The Remote Island : Chuck

NBC Wants "Chuck", But Cheaper

Jake Kalish — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:33:00 GMT

Whatever happened to that saying "You've got to spend money to make money?" Either take the show or don't, Peacock. Don't take a borderline show with a devoted, fanatical fan base ,cut its resources, and then expect it to succeed. NBC is still ostensibly one of the four major networks, but sometimes they feel a lot like UHF. This from Entertainment Weekly:

Question: What's the latest on Chuck's renewal? --Dave
Ausiello: Warner Bros. and NBC are haggling over money. Shocking, I know. If a deal can be worked out -- and I have every reason to believe it can (and will) be -- it'll be back for a 13-episode third season.

Good. Back, we're sure, with a whole lot more product placement.

PREVIOUSLY:

Will The "Save Chuck" Subway Sandwich Movement Keep The Show On The Air?

Is "Chuck" In Trouble?

"Chuck" Characters Keep Being Named After Ex-Athletes And No One Knows Why

NBC Will Renew "Chuck", "Parks & Recreation", "Southland", "Medium", and "Law and Order"

Jake Kalish — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:22:00 GMT

Peacock executives will make the announcement today. And, presumably, screw that up somehow.

The one really on the bubble here was Chuck, as evidenced by the "Save Chuck" subway sandwich movement. Maybe if NBC's shows actually start to be watched they won't have to rely on the blatant, cutesy product placement for money.

PREVIOUSLY:

"Celebrity Apprentice" Will Be Back - With More Whore Pit Vipers [VIDEO]

NBC: Incompetent Would Be A Step Up [VIDEO]

Conan O'Brien Will Love This

We Think "Parks And Recreation" Will Probably Get A Lot Better Than It Already Is. You?

"Kings": Already In Trouble

Will The "Save Chuck" Subway Sandwich Movement Keep The Show On The Air? [VIDEO]

Lindy Parker — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:30:00 GMT

We've all seen it before: a struggling show with a small but vigilant fan base that the network threatens to pull from the lineup, but not before the aforementioned fan base has flooded the network offices with a demonstrative and symbolic outpouring of their love for the show (i.e. Jericho and the peanuts, Roswell and the bottles of tabasco). Been there, seen that, so we weren't that surprised when we heard that an underground campaign is being organized to dissuade NBC from following through on their threats of cancelling Chuck. What should Chuck-lovers do to save their beloved show? Funny you should ask...

"Chuck" fans are taking matters into their own hands. According to Schwartz, there is a push on the Internet to get fans to go to Subway on Monday before the season finale to buy sandwiches in support of the show. Why Subway? Because the sandwich shop was featured prominently in a recent episode. So much for product placement turning off viewers. "It shows a real sophistication on the part of the viewer," Schwartz said. (Los Angeles Times)

Is it really "real sophistication" though? Maybe. But there's something we don't quite get about this latest movement: how is the buying of the Subway sandwiches going to make a difference? Are they going to have the eats delivered to the head of NBC's programming department? Are they going to inform the kid behind the counter who's making their turkey club that they're buying this sandwich in honor of Chuck? Or are they simply hoping NBC executives will see the mammoth jump in Subway's Monday numbers and immediately make the mental leap to the sandwich chain's prominent presence in a recent Chuck episode? We're a bit skeptical, but whatever. We always love a revolution. More power to you, Chuck fans...

Previously:

Life Beyond The Bachelor: We're Give Chuck a Trial Run

Is Chuck in Trouble?

Chuck Characters Keep Being Named After Ex-Athletes And No One Knows Why

Jordana Brewster Returns to Chuck

Is "Chuck" in Trouble?

Lindy Parker — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Bad news for Chuck fans, or should we say "alleged" Chuck fans...

