50 Fun Facts About Chuck

Which pair created Chuck, one of them already known for creating The O.C.?

Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak had been at university together; Fedak pitched the concept as a thriller, Schwartz saw a comedy in it, and the show became a fusion of the two.

What puts the Intersect into Chuck Bartowski's brain in the first episode?

An email from a college friend: Bryce Larkin, by then a rogue spy, sent it, and the encoded images inside loaded a government database into Chuck's brain as he watched.

In which California city is the Buy More where Chuck works?

Burbank's Buy More is the chain's poor relation: in season two a feud breaks out between its staff and the more prestigious Beverly Hills branch.

What is the name of the Buy More's in-store tech-support team that Chuck works on?

The Nerd Herd spoofs Best Buy's Geek Squad; in season two Chuck pilots its Herder by remote control and the car explodes with nobody inside.

Which university expelled Chuck on false cheating charges before the series began?

Stanford finally gave him his degree in season two: after he helped stop a missile launch, Sarah arranged for his spy work to count as the credits he was missing.

Why did Bryce Larkin actually get Chuck kicked out of college?

To keep the CIA from recruiting him: Bryce, already a recruit himself, told their professor that spy work would destroy Chuck, and the two staged the cheating charge.

Which agency does Major John Casey work for?

The NSA sent Casey and the CIA sent Sarah, separately, and in the pilot the two agencies race each other to Chuck before ordering the pair to guard him together.

What cover job does Sarah take near the Buy More in season one?

Working at a fast food restaurant, the Wienerlicious, kept her opposite the store; in season two it became the Orange Orange yogurt shop, which doubled as the spies' base of operations.

What is Sarah Walker's real first name, revealed in season three?

Sam is what she tells Daniel Shaw in 'Chuck Versus the Fake Name', while Chuck, undercover as a hit man, listens in; until then he had learned only her middle name, Lisa.

What line of work was Sarah Walker's father in while she was growing up?

A con artist: Sarah grew up helping with his scams under a string of aliases, and the CIA's director recruited her after one scam went wrong and her father was taken into custody.

What is John Casey's real name, revealed in 'Chuck Versus the Tic Tac'?

Alexander Coburn was a young Marine lieutenant whose death in battle was staged by his commander so he could start again as John Casey; he left behind a fiancee he didn't know was pregnant.

Which former president's photo does John Casey keep in his apartment and salute?

Ronald Reagan is about the only thing that makes Casey look happy; when General Beckman spots the photo in season two, she tells him the '80s are over.

How does John Casey often respond, in a way Chuck has learned to identify by number?

With monosyllabic grunts: Chuck knows them well enough to greet one as 'the number 7', which he reads as skeptical with a side of cynicism.

Casey's daughter Alex ends up dating which character, much to Casey's dismay?

Morgan Grimes was told by Casey to stop flirting with Alex the day they met; by the middle of season four he was getting ready to meet her mother.

What is the nickname of Ellie's husband, Devon Woodcomb?

Captain Awesome is Chuck's name for a man who does everything well and calls everything awesome; late in season two Devon learns Chuck is a spy and has to live up to it by keeping the secret.

On Chuck, which song do Jeff and Lester's band play at Ellie's wedding in the season-two finale?

Mr. Roboto: Jeffster! play it so loudly that none of the guests hear the gunfight elsewhere in the church, and the wrecked ceremony has to be restaged on a beach.

Which Die Hard character is revealed to be Big Mike's cousin in 'Chuck Versus Santa Claus'?

Sgt. Al Powell arrives at the Buy More hostage siege with Reginald VelJohnson back in his Die Hard role, still eating Twinkies, and he and Big Mike run to hug each other.

Which Arrested Development actor played scheming Buy More manager Emmett Milbarge?

Tony Hale's Emmett schemed his way into Big Mike's job, only to be shot dead in the season-three premiere by an assassin who had come looking for Chuck.

Which screen Superman played CIA agent Daniel Shaw in Chuck's third season?

Brandon Routh's Shaw arrives as the team's new boss and ends as its enemy: he changes sides on learning that it was Sarah who killed his wife, and Chuck shoots him in Paris.

Which former James Bond played arms dealer Alexei Volkoff in Chuck's fourth season?

Timothy Dalton first appears as Gregory Tuttle, a mild-mannered MI6 handler who helps Chuck, and only then reveals that he is the arms dealer himself.

