Chuck @ Comic Con: Thoughts & Reminiscing

Comic-Con 2010 has wrapped, but the buzz continues. Liz & I are buried in work for our various sites (we also run True-Blood.net and NiceGirlsTV.com), so it’s almost like still being at SDCC, but without the lines and the swag. Gray is editing our special Comic-Con edition of Chuck vs. the Podcast for later this week, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share some thoughts on Chuck‘s fourth appearance at the annual geekfest that maybe don’t really fit in elsewhere.

Watch Chuck vs. the Podcast Comic-Con 2010 Part 1 and Part 2. 

Let’s get the disappointing bits out of the way first: the panel was too short and the press room was poorly managed. If you were following Twitter at all, you probably heard the virtual booing when the Ballroom 20 moderator informed the room that there was no time for fan Q&A’s. The special intro videos took up too much time (in hindsight, they should’ve ditched the season 3 highlight reel), the panel started late, and panels were a strictly enforced 45 minutes this year instead of 60. All of this combined to mean that we got about 20 minutes of panel moderators Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Feinberg from HitFix asking questions (and they did a fine job, including everyone with a broad range of queries), then the panel was over.

Having heard about what happened, the Boob Tube Dude wrote an article about accessibility – or the illusion thereof – at Comic-Con that’s worth reading. He makes some good points about fan expectations; however, I have to argue that Chuck is an exception to the Comic-Con rule. This was quite possibly the worst panel for the Q&A to be cut. Many other shows and movies are there to basically put in some face time and promote their product. It’s a congenial enough arrangement, and fans clearly enjoy it, but the Chuck group is one of the few that has a strong connection to their fanbase and uses this time to strengthen it. For the past three years, Comic-Con has been a place to connect with fans, get feedback, and bask in mutual admiration. This year, that didn’t happen, and the fans and cast and creators of Chuck were understandably disappointed.

Likewise, the press room left most print media (ourselves included) out in the cold. So many video outlets were there that it took the talent about 45 minutes to make it down the line. Guess how long we had the press room? Yep, 45 minutes, then they had to hustle over to the Warner Bros. booth for the autograph signing. The publicists did try to move things along, pulling people from the video wall when they could, so we did get to talk with Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak and Ryan McPartlin & Sarah Lancaster. We doubled up on Zachary Levi & Joshua Gomez with another table, but a video reporter rammed herself in there to ask the last question despite having already talked to them. She had two tables full of print journalists royally pissed over that rudeness.

So, not the best Chuck showing at Comic-Con, but it certainly wasn’t all bad. For one thing, they were there to promote a new season of Chuck! Of course, the big news is that Linda Hamilton will play Mama Bartowski. Spectacular casting. With the right styling, I can see her looking like Ellie. We talked to Sarah a little bit about Ellie’s reaction to Mama B, which you’ll see in the podcast, as well as her letting slip that an Awesome baby is on the way!

But back to the panel: I think the best part was when a question about Casey and Morgan’s chemistry came up, and Adam decided to run with it. He coyly asked Gomez how Morgan really feels about Casey. Gomez responded that Casey has really soft hands, which had the audience hooting with laughter. The HitFix guys also decided to go for the tough questions and queried Fedak & Schwartz about the fan reaction to Shaw and whether or not Chuck & Sarah will stay together this season. In short: they’ve learned what didn’t work, and Chuck & Sarah apart doesn’t work. They will encounter some bumps in their relationship, as all couples do, but they won’t be calling it quits anytime soon.

And of course, a new JEFFSTER! video with a very funny introduction from Zac and Josh as Chuck and Morgan set a fun tone for the panel. Lester covering Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” was priceless; bless Vik’s heart, he’s a team player!

In the press room, Chris Fedak graciously asked how the podcast was going and said he’s really enjoying the video format. He also queried after Gray, then jokingly said to quit talking about him (Fedak) on the podcast. Naturally now I want to do a Fedak themed episode! In all seriousness, Fedak has been wonderfully supportive of this site and our podcast, and it was nice to get a chance to catch up with him.

It was also nice to catch up with Sarah Lancaster! We ran out of time just when she and Yvonne got to our table last year, so I was excited to see her heading our way with Ryan McPartlin. (In case you wondered: Yvonne Strahovski talked to most of the video outlets, then had to rush back to Los Angeles for her charity event.) The full interview will be in the podcast, so here I’ll just say that both of them are stunning and nice and I’m glad that they’re getting larger storylines so we’ll see more of them on Chuck.

Liz and I were fortunate to have an additional opportunity to talk with some of the Chuck cast, thanks to NBC. We were invited to the NBC Wired party the night before the panel where Zac, Josh, Ryan, Vik, Scott, and Mark stopped by for a while. Ryan startled me by recognizing me immediately and going in for a big ol’ bear hug. Hugs from Captain Awesome! He has such a sunny disposition, it’s always a treat to be around him. This was the first time Liz had met any of them, due to scheduling conflicts at previous events, so there were plenty of introductions and handshakes going around. I suspect her arm was ready to fall off by the end of the night! NBC decided it would be fun to put us on camera with Zac, but the DJ had the music turned up to 11, so I doubt any usable footage can be found. Oh well, we’ll always have the memory of “doing the peacock” with him.

Also at the party were cast members from the new NBC series The Cape, including James Frain which sent me into a bit of a tizzy. We talked at length with Keith Davis, who plays a magician and the mentor of the new superhero. Summer Glau was there, but surrounded by other people, so we didn’t even attempt to talk with her. The cast of Community, sans Joel McHale, also came by for about an hour. (Joel was performing stand-up that night.) We talked with adorable Danny Pudi and Alison Brie, finally earning me some cool points with my younger brother, but forgot to get photos with them (bye bye, cool points). Chevy Chase showed up later in the evening but seemed…distracted. Yvette Nicole Brown was an absolute sweetheart. Donald Glover and Gillian Jacobs were also making the rounds, but we kept missing them.

And finally, there was the Second Annual ChuckTV.net Fan Gathering! It was a low-key event with about 15 people making the trek out to our hotel to hang out on the terrace, eat some chicken wings and Chuck Season 4! cake, and chat about the show and the Comic-Con experience. Warner Bros. donated copies of Chuck on Blu-ray as party favors, which sure was nice of them. One guest, Christopher, came last year as well. He was late but explained that he’d been in Hall H when the stabbing went down! Thank goodness everyone else was safe.

Those are my admittedly still somewhat jetlagged thoughts on this year’s Chuck experience at Comic-Con. We still have a few more things on the way, including the podcast, and we already posted a short clip with Matt Bomer from the White Collar press room. Stay tuned!