Chuck came in fourth (behind CBS sitcom repeats) with 6.75 million viewers — a 19 percent plunge from its 3-D showcase, a 600K drop from its most recent 2-D outing, and the series' lowest rating ever for a fresh eppy. (TV Guide)

See, this huge ratings drop just proves our previous point: Who's watching Chuck? We assume many people are/were, but where are they? Why don't we know any of them? And most importantly, why did a couple million of them suddenly stop? At any rate, if the numbers don't go up soon, we assume we'll be writing Chuck a eulogy entitled: The Show We Never Knew We'd Miss. Maybe the answer is bumping it to a less competitive night? Although, if it can't compete with sitcom re-runs the outlook is bleak.

Chuck fans, make yourselves known. We are perplexed.

Previously:

Jordana Brewster Returns to Chuck

Josh Schwartz Talks Up "Rockville"

Lindy Parker — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:20:00 GMT

Perhaps, having created such primetime powerhouses as The O.C., Gossip Girl, and Chuck, CW wunderkind Josh Schwartz thought it time to try his hand at something new. His latest project, Rockville, is a series of mini-webisodes (3-4 minutes long) about the up's and down's of a music club where indie bands perform live -- essentially Josh Schwartz has created "The Peach Pit: The Show"...

Want more? Here's a little Q and A from Schwartz's sitdown with The Live Feed:

Q: If episode is only four minutes, and somebody performs a song, then where the rest of the song?

"The band performance might be 15-20 seconds," he says, adding that viewers will be able to watch the entire music performance separately online as part of the site. The production is also considering a DVD version.

Q: But what if the CW and other networks get the idea that you're willing to work and produce a project for so much less than the cost of a regular television show?

A: "The people at Warner Brothers will ensure that doesn't happen."

Asked after the panel if the show could, if successful, become a TV series, Schwartz says he wouldn't rule it out, but notes "Rockville" was designed with single-set and narrow storyline focus appropriate for a low-budget series with a short running time.

"If we were going to do that, it would have to be re-conceived," he says.

"I don't know this is the final result, that we're going to make five-minute episodes of things," Schwartz adds of the series' next-generation format. "But that's what makes this exciting."

Can 3D TV Work?

Jake Kalish — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:33:00 GMT

After the jump, 2D video of 3D TV, to really frustrate you!

Companies are premiering 3D TV technology at the Consumer Electronics show in Vegas this week - and a Super Bowl commercial and Chuck episode are going 3D on consecutive days in early February. So will 3D TV work? It's long been a dream, since the 50's, and has never caught on. Maybe now thatpeople are all Hi-Def and into television technology, things will be different? Probably not.

And now, as promised - 3D TV, in the magic of 2D!

"Chuck" Characters Keep Being Named After Ex-Athletes And No One Knows Why

Jake Kalish — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Them TV writers is messing with us...

So some sports dorks noticed that characters on Chuck were being named after obscure ex-athletes like Von Hayes , and wondered if this was some sort of secret code or something, like if you research the career of Guido Merkens you'll find out what happens on the season finale. Turns out it's not that complicated, according to co-exec producer Matthew Miller:

The reality is there is no master plan, but we do have a gentleman's competition to come up with most obscure '80s sports icons whose names can easily be substituted for bad guys. Two of us on the writing staff -- myself and Scott Rosenbaum -- are from Philly so many of the names pay deference to some of the more arcane "legends" of our youth (Guido Merkins, Von Hayes.) In future episodes look for a shout-out to '80s superstar Greg "The Bull" Luzinski and wrestling icon Ivan "Polish Power" [sic] Putsky. Also a studly MI-6 agent named Cole comes into town and sweeps Sarah off her feet (out of respect for Phillies ace Cole Hamels.)

That's it? That's the whole explanation? We think there's more to it. Get back to you after we call Von Hayes and ask him for his life story.

"Gossip Girl" Creator to Write New X-Men Flick

Lindy Parker — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:20:00 GMT

Since it seems there's hardly anything new under the sun at the movies anymore (we swear, we went to see Quantum of Solace tonight and every preview we saw was a sequel, a prequel or a remake), it's not that surprising that a new X-Men movie is on it's way. Turns out the newest installment will focus on the younger generation of X-Men, so who better to write about the antics and angst of teenage mutants than the king of TV teens himself, Gossip Girl and O.C. creator Josh Schwartz.

