'Chuck': Scott Krinsky on Jeffster!, Comic-Con and the final season

You won't be getting any "Chuck" Season 5 spoilers from Scott Krinsky here: The show doesn't begin filming until next week, and when Zap2it spoke with Krinsky on Monday (July 18) he had received the season's first script just a short time earlier.

"As if I'd read it, I'd tell you everything," Krinsky jokes.

Krinsky and the rest of the "Chuck" team are about to embark on the final season of the series -- as far as anyone knows. "That's the way we're going into it. ... But of course with NBC, you never know what will happen. We could go another five years," he says with a laugh.

"But if it is the end, it's nice to go into it -- I think for everyone, and for the fans -- feeling like, 'Wow -- we got five seasons.' That's pretty amazing," he continues. "How this show started, with the writers strike [which cut the first season short], and coming back every season with the fans and their campaigns to save the show -- part of it had to do with the predicament NBC was in, but for whatever reason that was our fate, to be here five years. The fact that we have such amazing fans, and they wer able to use social networking, Facebook and Twitter -- they just helped keep us going."

Krinsky also looked back on some of his favorite moments from the show, the formation of Jeffster! and traveling to Comic-Con with "Chuck" for the last time. Some highlights of the conversation:

On the chemistry between himself and Vik Sahay, who plays Lester:
"I didn't know [right away]. ... On the pilot, all my scenes were with Vik, and Zac [Levi] as well. I don't think we realized it then, and of course we had to wait for the show to start airing. The Buy More characters, we were all only recurring characters in the first season. We just coincidentally ended up being in every episode the first season, but I know that wasn't [the producers'] original intent with us. Before the show got on the air I think they saw the chemistry and started writing more scenes for us together. I think it really hit its strid for the fans probably the first time we did Jeffster!, which was in 'Chuck vs. the Best Friend.'"

On finding out they wanted Jeff to be part of a band:
"I remember being scared as hell. They were like, 'Can you guys sing?' Vik sings; he's the singing half of Jeffster!. I don't play music, I don't sing, except in the shower. It was like, 'OK, sure. I don't play instruments and I don't sing, but it is a comedy. So I was a little nervous about it. The first time we filmed we did 'Africa' [watch it here], and I thought, This is either going to go really well, or it's going to be like, 'What the hell are they doing with these characters?' But of course it turned out to be a good thing. The fans really embraced it."

His favorite episode:
"The ['Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer'] episode [in which it's revealed Jeff is a former Missile Command champion] was great because we also a kind of more normal, human side to Jeff. He sort of let his guard down about things that didn't go right in his life."

On handling all the weirdness the writers keep piling on Jeff:
"It's great to play. I've always embraced being a character actor, so I love it. I love finding out all these crazy things about my character -- his past, he's obviously a drinker, he delves into some dangerous substances. ... And obviously it's a comedy, so I really embrace it. There are so many characters out there in the real world, so I feel like Jeff kind of represents those fringe characters."

What he expects from "Chuck's" final Comic-Con (the panel is on Saturday):
"I'm expecting a lot of insanity again. I love it, though. I tell friends it's Halloween in the summer. ... I think the first year it was a little overwhelming being there. In a really good way -- you have some of the most hard-core fans down there. But it's great to meet them, and for them to have the opportunity to meet us as well. You walk around and see people dressed up in the Buy More costume. It's wonderful to see people really embrace what you're doing to that extreme."

"Chuck" returns for its final season on NBC on Friday, Oct. 21.