lose the chin pubes.

Kayla Hart. What? Who’s Kayla you ask? Well she was Chuck’s next door neighbor who he was kinda-sorta into but not totally because he was still hung up on Jill from college and now he was into his handler Sarah. It all was too much and they made the decision way late in the pilot shooting/editing process to remove her from the equation. Smart move.

Lindelof asking Levi how he would approach a script called “Chuck Versus Chuck”. A Season 4 episode that is destined to be produced. Well, only if Schwartz dies before Season 3

Lindelof’s Inside The Actors Studio
- What is your favorite word? “Douche Bag” (Chris Fedak, Co-Creator)
- What is your least favorite word? “Intolerance (Adam Baldwin, ‘Casey’)
- What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? “Football” (Ryan McPartlin, ‘Devon aka Captain Awesome’)
- What sound or noise do you love? “The waves of the ocean” (Vic Sahay, ‘Lester’)
- What sounds do you hate? “Squishy, wet boots” (Julia Ling, ‘Anna’)
- What is your favorite curse word? “Fuck” (McG, Executive Producer)
*Click here to read them all over at GMMR

Chris Fedak’s story about how during the NBC pitch for Chuck he thought they for sure blew it because he pulled a classic Airplane moment… think drinking problem.

Josh Schwartz: “There is no love more pure than the love between one man and another.” Amen brother!

McG and Gomez comparing Adam Baldwin to Ted Nugent. Saying he basically a homo-hating, gun-toting, meat eating intolerant in real life. Fingers crossed they were just “teasing.” I mean, how many gays didn’t want Adam Baldwin’s Linderman as their Bodyguard growing up?

The Nerd Herd in general. Vic Sahay (Lester), Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Julia Ling (Anna) and Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike) were “fantastick” and I love that they all want in on the spy action.

I wanted more Yvonne Strahovski but then again, probably not as much as the straight men in the audience did. She’s fierce (but not a hot tranny mess… that I know of).

Oh and don’t forget Captain Awesome who was… well, Awesome.

PODCAST:
Kath and I did a quick 20 minute recap of the night. It was super late here in LA when we did it so forgive any crazy talk. Listen to our Chuck Paley Festival Podcast!

*Podcast will be up on iTunes this afternoon.

MY CRAP PICTURES:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 10:03 am and is filed under Chuck, Ducky Does TV, Josh Schwartz, Paley Festival, Yvonne Strahovski, Zachary Levi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.