Truth be told, we're kind of psyched about this news since it feels like Josh Schwartz is the only one writing watchable teen drama episodes these days. Maybe he could try out some script ideas on the Gossip Girl characters as kind of a test run -- we could totally buy Jenny Humphrey as a mutant and even Artist Aaron might be mildly interesting if he could take and develop his photographs telekinetically. Just think about it, Josh Schwartz -- this could work out well for everyone.

Are We Really Ready for More Duff?

Olivia Purnell — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:20:00 GMT

Yesterday we learned that Hilary Duff has some sort of a vague contractual relationship with NBC that will obligate us to see her on a regular basis via our television screens. This news brought up some old feelings for us . . .

Namely, irritation.

Homegirl recently released her second greatest hits compilation album entitled Best Of, after releasing her first greatest hits album, Most Wanted, in 2005. Doesn’t that seem extreme for someone with only 3 non-compilation albums to her credit?

That annoyed us a little bit. But, we (being the benevolent bloggers we are) will find it in our hearts to give her another chance. Especially since Ms. Duff will be getting back to her television roots (and perhaps her brunette roots as well; we like her in a darker hue) in the very near future. Variety.com says:

Under terms of the one-year talent and development deal, Peacock will develop a show starring Duff; thesp [sic] will also be tapped to guest star in various current NBC shows.

[. . .]

Duff will meet with writers and comb through the Peacock's development for the right project to star in.

Hmmm. Well as long as “the right project” doesn’t include a secret rockstar alter ego (å la Hannah Montana), a musical episode (å la Buffy the Vampire Slayer), or an after work karaoke bar (å la Ally McBeal), then we’re into this little television comeback.

And we look forward (sort of) to seeing Hilary guest spots across the network. One day she’ll be saving lives on ER. The next day she’ll be a guest spy on Chuck. Maybe they’ll even let her play a corpse on one of the Law & Orders! That’s a good one, cause there’s definitely no singing allowed.

Previously:

What's the Secret Behind Hilary Duff's Mysterious New NBC Development Deal?

Wake Up And Smile: Will Ferrell Reminds Everyone How Great His Bush Is

Bryan Christian — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:26:00 GMT

PLUS: the make your own Muppet tool that isn't, which Lost star is showing up on Chuck, the guest stars that will get murdered on all those CBS crime shows this November sweeps -- and the Spike Jonze Gap ad that was too weird to be used. And BREAKING: William Shatner is even more of a jerk than we'd realized.

-- Is it cynical to think that Will Ferrell's return to SNL as George Bush had less to do with Jason Sudeikis (the current go-to Bush in the cast) being busy playing Todd Palin and more to do with that whole "bringing my Bush impression to Broadway in January" thing? Well... yeah. Also: who cares? Ferrell's the best Bush impersonator this nation's had -- the only one who's tapped into both the sublime idiocy and also the weird, pitiful self discipline of the man -- and we'll be happy to see it every chance we get between now and January. And then we'll never want to think of who's been running the country the last eight years as long as we Christing live.

-- OK, well, we should hvae seen this one coming. William Shatner was, in fact, invited to the wedding of George Takei. So all that weird angry moaning he's been doing? Hmm... if evil Bill Shatner has facial hair, does balding Bill Shatner signify a complete and total idiot?

-- Normally if there was a "Make Your Own Muppet" tool out there where you can design and order a personalized Muppet, we'd be yammering about it non-stop, showing you our various attempts at bio/felt-engineering and changing our bio pictures to ones made to look like us, blah blah blah, basically we'd drive you nuts about it. Well, good thing for you that the FAO Schwartz Muppet Whatnot Workshop is kind of underwhelming, limiting you to endless variations on the extras from Sesame Street and The Muppet Show that you barely remember and never allowing you to actually make one that looks like someone real, like yourself. Sure, you can do some bobblehead-type level characters, but we tried to make one of us and wound up with a more homuncular version of Don Music. We're, like, 85% sure that we don't like that.

