Chuck season 3 starts this Sunday, January 10, on NBC! It kicks off with a two-hour premiere from 9pm-11pm EST, then will return to it’s usual Monday 8pm time slot. I can’t wait! It’s been a long road getting here, but we’re finally in store for some Chuck-tacular adventure! Below is an extended season 3 preview (running time 5:56) to help get you in the mood.
If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.
After more than a decade in the attic, we decided to give the old Star Trek: The Next Generation collectible card game a try. Ed’s in town this weekend (pictured below in his “Nerd Herd” t-shirt from the TV series Chuck) and he decided we should tackle the game again after all these years. After procrastinating for hours, we finally cracked the decks sometime after midnight. Needless to say, this is not a game you can simply jump right into without reviewing the rules closely. I cleaned Ed’s clock (or Romulan Outpost in this case) and we called it quits after one game.
Below is Ed building his inferior Romulan/Klingon deck.
Here I am trying to remember the rules after something like 14 years. I suppose we could have bothered to read them before playing, but that would have taken all the fun out of it. And we discovered we’re getting too old to sit on the floor for very long.
Finally, in going through my old cards we re-affirmed how insanely geeky I really am. We came across two custom cards I produced myself for the game. Check them out below. I color-copied images, then literally cut-and-pasted them together. Also, it appears I used my old Commodore 64 dot matrix printer for the text boxes. How frikkin’ hilarious! I’m such a dork! As Ed has pointed out, he proclaimed my dorkiness long before these cards were stumbled upon.
Live long and geek out!
I thought I would provide some links to funny and interesting things I’ve come across lately. Some of these were sent to me by friends, others found on listservs, and some I just stumbled across. Enjoy!
NBC’s Chuck has not been picked up for a third season yet. WTF?!?! Seriously?!?! Also, there are rumors that it might not get a third season based upon lackluster ratings. Yikes! A universe without Chuck scarcely bears thinking about.
Josh Schwartz, executive producer and co-creator of Chuck, explained that the second-season finale (airing tonight) will change the show in a way that will satisfy viewers whether the show is picked up for a third season or not. Schwartz said, “This is our finale. This would be our finale whether we knew we were picked up, whether … we were picked up for next year or five years. This is what we’ve been wanting to do for a while, and we’ve had this planned since the beginning of season one.” He continued, “It will end in a way that’s going to launch the show into season three with a real-it’s a game-changer. I think that it’ll be immensely satisfying in its own right, but it also really, really launches the show in a way that, you know, we’re already breaking season three stories and can’t wait to start telling them.” For more, click here to read the story on Sci-Fi wire.
Before I knew Chuck hadn’t been picked up yet, I’d already started to suspect. With the recent storylines (i.e. Chuck and Sarah, Orion, status of the Intersect in Chuck’s head, Captain Awesome, etc), it really seems like the show is changing in a big way. In some ways, it felt like they were wrapping up every dangling subplot. That’s when I first began to suspect the show might not be coming back.
I sincerely hope the show gets another season. If it doesn’t, I’m going to be really depressed. Other than Doctor Who (and its spin-offs), I’m not watching much TV at all. At the very least, we have an awesome season finale to look forward to tonight (trailer below).
Here are a few podcast recommendations for geeks everywhere…
2-in-1 Showcase episode #103 features Blake and Chase chatting about the king of the seven seas, DC’s Aquaman! The boys talk about the character’s various eras, best stories, how they’d fix him up and make him viable again, and why he gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. Then, getting a bit more serious, the guys discuss the new Diamond Distribution policy and why it may spell death for smaller comics.
Over at the Spider-Man Crawl Space, they recently finished up a three-episode tribute to the comic book artist Sal Buscema. Sal just celebrated his 40th year at Marvel Comics. He also holds the record for the longest penciling stint on any Marvel comic. He drew 104 issues straight of the Spectacular Spider-Man title. This is a great run of podcasts. Even if you aren’t a Spider-Man junkie, these are good times.
Podcast #55 – To honor Sal for this accomplishment, the Crawl Space invited a few of his friends along. On the first part they have Stan Lee, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Roy Thomas and Danny Fingeroth. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Stan Lee curse, this is your podcast!
