Chuck (TV series)

This article is written from a real-world point of view.

Chuck is an action-comedy television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak which aires on NBC. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working in the CIA; the message embeds the only remaining copy of the world's greatest spy secrets into Chuck's brain.

Plot

Chuck Bartowski is a twenty-something in Burbank, CA who works as a computer expert at the Nerd Herd at his local Buy More (a parody of Best Buy's Geek Squad), a large retail consumer-electronics chain, with his best friend, Morgan Grimes. Chuck's sister Ellie is a doctor who is constantly encouraging him to make progress in his professional and romantic life. Also joining the cast is Ellie's now-husband, Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb , also a doctor looking out for Chuck's social life. On the night of his birthday party, Chuck receives an e-mail from Bryce Larkin , his former Stanford University roommate, who is now a "rogue" Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent. When he opens it, the entire database of all the US government's secret information—a neural supercomputer called The Intersect—is subliminally embedded into his brain. Both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the CIA want the intelligence returned to them and dispatch agents of their own—Major John Casey and Sarah Walker to retrieve the data.

Since the information was stolen by Bryce and the government's copy destroyed in his attempted escape, and since Chuck experiences "flashes" of information from the database activated by certain triggers around him (such as faces, voices, in-context keywords, and various objects), he must use the knowledge he now possesses to help the government thwart assassins and international terrorists—upending his previously uneventful life. In order to preserve their safety, Chuck must keep his newfound occupation a secret from his family and friends, forcing Casey and Walker to establish an uneasy alliance and secret identities; Walker poses as Chuck's girlfriend and takes a cover job at the local restaurant next to the Buy More (formerly Wienerlicious, currently Orange Orange) while Casey gets a job at the Buy More, with the shared goal of protecting Chuck at all costs.

In the meantime, the government attempts to rebuild the Intersect computer. As it nears completion, Casey is ordered to kill Chuck as soon as the new Intersect is ready. However, in the premiere of season 2, it is sabotaged, keeping Chuck alive.

As the series progresses, it is revealed that Bryce is still alive and that a rogue spy agency called "Fulcrum" is searching for the Intersect, which they believe to still be in the possession of Bryce, not Chuck. Several Fulcrum agents have independently discovered that Chuck actually is the Intersect, but all have been apprehended or killed before they could pass the information on.

It is also revealed that Fulcrum is attempting to build its own Intersect, and that Fulcrum believes the CIA has stopped trying to rebuild its own. In the episode "Chuck Versus the Suburbs" (February 16, 2009), the collection of all secrets from Fulcrum's own Intersect testbed project was implanted into Chuck's head. Eventually, (presumably) all of the Intersect information is removed by Chuck's father and the Intersect's chief inventor, Steven Bartowski (a.k.a. "Orion", played by Scott Bakula); however, in the second season finale "Chuck Versus the Ring" (April 27, 2009), Chuck voluntarily uploads the newest version of the Intersect into himself which allows him to flash on other skills à la The Matrix, rather than just the raw information and computation of the earlier Intersect.

Characters and cast

See Also: A full list of characters See Also: A full list of Actors

Chuck Bartowski played by Zachary Levi
Sarah Walker played by Yvonne Strahovski
John Casey played by Adam Baldwin
Morgan Grimes played by Joshua Gomez
Ellie Bartowski played by Sarah Lancaster
Captain Awesome played by Ryan McPartlin

Big Mike played by Mark Christopher Lawrence
Lester played by Vik Sahay
Jeff played by Scott Krinsky
General Diane Beckman played by Bonita Friedericy

Changes made to Chuck

In early drafts of the Template:101 episode of Chuck many things different were diffrent to the aired episode such as:

Kayla Hart - Chuck’s next door neighbour. Single, twenty-five and heavily into the indie music scene, Kayla was a potential love interest for Chuck.Taken out completely.
Bryce Larkin's escape from after stealing and blowing up the intersect computer that housed the First Intersect was extended.
The nerd heard was called the Geek Force.
Chuck and Morgan were playing the xbox whilst avoiding the party.

Quotes

See: Chuck Quotes

Chuck gadgets

Chuck being a spy show features quite a lot of gadgets, for a full list see: Category:Gadgets

Locations

There are many different location frequently used with the Chuck Television show, for a full list see: Category:Locations

Save Chuck

For more information: Save Chuck

Save Chuck was the the 2009 fan Campaign to save the television show Chuck from being cancelled, at the end of Season two, and for NBC to renewal Chuck for a third season.

Episodes

Web based spin-offs

There are currently three web based spin offs, Chuck Versus the Webisodes, Meet the Nerd Herders and Morgan's Vlog

Chuck Graphic Novels

For full information: Chuck (Graphic novels)

Wildstorm, a DC Comics imprint, produced a six-issue mini-series written by Peter Johnson and Zev Borow , with art by Jeremy Haun and Phil Noto. It started in June 2008. A trade paperback collection was published in July, 2009. It also includes a public service announcement on brushing one's teeth from Captain Awesome and two gag adventures with Morgan based on film noir and The Odyssey. (WildStorm also releases Brian K. Vaughan's Ex Machina, a series which sees its main character fused with a technological structure, issue #39 of which is used within Chuck to conceal the Intersect Operating manual from General Beckman, Casey, and Sarah for Chuck's studies from Season 2, episode #17 onwards.)

Music

For a full list of music that's been used in Chuck, visit: Music Used in Chuck

Like any Television show, Chuck contains music or songs within it's episodes. The main example of this wounded be the shows title sequence (or theme tune) which is sample of "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" by Cake, which first appeared in Chuck Versus the Tango.

Trivia, Notes, Allusions and Pop/Geek Culture References

See: Trivia, Notes, Allusions and Pop/Geek Culture References

Tie in websites

A tie in website are websites created by the produces of a show which create real on the web sites to promote and give further information about the show to fans. Chuck has the following websites:

NBC Chuck:

Fictional sites:

Myspace:

Chuck Bartowski has an account on YouTube. As of July 2007, he hasn't uploaded any videos yet, but his favorites list includes "Brokeback to the Future", and clips of Beck and Pavement. His profile can be found here