On the Set Farewell to Chuck, Part 1: Jet Planes and a Jeffster! Swan Song
Chuck's two-hour series finale wraps up the fan-favorite spy show with plenty of action, snazzy outfits, heartwarming moments and a song.
"The finale is very much haunted by seasons past. This is an episode that's not only a finale for Season 5, but also five seasons of television," series co-creator Chris Fedak told reporters on the final set visit in December. "So we're going to be bringing back a lot of things that it wouldn't be an episode unless we saw Yvonne [Strahovski] in the cat suit, also wearing an evening gown dancing the tango."
Fedak promised the finale (Friday, 8/7c, NBC) will be "epic" and feel and look like a movie. "We're a little over budget," he confessed. "It's a long episode, it's a big episode and we go to a lot of different places. We blew up most of the Universal backlot a few days ago with helicopters and stuff like that.
"The opening scene of the finale we have one of the deepest into the matrix callbacks of the show," Fedak added. "Mark Pellegrino [is] in the opening scene, reprising very quickly a bad guy role from one of our previous seasons. In consideration that he's a Fulcrum agent, we touch upon 'What's going on with Fulcrum and The Ring these days?' So the episode begins on a private jet, and ... we actually did a special skydiving unit based on what happens on board the jet."
December's set visit took place at an auditorium on a Southern California university campus, which doubles as a concert hall. In another nod to cinema, part of the episode will take place at a pivotal concert - a Jeffster! concert. "This is our Act 4 set piece," said Fedak. "This is very much an ode to The Man Who Knew Too Much, which is a sequence that takes place in the Albert Hall and when someone's going to be killed when the cymbals crash. This is the Chuck version of that."
Director Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film also features another musical moment when star Doris Day loudly sings the Oscar-winning song "Que Sera Sera." Although that song won't be featured on Chuck, Fedak said, "There's a different ear-splitting experience that's going to happen here."
Jeffster! band members Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay ) will instead tackle a familiar 1980s pop song that reporters were cautioned not to reveal. "I never know what they're going to come up with, but then it always seems to make sense," Krinsky commented. "I think they always sort of have a way of finding some great, iconic pop song. I think this one works."
As the band's frontman responsible for the vocals, Sahay had a more passionate response to the challenging song choice. "I really feel like the criteria must be 'What's the most difficult song for Vik to sing? That's how we'll choose our music!'" he said. "I mean, it's an insane song. It's so difficult! But I think it's kind of a beautiful, bizarre, apt choice, and in all honesty, I've gotten to a place where I relish the challenge. I'm like, 'Okay, bring me the mountains; let me try to climb these things.' The scariest part was when I'd go to work on it. The musicians are like, 'Oh God,' like they are terrified of the song, so that's not fun. But it worked out OK."
Since last week's episode, Jeff and Lester have finally been let in on Chuck's double life as a spy and were even enlisted to help save Alex (Mekenna Melvin). It's possible that they're helping out once again through their concert, but where's the rest of the real spy team when all of this is going down? And how is Sarah (Strahovski) going to overcome her memory loss and new order to kill her husband?
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"The finale is very much haunted by seasons past. This is an episode that's not only a finale for Season 5, but also five seasons of television," series co-creator Chris Fedak told reporters on the final set visit in December. "So we're going to be bringing back a lot of things that it wouldn't be an episode unless we saw Yvonne [Strahovski] in the cat suit, also wearing an evening gown dancing the tango."
Fedak promised the finale (Friday, 8/7c, NBC) will be "epic" and feel and look like a movie. "We're a little over budget," he confessed. "It's a long episode, it's a big episode and we go to a lot of different places. We blew up most of the Universal backlot a few days ago with helicopters and stuff like that.
"The opening scene of the finale we have one of the deepest into the matrix callbacks of the show," Fedak added. "Mark Pellegrino [is] in the opening scene, reprising very quickly a bad guy role from one of our previous seasons. In consideration that he's a Fulcrum agent, we touch upon 'What's going on with Fulcrum and The Ring these days?' So the episode begins on a private jet, and ... we actually did a special skydiving unit based on what happens on board the jet."
December's set visit took place at an auditorium on a Southern California university campus, which doubles as a concert hall. In another nod to cinema, part of the episode will take place at a pivotal concert - a Jeffster! concert. "This is our Act 4 set piece," said Fedak. "This is very much an ode to The Man Who Knew Too Much, which is a sequence that takes place in the Albert Hall and when someone's going to be killed when the cymbals crash. This is the Chuck version of that."
Director Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film also features another musical moment when star Doris Day loudly sings the Oscar-winning song "Que Sera Sera." Although that song won't be featured on Chuck, Fedak said, "There's a different ear-splitting experience that's going to happen here."
Jeffster! band members Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay ) will instead tackle a familiar 1980s pop song that reporters were cautioned not to reveal. "I never know what they're going to come up with, but then it always seems to make sense," Krinsky commented. "I think they always sort of have a way of finding some great, iconic pop song. I think this one works."
As the band's frontman responsible for the vocals, Sahay had a more passionate response to the challenging song choice. "I really feel like the criteria must be 'What's the most difficult song for Vik to sing? That's how we'll choose our music!'" he said. "I mean, it's an insane song. It's so difficult! But I think it's kind of a beautiful, bizarre, apt choice, and in all honesty, I've gotten to a place where I relish the challenge. I'm like, 'Okay, bring me the mountains; let me try to climb these things.' The scariest part was when I'd go to work on it. The musicians are like, 'Oh God,' like they are terrified of the song, so that's not fun. But it worked out OK."
Since last week's episode, Jeff and Lester have finally been let in on Chuck's double life as a spy and were even enlisted to help save Alex (Mekenna Melvin). It's possible that they're helping out once again through their concert, but where's the rest of the real spy team when all of this is going down? And how is Sarah (Strahovski) going to overcome her memory loss and new order to kill her husband?
SOURCE