Pilot (24 Sep. 2007)

Chuck is a computer geek who gets a computer full of information zapped into his brain...information that contains secrets that the federal government desperately needs to keep in Chuck's ... See full summary »

Director:

McG

Writers:

Josh Schwartz (creator), Chris Fedak (creator),

Stars:

Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Zachary Levi	...	Chuck Bartowski
Yvonne Strahovski	...	Sarah Walker
Joshua Gomez	...	Morgan Grimes
Sarah Lancaster	...	Ellie Bartowski
Adam Baldwin	...	John Casey
Wendy Makkena	...	National Intelligence Director
Tony Todd	...	CIA Director Graham
C.S. Lee	...	Harry Tang
Jim Pirri	...	Father
Dale Dye	...	General Stanfield
Matt Bomer	...	Bryce Larkin (as Matthew Bomer)
Ryan McPartlin	...	Devon 'Captain Awesome' Woodcomb
Vik Sahay	...	Lester Patel
Julia Ling	...	Anna Wu
Scott Krinsky	...	Jeff Barnes

Storyline

Chuck is a computer geek who gets a computer full of information zapped into his brain...information that contains secrets that the federal government desperately needs to keep in Chuck's head...and keep Chuck, himself, intact. In the opener Chuck meets a woman who agrees to go on a date with him, but she's one of the government agents who's interested more in his head than his body.

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Plot Keywords:

nail gun | archival photograph | speech | break door in | explosion | 

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 2007 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

College Hill Pictures Inc., Wonderland Sound and Vision, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The contacts in Bryce's PDA are: Zulu Seven, Red Dawn, ChinoCasino, Jill, Tango Five, Little Longhorn, Early Mourn, The Unholy One, Florence H., Sarah Y., Kooks Allied, Victor Nine, Benjamin K., Orange Corruption, Cracker Bits, Alpha Two, The Bandage, Hairy Chicken, Tired Camel, Delta Charlie, Swiss Cheese, Zulu Commander, Terrence B., Deadly Forest, Robin Egg, Beta Charlie Four, Jester Court, and Buckles.

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Goofs

In the pilot, Chuck tells a story about meeting Jill by picking up her books while running through the quad. In "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater", we see in a flashback that Bryce actually talks about introducing Chuck to Jill.

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Quotes

Sarah Walker: Come any closer, I shoot!
Major John Casey: You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack. I'm thinking maybe pancakes.

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Connections

References CHiPs (1977)

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Soundtracks

"Cielito Lindo"
(uncredited)
Written by Quirino Mendoza

User Reviews

The One With The Wrong Title (no "versus"!)

When the most beautiful woman in the world (on a scale of one in a million) pesters the biggest nerd in the herd for a first date, after he fixes her phone for her where he works in a Buy More superstore, it's a TV show. However, audiences are not stupid, and naturally would expect some kind of believable explanation for how such nonsense could actually happen. The writers of the Chuck Pilot were obviously concerned about that, and so have it that the blonde goddess is actually a CIA assassin--or spy, to use a nastier word--who wants to pick his brain and see if he knows government secrets he shouldn't. If he gets wise and runs, she is ordered to kill him--possibly with poisoned needles sticking in her hair, or the knife strapped to her chest. No, her ankle. The knife is at her ankle.

This premise helps ground the frankly ridiculous and implausible idea that this walking uber- example of pure pulchritude would go on a first date with a goofy slacker working in retail. While the stunner is at the Buy More, Chuck does, arguably save a ballet dancer's father from being murdered by his wife--in a kind of a roundabout way, I grant you--but basically he's not in her league, and if the producers of this show really wanted their little romance series to seem credible, it's good that they realized something as absurd as this Sarah woman asking this Chuck geek out for dinner and dancing had to be grounded in something we could believe--like a rogue spy having earlier downloaded a secret government program right into Chuck's head via an illicit email. Personally, I can think of no other reason that this first date would ever happen, and obviously the writers of Chuck realized that this had to become a spy show or no one was going to buy the romantic angle.

So, Sarah dates Chuck to pick his brain, because Chuck's old friend from Stanford, Bryce, picked Chuck's brain first--picked it for an illegal download of a stolen computer program that ends up literally implanted into Chuck's noggin, via email out of the blue. This immediately makes hapless Chuck a potential threat to United States security, but on the plus side, the CIA beauty is willing date an oblivious Chuck, and give him quite a dance on the dance floor, before possibly killing him. If you saw this dance, you might not feel this would be so bad, as first-last dates go. I might go on this date, even knowing what Chuck doesn't know up to that point.

It's very difficult for me to focus on the plots used in episodes of this series, but in terms of the Pilot, Chuck of course does get wise to the fact that something ain't kosher, when he has strange visions that seem to warn him of an impending assassination. Weird visual cues make his brain go shazam! and suddenly he's deduced a terrorist plot. If it was me, I would ignore all this and try mighty hard to have nothing ruin the date. But, suddenly there are the other assassins, and the car chase, and the explosions, and the rooftop Mexican stand-off, and something tells Chuck that this not how you get to a first kiss. Soon, he must get the bombshell to a bomb, where a specific US General is unwittingly speechifying towards his doom.

Clearly, someone was digging in some gold-mine somewhere and found Yvonne Strahovksi. What the heck, I'm on board. But besides that, this is a charming, funny show, with a stupendously successful pilot. It's very difficult for me to notice the supporting characters, but Chuck's best friend Morgan is severely amusing at all times, and Chuck's sister Ellie, perpetually worried about her brother's self-esteem, is the sister we all want.

The show is a nerd's fantasy, obviously dreamed up by nerds who took all the memories of all the cheerleader types they pined away uselessly for at school, and decided that, in fiction, there had to be a way to get the goddess to start falling for the nerd. I'm glad they didn't grow up to be rock stars who, at a live concert, belted out "This song is dedicated to SARAH, who wouldn't give me the time of day in school, even though I WORSHIPPED HER!!!", but instead channelled the pain into the Pilot of Chuck. Even with the credible scenario of ninjas and assassins and bombs and emails that download government secrets directly into the brain joined to the ridiculous first-date sequence, a nerd would not be so gullible as to believe that someone like Sarah would ask a nerd out. But it's TV! And it's almost believable, as presented here. And it's extremely entertaining to watch!