Chuck - Spoiler Report from the Set
ByOK, here are some facts about the season premiere of “Chuck” and some overall themes for the new season. Check out now if you don’t want to know:
*The title of the season premiere is “Chuck vs. the Pink Slip” and it was written by Fedak and Matt Miller.
*On Wednesday, the day before shooting began on Season 3, Zachary Levi showed up at the NBC party at the TCA press tour with a full-on Old Testament beard. You may think he had to shave it Thursday morning before he began work on “Pink Slip.” No, he did not. The beard has been worked in to the season premiere; it’ll appear for at least part of the episode.
*Levi’s wardrobe for the episode included an old grey T-shirt, a bathrobe, a baseball cap and sunglasses. The phrase “vagrant Serpico” was used by one character to describe his look.
*The Buy More is still part of Season 3. But it was a very different place, much more locked down and tidied up, and on all the flat screens in the store, a very ominous film loop was playing: a black and white clip of Joseph Stalin reviewing troops in Red Square. Dun-dun-dun!
*The reason for the grim mood in the Buy More? The reign of terror implemented by Emmett Milbarge. Yes, Tony Hale, who plays Milbarge, will once again recur in Season 3. And as we know, he’s not the “see no evil” manager that Big Mike was. His office is now a much darker, more ominous place, dominated by a giant executive chair and a large “Buy-Moria” flag.
*Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), the store’s former manager, is still in “purgatory/Hell” on the Buy More sales floor, according to Fedak.
*This is a factoid from the Comic-Con interview, but I thought it was worth mentioning again: Morgan and Chuck are roommates as Season 3 begins.
*I interviewed Adam Baldwin for a separate piece that will run in advance of the new season, and he said that though there’s nothing concrete worked out just yet, the idea of Casey getting a love interest at some point had been bandied about.
*The set of the Orange Orange was in use on Thursday.
*The set of the Castle, the spy headquarters, was in use on Thursday. And it is going to be expanded in Season 3. “You could call it a palace now,” Levi joked.
*Fedak said there are still plans to keep John Casey (Adam Baldwin) in the orbit of the Buy More crew, given that there is so much comedy to be mined from his irritation with the store’s staff. “It’s a lot of fun to have him in that world as the straight man, and it’s great to get his perspective on the Buy More madness,” Fedak said. “John Casey’s been out there for 20 years saving America, now he realizes just what he’s been saving. So it’s tough for him. But this year we’d like to get him in the Buy More even more.”
*How Subway, the “Chuck” advertiser whom fans patronized in an effort to get a new season for the show, will be worked into the new season has not quite been figured out.
*As mentioned in that Comic-Con piece, Chuck’s new abilities, which were glimpsed at the end of Season 2, will not work perfectly in Season 3. The idea in Season 3 is to have Casey and Sarah act not just as Chuck’s protectors but as his “senseis,” or teachers who will help him use his powers effectively. “They’re training him to be the master spy, and their relationships are maturing that way,” Fedak said.
*There are also plans to “deepen the spy characters” to find out, for example, how a soldier like Casey ended up becoming a spy. And we’d also find out more about what Sarah and Casey have done in their espionage careers. “Spies are people who go to other countries and commit criminal acts. So with Casey and Sarah, it’s always interesting to see what they’ve done in their past, and find out how grey or interesting or duplicitous they’ve been,” Fedak said.
*Fedak said specifically that I should say he refused to comment in any way on the Cheese Balls.
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