Chuck at NBC Paley preview
So Q&A from the Paley event on Monday. I edited out most stuff from Life and Lipstick Jungle. There were a total of six panelists -- the executive producers of Lipstick, Life and Chuck [Chris Fedak] and then Adam Baldwin, Josh Gomez, and Zach Levi. Here are the highlights from my notes:
- First question to Chris Fedak: yes, there is lots of Huey Lewis and the News references this season. Apparently, Chris's first concent was Huey -- and Josh Schwartz too. So with that coincidence, they felt they had to put Huey in.
- The Life producer was talking about their new season and how the story would be reset and now their main character would have a super computer in his head and solve cases with all the secrets. Zach Levi sarcastically responded with "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."
- They are sort of rebooting now that the writers' strike is over, sort of like a "season one part deux" as Chris described it. They saw the first season as alot of stand alone episodes but found that people liked learning more about the background of the characters so there will be more flashbacks to start episodes and they'll also be building on the mythology of the show.
- They talked a bit about the guest stars and Zach mentioned John Larouquette. "He is so awesome, you have no idea," was his description of John's character.
- The moderator asked Gomez and Zach what it's like for them to go into a Best Buy now. Zach jokingly said "They put me to work." He said he's only been in once or twice since the show started but that the workers there responded with "You so represent us because we don't do anything." That being said, they don't get a discount at the store.
- At this point, Zach realized he forgot to take his dry cleaning tag off his shirt. "Glad I checked that," he said sarcastically as he was trying to rip it off in front of everyone. "We're just going to do bingo." He called out the number on his tag and the first person to jokingly yell "Bingo!" was Chris.
- Lipstick Jungle producer talked about how the three actresses on the show are really close and act like three sisters. Chris said Adam, Gomez, and Zach were just like sisters too, which got a laugh out of the crowd. Zach said to Adam, "Yeah, you're the big sister. Oh sorry," to which Adam said he didn't mind.
- Lipstick and Life producers talked about their shows and Zach said something about how their shows deal with real life and on Chuck, they debate the finer points of ninjas. His new tag line for the show? "Chuck: Giving ninjas a good name." Adam added "At $11 an hour."
- Someone asked a great question about balancing the sci fi, humor and drama of the show. Chris said in the writing process, they try to balance it all out. Plus, he said they were lucky to have Zach because he plays Chuck really well as the straight guy at the Buy More and then the new spy guy in his Intersect life. Then they all got very complimentary of Zach and how the show has its positive tone because of what he brings to the set. Zach also gave some love to his castmates. It was just really adorable and after Adam said something about how great Zach was, he replied, "You're gonna make me cry." Don't think that was actually true but he did seem genuinely touched.
- The moderator then said no more questions and Zach said "Wait, can't we do one more?" So they got another question from the audience to the Life producer. Then Zach said, "Wait, this girl in the pink looks like her question will be good." So without Zach, two questions wouldn't have been asked. Love that guy!
- Tony Hale's character will start out funny and sweet, then go the nemesis route with Chuck. The character's name is Emmitt Milbang. Good name, the moderator said. But not as good as Harry Tang. Chris said Harry's name came to him in the middle of the night on the set.
After that, the group sat down in the front row to see the season premiere of Chuck. Not only is it awesome, but it was alot of fun to see it with other people who laughed at the same places I did. Plus, it was cool to watch it with the cast in the same room. How could you NOT like that? But I'm sure you can either a) find spoiler write-ups somewhere on the Net or b) just not get spoiled. But just know that you won't be disappointed and it's pretty awesome!
I saw Chris at Paleyfest and in other interviews and he seemed kind of quiet but tonight he talked quite a bit and it was a lot of fun to hear his perspective. Zach, Gomez and Adam were a little more subdued compared to Paleyfest but were still really cool. They seemed to be very complimentary to each other and did a great job of putting some extra focus on the producers from the other shows there, which I thought was a very cool move on their part. They totally seemed like genuinely nice guys that you would love to have a beer with on a random Tuesday night.
After they showed the season premiere, we headed down to the lobby. The cast had already left for the green room but Gomez was still there and was nice enough to get a picture with us even though it looked like a Paley handler was trying to get him out of the lobby.
As for the theater itself, quite more intimate than Paleyfest. Probably only about 150 in the theater and I have to say I was quite pleased with the questions asked. If you've been to Q&As like this, you know there are some random uberfans who ask dumb questions. But all of them were really good tonight. Good job, question askers!
