Chuck vs. the Podcast 60 – Yvonne On Twitter

Yes, it’s true… Yvonne Strahovski is now on Twitter! Follow her at Y_Strahovski, and find out here about her most tweeted topic — her work with the Ken-Mar Rescue Center for dogs.

We also bring you news of a new Julia Ling fan site, the results of ChuckTV.net’s latest fan survey, listener emails, and more!

Chuck’s writers are already busy at work on season 4… This summer, let’s be busy introducing our friends and family to Chuck!

Miss any episodes? You can find them all at chuckpodcast.blip.tv, and every time you watch it helps to support us!

Also, if you like the show, please consider supporting us with a monthly vote at Podcast Alley.

We Love Anna Wu: Site To Bring Back Julia Ling

Chuck fans, are you itching for a cause now that season 4 is a lock? How about joining the request to bring back Julia Ling as Anna Wu? WeLoveAnnaWu.com is the headquarters for that endeavor. Says owner Chris:

The mission of this website is to create a community for Anna Wu fans as well as create awareness for the love that exists for this unique and charming Nerd Herder from NBC’s TV show, Chuck.

Anna Wu, aka Julia Ling, was removed from the main cast of Chuck during Season 3 due to budget constraints.  We believe that losing Anna Wu takes away part of the original charm that drew us to Chuck from the very beginning, and we want her back!  Anna Wu is an integral part of the supporting cast of Chuck and can play a pivotal role in future story arcs – have you seen how dangerous she can be with a tripod in hand?  Who needs an Intersect when you have Anna Wu?

The ultimate goal of WeLoveAnnaWu.com is to become the driving force behind the fan effort to bring Anna Wu back to Chuck‘s main cast in Season 4.  To find out how you can help us bring Anna Wu back, please visit WeLoveAnnaWu.com.  We have a lot of great ideas planned, including contests and some exclusive Anna Wu content – so check back often!

Julia Ling Talks Anna Wu’s Return To ‘Chuck’

Julia Ling returns as Anna Wu on tonight’s episode of Chuck, and she’s after one thing: Morgan. TV Squad has an interview with the MIA Nerd Herder in advance of “Chuck vs. the Tooth”:

How is Anna returning to ‘Chuck’?
Anna is coming back from Hawaii. She’s got the whole sexy tan going. She’s coming back for Morgan. She has some things to settle with him.

This is interesting, because supposedly Morgan dumped your character because she was cheating on him … or is there more to it than that?
We’re going to find out. There are some things that Anna is coming back to settle.

Is Anna ready to go back to work at the Buy More, ready to become a Nerd Herder again?
Anna could do that, but I don’t think that’s what’s on her mind. She didn’t come back for that. She’s not thinking about Buy More. She’s really back for Morgan.

(Read the rest of the interview here…)

SPOILERS: Anna Wu Plus Season Finale News

Ausiello has some Chuck spoilers for us in this week’s column:

Question: I’m freaking out! Is there a chance Chuck won’t see a fourth season? In the meantime, can you prescribe some spoilers to keep sane? —Marie-Helene
Ausiello: It’s true that Monday’s ratings were terrifying, but Daylight Savings Time wrought havoc on all shows, not just Chuck. Having said that, exec producer Josh Schwartz was alarmed enough to alert fans via Twitter that “it’s time to get organized.” For now, I’m leaving the show’s prognosis at “a safe bet” on my Renewal Scorecard. On the spoiler front, Schwartz confirms that Anna Wu’s back! Julia Ling will reprise her role in the May 10 episode. Teases Schwartz: “She’s coming back for Morgan.”

Question: This week’s Chuck was awesome! It’s so depressing that it hasn’t been renewed yet! Do you have any spoilers to cheer me up? —Julia
Ausiello: I have it on good authority that the season finale will feature at least one significant death. Feeling better, Julia?

Question: I desperately need some scoop on Chuck’s season finale! —Kim
Ausiello: Then make sure you pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on sale Friday. I also may tweet a hint or two tomorrow via @ewausiellofiles.

Friday Five: Most Memorable Interviews

In the almost three years ChuckTV.net has been around, we’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview all of the regular cast members, most of the supporting cast, several guest stars, writers, directors, the composer, and producers. Today’s topic is a trip down memory lane highlighting my most memorable interviews over the last couple of years.

1. Sarah Lancaster (December 2007) – This was our first interview for the site and Sarah was a delight to talk with. She and I are native Kansans, which allowed for instant bonding, and she was so excited to talk about the show. When we spoke with her, Chuck had been granted a full season, but the writers’ strike was underway, so no one knew how that was going to play out. Looking back at the questions and answers more than two years later reminds me what hooked me on the show in the first place. (This was pre-podcast, and Liz & I didn’t know how to record things for posting on the Interwebz yet, so this interview is text only.)
2. Tim Jones (February 2008) – Gray’s interview with Chuck composer Tim was the first time I’d heard someone talk about what goes into making music for a television show. Since then I’ve learned to recognize certain pieces of the score as themes for characters and situations which adds to the richness of the experience. On top of that, Tim’s just an all around nice guy and we’ve enjoyed keeping up with him over the years. (Listen to the interview here.)
3. Rally Time – 16 Cast & Creative Team Members (April 2009) – I know, this is more than one interview, but what list is complete without it? With less than a week until the season and possibly series finale aired, we pulled together 16 interviews with the cast and creative team of Chuck to thank fans for their renewal efforts and tell them why they should watch the finale. It was a crazy few days, especially watching Gray conduct several of the interviews and put together the final product.
4. Comic Con (July 2009) – Another compilation of interviews, this time celebrating the upcoming third season. We were in the press room at Comic Con in San Diego, face to face with the cast and producers. It’s one thing to talk to these folks on the phone, wearing sweatpants and holding a list of questions to refer to as needed. In person, in a very noisy room, on three hours of sleep? It was pure adrenaline!
5. Vik Sahay (November 2009) – This may be my favorite Chuck interview of all time. At least that I participated in. I was battling a cold and really tired the day we were supposed to talk, and I was worried that the interview would suffer as a result. If anything, it might have been better than if I’d been more prepared. Vik keeps you on your toes, so buzzed on Dayquil and with just a loose outline could be the secret to having a successful interview with this guy.

We’ve had some really terrific interviews with the Chuck gang. This was a lot harder to pare down to five than I expected! If the topic hadn’t occurred to me at 10PM on Thursday, I might have been organized enough to get Liz and Gray’s most memorable five. Perhaps we’ll save that for another Friday.

Chuck Interview Round Up: Vik, Julia, Kristin

Amid the hulabaloo of new episodes, sometimes bits of news get lost, like these interviews that have been sitting in my Inbox for, well, longer than they should! If you haven’t already, catch up with some of our favorite Chucksters:

• Vik Sahay talks to the A.V. Club.
• Kristin Kreuk gets cheeky with IGN, Zap2It and Fancast.
• Josh Schwartz wants Chuck Norris.
• Chris Fedak wants Roan to return.
• Julia Ling gives a birthday interview.
• Reminder: Lee interviews Adam Baldwin on Thursday at 9/8c.

All caught up!

Happy Birthday, Julia Ling!

Join us in wishing Julia Ling a very happy birthday! We’re excited that she’ll be back on Chuck later this season and look forward to seeing what the year brings for her.

Julia Ling Returns to Chuck!

Looks like Morgan is going to have his hands full! Julia Ling has confirmed via Twitter that she’s headed to the Chuck set next week to film Anna Wu’s triumphant return! Or will it be a sheepish return? We think Anna’s got a lot of explaining to do!

Julia also guest stars in The Deep End airing tomorrow night at 8/7c on ABC.

2009: The Chuck Year In Review

2009 is drawing to a close, and what a year it’s been for Chuck fans! Let’s recap, shall we?

January 2009

Remember way back in January when it felt like 7 weeks was too long to wait for a new episode? Those were the days. The year started with a gamer showdown, Chuck vs. Heroes, and soon heated up with promos and spoilers for the 3-D episode and the exciting news that Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula were joining the show for an extended arc later in the season.

February 2009

February opened with some football game, plus Chuck‘s first 3D episode, guest starring Lost and Lord of the Rings alum Dominic Monaghan. Ratings for the episode were pretty good, but President Obama bumped the show the following week for a Presidential address, making us wait – again – for a new episode. But Chuck and Sarah did end up playing house in the suburbs and learning the importance of best friends. Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak and Yvonne Strahovski attended the New York Comic Con to promote the second half of the season while Zachary Levi was spotted celebrating the Oscars.

March 2009

March was a busy month with Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz kicking things off at WonderCon. Fans were in a tizzy about a beefcake and a lethal weapon, gasping over the reveal that Chuck had been conducting an investigation of his own for quite some time, and Awesome had a rather disastrous bachelor party. Meanwhile, with fans increasingly concerned about the odds of Chuck getting a third season, we launched the Watch/Buy/Share campaign.

April 2009

April was season finale month and every week jaws were dropping as Chuck got his dream job and found his long-lost father then used “The Morgan” to surprising effect, Casey got a promotion while Chuck & Sarah got cozy, and the season finale was, in a word, epic. In renewal campaign news, bloggers and critics joined the cause, we added a “Win!” component to the campaign, Wendy’s infamous Finale & a Footlong element came to life with Zac taking part during a convention appearance in England, 16 members of the cast and creative team participated in a very special episode of Chuck vs the Podcast, and even CNN got in on the action by calling for fans to send in videos saying why Chuck deserved a third season.

May 2009

May dawned with the promise of an answer from NBC regarding Chuck‘s fate, but it was postponed a couple of weeks, much to fans’ dismay. We updated fans frequently on the latest renewal news; in the meantime, the first We Heart Chuck campaign kicked off, raising funds for the American Heart Association, and our own Gray Jones interviewed Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez on CNN.com. While awaiting word on his show’s fate, Zac embarked on a USO Tour in the Middle East and blogged about it. We heard about it first on May 17, but it wasn’t until May 19th that NBC officially announced that Chuck had been renewed for a third season with a 13 episode order  set to debut in March 2010, and there was much rejoicing. The third season speculation began as fans started looking ahead.

June 2009

With a long hiatus stretching out ahead of us, several fans – spearheaded by Magnus and Richard – put their heads together on a new campaign to keep interest high and Chuck Me Mondays was born. The June 1st launch was a rousing success and the campaign continued through the end of the year, eventually moving primary operations to Magnus’s blog. We got our first bit of spoiler info on season three, and the month ended with Zac throwing out the first pitch at a Dodgers game.

July 2009

July was dominated by talk of Comic Con as Chuck prepared for its third appearance that the annual geek fest. Before heading off to San Diego, we chatted with writer Zev Borow, Chuck was nominated for an Emmy in stunt coordination, writer Ali Adler Twitpic’d her office with a page of script from episode 3.02 on the computer screen which we promptly decoded, and we dissected the episode 3.01 casting call. Then came Comic Con with JEFFSTER! bringing down the house in what many CC veterans have called the best panel intro ever. Mel and Siskj were in the press room after the panel to chat with Adam Baldwin, Josh Schwartz, Joshua Gomez & Zachary Levi, Ryan McPartlin, Vik Sahay & Scott Krinsky, and Mark Christopher Lawrence, but sadly not Yvonne Strahovski & Sarah Lancaster. Rounding out the month was the launch of Chuck Me Out, a unique endeavor from NBC reaching out to fans with original content.

August 2009

With filming of season 3 underway in August, Mo Ryan stopped by for a set visit, we saw some photos from the set, and got the news that Brandon Routh had been cast as a guest star for several episodes. We also launched a series of articles written by guest authors covering topics like Sarah: Kryptonite or Spinach, the pros and cons of the show returning earlier/getting a full season order/etc. and what might happen if Morgan discovered Chuck’s secret. We talked with Ryan McPartlin for the podcast, and casting calls continued to give us clues about season 3.

September 2009

In September Lou interviewed producer/director Robert Duncan McNeill at the Toronto SF Expo, Gray revamped the Chuck vs the Podcast website, and We Heart Chuck launched a fundraising endeavor in honor of Zac’s birthday.  In casting news, we learned that Kristin Kreuk would join the show for a handful of episodes, plus we’d see Armand Assante, Angie Harmon and Vinnie Jones in guest spots early in the season. Merritt Yohnka won the Emmy for Stunt Coordination for the second year in a row, Chuck and Zac won EWwys, and the cast and co-creator Chris Fedak said thank you for hitting 1 million streams of Chuck. Our guest writer series continued with a point/counter-point on the Chuck & Sarah relationship, a call for more girl talk, and speculation about how the show might have played out if the original cast had remained intact. In addition, Gray headed to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks where he spent a lot of time with the Chuck folks and blogged about it for us. And in honor of Zac’s birthday, we wrote a year in review just for him.

October 2009

October brought increased speculation that Chuck would return earlier than March 2010, and, briefly, it appeared that the show would move to Thursdays. (It’s not – season 3 debuts Sunday, January 10 with two episodes, then settles into its regular Monday 8/7c timeslot on January 11.) We were excited when NBC announced that they’d ordered 6 more episodes of Chuck, bringing the total episode order for season 3 to nineteen. We scooped that Steve Austin would guest star on an episode of Chuck, and gave you your first look at Kristin Kreuk on the set of Chuck with Gray Jones. Our guest writers took a look at Casey and examined the brunette influence in Chuck’s life. Zach directed a short film for Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project and we learned that he would direct an episode of Chuck this season. Yvonne appeared on Last Call With Carson Daly to promote her indie film, The Canyon, and attended the film’s premiere at Screamfest. The season 2 DVD was released in the UK, giving us a peek at the bloopers and deleted scenes, and the U.S. finally got a release date for the DVD (January 5). We had an interactive podcast interview with Phil Klemmer and Matt Barber, plus more photos from the set showed up from the cast and creative team to keep us buzzing about season 3.

November 2009

Rumors of an early return were confirmed in November when NBC announced that Chuck would debut with a 2-night, 3-hour extravaganza on January 10 & 11. The promos started coming out almost faster than we could catch them, ramping up excitement for the new season. Some clues about the new season were revealed in interviews with the cast from Televisionary and AOL, and in photos from the set. Our interactive podcast interview with Julia Ling was a success, and Vik Sahay spent some time not telling us what’s coming up in season 3. Robert Patrick signed on for a guest spot and we learned that two new writers are on board. We offered up ideas for gifts this holiday season, and conducted our first fan survey.

December 2009

Zac kicked off December by co-hosting Christmas at Rockefeller Center and chatting about Chuck on The Today Show. Zac also answered ten questions for Natalie Abrams and appeared on CNN to talk Chuck.  Matt Barber was the first in a series of editor interviews on the podcast, and we participated in a conference call with Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak and Zachary Levi. Mark Sheppard signed on for an arc of unknown quantity, providing us with a little Firefly reunion with Adam Baldwin. Adam and Yvonne were confirmed as providing voices for the upcoming video game Mass Effect 2. We posted the results of our first fan survey, and NBC launched Mission: Chuck Me Out. We Heart Chuck announced Chuckfest, a celebration of Chuck benefiting the American Heart Association. The poster for season 3 was revealed, followed by promotional photos for the first three episodes. SyFy announced a Chuck marathon coming January 7, and we previewed the first five episodes.

Some milestones for us include:

• Chuck vs. the Podcast ends the year as the #1 TV podcast on Podcast Alley and #4 overall in the TV & Film category (#43 overall out of 73,000 podcasts worldwide).  It has held the #1 TV spot consistently since December 2008, and has risen as high as #1 in the TV & Film category and #6 overall. On average, 15,000 people listen to our podcasts each month, hailing from at least 20 different countries. As listenership climbed and hosting costs increased, we welcomed two sponsors, Movie Morons Podcast and serienjunkies.de. This year we released an average of 2 podcasts per month (23 total), with a whopping 31 interviews. As of now, all of the regular cast, 3 directors, 4 writers/producers, 4 editors, and the composer have now appeared on the podcast (many more than once).
• ChuckTV.net received more than 1.1 million visits and 4.1 million page views in 2009. To handle that increase in traffic, we moved to a dedicated server in April, then upgraded yet again in August. Despite the long hiatus, Chuck fans were eager for the latest news; we averaged 95,000 visitors/mo from April-December, even though the show wasn’t airing. In August, Blogs.com named us one of the Top 10 Indie TV Blogs, much to our surprise and delight.

And those are just the highlights! Plenty of discussion in the comments and on the forum, numerous other interviews and media mentions, tons of spoilers and speculation, and fan creations filled the year to overflowing with goodies for Chuck fans. Thank you to the cast and creative team of Chuck for a tremendous year, and to the fans for keeping the buzz going. With season 3 starting January 10, it looks like 2010 is going to be another banner year.

Chuck On Twitter: Who’s Tweeting Now? (UPDATED)

It’s Follow Friday on Twitter, and we’ve got a major new addition to the Chuck ranks, so I thought now would be a good time to update the list of who’s on Twitter. These people have all be verified as legitimate, so follow with confidence.

Chuck Cast

• Zachary Levi (Chuck) – ZacharyLevi
• Adam Baldwin (Casey) – AdamSBaldwin (joined 11/19/09)
• Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah) Y_Strahovski (joined 6/2/10)
• Joshua Gomez (Morgan) – JoshuaEGomez (joined 7/30/10)
• Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike) – MarkChrLawrence
• Scott Krinsky (Jeff) – Scott_Krinsky
• Julia Ling (Anna) – JuliaLing
• Mekenna Melvin (Alex) – MekennaMelvin

Chuck Creative

• Josh Schwartz (co-creator/executive producer) – JoshSchwartz76
• Ali Adler (writer/producer) – AliAdler
• Matt Barber (editor) – BarberMatt
• Tim Jones (composer) – TimJonesMusic
• Norman Buckley (director) – NorBuck
• David Coleman (prop master) – kentuckysocal
• Jeremiah Chechik (director) – TinRoof
• Scott Rosenbaum (writer/produce/now executive producer of V) – SkeeteRosenbaum

You can also get scoop from NBC at NBCChuck, ChuckMeOut and NBCStore. And of course you can follow us at ChuckTVdotNet and GrayJones. Happy Tweeting!

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