Rueben's Ramblings

Chuck Season 1

Tomorrow night a big event is going to take place on television: Chuck is coming to an end. After spending five epic seasons on NBC, the action-comedy/spy-drama that debuted to wild fanfare on September 24, 2007 will come to a close with two back-to-back episodes this Friday (January 27), ending what has been an unbelievably funny and exciting series about an average computer-whiz-next-door who received an encoded email from an old college friend who works for the CIA, embedding a copy of the greatest spy secrets of the U.S.A., known as the Intersect, into his brain.

What could have easily been a crazy concept for a TV show turned into a favorite of the critics as well as the fan-obsessed fans who fell for the antics of Chuck and his co-workers at the local Buy More; think Best Buy with green shirts and an even cooler car for the members of the computer service department known as the Nerd Herders.

Chuck Season 2

Despite a lot of support from fans and critics alike, as the show came to a close at the end of its second season, ratings for Chuck put it in danger of cancellation. That is where the fans came into play with a successful campaign to encourage NBC to renew the show. Using the product placement from the show – specifically the Subway restaurant chain – fans mobilized a worldwide effort to shop at Subway, ordering “tens of thousands” of foot-long sandwiches. This effort, of course, caught the attention of the restaurant chain AND the network, who worked out a major sponsorship deal that helped to cover costs of the third season.

Each subsequent season since that time has been a nail-biter for the series and its devoted fans; but despite the biggest odds being stacked against Chuck, the series kept coming back. And while Chuck is coming to a close – just a little short of its 100th episode triumph – the 91 episodes that have been filmed and will be aired by this Friday will leave an indelible mark on TV viewers and the history of television itself.

Chuck Season 3

During those amazing five seasons, viewers have seen Chuck (Zachary Levi) go from a clumsy, somewhat clueless computer tech worker at the Burbank Buy More with a crazy computer stuck inside his head being protected by sexy CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and NSA Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin) slowly turn into an adept spy in his own right, winning the girl of his dreams. Fans have also been introduced to a unique collection of co-workers; including Chuck’s best friend Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), the scheming team of Lester Patel (Vik Sahay) and Jeff Barnes (Scott Krinsky) and store manager Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) as well as Chuck’s sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend-sans-husband (Ryan McPartlin) and Brigadier General Diane Beckman (Bonita Friedericy).

Over the years, the viewers were also introduced to an eclectic group of guest stars who played spies, family, friends and co-workers to our merry band of spies, family, friends and co-workers. Among those great appearances included the following:

Chuck Season 4

Actor Matthew Bomer (White Collar) as CIA Agent Bryce Larkin, Chuck’s former college buddy and the on-again, off-again boyfriend to Sarah;

Horror-master/Actor Tony Todd (Candyman) as CIA Director Langston Graham, Sarah’s supervisor who recruited her into the agency after her father was arrested;

Actor Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) as long-missing dad Stephen Bartowski, who was involved in the creation of the Intersect;

Actress Linda Hamilton (Terminator franchise) as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, Chuck and Ellie’s estranged and long-lost mother who turns out to be a deep undercover boss;

Chuck

Actor Gary Cole (Midnight Caller and Office Space) as Sarah’s estranged father Jack Burton, conman extraordinaire who frequently involved Sarah in his cons as a young girl;

Actor Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) as CIA Agent Daniel Shaw who worked with team Bartowski but later became Chuck’s greatest nemesis;

Actor Timothy Dalton (James Bond franchise) as Alexei Volkoff, an international arms dealer and leader of Volkoff Industries, who was actually a scientist name Harley Winterbottom, who became the first test subject for the Intersect; and,

Actress Mekenna Melvin (a relative newcomer) as Alex McHugh, the daughter of NSA Agent John Casey and eventual girlfriend to Morgan Grimes.

The show has not only been a hit with critics and viewers, but it has also been the recipient of about a dozen award nominations, and from those nominations a handful of wins, including a 2009 Emmy win for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Merritt Yohnka; a 2010 Teen Choice Award for Action Actor and Action Actress for both Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski and a 2010 IGN Award for Best Villain for Brandon Routh.

So, whether you are a long-time fan who has watched the show since the very beginning or perhaps you gave up on the show over the past few seasons, you owe it to yourself to check out the two-hour finale of Chuck tomorrow at 8 and 9 PM and be a part of television history.