NBC has given a thirteen-episode pick up order for “Chuck.” I’d have been happier with a full twenty-two episode pick up, but I’ll take what I can get from the most consistently charming action/adventure series on television.
Although I still think they should’ve gotten Kate Jackson for Chuck’s mom. Still, I admit it is great seeing Linda Hamilton in action, plus I loved the little nudge/wink to T2 in the recent episode where her character killed time in a prison cell by doing chin-ups.
PAD
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That wasn’t the first reference. Earlier in the season she said to Chuck, “come with me if you want to live”.
When the series was renewed for Season 3 it also started with 13 episodes. After the season started; NBC upped it to 19 episodes, hopefully that will happen again for Season 5.
It is lovely new’s, isn’t it. Most fun on tv – loved Casey’s “did he do it on purpose or not” Star Wars reference this past ep. too – and Jeff pulls a save, too!
Altho I have to say – one of the nice things about the show is that they’ve taken it to the point where as I’d be okay if they ended it and ended the story.
But i’m cool with it being put off another year too.
I have to say, I love ‘Chuck’.
Being in the UK, our viewing figures do not matter as much to whether a series is cancelled or not, but I often find the American shows I love cancelled before they even hit our airwaves. This is really frustrating.
To me, Chuck is more than an incredible Action/Adventure/Comedy series where you can root for pretty much all of the main, and most of the supporting cast. From Chuck and Sarahs relationship, to the emotional growth of Morgan, and yes, even to Jeffsters performances. It is great television.
The in-jokes and references are tastefully done, and the guest stars (I couldn’t think of anyone better to play Stephen Bartowski than Scott Bakula) are almost divinely inspired.
Long Live Chuck. Give us our ‘Back 9’!
But with NBC, foreign viewers can count. Their argument for Heroes lasting as long as it did was because the foreign market was really into the show. Granted, they were about a season behind, so while NBC was using this reason for season 4, a chunk of the world hadn’t seen season 3 crash and burn yet.
The site that first broke the news is saying that they’ve been told this will be the last season. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know. But it’s at the least a likely possibility.
I think I heard somewhere that despite being on the chopping block every year, Chuck had the highest ratings on Monday Night out of all of NBC’s shows. I just hope when it is cancelled, the creators know far enough ahead of time to give it a proper send off. While Stargate Universe’s finale was great, **spoiler** I think arriving at their destination and Eli’s fate are something all fans would like to see.
For a show that originally was meant as only a season finale, Stargate Universe’s final episode worked surprisingly well as a series finale, also.
**SPOILER**
I loved the metaphor of putting the crew in stasis, much like the Stargate franchise will be in hiatus for a few years until someone finds a fresh direction to relaunch it.
Has it been officially confirmed though? I’ve seen rumors the past two days, but nothing saying that it’s definite.
It won’t be official official until the upfronts next week, but it’s been reported in a variety of media outlets.
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PAD
Good news about Chuck, but I’m going to be in mourning about FOX’s decision to cancel “Human Target” for many moons to come.
On a related note, PAD, will Cowboy Pete be doing a round-up on the series finale of SMALLVILLE?
Already seeing reports that this will also be the final season for Chuck. Sad, but at the same time the writers can prepare a proper send off.
I saw that report as well, but the source doesn’t provide any reason as to why it would be the last. Of course, it could be because it would give the show enough episodes for a syndication package and they don’t want to spend the money to do any beyond that.
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PAD
Syndication deal sounds about right, other than Chuck granted mercy, Fringe was the only other show given another life. It looks like anything that didn’t shine bright got the ax.
If Chuck gets a full 22 episodes, it hits 100, the big syndication number. However, even if they don’t get a back 9, 91 episodes is still probably close enough for a cable channel to play reruns of it.
Heck, how many final episodes has Chuck had now? Pretty much all the past season finales (including this coming Monday’s), the 13th episode of this season (the proposal), past mid-season eps due to getting picked up for a full 22, etc. I hope NBC tells the powers that Chuck early on if they’re only getting 13 or getting the full 22 so they can write an actual, really, this time for sure, finale. (if Chuck went to six seasons, I’d be shocked and NBC would likely have completely imploded; the ratings were very borderline this year, and declined in the back part of the season).
I agree on the false-finale issue. I love Chuck, and want it to keep going, but there’s been some serious momentum issues since the end of Season 2, due in no small part to the writers having no idea how to structure their pacing and the storylines because they simply have no idea how much time they’ve got.
And, quite frankly, I’m not sorry to see stories end at just the right time. Whether or not you appreciate the executions of the finales of Lost, Battlestar Galactica, The Shield or the Wire, the ability for the writers to plan a natural endpoint made for more structured storylines (and thus series) overall, and Chuck could certainly make use of that focus.
can i just say nbc has just made me happy
Ayup, it’s a very bad time to be on the bubble. The IMDB just reported thar ABC had axed several “bubble” shows: NO ORDINARY FAMILY, V, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, BETTER WITH YOU, MR. SUNSHINE (is there a post-FRIENDS curse?), DETROIT 1-8-7 and OFF THE MAP.
And yet TWO AND A HALF MEN goes on, and on, and on…
Thanks for the reminder. I need to finish watching the 3rd season DVD set of CHUCK such that I’ll be ready when the season 4 set comes out. (What? Watch it live off the air with all the nuisances that entails?) I do miss the Anna character, though. I gather the actress appearing on the show was interfering with her martial arts career?
As for syndication, I thought the magic number was 85? It’s changed? I do know it used to be less. Otherwise STAR TREK (original with only 74 episodes) would never have gone on to gain it’s eventual audience.
Oh, in more bad geek TV news, NBC passed on the pilot for the new WONDER WOMAN series. I wonder if this would be a good fit for SyFy (whose scripted series are often as good as their original movies are terrible) or another basic cable network. Hopefully the pilot will get released somewhere (straight to DVD? YouTube? Hulu?) so we’ll at least get to see how it would have initially gone.
I’m actually kind of happy about that. NBC is finally learning its lesson from Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, et al. If it’s so bad that even NBC finds it unacceptable (and it certainly doesn’t look good), then it’s probably a good thing that it wasn’t picked up.
A narrow escape. Even if one is willing to overlook screwing around with the character’s iconic look, the actress looked uncomfortable in the stills. Not promising. Worse, test footage which has made the rounds wasn’t even able to give a convincing scene of the character leaping over a car.
While I was more skeptical about David E. Kelly’s involvement (most of his shows peter out, plus I’d hate to see Wonder Woman with Ally McBeal-esque man angst), I still would have liked to have seen it for myself. Besides, there can be a world of difference between the stills and the actual, moving result.
What a cliff hanger! Love this show but we still have another 13 shows at least!
I’m glad that the crew gets to do a proper final season. I know that there are other financial issues at work. But, I am choosing to believe that the new NBC suits are throwing the fans of Chuck a nicely grilled tri-tip as thanks for not ditching them during the Jeff Zucker years.
I do wish NBC would just give it a 22 episode order and be done with it though. Chuck tends to have strong story arcs when they have 12+ episodes to work with.