CHUCK: Chris Fedak Teases Chuck and Sarah's Relationship, Baby Awesome and a Potential Fifth Season - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

CHUCK: Chris Fedak Teases Chuck and Sarah’s Relationship, Baby Awesome and a Potential Fifth Season

January 17, 2011 by  

CHUCK fans, things are looking good.

Chuck and Sarah are happily in love. Ellie and Awesome are expecting a baby. Season 4 is supersized. What more could we want?

But according to CHUCK co-creator Chris Fedak, it’s all about to get even better. Fedak was kind enough to chat with Give Me My Remote at the recent NBC TCA party about Chuck-Sarah, Baby Awesome’s name, the Greta mythology, season five and much more…

I’ve got to say, I love how you guys are playing the Chuck and Sarah romance. So many shows are afraid to go there, and you guys are like, “Eff it all, we’re doing what’s right for these characters.”
Chris Fedak:
We’ve always told the story in such a way that we kind of knew—well, we really made our dangerous decisions last season. We put Chuck and Sarah together in episode 13, and in episode 14 we’re like “Oh god, let them be great together, let them be fantastic.” And they were, they were wonderful! Zac [Levi (Chuck)] and Yvonne [Strahovski (Sarah)], not only are they wonderful actors, they’ve got incredible chemistry, together or not together. And so for us it was like, “Okay, let’s run with this, let’s actually tell a story about these two maturing as a couple and all of that stuff.” Because as you know, just because you’re together, you’re having sex, everything’s really fantastic, the story doesn’t end. There’s no riding off into the sunset if you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a significant other or a small android, you know at some point there’s going to be complications.

Definitely. But it seems like things are going well for them right now. Maybe a proposal in the near future for the duo?
CF:
That’s what Chuck’s thinking about. With the way we left things off, Chuck’s thinking about proposals, thinking about Sarah, and about how does he want to take the next step, how he’s going to do it in a big way.

The DeLorean, perhaps?
CF:
DeLorean, stallion on the beach, Indie car; he wants to be cool. He’s a romantic guy, he’s thought about this a lot, so that’s certainly in his mind. In the next couple episodes we haven’t forgotten about that.

So will the Chuck and Sarah shippers – who are very passionate, as I’m sure you know…
CF:
Tell me about it.

Do you think they’ll be happy with the decisions Chuck comes to in the next few episodes?
CF:
I do think that the shippers do have some really big, exciting episodes coming up. I can’t wait for their reaction.

Very cool. And what’s happening with Greta? Any new people coming on to the show that you can tease?
CF:
We do have more Gretas coming on to the show. We have not given up on that. And we do also want to deepen the Greta mythology, which is something if you had asked me in the beginning of this season, I would have said was a crazy term, but we do now have Greta mythology.

Excellent! Does that mean you now know what Greta stands for?
CF:
Of all the things — you’d think we’re supposed to be rather talented this way -– I’m terrible at acronyms. So I’m struggling with that right now.

Give Me My Remote held a contest and your fans came up with some great things it could stand for.
CF:
Send me the best, I will put it on CHUCK. We’ll turn it into the Greta contest. I’m totally game because I’m out [of ideas]. I’m dry. Dry of ideas! I’m terrible at acronyms. I just can’t do that. I have a hard time with names and acronyms. Using sci-fi terminology, I have to go back to the well for that, too. Joke, action sequence, bad guy dialogue, it’s all fun for me. But I have a name a character? That’s hours of my life. [GMMR: More on Chuck vs. G.R.E.T.A. coming your way VERY soon…we haven’t forgotten about it.]

Have you tried baby naming books?
CF:
Done it. I have a 20-month old daughter. Nameless. She’s nameless. No idea who she is yet.

Poor kid. Speaking of babies, we’ve got an Awesome baby on the way. Any thing you can tease about that?
CF:
Well, I’m not going to tell you my daughter’s name, because then I’d be telling you Captain Awesome’s daughter’s name.

That’s a sweet thing to do!
CF:
I know. My wife pretty much told me I had to do that.

Are we going to see the baby a lot this season?
CF:
Yes.

You answered that very quickly. Anything you’d like to tease about that?
CF:
I’m not teasing anything! [In a robot voice] Yes, you will see a baby. [In his normal voice] I see a baby every day and it’s like, I’m not going to be comfortable at work until there’s a baby on screen.

It’s too bad you can’t have your daughter play Awesome’s daughter…
CF:
No, my daughter is a disaster. She will destroy the set. If I unleash my daughter on the CHUCK show, she will destroy it within hours.

I’m pretty sure CHUCK is bulletproof at this point. The fans will not let anything destroy the show.
CF:
They’re a pretty intense bunch that love the show. We love the show. It’s always been the little show that could do it. Can do?

The little show that could?
CF:
There you go. I’m a great writer, you can see. That’s always been a part of it: people who love the show like we do and just want to see what happens next.

Are you confident about next season?
CF:
I don’t use the word confident ever in my vocabulary. Television is a weird world. But we’re excited to consider the idea of actually doing a fifth season. That’s big news. That’s exciting to us.

And I feel like the new NBC owners don’t want to have to be the ones to explain to the CHUCK fans why they canceled their favorite show.
CF:
No. I’ve always had this image of when the CHUCK fans riot, it’s going to be like the end of a FRANKENSTEIN movie. [In a monster voice] “The torches! They’re coming!” [In a normal voice] But you know, listen, we’re just happy to be on the air, telling our stories.

Anything else you want to tease for the fans?
CF:
I don’t know if I have anything else to tease right now! I’ve just been inside the party and I’ve been picked over. And our fans will parse everything out on their own.

Yeah, the CHUCK fans are great at finding all the info that is out there.
CF:
You know it’s funny, [CHUCK co-creator] Josh [Schwartz] and I talk about that a lot. We feel like our fans are people who love television. CHUCK is a show written by people who love TV, who love movies. We’ve grown up watching television. So if you watch a lot of TV, you guys see the invisible handwriting we’re using behind the scenes, different stories we’re hinting at. It’s like, “Yeah, [you say] you didn’t see that HOGAN’S FAMILY episode, but we know you did. And we’re going to talk about it because you haven’t thought about it in years.” So there’s always that MST3K crowd we’re secretly courting.

And that crowd will follow you to the ends of the Earth.
CF:
That’s exactly what I love. That’s awesome.

Are you excited for the return of CHUCK tonight?!

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Comments

3 Responses to “CHUCK: Chris Fedak Teases Chuck and Sarah’s Relationship, Baby Awesome and a Potential Fifth Season”

  1. Kath (canakatydid) on January 17th, 2011 7:52 pm

    Awesome (pun intended!) interview/article! Well done Marisa and excellent job as always Mr. Fedak!!

  2. Chuck Cuthbertson on January 18th, 2011 10:35 am

    Great interview! I think the reason “Chuck” is so fantastic is because the creators are fantastic.

  3. Ben Phelps on January 18th, 2011 2:19 pm

    The Greta thing seems like a misfire so far, but I hope they can correct it, even if it means some retconning. Otherwise, season four has been solid, and I hope NBC realizes they have a solid (if somewhat low) performer and brings back Chuck for season 5!