Fri Nov 7, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

'Chuck' gets 3-D, Super Bowl Boost

NBC Series Continues to Earn Support

We love NBC’s Chuck. It’s a fresh take on spies and nerds that is appealingly cast and produced. The show has a great ensemble headed by Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin.  That it continues to perform well in a television season that most call tepid is a good thing.

NBC agrees and continues to support the series.  Most recently it has announced an episode would be shot in 3-D but now creator Josh Schwartz tells Comic Book Resources the show will also receive a push via the Super Bowl, Sunday February 1.

 “It was NBC,” Schwartz, said, crediting the network. “They were doing this big promotion inside of the Super Bowl and handing out 150 million 3-D glasses, so we are the beneficiaries of that. Initially their plan was to have a bunch of shows do it, but it was logistically complicated, so Chuck seemed like the best fit for that type of thing.

“We are shooting the 3-D episode with Dominic Monahan and he’s loving it and loving his leather pants. Zach is the biggest Lost fan, so they talk Lord of the Rings and Lost and it’s huge for him.”

Among the promised three-dimensional images will be Nerd Herder “Jeff eating a urinal cake in 3-D.”

Schwartz says the support from the peacock network has been nothing short of incredible. “NBC has been an incredible partner for the show. I don’t want to sound like a corporate suck-up, but it’s true. They have believed in the show from the get-go. They supported the show by putting us on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. so we would have the Heroes connection and a better shot. They picked us up for the second season knowing the Strike was coming but still believing in us. Obviously, picking up the show for 22 episodes before it even airs is an incredible show of faith. They’ve also given us this 3-D episode that is going to air the night after the Super Bowl, so they’ve been as supportive as I could hope.

“We’ve been recovering from this post-Strike hangover,” Schwartz admitted. “We were doing pretty well before the Strike: every week was building and the numbers were pretty good. It was very encouraging, and then we went off the air for eight months and are in an incredibly competitive timeslot. Forget Gossip Girl or Dancing With the Stars, you’ve still got the CBS comedies and Monday Night Football, which is huge, and also Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. (Fox moves Sarah Connor to Fridays in mid-February.)
 

Jump to comments (1)