L-R: Greta (Olivia Munn), Morgan Grimes (Josh Gomez) and Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) in Chuck's season four premiere episode "Chuck Vs. The Anniversary." Photo by Jordan Althaus and copyright of NBC.
OUR favorite secret agent, Chuck Bartowski, is back in the one-hour action-comedy series, Chuck, airing Monday nights @ 8:00 p.m. EST/PST on NBC. Zachary Levi (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squakquel) returns in the title role as a regular guy who also happens to be the government's most vital secret agent. Now that those closest to Chuck know his secret, he must try harder than ever to keep his spy life from interfering with his personal life. But this has never been more difficult - his relationship with super spy Sarah Walker is getting serious, and he's about to take on his most personal mission yet: finding his mother.
This season, Chuck's assignments take him far from Burbank, with each mission bringing him closer to uncovering what happened to his mom, Mary Elizabeth Bartowski (guest-star Linda Hamilton, The Terminator. Terminator 2: Judgment Day).
The ever stoic Colonel John Casey (Adam Baldwin, My Bodyguard, Firefly, Serenity) returns with partner Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski, the upcoming The Killer Elite), one of the CIA's top agents and Chuck's new girlfriend.
Also starring are Joshua Gomez (Without A Trace) as Morgan Grimes, Chuck's best buddy,; Sarah Lancaster, What About Brian?) as Chuck's ever-supportive sister Ellie; Ryan McPartlin (Living With Fran) as Devon Woodcomb (also known as "Captain Awesome"), Ellie's husband. Chuck's Buy More team consists of Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence, The Pursuit of Happyness) and the Nerd Herd, which includes Lester (Vik Sahay, Time Bomb) and Jeff (Scott Krinsky, The O.C.).
Chuck is co-created by Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Gossip Girl) and Chris Fedak, and is executive produced by Schwartz, McG (Charlie's Angels, Terminator: Salvation), Fedak, Robert Duncan McNeill (Star Trek: Voyager) and Nicholas Wootton.
On September 14th, Josh Gomez a.k.a. Mogan Grimes and series co-creator/executive producer Chris Fedak took some time out from telling spy stories to speak with myself as well as other journalists about what's to come this season on Chuck. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy!
Josh, the last time we saw Morgan and his buddies they had accidently blown up the Buy More, so is your character still part of the spy team and what can we look forward to in the new season with him?
JOSH GOMEZ - Yes, he's definitely still part of Team Bartowski. I don’t know how much the CIA loves him, but I guess the Buy More is actually rebuilt and taken over by the CIA and my character is basically in charge of keeping the Buy More's CIA cover, so he's there to make it look and run like a real Buy More. Meanwhile, it's owned and operated by the CIA. Is that right, Chris?
CHRIS FEDAK - That's absolutely correct. And also one of the things we realized last year is that Josh Gomez is just wonderful in the spy world, so we do look forward to bringing his character of Morgan back on missions at some point.
The season premiere has a whole bunch of guest-stars in it, which isn't something that the show is really known for. There's an expectation for there to be even more guest-stars throughout the season. Was that something, having been renewed for a fourth season, where you decided you were going to try to get people like Linda Hamilton to appear on the show?
CF - Absolutely. I think when we got Season 4 it was a matter of not only do we get to tell a big exciting new story this season, but we also get to use this show as a great way to kind of meet and bring people into the world of Chuck. And there’s nothing cooler than meeting and bringing into the show people like Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton. It’s great, too, because they fit so perfectly into our world, and we’re super-jazzed to cast the kind of actors that people are going to get excited about. It makes our set a really exciting place to visit, too.
JG - Not many people get to go to work and play with James Bond (Dalton), so it's pretty cool.
So obviously the Chuck fans are very excited you have another season, but I was also thinking maybe people who haven’t watched before will say, you know, this show has stuck around. Maybe I should check it out. What are new viewers going to get out of the fourth season if this is their first time watching?
CF - They're going to get a big, exciting action/comedy TV show. Even though we have a mythology and a big story going on, I think we still design our show in a way that people can sit down and watch it on a Monday night and they're going to know where they are. We kind of remind you at the start of the season where we left off last year and then it's off to the races. We're off to the comedy world of Buy More and then we bring in the big exciting spy world. And part of the fun of bringing in guest-stars like Dolph Lundgren or Olivia Munn in our season opener, or Harry Dean Stanton, is that it's a fun way back into this world.
So I think new viewers, if they decide to start watching, are going to get a really fun, big story that they can jump right into.
Are there any cool new action scenes that you can preview to get people excited?
