Critics on Why NBC Should Renew ‘Chuck’
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NJ.com television critic Alan Sepinwall and the Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan are just two of many well-known television critics who are championing Chuck right now. They have both devoted a lot of their respective columns to the show and they have been vocal about their support of the show on Twitter.
In today’s column, Sepinwall has published an open letter to NBC bigwigs Ben Silverman, Marc Graboff, and Angela Bromstad, with the reasons why he thinks they should give the show a renewal. I couldn’t agree more with his statements (after the cut):
Dear Ben, Marc and Angela:
I know this is a busy time for you. Two weeks from today, you’re going to be announcing your prime-time schedule for the 2009-10 TV season, and you still need to figure out how to make that work when you’re devoting the 10 o’clock hour to Jay Leno five nights a week. So I’ll get right to the point:
If that schedule doesn’t include "Chuck," I’m going to be very unhappy. And, I think, you might come to regret it, too. Why, when you have such a tight schedule, would you bring back a show that routinely finishes a distant fourth in its time slot? Well, beside the fact that it’s one of the most brutal time slots on television — up against "Dancing with the Stars," "House" and the CBS comedies (not to mention "Chuck" co-creator Josh Schwartz’s "Gossip Girl" on the CW) — I can think of a bunch of reasons, both creative and financial, for continuing to follow the comic adventures of nerd-turned-spy Chuck (Zachary Levi) as he saves the world while trying to get that computer of government intelligence out of his head.
1. Product integration. It’s more necessary than ever, as you try to make money while more and more viewers are using their DVRs to skip commercials. And few shows on your air are better-served to shill for the sponsors than "Chuck."
Chuck’s day job is at an electronics store; his boss, Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), is a relentless chow-hound, and his spy missions regularly involve cool cars and other gadgets. Right there, you’ve got opportunities to seamlessly insert almost any kind of product into the narrative. Maybe you ask them to put the beloved Crown Vic of Chuck’s surly handler Casey (Adam Baldwin) in the shop again and show him temporarily tooling around in a Prius and discovering that he really likes fuel efficiency.
And unlike those smart alecks over on "30 Rock," Schwartz, Chris Fedak and the rest of the "Chuck" writers don’t feel the need to make fun of product integration even as they’re doing it. They have no problem being shameless about it, like the scene in last week’s episode where Chuck’s friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez) tried to butter up Big Mike by bringing him a Subway $5 foot-long. "The Price Is Right" isn’t as complimentary of its prizes as Big Mike was of that Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. If blatant pimping is the price of continued existence, they (and we) are more than happy to pay it.
2. Recession escapism. "Escapism" seems to be buzzword du jour in your business as you try to find what people will want to watch in this harsh economic climate. As a mixture of farce and cool spy action, "Chuck" fits the bill perfectly. I’m a professional TV watcher, and even I have to admit there are some great shows on television these days that I need to brace myself to watch. Never "Chuck." It’s always the highlight — and greatest relief — of my day, week after week.
3. Good press. This has been a tough time for broadcast TV in general and NBC in particular. As NBC fell from first place to fourth, you’ve become an easy punching bag in the press. You’ve started to turn the tide a bit by becoming a champion of quality shows that don’t always dominate in the ratings — not only "30 Rock," but "Friday Night Lights," which you recently extended for two more years through your content-sharing deal with DirecTV — and you don’t want to lose all that goodwill from the media and the fans by pulling the plug on "Chuck" too soon.
What I know of the season’s last two episodes — other than the extreme likelihood that they will be, to borrow an adjective from Chuck’s future brother-in-law, Devon (Ryan McPartlin), awesome — is that this won’t be one of those "Life" or "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" finales where the fans will be disappointed but still feel they got enough closure to deal.
Fedak told me a few weeks ago that if fans find out that the season finale is also the series finale, "They’re going to burn their living rooms. They’re going to destroy their television sets. There could be chaos across the country." That’s a joke, but like all good jokes, there’s some truth behind it. Do you want the headache of all the angry columns, blog entries, e-mails and voicemails you’d receive after that? Do you want to get deluged with Nerds candy, or pocket protectors, or whatever other tchotchke the fans decide to send you, "Jericho"-style? Or do you want to simply get attaboys for standing behind a great show when it needed it?
4. NBC tradition. NBC as a network and you three as individuals seem to care deeply about maintaining the traditions of the Peacock, and "Chuck" is a link back to two of them. First, it’s exactly the kind of show — smart and funny but also light and versatile — that the late Brandon Tartikoff (whom Ben publicly reveres) would have scheduled on NBC in the mid-’80s.
Second, "Chuck" is the easiest, best way to continue the concept of Must-See TV. Slap it on Thursdays at 8 leading into "The Office" and "30 Rock" (maybe with "Parks and Recreation" rotating in with those two to avoid reruns) and you still have that classic blend of comedy and drama that you became so known for on Thursdays. It’s funny enough to lead into the sitcoms, but it also has action and pathos, and with Leno about to take over the old "Hill Street Blues"/"LA Law"/"ER" time slot, "Chuck" allows you to maintain the familiar balance. (And if you need another half-hour sitcom to work into the rotation, you could always spin off Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay as Jeff and Lester — a k a Jeffster! — who are two of the most hilarious, albeit disturbing, characters in all of prime time.)
5. Yvonne Strahovski. The entire "Chuck" cast is terrific, but you’re going to especially regret losing Strahovski. As Chuck’s other handler (and sorta-real, sorta-fake girlfriend), Sarah, Strahovski’s a star in the making: not only beautiful and increasingly assured in the fight scenes but a superb dramatic actress as well. She’s the one who makes the show feel real no matter how silly it gets, who sells the high stakes and the action and the romance, and you don’t want to be known as the people who let her go while you had her on your network in a perfect role for her.
6. It’s the best show on your network right now. All due respect to some other fine series, it’s been more consistent than "30 Rock" and "Friday Night Lights," funnier than "The Office" and more purely entertaining than them and everything else on your airwaves.
I know television is a business like any other, but in the end, keeping on the best shows and putting them in the best position to find an audience (as opposed to getting killed in an 18-car pileup on Mondays at
is what your business is supposed to be about, right?
You’re smart people, and you’ve had the good taste to develop and/or stick by some other great series. I hope in two weeks time, you find a way to stick by "Chuck."
Sincerely,
Alan Sepinwall
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Maureen Ryan published the following last week with her reasons why the show merits a third season. Again, I agree completely:
Abject begging isn’t pretty, but "Chuck" (7 p.m. Central, Monday, NBC) deserves it.
The show is in danger of cancellation, but this delightful spy dramedy should absolutely get a third season.
So, it’s begging time: Please watch Monday’s "Chuck" and the rest of the the show’s second season, which ends on April 27. For the reasons I stated in the video above, I just adore this show. I would be truly saddened if I had to think that it wasn’t returning for another season.
In the course of doing this job, I’ve become much more accepting about TV cancellations. They happen every spring, they make people mad or sad, but they’re a fact of life. I was at peace with "Veronica Mars" ending a few years ago, I would have eventually been fine with "Friday Night Lights" not returning (but I was glad when NBC renewed it for two more seasons).
But I’m absolutely not going to sit back and passively accept that "Chuck" may not come back. This is a show that makes millions of people happy every week. It’s just the kind of well-crafted escapism that people need in these trying times. And it’s one of the few shows that parents can watch with their older kids and enjoy as a family. (For some of my past praise of "Chuck," look here and here.)
An uptick in viewership might convince NBC to keep the show around, so tell two or three or 39 of your closest friends to check out the show, if they haven’t already. (If they’re not familiar with "Chuck," they can catch up via this video.)
You can also send supportive notes via the NBC Web site (start here and choose "Chuck" as the show you want to comment on).
Snail mail can also be effective: Write to Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC, at this address: 3000 W. Alameda, Burbank, CA 91523. Write to NBC’s president of prime-time programming, Angela Bromstad, at 100 Universal City Plaza. Bldg 1320, 4th Floor, Universal City, CA 91608.
There are many more creative ideas on how to support the show at the following sites, among others: Give Me My Remote’s recent "Chuck Week" kicked off much of the online "save this show" activity (take their polls; enjoy the unofficial soundtrack). Zachary-Levi.net is another site with tons of excellent info and updates on the pro-"Chuck" campaign (and the "Chuck" star is appreciative of everything fans are doing to save the show).
Chucktv.net has been doing a stellar job of drawing attention to the show’s plight. Go to to find out more about that site’s campaign and to get some fun "Save Chuck" graphics for your Web site. The talented David J. Loehr, a Watcher commenter, contributed several Twitter avatars to the online campaign.
So how much danger is "Chuck" really in? Far more than I’d like. The show is produced by Warner Bros. Television, not by NBC Universal’s own in-house production company. Because it won’t necessarily share in the ancillary revenue from "Chuck," NBC doesn’t have as much incentive to keep the show going as it did in the case of "Friday Night Lights," which is partly a Universal Media Studios production.
Still, thanks to a passionate fan base and heaps of critical acclaim — and the network’s own love for the show — NBC got creative and found a way to keep "FNL" alive via a deal with DirecTV.
NBC should think outside the box once more and find a way to bring "Chuck" back for a full season. I’m not nearly done laughing at the Nerd Herd at Buy More, marveling at the comedic genius of the grunts emitted by John Casey (Adam Baldwin), enjoying the way that stars Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski, who play Chuck and Sarah, make it look easy to pull of deft comedy and poignant drama in the same scene.
No, I’m not nearly done with "Chuck." If you’re not either, now is the time to make your voice Herd. Er, I mean heard.
A few more "Chuck" links:
Curt Wagner of Show Patrol talks to Vik Sahay, who plays Lester on the show.
Alan Sepinwall talks to co-creator Chris Fedak about the show’s second season.
Vote for "Chuck" in Watch With Kristin’s Save One Show poll. (Yes, I want "Dollhouse" to come back too. But Joss Whedon has an army of fans standing at the ready to campaign for his shows. That’s why I’m putting my focus on doing what I can for "Chuck" this spring.)
You can also see a video plea from Maureen at the source.
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