-- Lost's late great Charlie, Dominic Monaghan, will play a remarkably similar character on Chuck: a rock star in the middle of a strange and deadly conspiracy. Monaghan says he took the role because he wanted to work with creator Josh Schwartz; our guess is he's hoping that having basically the same role will give him the same shot with Yvonne Strahovski that he had with Evangeline Lilly.

-- Now that it's handily won the premiere season, CBS has announced its plans for November sweeps. Guest appearances we'll keep an eye out for include The OC's Melinda Clarke returning as that goth-y kinkstress on CSI, Lucy Lawless dropping by CSI: Miami, and Eric Braeden from The Young and the Restless making an appearance on... what? Oh, like you never stay home and watch soaps sometimes?

-- And, because it's Friday, and we'd all like to do this sort off thing now and again, have a look at the funny and mildly unsettling ad that Spike Jonze directed for The Gap, wherein everyone in the world joins in and trashes an outlet of the monolithically powerful hoodie purveyor. That they ultimately rejected, by the way. We're kind of with The Gap on this one, actually. What do you guys think?

Wake Up And Smile: Katie Holmes Finally Discovers The Nadir Of Her Career

Bryan Christian — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:25:00 GMT

Yes, that's Joey Potter up there. What crummy hour-long drama got her to dress up like, um, what... Gwen Verdon playing Ava Gardner? Playing a drag queen? Click through for the answer -- plus news on How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, Meet The Press, Friday Night Lights' Gaius Charles, and that wicked "vampire Bush" picture that was behind the bar on True Blood Sunday.

-- Eli Stone, everyone! Eli Stone has dressed up Katie Holmes as some sort of ridiculous glamourjoke and undoubtedly given her something embarassing to say. Hooray for everyone! Would you like a stress test?

-- Tom Brokaw will still leave Meet The Press sometime following the election, which we knew, leaving Tim Russert's chair to be filled permanently by NBC's Political Director Chuck Todd and White House reporter David Gregory, which we basically also knew. What we couldn't have guessed is how silver-tongued Brokaw could be in talking around the many embarrassments that Keith Olbermann caused NBC/MSNBC this election year. Work that liquid L, Tommy.

-- Monday night was a ratings wash, with How I Met Your Mother, Terminator, Life, and Worst Week all suffering declines from last week or last year. Not even Josh Schwartz, whose creation Gossip Girl actually gained viewers, can claim a victory for the night; he also created Chuck, which is currently scheduled at the same time, and whichsaw its second season premiere fall 27% from its pilot.

-- Hey, a link to that excellent Village Voice cover that turned up in True Blood's Fangtasia last Sunday

-- Friday Night Lights star Gaius Charles (adorably) covers the Austin City Limits festival for Entertainment Weekly and fails to engineer a meeting between himself and Erykah Badu. We like how he just kinda "ran into" Minka Kelly, something we never seem able to do when we are back in the River City.

Wake Up And Smile: It's Not Infidelity, It's H-B-Oh-Fuck-Off

Bryan Christian — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:34:00 GMT

-- Anyone else completely annoyed by the new HBO commercial? For those of you who didn't catch it, basically it went something like this: "Normal stories are about sex; HBO stories are about cheating!" Ha ha ha, fuckyou-B-O.

-- ABC's National Stay At Home Week, buoyed by the performance of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, beats CBS's Count Your Pills Week and all other comers for the fourth year in a row.

-- Sounds like Stephen Colbert's campaign for POTUS in the Marvel Universe wasn't going so well -- until a certain webslinging advisor told him to keep his hopes up. (No, not James Carville.)

-- Sports Night was 10 years ago? Yeesh. If Obama wins, does that mean that Aaron Sorkin will be due for another good idea?

-- Spike's list of the 15 hottest girls on TV doesn't include Mary-Louise Parker, Leighton Meester, Lena Headey, or either of the cuties from NBC's non-Heroes shows (Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski and Life's Sarah Shahi) -- but it's still a pretty darn good list.

-- Wouldn't wanna be Katherine Heigl's lungs.

