The Tuesday night (March 18) panel for Chuck at the Paley Television Festival can very well be titled "Chuck vs. the Banter." Although the camaraderie is a joy to behold for fans, sometimes the crosstalk, actors impersonating each other and resulting laughter makes it difficult to keep people straight.

In its freshman season, Chuck was a nice addition to NBC's Monday lineup paired with Heroes for a fantastical night of people fighting the good fight. The writers' strike, however, made it impossible for the show -- considering its production demands -- to cram in shooting in time for the second half of the season. So Tuesday's panel is all about the fan love and not so much with the news.

After an appropriately campy clip from the Get Smart pilot, moderator Damon Lindelof (famous for creating a little show called Lost) is rarin' to go, James Lipton-style. He even has the blue notecards, which he whips out ad nauseum. Several Lost references are made, including Lindelof sharing a note that ABC had made about his show. Apparently, after reading about the four-toed statue, they said it was too "weird," requesting that he change it to a six-toed statue. Umm, yeah.

Bromance

Back to Chuck. It's fate that Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez play BFFs Chuck and Morgan since apparently they also have a real-life bromance, sparked by their mutual love of gaming. When executive producer McG says the actors get separation anxiety, Gomez chimes in that they usually rely on XBox headsets to keep tabs on each other. In person, it looks like the two are indeed one since Gomez's full beard has migrated to Levi's face. (Trivia: For Call of Duty, Zach's at Level 34, but Gomez is only at 33 because he's "really busy." No Prestige.)

At one point, Lindelof asks Gomez who would emerge the victor of a Voltron/Godzilla smackdown. The discussion:

Gomez: "Why do I get the hardest questions? Lion Voltron versus Godzilla is ... I gotta go with Godzilla. Thunder Lizard."

The audience murmurs their collective disagreement, and Levi is there to set his friend straight with logic and many hand gestures.

"Godzilla?! [With Voltron] you have attacks from all angles and then they come in for the kill."

Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz, who created a similarly touching bromance on The OC, sums up the bromance appeal: "There is no love more powerful than between one man and another man."

Captain Awesome and Friends

Although Ryan McPartlin is best known for the rather single-minded and laconic "Captain Awesome," on the panel he actually exhibits a rather dry wit that captures the attention of quite a few female fans. A sampling:

After hearing that Levi injured himself playing Wii: "Whatever you got to do to get the chicks."

Why he wants his character to remain espionage-free: "Because in [the spy world, Captain Awesome] is going to be killed ... or naked, killed and naked."

"What turns me on emotionally and spiritually? Football."

How many times a day he says "awesome": "I try not to use it in my personal life so I can save up for my performances. I try to use 'fantastic.' But I use 'awesome' a couple dozen times at most. I grew up in the Midwest, and everything there was awesome."

Later, in response to another comment: "That's fantastic." Smirk.

A Wish List for Season Two

Levi wants to keep his beard at least for the first returning episode.

Schwartz: "Owing to the fact that we've been off the air, we'll have to reset, justify the beard ... my dream for the show? Two words: Van Damme."

Julia Ling (plays Anna Wu) would like to get in on the spy game: "I'm in love with all the action stuff. I love sci fi and have always wanted to be a part of [the action]. I think it's just wishful thinking."

Adam Baldwin (plays Agent John Casey): "I want to see Harry's evil twin Poon come back."

Mark Christopher Lawrence (plays Big Mike): "Big Mike actually catches a fish."

Gomez, hugging Ling: "More Julia ... in my room. Yeah, I'd like to see my room. Where the heck do I live anyway?"

Vik Sahay (plays Lester): "As far as I'm concerned, the show is called Lester. I have my own action show in my heart ... I would like to be McG."

The Awesomeness Continues

Other highlights -- including a fan doing a Hulk Hogan impression, the lovely Yvonne Strahovski, who won the Chuck confluence and even more banter -- will soon be available at the official Paley Center for Media website, where they will post the videos of their Festival panel sessions.

More Chuck updates about the upcoming season will be available at July's Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego, which will be covered in the Zap2it Goes to Comic-Con section.

Comments

Anna being a spy would be a lot of fun. Seeing Morgan's girlfriend and Morgan's best friend have to keep this stuff away from him would just be too great. I can just imagine Morgan thinking that Chuck and Anna are having an affair since they both tend to get called away at the same time and have really lame excuses as to where they were. Fun stuff.

So, if they are going to try and incorporate the beard, how can they explain the time lapse since Casey is supposed to kill Chuck since the new Intersect is up? Maybe he hides out in the woods via a fake-death plot until they can come up with a plan? I guess they can open the season that way and then cut back to clean-shaven Chuck in the past to build up to that point. though, I normally hate the overusage of an opening scene and then a flashback building up to the opening scene a la WAY too many Alias episodes. Cool at first, not anymore. If it is in service of the lumberjack beard, I guess I will let it slide.

OK, I am rambling way too much here. Thanks for posting the link for the media, I'll be sure to check that out once they update it with this stuff.

Blue Sean | Mar 19, 2008 3:44:48 PM | #

---

Blue Sean

Sounds like a great idea for incorporating the beard. Wouldn't be suprised if that's what they did. Courswe then Chuck'd need to find a way to get his job back at the Buy More.

Had to post just cause of the name thing.

Sean | Mar 20, 2008 6:44:09 AM | #

---

"This beard? I thought it would be a great disguise, you know like..."

"Trying to look like Bigfoot isn't what I could call a 'disguise'."

pakopako | Mar 20, 2008 7:55:34 AM | #

---

Since Julia Ling won/placed? in China's Be the Next Jakie Chan show, she'd be a natural to be another spy.

VideoBeagle | Mar 21, 2008 2:01:03 PM | #

---

Vik Sahay was hilarious on the panel too. When asked what profession, other than his, he would like to particiapte in, he said, "I would like to be...McG." And they obviously love him, the way they kept referencing him and McG talked about stuff he was doing in the first season that all got cut out...improvsing non-sequitars that they might try to bring back...all very cool. Funny funny guy!

Boov | Mar 22, 2008 11:40:17 PM | #

---

Post a comment

Name:
Email Address:	optional
URL:	optional
Comments: