Well, isn't that shiny!!! It makes sense... smart writing... fun plot twists... great ensemble writing... I'll try to pay closer attention. Thanks!

from nytimes.com
Adam Baldwin talks Chuck with Nytimes.com

NOW that Adam Baldwin has figured out how to make it look easy — this
surly, deadpan, tough-guy thing he does every Monday night on NBC as
the monosyllabic secret-agent sidekick on the action-comedy series
“Chuck” — he doesn’t mind admitting how hard it used to be.

He was 18 when he got his first taste of movie-star limelight as the
title character in the 1980 film, “My Bodyguard,” then roles in
summer comedies like “D.C. Cab” in 1983 and smaller parts in prestige
films like “Ordinary People” despite not having a clue about what he
was doing.

“I was horrible,” he said of some of his early performances,
particularly the one in “D.C. Cab” (in which his co-stars included
Bill Maher, Gary Busey and Mr. T). “I didn’t know how to work. I
didn’t know how to process a character, and, certainly, I wasn’t as
funny as I should have been.

“But I did learn a lot of technical stuff, how to be on a set, where
to stand, how to do a fight scene, things like that,” he said during
a recent interview in a high-end Santa Monica coffee shop, one of
those mad-scientist places where they grind the coffee in front of
you and serve it in vacuum-sealed flasks on a silver tray. “But then
I had to learn how to act. And that just takes some people longer
than others. I’m no Leonardo DiCaprio.”

He can say this now that he’s 46, aware of his limitations, proud of
the niche he has found. In “Chuck” he plays no-nonsense secret agent
John Casey, protecting loose-limbed amateur Chuck Bartkowski (played
by Zachary Levi), a computer nerd who has accidentally had the
contents of a super-secret government computer downloaded into his
brain. But even before “Chuck,” Mr. Baldwin had received sterling
reviews and a growing cult following for playing similarly grumpy
characters on “The X-Files” and “Firefly.”

“The guy does more with a grunt than most actors could do with a
monologue,” said Josh Schwartz, the executive producer of “Chuck.”
The extent of Mr. Baldwin’s built-in fan base became apparent to Mr.
Schwartz only when the “Chuck” cast appeared at last summer’s Comic-
Con International, and “4,000 people went insane whenever Adam said
anything.”

Mr. Schwartz said it was the creator and co-executive producer Chris
Fedak’s idea to cast Mr. Baldwin as Casey, an idea he embraced as
soon as Mr. Baldwin read for the part. “You totally believe him as
this N.S.A. agent who’s happy to torture and kill people, but he’s
also really, really funny,” Mr. Schwartz said. “He gets the comedy
without ever breaking character. And his preparation is astounding.
Adam really relishes all these details: How does Casey sharpen his
knife and fork before he eats? He’s worked all that stuff out.”

Mr. Baldwin said, “I came up with the idea that Casey has a bonsai
tree, and I brought in the Reagan photo that’s in his room.” He
added, “I try to make sure the military vernacular is as accurate as
possible. For the comedy to work, you’ve got to buy that Casey is a
serious guy who’s somewhat incredulous about this geek being inserted
into his life.”

After last year’s debut season ended abruptly because of the writers’
strike, “Chuck” struggled to find an audience until just before its
holiday hiatus in mid-December, when critics, particularly online,
started noticing that the show’s ratings had improved 12 percent from
the season premiere. NBC is bringing the show back with a hefty
marketing push, including a 3-D commercial during Sunday night’s
Super Bowl telecast and a 3-D episode on Monday night.

“I think the network is clearly showing they believe in us,” Mr.
Baldwin said. “And I think we’ve found the base line of an audience
that’s not going to go anywhere.”

Mr. Baldwin, 6 foot 4 and broad shouldered, was already an imposing
presence as a 17-year-old high school student in the northern Chicago
suburb of Winnetka — big and quietly menacing, exactly what the
director Tony Bill sought for the part of a sullen bully who becomes
the protector of a smaller kid in “My Bodyguard.”

“Tony would say to me, ‘Just keep your face in repose,’ ” Mr. Baldwin
said. “And I would go: ‘Repose? What’s repose?’ And he said: ‘It just
means be relaxed. Don’t move.’ It was great advice, and it’s what
I’ve been trying to grasp ever since. Stillness as a technique is
still really captivating to me.”

After “My Bodyguard” became a hit, Mr. Baldwin moved to New York,
fielded offers from agents and managers who were promising to make
him the next big thing. He said he took some parts he probably
shouldn’t have taken. He went to London in 1985 for a significant
role in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” But the production
went on for months, and the film didn’t come out until 1987. By then
Mr. Baldwin’s moment seemed to have passed.

“I was given opportunities, I think, that were a little too big when
I was a little too young,” he said. “I didn’t measure up. The sports
analogy would be if you pulled a guy off the farm team and put him in
the big leagues a little too soon. That’s a good way to ruin your
arm. Fortunately my injuries weren’t career threatening. They were
just emotionally draining.”

He worked steadily through the 1980s and ’90s, bad-guy parts in B
movies (including the long-forgotten “Digital Man” and “Cold Sweat”),
lots of voice-over work, doing what he had to do to pay the bills. He
got married, had kids, played golf, built himself a decent working
actor’s career. But it wasn’t glamorous, and it wasn’t always fun.

“I think work begets work,” he said. “I did some things that were
certainly labors of love and hard-won parts, but there were others
that were just straight-up exploitation movies and terrible to watch
and don’t hold up at all. But they do pay the bills.”

All along, Mr. Baldwin said, he felt that his career would pick up
when he got older, when he could inhabit more nuanced character
roles, to be something more than just big and scary. He was 39 when
he got the “X-Files” role, Knowle Rohrer. And he was 40 when he
became Jayne Cobb on “Firefly,” a role for which TV Guide named him
its Sexiest Newcomer of 2002.

“That was hilarious,” he said. “It just seemed like a mistake, an
obvious mistake.”

Now because of his “Chuck” fame, people no longer assume that he’s
one of those other Baldwins (he’s not) or that he’s as grumpy as his
characters. He envisions a future filled with playing strong, silent
types, guys with enough experience to know how the world works, when
to take it seriously and when to go with the joke.

“I always did think that when I turned 40, I’d start coming into my
own,” he said. “Part of that is just growing and living, suffering
and failing and going through the trials of life, having a wife and
kids. It humbles you, and going through that humbling process lets
you release that self-centeredness, and it’s a very liberating
feeling. It lets you stop worrying. I’m enjoying that.”

Nice to see him getting some real appreciation :)
BTW,sorry about my absence of late. I had a massive computer virus and for some reason,it took me a while to fix my problems with this site....



Best wishes,

Scott

I'm sans speakers right now. Sucketh eggs... but priorities sooooo, I'm trying to dvr what is of importance. Most days it works.

I decided to take a crack at making a quick promo clip of the action in this show. The first one is centered around Major John Casey. It is short... fast... loud... and I think fun. If people dig it, I will make more. If not... then... not. :)

If Chuck gets the axe, I'm going to send Jay Leno hate mail every day for the rest of his life.

That's a lot of energy for ... what?

Send it instead to the powers of NBC... They make the bloody decisions. Or the sponsors... That's my choice for Dollhouse... letters to FUX's sponsors... build up a following, then jerk the rug out from under my feet!?!?!?! That does not endear your product to me.

As far as Dollhouse, those ratings are so bad, Fox probably wouldn't budge if someone sent them a bunch of mail bombs.

Gorramit, Wolfe! Didja have to use THOSE WORDS?

Now the NSA'll be crawling over our butts with a magnifying glass.. =0[.]o=

Chuck . . . Sarah . . . Casey . . . Morgan . . . *Whimper*

No whimpers for Captain Awesome and Ellie?

Devon . . . Ellie . . . Jeff . . . Lester . . . Big Mike . . . Anna . . . *Whimper*

Satisfied now?

Emmett?

Eh, Emmett is a weasel, but . . . *Whimper*

Bryce? Jill?

Yeah, especially Jill.

Not so much . . . and Jill needs a little more meat on her bones. Maybe they'll get a *Simper*

Yeah, I must admit that she looked a bit waif-ish in her last episode. But Jordana Brewster is smoking hot.

That would be Smokin' Turbo Hot, but I digress. Unless, of course, you just think she's smoking hot. There is a difference. Perhaps due to her thinness she is just smoking hot.

Loved Adam Baldwin's "end you" tribute to Firefly.

Love Big Mike as the godretailer. *giggle*

I do enjoy this show.

It's great. Best show on NBC right now, and it pains me to acknowledge that it might get canceled.

My other favorite NBC show is most certainly canceled, so I'm holding out little hope.

Oh, man-up already.