The 2007 fall season was to new television shows what a gold-digging Russian home wrecker with a tape recorder was to Mel Gibson’s career. Most of the new network offerings that year met with a premature ratings death and were unceremoniously cancelled. One of my favorite shows, “Chuck,” emerged from the carnage. Despite some trials and tribulations, this show has clawed its way back from the same chopping block that took “Back to You,” “Caveman,” and “Dirty, Sexy Money” and is now once again part of the NBC Prime Time lineup. The trip was not an easy one, though.
“Chuck” is a well written, snappy, multi-layered show that doesn’t hang its hat on one particular peg. It can be funny, poignant, dramatic, and action packed (sometimes all at once). These are all points in its favor; none of it would be any good if the cast couldn’t deliver what the writers had created. Let’s face it, Shakespeare’s best work would seem absolutely silly if Paris Hilton was delivering the dialogue.
The “Chuck” cast is led by Zachery Levi in the title role of Chuck Bartowski, a computer repair person at an electronic store who accidentally becomes a national security asset (or liability…it depends on your point of view). Yvonne Strahovski plays his occasionally lethal but always stunning CIA minder and girlfriend, Sara Walker. Television and film veteran, Adam Baldwin, rounds out the main cast as Colonel John Casey. Colonel Casey is an NSA agent, and the third member of “Team Bartowski.” He is what one would get if they combined the patriotism of Ronald Reagan, the crabbiness of Lucy from the Charlie Brown cartoons, and the sheer destructive power of Godzilla or Mike Tyson.
The chemistry between these three is tremendous and together they are both entertaining and charming. While Zachery, Yvonne, and Adam do the heavy lifting, they are backed up by a chorus of secondary characters that seem like they would be equally at home in a Douglas Adams’ novel as they are within the world created by the writers of Chuck. In short, this is a three dimensional show that goes beyond the main characters. The guys off the bench are not just simply a backdrop or comic foil for the big three, but can carry story-lines on their own and make significant contributions. This makes it no surprise that Chuck was a favorite of the critics. Of course none of this meant very much when Chuck was slated for cancellation after the 2009 season.
Critics liked Chuck, but he wasn’t bringing the sort of ratings that warranted renewal. Conventional wisdom says that if they focused less on creating stories and more on filming Yvonne Strahovski in lingerie, they could have attracted more people from the herd of those who find “Jersey Shore” or those “Real Housewives of…” shows so compelling. Thankfully, the creators seemed to have more integrity than that. In most cases, Chuck would have been quietly cancelled and probably replaced with a celebrity talent show. This wasn’t “most” cases however. For a change the critics, viewing public, and big named sponsors were on the same page when it came to saving this show. An aggressive letter writing campaign by thousands of dedicated fans, articles written by supportive critics, and publicity stunts with major sponsors like “Subway” got the show renewed.
This is not the first time that a letter writing campaign has been mounted to save a television program. Many fans of “My Name is Earl” made a similar effort to save that show, but NBC still dropped the ax. Adam Baldwin spoke to Big Hollywood about why the fan-driven, “Save Chuck” effort succeeded where others had failed.
“There are two main elements that contributed to survivability. The main ones are the fan reaction to the show and the support that they put in over the time that it has been on the air. It is a dedicated fan base, loyal, and outspoken. The other main one is the fact that the producers were able to take a day out of the schedule. We were originally an eight day shooting schedule and that was cut to seven days, which decreased the budget by a full day, making the show more cost effective.”
While the strong fan support and the flexibility of the producers, cast, and crew were enough to save Chuck, the show was relegated to the purgatory of the winter season, and theoretically had to prove its worth…again.
They started slow, with series low ratings numbers, but finished strong enough to instill confidence in NBC executives. They ordered 13 episodes for the fall season, with an option for an additional nine episodes. Success comes at a price. And Chuck may have stepped into a trap that has often been a series killer for many previous television programs.
A big part of the show has been the ongoing romantic entanglement (well actually, the non-entanglement) between Chuck and Sara. For quite some time it was very clear that the characters were deeply in love, but circumstances, duty, bad advice from friends, romantic clumsiness, and the fact that most geek types are not used to girls who are not made of polyurethane kept getting in the way. It created a delicious sort of sexual tension that was entertaining but ultimately unsustainable. In the past, once a show resolved the tension and got the characters together, it changed the on-screen dynamic in ways that ultimately led to cancellation. In short, the episodes became less captivating without the “will they or won’t they” aspect. A good example of this is the show “Moonlighting” from the eighties. Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd played the leads in that detective show. Once the characters entered into a romantic relationship the program entered into ratings insolvency.
The trap in this situation is that if the tension goes on for too long, the viewer will simply get frustrated and abandon the show. If the tension gets resolved, the viewer will be emotionally satisfied, light a cigarette, and ultimately find a new show they can start a new tension-filled relationship with. “Friends” avoided this with Ross and Rachel because of a strong ensemble cast. There was always a balance of tension and emotional satisfaction that kept the audience fully engaged and tuned in.
When asked about this, Mr. Baldwin seemed to agree that character diversity would also continue to keep Chuck fresh and entertaining.
“You have a broader range of characters that people tune in to see. If people don’t want to see just the two having a love story, then they can cut over to the Buy More.”
Going forward into its fourth season Chuck is in a precarious position. At this point in time they have 54 episodes under their belt. This is short of the number of episodes that Chuck needs for a chance at syndicated immortality. For that honor they need approximately 88 unique episodes. The 13 episodes that NBC bought for this season pushes the total to 67, and if the extra 9 episode option gets picked up they are sitting on the syndication bubble of 76. So this is a make or break year for Chuck. I believe that the writing and the actors are up to the task. This is an extremely fun show, and if the goal is to entertain the audience then I say mission accomplished. The only danger that Chuck faces from a creative standpoint is if they try to fall back on the tired old saw of recapturing the sexual tension between Chuck and Sara. That ship has sailed, and the dynamic between the two is changed forever.
Neither the Mayan calendar that predicted the end of the world, nor the Amazing Kreskin had much to say about the future of Chuck, but in a perfect world Chuck will have a very long run. Chuck represents hope for a large segment of the population. Chuck makes everyone who can fix an operating system but is confused by the female obsession with shoes think that there is a better, more exciting life out there for them.
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