-- Only 54 million people watched the debate last Friday. And most of them just thought they were watching a particularly bad episode of SNL.

-- NBC declares victory against piracy. Next up: barbarians!

Come and Get Some Juicy "Chuck" Spoilers

Ben Kallen — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Executive Producer Josh Schwartz just gave Chicago Tribune TV critic Maureen Ryan a bunch of scoops about the spy comedy's new season, from a 3-D episode to meeting Captain Awesome's mom. Here's what's coming up on Chuck:

-- In the big Christmas episode, some guy will hold everyone hostage in the Buy More.

-- Arrested Development's Tony Hale will play the Buy More's new assistant manager.

-- The episode that airs right after the Super Bowl will be broadcast in 3-D.

-- Captain Awesome's parents will be played by Morgan Fairchild and Bruce Boxleitner, which sounds about right.

-- Ellie and Awesome will prepare for their wedding (whether it actually happens or not, we don't know).

-- We'll also meet Sarah's dad, played by the great Gary Cole.

-- As we mentioned a while ago, Jordana Brewster will play Chuck's ex-girlfriend, Jill -- the one who cheated on him with frenemy-turned-fellow agent Bryce, who's also back this season.

-- Other various good guys and bad guys will be played by John Larroquette, Michael Clarke Duncan, The O.C.'s Melinda Clarke, and somebody named Nicole Richie.

The new season starts September 29.

Photo: NBC

Previously:
Jordana Brewster To Try On Some Chuck

Wake Up And Smile: Your New Daily TV News Source!

Bryan Christian — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:36:00 GMT

No, really. We're gonna give you a snarky, easy-to-read digest of TV news every single day. (Or thereabouts.) Why? Well, A) Because we like you, and B) Because we're too lazy to write individual posts about everything we wanna.

- Smallvile fans, don't click this link if you don't want spoilers about next season's developments between Lois and Clark and, urm, you've never seen Lois and Clark or known anything about Superman ever.

- Cable's IFC is buying Steven Soderbergh's two-part, four-hour, possibly boring political epic Che for a simultaneous January release in theatres and on-demand. 'Cause the place for epics is on your couch!

- The aim of Elvis Costello's new Sundance Channel variety show might not be that true.

- Hey Remote Olivia, check it out: Fanny Pak were back. Briefly.

- One of the hot chicks from Cloverfield is gonna be on 90210. Wonder what she'll look like filmed with stationary cameras.

- Gary Cole's gonna play Sarah's dad on Chuck. Everyone all together now: Yeah... that'd be great.

- And just because you've been so good today handling something new on the blog: reporters sometimes don't look where they're going. Fun. Ny.

Jordana Brewster to Try on Some “Chuck”

Nicole Ankowski — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:28:00 GMT

Are you a Chuck fan? If so, then your show has just upped it’s Panamanian hotness factor…for three episodes, at least. NBC’s has tapped Jordana Brewster to play Chuck’s (Zachary Levi’s) infamous college girlfriend, Jill. (Not sure who Brewster is? Yeah, us either: turns out she’s attractive, was born in Panama, went to Catholic school…and starred in a little something called The Fast and the Furious. Oh, yeah, and once upon a time she had been set to play Mrs. Smith, as in Mr. and Mrs. Smith go to the small screen. What would Angie have said?)

Jill is the "mythic college girlfriend who broke Chuck's heart, slept with his best friend Bryce Larkin, and is basically responsible for setting his life crashing off course and landing him at the Nerd Herd," executive producer Josh Schwartz told EW.com. "He always has imagined seeing her again, and being able to impress her with all he's accomplished. Unfortunately, when he does meet her, he's doing a computer install and she's a brilliant, successful, beautiful doctor working to create antibodies to horrible diseases.

"The part is funny, romantic, there's action and cool twists and emotional drama," Schwartz continues. "It's the juiciest arc we've done yet and one that ties very deeply into the mythology of the show and the character of Chuck."

Hopefully it’ll light a spark for the ol’ series, which was cooling quickly, last time we checked…

[EW.com]