CHUCK Covers SciFi Now Magazine (Mel’s In There, Too)

UK genre mag SciFi Now put Chuck on their cover this month, with a feature story on how “the little show that could” made it to five seasons. In addition to Zachary Levi, Josh Schwartz, and Chris Fedak, yours truly was interviewed for the piece. Here’s an excerpt:

[Zachary] Levi believes Chuck will make a fan out of anyone – they just have to sit down and actually watch the show to get it. Getting people to give it a proper chance has been one of the show’s ongoing struggles, despite being one of the most accessible hours of TV on the air every week.

“There have been plenty of people that I’ve met, either on Twitter or Facebook or on the street, who say, ‘I never watched your show. Never watched it. Didn’t check it out. And then it would be I think because of the 2,000th promo during football that I finally went, “Okay, I’ll give it a shot” and I really like it.’ And now they watch it.” The cast takes its fans very seriously, too. “I’ve always believed that to get to do what I do is a blessing,” Levi continues. “And it’s one that you have to respect and nurture, and part of that is respecting and nurturing those people that give you that opportunity and those are your fans.”

Still, the lack of a massive audience for Chuck is slightly disappointing – especially when its own fans are aware of how much it would appeal to everyday TV viewers. “The biggest challenge Chuck has faced, in my opinion, has been how to market it to a mass audience,” [Mel] explains. “The show combines action, romance, drama, comedy, espionage, pop culture, and geekdom into one awesome package, but how do you break that down into 15-second promos or brief soundbites? As a result, we have a gem of a show that a lot of viewers dismiss as not being for them when the reality is that if they sit down and watch the pilot, they would see that Chuck is so more more than ‘geeks and nerds’.”

Visit the SciFi Now website to order your copy.