CF - Cool new action scenes. I’ll just talk about our first couple of episodes but in our first episode, Chuck Vs. the Anniversary, we have some really great action stuff. We wanted to go into the kind of classic spy world of Russian bad guys, so we have Chuck (Zach Levi) and Morgan getting into some trouble inside a Russian bad guy base and it’s really fantastic. And it’s not only just great action, but you have Zach and Josh just being so funny together. One of the things that we really love is their kind of great repartee. I want to do an old reference to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. It's like Zach and Josh are so much fun to watch together.
So that's a great episode and then our second episode for those requiring some Sarah Walker action, we have a fantastic fight that takes place in Milan during fashion week between Yvonne Strahovski and another woman. It's one of our best fights yet.
Josh, what continues to be the acting challenge with playing a character like Morgan?
JG - You know, the wonderful thing about playing Morgan is that every season he’s sort of had these evolutions and none greater, I guess, than in Season 3 when he finally got to learn about Chuck, so it’s a blast. And the challenge, I guess, is trying to find ways to have a character evolve and mature and yet keep him the same from when you first started, you know? You want to keep whatever was originally likable about that character; you want to keep the core the same, but also find little differences, little changes. I don't know if that's necessarily a challenge, but it’s definitely been a blast.
I just have so much fun every season because it's never felt stale. It’s almost like not playing the same dude because he has changed so much, and that’s been really cool.
Why do you think people keep tuning in to watch Chuck?
JG - At the end of the day, I just think it's because it's a fun show. There's plenty of good television but a lot of it, I feel, is a bit of a downer, and I think Chuck is the opposite of that. At the end of an episode you feel good, and it's fun and you laugh as you go along for a fun car chase and hang out with characters that you like. Chris, Josh (Schwartz) and the rest of the writers have created characters that are fun and that you want to see again week after week. I think that's a big part of it.
CF - Just to go off that point, our cast is one of the most fun casts on TV, and like Josh said, you want to be with the Buy More gang each week. They're such a warm and caring kind of family. Great TV shows are about families and we have just a splendid, splendid family on our show.
How did you guys convince Timothy Dalton to come onboard?
CF - We tried to be as charming as possible. When we started breaking the season, we were looking at this specific part and thinking how fantastic it would be if we could get someone like Timothy Dalton. So we started the process - we sent the show to Timothy, he watched it and really dug it. We started having a couple of conversations with him, and as we're about to start filming his first episode, I've got to say that there's just nothing more exciting than Timothy Dalton, again, kind of digging it and savoring his character.
So it's a lot of fun, and it just speaks to the fun of casting this season. Our casting director, Patrick Rush, has done a fantastic job filling out the ranks of this show and helping make each part colorful, exciting and dynamic, and "T-Dal,," if you will, is going to be amazing. I think you guys are really going to love him.
If Chuck is no longer officially with the CIA, can you tell us a little bit about the plans for Sarah and Casey?
CF - Well, Sarah and Casey are still with the CIA, and as we open season four they're still the best spy, NSA/CIA team and traveling the world working on missions. I'll also say that the person they're focusing on is a man by the name of Alexei Volkov, who's our big bad this season.
Josh, how far do you think Morgan would follow Chuck in his rogue endeavors?
JG - As far as Chuck wanted him to go. Beyond being just completely loyal to his friend, this is to Morgan, as we saw in the episode Chuck vs. The Beard, just the coolest thing in the world. I mean, we're living out our every video game we've ever played, every movie we've ever watched, etc. Although I think he's starting to "get it," there's still a part of Morgan that doesn't quite realize the full ramifications of this whole thing. It's still, I think, a fun time for him in a weird way, as bullets occasionally whiz past him or ginormous men grab Morgan and throw him around.
Now that Morgan's been brought into the CIA fold, I wanted to know if his combat skills will be upgraded at all? I just keep thinking back to the season one pilot where he had to fight that ninja in Chuck's house
JG - He went for that golf club pretty quickly, didn't he? As for upgrading Morgan's combat skills this year, I would say, no. It's not Chuck's or Morgan’s forte, although, yes, Chuck does some, but he’s got to cheat, you know. But Morgan, definitely not. He's still the same Morgan, but he wants to learn and get better. He’s got a sort of mentor and the best mentor in John Casey, but what we've been doing there with him is more funny than anything else. Adam and I play with this thing where every time we’re in a scene together, Morgan is usually just trying to stare at him and mimic him and do anything like John Casey does - stand like him, grunt like him, whatever. I’m hoping that eventually Casey can teach him a few fisticuffs, but nothing as of yet. It’s still Morgan from season one in that regard.
As an Adam Baldwin fan myself, I’ve enjoyed the shout-outs to Firefly and Serenity and some of his other roles. Was that you guys or did he start doing that or how did that come to be?
