Ausiello’s twitter:

SAVE THE DATE: Two-hour CHUCK season finale will air Monday, May 24, 8-10 p.m.

It’s Doc Brown to the rescue!

Chuck has tapped Back to the Future’s mad scientist, Christopher Lloyd, to play a therapist who Chuck turns to when the pressures of the spy biz become too much for him to bear.

Exec producer Josh Schwartz, who broke the casting news via Twitter, noted that Back to the Future has been “a huge influence” on Chuck.

Lloyd will appear in this season’s 16th episode, which is slated to air in April or May.

Programming note: Tonight brings Chuck’s last original episode until after the Olympics, so enjoy every second of it!

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BURBANK, Calif. — After two seasons of playing, well, the nerd in the middle of a series of spy adventures, Zachary Levi is thrilled with what’s happened to “Chuck” (Mondays, 7 p.m., Ch. 5).

He’s getting some kung fu action all his own.

“I did sign up for this,” Levi said on the set of “Chuck” on the Warner Bros. backlot. “When I read the pilot I was hoping this is exactly what I would be doing.

“I had to wait two years. I mean, I was hoping for all that stuff.”

The original premise of “Chuck” was that all the information in a government super computer — the Intersect — was downloaded into the brain of Chuck Bartowski. And, because the computer had been destroyed, Chuck was the only one with all the government secrets needed to fight the bad guys.

But Chuck had no skills. So his handlers — CIA operative Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and NSA operative John Casey (Adam Baldwin) did all the cool stuff while Chuck sort of fumbled around.

But no more. At the end of Season 2, with Intersect 2.0 downloaded into his brain, Chuck suddenly had the ability to kung fu his way out of trouble all by himself.

Except, of course, that he doesn’t really have control over his new powers, which are dependent on his emotional state. He has to have a “flash” to activate his powers, and he can’t control the flashes.

When he does flash, he’s capable of doing what the most highly trained agents in the world can do in terms of martial arts and the use of weapons. But he’s not Superman.

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Like many other NBC shows, Chuck will be going on a little mini hiatus with the nonstop Winter Olympics coverage starting on Feb. 12. But we’ve got an exclusive clip from Monday’s episode, the last before the Olympics begin. This past Monday’s episode saw everybody’s favorite nerdy super-spy (played by Zachary Levi) “burn” his first asset and veer a bit toward the dark side of espionage, and also entrench himself into what could be a love triangle with his handler Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and new Buy More employee Hannah (guest star Kristin Kreuk). Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz says that when the show returns from its break on March 1, it will continue to build on the emotional cost and the toll of Chuck becoming a spy, in terms of how it affects Sarah, his family and his own soul. “You’ll just see the stakes rising ever higher,” says Schwartz, who also created The O.C. and is an executive producer on Gossip Girl. Read below for more of our “state of the Chuck” conversation.

How are episodes shaping up for the end of season?
It’s gonna be epic! It’s gonna be huge and jaw-dropping. We have to top what we did at the end of last year, and I think we will.

How are the ratings so far and what are you hearing about a next season?
The ratings have been pretty solid this year. They’ve been better from last year, which is good to have growth in your third season. But I take nothing for granted and will not rest or relax until an actual or offcial pickup is in hand. Until that moment, the fan base needs to remain galvanized and passionate. Nothing is certain.

(Read more…)

[1162] 3.06 Chuck Vs. The Nacho Sampler
[0001] Zachary Levi - James Dimmock
[0007] Zachary Levi & Joshua Gomez - James Dimmock

If you are fan of the television show “Chuck”, if you’ve even caught a glimpse of it I don’t know how you couldn’t be, you’re familiar with Ryan McPartlin. The actor plays Chuck’s brother in law and us “Chuckheads” know him as “Captain Awesome”. Apparently one role as Captain wasn’t enough for McPartlin and he had to audition for another one, no I’m not talking about Captain Jack Sparrow, that guy Depp seems to have that part hooked. The coffee bean addict himself, Clint Morris over at Moviehole has the exclusive on McPartlin reading for the role of Captain America for the upcoming “Captain America: The First Avenger”.

“The one thing I can’t stand are these actors that are twittering about auditioning for Captain America. It’s really tacky. With that said, it is in the casting process and like many other actors, I read for it, so we’ll wait and see what happens. Regardless, I’m pretty psyched to be Captain Awesome for the time being.”

He is right, the actors being so jazzed up about reading for a role that they tweet and blog about it is getting a bit out of hand. What we can take away from McPartlin’s quote is that you can probably rule him out as the next Captain America since he is openly talking about the audition. If that is indeed the case, this wouldn’t be the first time McPartlin has come close to slipping into a pair of blue spandex. He was up for the role of Superman in Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns” before Brandon Routh flew away with it. McPartlin greeted Routh with an earful while on the set together filming “Chuck”, because there, he is still Captain Awesome.

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Zachary Levi eats a Fatburger after playing in his celebrity E League basketball game, one of the best kept celebrity secrets in Los Angeles today. Fatburger is the proud sponsor of the 2009/2010 E League. The invitation-only celebrity basketball league is currently in its 13th season and features over 200 celebrity players. Current and past players, many of whom are Oscar, Emmy and Grammy award winners include Taye Diggs, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler, Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Ashton Kutcher, Martin Lawrence, Tobey Maguire, Justin Timberlake and many others.

[14] E League Basketball Game - February 02

Thanks Ava for the info!

From Matt Barber’s twitter:

Reviewing #chuck 307 before it airs on Monday. Are you ready for the mission?

Question: I have a Chuck query. I was wondering if anyone else will be finding out about Chuck’s secret in the near future? —Jenny
Ausiello: If by near future you mean this season then yes, someone else will be finding out about Chuck’s secret in the near future. In fact, this unnamed individual will not only uncover the truth about Chuck’s other life, he/she will end up joining him on a mission. And if you saw Monday’s immensely entertaining and hugely pivotal episode, you know it can really only be one of two people.

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