So yeah, overall it was a great night and I'm even more pumped than I was before for the new season. It needs to start already!!!!!!
- First question to Chris Fedak: yes, there is lots of Huey Lewis and the News references this season. Apparently, Chris's first concent was Huey -- and Josh Schwartz too. So with that coincidence, they felt they had to put Huey in.
- The Life producer was talking about their new season and how the story would be reset and now their main character would have a super computer in his head and solve cases with all the secrets. Zach Levi sarcastically responded with "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."
- They are sort of rebooting now that the writers' strike is over, sort of like a "season one part deux" as Chris described it. They saw the first season as alot of stand alone episodes but found that people liked learning more about the background of the characters so there will be more flashbacks to start episodes and they'll also be building on the mythology of the show.
- They talked a bit about the guest stars and Zach mentioned John Larouquette. "He is so awesome, you have no idea," was his description of John's character.
- The moderator asked Gomez and Zach what it's like for them to go into a Best Buy now. Zach jokingly said "They put me to work." He said he's only been in once or twice since the show started but that the workers there responded with "You so represent us because we don't do anything." That being said, they don't get a discount at the store.
- At this point, Zach realized he forgot to take his dry cleaning tag off his shirt. "Glad I checked that," he said sarcastically as he was trying to rip it off in front of everyone. "We're just going to do bingo." He called out the number on his tag and the first person to jokingly yell "Bingo!" was Chris.
- Lipstick Jungle producer talked about how the three actresses on the show are really close and act like three sisters. Chris said Adam, Gomez, and Zach were just like sisters too, which got a laugh out of the crowd. Zach said to Adam, "Yeah, you're the big sister. Oh sorry," to which Adam said he didn't mind.
- Lipstick and Life producers talked about their shows and Zach said something about how their shows deal with real life and on Chuck, they debate the finer points of ninjas. His new tag line for the show? "Chuck: Giving ninjas a good name." Adam added "At $11 an hour."
- Someone asked a great question about balancing the sci fi, humor and drama of the show. Chris said in the writing process, they try to balance it all out. Plus, he said they were lucky to have Zach because he plays Chuck really well as the straight guy at the Buy More and then the new spy guy in his Intersect life. Then they all got very complimentary of Zach and how the show has its positive tone because of what he brings to the set. Zach also gave some love to his castmates. It was just really adorable and after Adam said something about how great Zach was, he replied, "You're gonna make me cry." Don't think that was actually true but he did seem genuinely touched.
- The moderator then said no more questions and Zach said "Wait, can't we do one more?" So they got another question from the audience to the Life producer. Then Zach said, "Wait, this girl in the pink looks like her question will be good." So without Zach, two questions wouldn't have been asked. Love that guy!
- Tony Hale's character will start out funny and sweet, then go the nemesis route with Chuck. The character's name is Emmitt Milbang. Good name, the moderator said. But not as good as Harry Tang. Chris said Harry's name came to him in the middle of the night on the set.
After that, the group sat down in the front row to see the season premiere of Chuck. Not only is it awesome, but it was alot of fun to see it with other people who laughed at the same places I did. Plus, it was cool to watch it with the cast in the same room. How could you NOT like that? But I'm sure you can either a) find spoiler write-ups somewhere on the Net or b) just not get spoiled. But just know that you won't be disappointed and it's pretty awesome!
I saw Chris at Paleyfest and in other interviews and he seemed kind of quiet but tonight he talked quite a bit and it was a lot of fun to hear his perspective. Zach, Gomez and Adam were a little more subdued compared to Paleyfest but were still really cool. They seemed to be very complimentary to each other and did a great job of putting some extra focus on the producers from the other shows there, which I thought was a very cool move on their part. They totally seemed like genuinely nice guys that you would love to have a beer with on a random Tuesday night.
After they showed the season premiere, we headed down to the lobby. The cast had already left for the green room but Gomez was still there and was nice enough to get a picture with us even though it looked like a Paley handler was trying to get him out of the lobby.
As for the theater itself, quite more intimate than Paleyfest. Probably only about 150 in the theater and I have to say I was quite pleased with the questions asked. If you've been to Q&As like this, you know there are some random uberfans who ask dumb questions. But all of them were really good tonight. Good job, question askers!
So yeah, overall it was a great night and I'm even more pumped than I was before for the new season. It needs to start already!!!!!!