CF -You know, we’re, of course, huge fans of Adam and Firefly and Full Metal Jacket, so usually we try to start peppering that stuff in pretty early in the script. And then sometimes, like when the guys are on set, they essentially have the writers’ version of the story, but then as actors will find chances and opportunities to embellish and add in things. We also do a bit of improv from time to time. Our guys are great at that, so sometimes there's something that slips in very late in the process, and there are times when we even flip something in during ADR, which is after we've already cut the episode and we drop a line in that someone says. So throughout the process we're always looking for inside jokes and things we can add in.
We started out the first season with Chuck having to hide his CIA status from everyone, and now here we are at the beginning of season four and pretty much everyone in the main cast knows that he's a spy. Do you ever worry about too many people being in on the secret or it being too much out in the open?
CF - Absolutely. We're always concerned about the core dynamics of the show, which is kind of based on sort of the classic TV structure of Chuck does a job that nobody can know about. However, throughout three seasons of the show, and now a fourth, the dynamic has changed and the show isn't solely about Chuck keeping that secret from his family. This is, though, a deception, still happening within the show. You have a giant Buy More filled with spies that nobody can know about, and also at the end of last season, Chuck told his sister that he had quit the spy life per her request because she didn't want him in harm's way. But now Chuck has been given this mission from his father to find Mom, so that conflict is something that he'll be dealing with this season.
Josh, I thought last season when Morgan discovered Chuck's secret, that it was probably one of the greatest emotional moments the show has had and I thought you played it perfectly.
JG - Well, thank you.
You're welcome, and I was wondering where would you like to see Morgan progress in an emotional way. And we've seen so much of Chuck's family, are we going to see more of Morgan's, maybe?
JG - I'm not sure. We met Mama and we know how that turned out. Big Mike took care of that. So I don't know if we're every going to meet any more of Morgan's family, but as far as where I'd like to see my character go emotionally, I think, oddly enough, he and Chuck are fairly similar in that way. They're just both really decent guys who really just want the simple things. For Chuck, it's to find his love and to have that life and his family and friends. Simple core things, you know? And I think Morgan has very similar wants. Honestly, the view that the audience follows is the one of Chuck through Morgan's eyes. I think there are things that he wants for his friend, and in some respects I think he's one of those friends who'd actually take a backseat on his own happiness to probably have Chuck achieve it first or whatever. So right now, all eyes are on Chuck, and because we all love him so much, he's priority number one.
What have you guys been able to do with season four that you've never been able to do with the show before?
CF - Well, I think two big things. Actually, halfway through last season when we had Chuck and Sarah Walker together as a couple, what it allowed for us to do there and now here in the fourth season is to make the show a relationship show. Not make it only just the world they want, but to expand it and make it about this Chuck/Sarah relationship. And then with episode nine of last season, bringing Morgan into the spy world. Those are things we wanted to do and were really excited to do.
Now being season four, it's exciting to kind of take that that to the next level, so you'll see early on in episode one that Chuck and Morgan are on their own kind of rogue mission, which is great because it's not only a spy mission, but it's these two guys, these two good friends kind of doing something together and that's exciting for us. We love to see that. Also, the new Buy More is another exciting thing this season that's allowed us to bring the spy world back into that setting. So everything's a little bit closer and more tense, and there's always the chance of trouble popping up more organically into the show, so that's been another great thing for us.
The other thing about season four is that we've been able to bring back guest-stars from previous seasons, so in our third episode we're bringing back Stone Cold and Nicole Richie And then in our fourth episode, the Generalissimo, Armand Assante returns, so it's just neat to see those characters again.
What does having mother issues this season do for Chuck?
CF - Well, you know, mother issues like all mother issues, there's always a lot of story and mythology to get into and figure out. So for us, really, as the writers of the show, we've broken out this season and there's a lot of great material. But also like with most mother issues. there's also great comic material for us to have fun with. So this season there's the search for mom and what her story means to Chuck and the mythology of the show.
Obviously General Beckman has been a big part of the show from day one. What made you decide to make Bonita Friedericy a regular this year and why didn't you do it sooner?
CF -What originally began with General Beckman as kind of the Charlie-voice-on-a-box and assigning the missions has become, as you've pointed out, very much an important character in the show. As we worked on season three, we realized just how much fun that was and how much more we wanted to do with General Beckman, so you may have noticed that at the end of last season, something strange was happening every time you saw that character. Bonita is so fantastic and we knew going into season four that we were going to require a little bit more of her time, so we made her a series regular and she's been wonderful. It's exciting to have her be a (bigger) part of the show.
As noted above, photo by Jordan Althaus and copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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