Podcast #56 - The Crawl Space continues their interview of legendary Spider-Man artist Sal Buscema. He’s joined by writer Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as they answer questions live from people around the world. They talk about artistic tips, spider-clones and Spider-Girl!
Podcast #57 – The conversation with artist Sal Buscema wraps-up. In this last half hour they answer written message board questions. Some of the questions range from Sal’s thoughts on Amazing Spider-Girl getting canceled, funny experiences at comic book conventions, and why the Hulk is his favorite character to draw.
Technical Difficulties Episode #4 is now available. In this one, Jon, Ed, Todd & Terry discuss recent news, hard drives, virtual machines, and smartphones.
The Unique Geek Issue #81 features a review of 2008. The year blew by and it is time to look back at what they thought was the best this rollercoaster of a year had to offer. The cast for this issue is Michael Bailey, Ron, D, Jon, and special in-studio guest Serv.
Chuck vs. the Podcast episode 14 features part 1 of their writers series, featuring Phil Klemmer, who also wrote for Veronica Mars. They also discuss the 3D return of Chuck (which hadn’t aired yet when they recorded this). As always, there is news, spoilers, and more. If you like Chuck, you’ve got to listen to these podcasts.
You know I couldn’t give you a list of podcast recommendations without plugging one that I appeared on…
Views from the Longbox Episode #71 features Michael and I conclude our look at what is coming down the pike from the Big Two this year. In this episode we tackle Marvel Comics in 2009. Topics range from Secret Invasion to Dark Reign to War of Kings to the supposed 70th Anniversary of Marvel, and surprisingly we stick to the subject at hand.
Happy listening!
Looking for some New Years Resolution ideas? Why not try Captain Awesome’s suggestions! Here they are, stolen in their entirety from ‘Captain Awesome’s Tips for Being Awesome’ blog which you can read by clicking here.
(… in case you don’t know, Captain Awesome is from the awesome NBC TV show ‘Chuck’. geez, get with the program, you geek …)
Captain Awesome’s New Years Resolutions
1) Be awesome. Everyone should strive for optimum awesomeness
in all situations. Remember: He who thinks he’s the most awesome… isn’t.
2) Help others be awesome. One of the most important things we can do is to make the world more awesome. Part of that is helping others maximize their awesomeness. For my part, I’m going to volunteer, save some lives and, oh, yeah, write a blog.
3) Don’t stress over things that aren’t awesome. Let’s face it, we all have days that are tough. The important thing to remember is that for every day that isn’t awesome, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of reasons to smile. So find something awesome about every day and focus on it. Awesome.
Happy New Year!
–Captain Awesome
A couple weeks ago I launched a poll asking people which TV show they preferred: ‘Chuck’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’. The theory I put forward was that I believed geeks watched either ‘Chuck’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’, but not both.
Well the people have voted, 115 people to be exact. I wanted a good cross-section of fans, so I promoted the poll through several sites (reddit, Digg, delicious, the Unique Gee listserv, the ChuckTV forums, and the CBS Big Bang Theory forum). According to the people who took this poll, my theory was incorrect. While many people like one or the other as I theorized, there were a number of people that liked both shows (21% to be exact).
Which TV show do you prefer, ‘Chuck’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’?
If nothing else, the results showed that of the people that voted, more people like ‘Chuck’ than ‘Big Bang Theory’. Since I’m more of a ‘Chuck’ fan, I guess that’s something.
My thanks to everyone that participated in the poll. Be sure to vote in the new poll on Star Trek!
Which TV show do you prefer, ‘Chuck’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’? It seems to me that there are two camps of geek TV watchers this season. After talking with a great number of people, I’ve noticed that geeks watch either ‘Chuck’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’, but not both. I realize both airs at the same time, but with DVRs and downloadables (heck, even old fashioned VCRs) it’s very feasible to be a fan of both.
Please take a moment to answer the poll in the right-hand sidebar of this page. If you are reading this on LiveJournal, Facebook, an RSS feeder, or elsewhere, please visit the main site for my blog, http://onceuponageek.com to answer the poll question. Also, feel free to post comments explaining why you are a fan of one or the other.
If you’ve ever read my blog, then you know I personally prefer ‘Chuck’. I’ve tried watching ‘Big Bang Theory’, but after seeing the way the geeks act on that show I’m mildly offended. Using the Social Order Venn Diagram, I feel the characters on ‘Big Bang Theory’ qualify as ‘nerds’ rather than ‘geeks’. I know several ‘normal people’ who watch ‘Big Bang Theory’ and automatically assume that’s what life is like for me and my friends. I then have to explain that those are not my people; we have the social skills. Regardless, that’s my opinion. I’m more interested in hearing your opinion.
The presidential election may be over, but here is your chance to vote on something that really doesn’t matter in the universal scheme of things! Yay!
Thanks for reading!
Some Chuck items for your Friday! If you missed this weeks throw down between Yvonne Strahovski and Nicole Richie in the shower, you can catch it on Hulu.com – “Chuck vs. The Cougars”.
I came across some other great Chuck-related resources this past week. First up is the awesome fansite ChuckTV.net. It’s a really well done and well-informed site. They have lots of news, interviews, photo galleries from each episode (almost 2,000 screen captures from every episode!), a forum, and more. A must for Chuck fans!
Second up is the podcast “Chuck vs. The Podcast“. Very clever name, by the way. I had no idea there was a fancast out there dedicated to Chuck! Yay! The podcast is affiliated with ChuckTV.net, so they provide lots of great interviews, news, and some spoilers. They have done nine episodes so far, all offered in two formats. There is the straight MP3 format, and there is the enhanced AAC format that lets you see photos & web links, and also lets you skip from chapter to chapter. Pretty cool! Definitely worth your time if you like podcasts and Chuck.
Finally, new information to me that I read about on ChuckTV.net (but has actually been out there for a couple months) is the casting of Captain Awesome’s parents for an upcoming episode. It’s been revealed that Captain Awesome’s parents will be played by Morgan Fairchild and Bruce Boxleitner! Apparently they’re both doctors and just as fit and athletic and awesome as, well, Awesome. That’s hilarious! I can’t wait!
Do you find yourself yearning for more “Chuck” throughout the week? Do you find yourself thinking, Monday at 8pm just can’t get here fast enough? Do you find yourself daydreaming while in Best Buy, imagining it’s the Buy More? Well, I’m here to help those in-between days.
As I’ve mentioned before you can watch full episodes of “Chuck” online through Hulu.com. Additionally, you can pick up the Chuck comic book from Wildstorm (issue #4 should still be on shelves).
Now you can also watch a web-exclusive “webisode” of “Chuck”. It’s only 81 seconds long, but it features a brilliant Agent John Casey moment! Apparently, there are more of these webisodes on the way. Yay!
You can also join the Buy More team at the website “Inside Buy More”. You can choose to be a member of the Nerd Herd or a Buy More Sales Associate (Green Shirt). There is a message board, employee training (a.k.a. games), and more available on this site. I found myself playing around on this site far longer than I expected. If you sign up, look me up under “Co-Workers” and add me as a contact. You can find me as “OnceUponAGeek”.
Stop by and read Captain Awesome’s missives at “Captain Awesome’s Tips for Being Awesome!!“ This is a blog run by NBC and has some posts from Captain Awesome himself.
You can sign up to get text messages from NBC about Chuck. I’m not sure what these are going to be (just signed up myself), but it indicates that I’ll get about five messages a week. They better be full of awesome.
If you like behind-the-scenes things, then you can watch a few Chuck cast related videos from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con on Hulu.com.
Of course if you feel like spending money, you can buy Chuck-related merchandise through the NBC online store. I’m thinking about buying a Nerd Herd Lanyard before next year’s DragonCon myself.
Finally, if you happen to like Yvonne Strahovski (Agent Sarah Walker), then you might want to check out the website StraHOTski.com. Very nice.
See… now don’t you feel better? You can get through your week a little easier with more Chuck in your life.
A place for all things geek... ONCE UPON A GEEK is a Monday-Friday blog that focuses on a variety of geeky topics, including: comic books, Doctor Who, Star Wars (classic and legacy characters), role-playing, 80’s TV shows, and science fiction in general. However, any topic is really fair game. Don't forget to share your thoughts by adding comments!
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