Q:   The show flips back and forth between the spy and the retail, have you guys ever worked in the retail industry and do you have any weird stories from that?

JS:  You gotta tell some Disneyworld stories…

CF:  I worked at Disneyworld… yes, I worked at Disneyworld.  I actually worked at a lot of retail jobs… I worked at Disneyworld during high school – and even after I graduated high school – and that was kind of the ultimate, like, wear a crazy uniform and do a crazy job out in the middle of the Disneyworld.  My job was kind of like — you know those glow in the dark necklaces?   I had to sell those wearing an outfit of a schoolboy from the turn of the century – so it was some strange knickers and tights.

JS:  Why did they think that — how did that tie in to selling glow in the dark necklaces?  Was that like a main thing at turn of the century schools?

CF:  Actually it was my own clothes I wore.  It was actually a fantastic job in a weird way, ‘cause it was kind of cool and different, you know, working inside the tunnels of Disneyworld.  But yeah… no, I don’t have any crazy stories outside the fact that whenever came in, they made a point of not letting me sell merchandise to them.  I’m a little too crazy.

Q:   Did you do it with a "*censormode*ney" accent?

CF:  You know, I would try to actually be a method actor when I was out there, you know, add a little spice and they were always like “tone it down, you’re scaring the children”.  From my perspective, I thought they were here to see me, not the millions and millions spent on Disneyworld.

JS:  Not Tigger.

CF:  But when it comes to colorful places to work, I think that we draw upon all of those old jobs.  But the Buy More is kind of like a home for our show.

JS:  Yeah, we talked earlier; we didn’t want to make it depressing.  It’s bright and colorful and fun and there’s, like, Guitar Hero and Playstation readily available for anyone who wants to work there.

CF:  You kind of want to work there.

JS:  The “Yogurt” gig, though, that’s been pretty rough.  You [Yvonne] hate yogurt.

YS:  Yeah, the one thing I can’t eat in the world – yogurt.  I actually don’t like yogurt – it makes me gag – and I’m in a yogurt store now…  But it was frozen, so it was not as bad as just the yogurt – it just stinks.  I don’t know how anyone can eat it.

CF:  Who knew that “The Wienerlicious” was the height of glamour?

YS:  I’ve tried to eat yogurt.  I want to like it, but I don’t.  It stinks.

JS/CF:   Where should Yvonne work next year?

JS:  What do you think?

YS:  Yeah, what are we doing?  Are we changing it?

CF:  I’m out of ideas.

[cacophony of ideas thrown out there]:  cupcakes, waffles, hot dogs on a stick, a travel agent, a Quiznos kind of thing – sandwiches, sub shop

JS:  If we could get Quiznos to pay for it, we’ll do it.  We’re now facing dire economic times in the television business.

Q:   What was it like seeing yourself in 3D?

JS:  Did you reach out and try to touch yourself?

YS:  Yeah, I did. (laughing)  No, it was good, it was weird at first.  The whole process was kind of weird.  It took a little longer than filming a regular episode just ‘cause the cameras were so complex and they made funny noises while we were shooting.  But it was fun.  It’s a good episode.

Q:  Where do you go next from 3D?

JS/CF:  Smell-o-vision… 4D – yes, 4D

Q:   What about a musical episode?

JS:  I know, they did that commercial inside the Superbowl where everybody sang “Feelin’ Alright” and you saw the whole cast and you [Yvonne] were like high kicking up there and Baldwin was even dancing and you’re like maybe we can do this…

YS:  Baldwin was having a great time.

JS:  He complained… he complained the whole time and then as soon as the music came on, he started…

YS:  He loved it!  I think we should do “Chuck Goes to Paris”.

JS:  We’ve talked about Chuck Goes to Paris.  It will be Chuck, lands (?) will be shot of the Eiffel Tower, there will be green screen and you guys will be shot in parking garages
and basements.

CF:  And the notion being that Chuck will be like, “We’re in Paris and I’ve only been in garages and alleys!”

Q:   …and non-descript warehouses…

Q:   Speaking of Adam Baldwin, since he’s not here, are we going to get back story on Casey?  More back story or a romance or a bromance?

JS:  Bromance?  Well, he and Chuck kinda… there’s some sexual tension there.

Q:   Morgan getting a little jealous…

JS:  Yeah, totally.  You’re going to start to see – I think Casey’s going to be faced (obviously we don’t want to give anything away), but he’s going to be faced with some moral dilemmas.  We always talk about Casey’s sort of evolving humanity and I think that will really be tested as we get near the end of the season.

CF:  Becoming an actual human.  See he has a bit of conflict, but we don’t have a “back story” episode, but we do have a lot of Casey-centric episodes coming up.

Q:   OK.  Are we going to get more back story on Sarah?

CF:  (deadpans) No.  (laughter) ‘cause would just be…

Q:    [Yvonne] How did you feel about the back story for your character?

YS:  I love those episodes… ‘cause it’s all about me.   (laughter)  No, I love them, they’re so much fun – filming the reunion flashback with the braces and getting dressed up as the old Sarah – that’s so much fun.  I love doing that stuff.

Q:   It was shocking at first, it was like – who is that?  Oh, it’s her [Yvonne]!

JS:  Yeah, we talked about like “do we have to cast another actress to play it?” – because if it doesn’t work, it really feels like, you know –

YS:  Did you really?

JS:  Of course, you’ve got to.  And then we saw her and were like, she is committed!

YS:  I am.  I love looking ugly and dirty on shows.  We should do more of “ugly Sarah”.

CF:  That’s what the audience wants.  They want more of me on television.

Q:    Speaking of the ensemble cast, I think you guys have done a really great job at – you’ve got a show called “Chuck”, but you’ve really brought in all of the cast members and the storylines are great.  You don’t sit there and go – oh god here comes the “B” story.  You really integrate it all.  Have you gotten some feedback from the audience about how people are liking being at the Buy More and not in the spy thing all of the time?

JS:  It’s a reality of the show that we can’t have Sarah and Chuck in every scene of the show…

Q:   (aside) How do you feel about that Yvonne?

JS:  (continues) … and so, the Buy More is the place that you go.  And really you go there because that’s how you can actually make 43 minute episode – there’s stuff you can do there.  We knew that we needed those stories to be able to work on their own, independent of what Chuck was doing.  I think our favorite episodes are the ones where everything comes together, like Christmas – where they’re all held hostage in the Buy More.  But you can only do that – you can only take the Buy More hostage so many times.

CF:  Seven.

JS:  What did you say?  Seven?  (laughter)  And so, we always talk about that Morgan, in a way, is the Chuck of the Buy More.  That’s Fedak’s line, I’m just taking it.

CF:  Yeah, I was going to say it when you jumped ahead of me.

JS:  But yeah, letting Jeff and Lester… and you’re actually see in clip reel some stuff about Big Mike is going to come out and that’s going to make it uncomfortable for somebody else at the Buy More.  So there’s – we’re always trying to shade those characters and reveal more about them.

CF:  I think that the money for our show is very much with our actors and our characters.  I love action, I love when we come up with some crazy ideas, but so often you come back to the message boards and what people are talking about – they’re talking about the character arcs and what their favorite characters are doing.  We did an episode called CHUCK VERSUS THE GRAVITRON, where we actually shot inside a gravitron and I was like, “Oh, we’re going to do this!  It’s going to be so fantastic!” and it’s one of my favorite scenes —  and then people talked about the “character” stuff.

Q:   We have a lot of people asking about the Anna all the time – where i
s she? 

JS:  She’s actually, uh, in a few weeks she has a very significant episode coming up.

Q:   How about [actor] C.S. Lee (Harry Tang – former Buy More Assistant Manager) – are we going to see him again?

JS:  No, we keep waiting for DEXTER to make him his next victim, but unfortunately, he’s survived.  So, you know, [actor] Tony Hale (Emmett Milbarge – new Buy More Assistant Manager) has come in, you know, in that kind of a role at the Buy More and has been amazing.  It was like, let’s keep him around for two episodes or three episodes and now he’s with for the whole rest of the season… and beyond.

Q:   So, in terms of the gravitron – are you thinking about asking any of the actors to do anything super wacky, stunt-wise?

CF:  Oh yeah, we’re always asking you guys to do something…

YS:  Yeah…

JS:  That’s your own fault, though – drinking on the job.

YS:  We weren’t supposed to talk about that.

CF:  It’s pretty regular, though, we’re hanging people outdoors –

Q:   Have you [Yvonne) gotten injured?

YS:  A couple…

JS:  Yeah, she’s got a few bumps and bruises.

YS:  I had a mild concussion a couple of weeks ago.

Q:   Oh really, how did that happen?

YS:  It wasn’t the stunt.  It wasn’t the stunt, I was coming out of a trap door.  But yeah…

 CF/JS:  She was coming out of her trailer.

 

And with that, our private time with Team Chuck was over. 

And as an FYI, the Adam Baldwin questions and the ridiculously long ensemble question came from me.  Yeah, I’m still working on keeping it simple.  This is your IndustryGeekGal at New York Comic Con 2009.  More to come from the CHUCK panel!