Which big-screen action heroine played Chuck's long-lost mother, Mary Elizabeth Bartowski?

Linda Hamilton's Mary walked out when Chuck was a boy; season four opens with him roaming the globe to find her, and she turns out to be working for an arms dealer.

Which Quantum Leap star played Chuck's father, Stephen Bartowski?

Scott Bakula's Stephen comes across as a scatterbrained absentee father until 'Chuck Versus the Dream Job' unmasks him as Orion, the man who invented the Intersect.

Which future White Collar star played Bryce Larkin on Chuck?

Matt Bomer's Bryce is shot in the pilot and presumed dead, turns up alive later in season one, and is killed for good in the season-two finale.

Which Matrix actress played John Casey's love interest Gertrude Verbanski in Chuck's final season?

Carrie-Anne Moss's Verbanski runs the rival security firm that keeps outdoing Chuck's team, and she is one of the few people ever to have disarmed Casey in a fight.

Which comedy veteran played software mogul Ted Roark, the big bad of Chuck's second season?

Chevy Chase's Roark is Chuck's boyhood hero, the mogul he dreams of working for, until he is exposed as a villain who, Chuck's father says, stole his best inventions.

Which rogue faction inside US intelligence is the main enemy in Chuck's first two seasons?

Fulcrum sabotaged the replacement Intersect in the season-two premiere, and the blast killed the CIA's director; a second conspiracy, the Ring, took over as the enemy in season three.

What is the codename Chuck gives himself for spy missions?

Charles Carmichael is the rich, suave software tycoon Chuck imagines he'd have become had college gone to plan; in the final season the name goes on his own spy firm, Carmichael Industries.

Which band's song 'Short Skirt/Long Jacket' is the Chuck theme?

Cake's 2001 single is known for its deadpan lyrics, yet viewers never hear a word of them: the opening credits use an instrumental version.

Which restaurant chain did fans target in the 2009 'Save Chuck' campaign?

Subway was a sponsor whose sandwiches kept turning up on screen, so fans bought foot-longs on the night of the season-two finale and left comment cards asking for the show back.

Which Fast & Furious actress played Jill Roberts, Chuck's college girlfriend?

Jordana Brewster's Jill returns in season two and rekindles the romance, until Chuck finds out she is an enemy agent, arrests her himself and breaks up with her in the same breath.

In the season-two finale, what does Chuck announce he knows after uploading the new Intersect?

Kung fu: the line echoes Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, and it marks the point where the Intersect starts giving Chuck abilities as well as information.

On what night did NBC move Chuck for its fifth and final season?

Friday nights are nicknamed the death slot because shows sent there are thought likely to be cancelled; Chuck moved there from Mondays once NBC had announced that its fifth season would be the end.

Chuck's only Primetime Emmy wins came two years running in which category?

Stunt coordination: Merritt Yohnka won in 2008 and 2009, so a comedy's only Emmys were for its fight scenes, while its title sequence was nominated and lost.

Which Smallville actress played Hannah, the Buy More recruit Chuck dates in season three?

Kristin Kreuk's Hannah meets Chuck on a flight to Paris and takes a job beside him at the store, but he breaks it off on realising he is still in love with Sarah.

When Chuck ends, which part of her life can Sarah Walker no longer remember?

The past five years, which is everything since she met Chuck; the last scene puts them on the beach from the pilot while he tells her their story.

Which villain, played by Angus Macfadyen, is the team's final adversary in Chuck's closing episodes?

Nicholas Quinn, a former CIA agent who wants the Intersect for himself, smuggles a captured Chuck onto a bullet train and is finally shot by Sarah in the finale.

What does Chuck call the sudden burst of Intersect data set off by something he sees or hears?

A flash can be set off by a face, a voice or an object without warning, which is why the government assigns two agents to guard him around the clock.

Which superhero did Zachary Levi go on to play in a 2019 film and its 2023 sequel?

Shazam made Levi a DC lead after a spell on the rival side: he had already played the swordsman Fandral in two of Marvel's Thor films.

Yvonne Strahovski later earned Emmy nominations for playing Serena Joy Waterford in which series?

The Handmaid's Tale began a decade after Chuck, a part she had auditioned for on tape in Sydney; she flew to Los Angeles for pilot season and was cast within a week of landing.

Before Chuck, Adam Baldwin was best known to sci-fi fans as Jayne Cobb on which series?

Firefly got a small reunion on Chuck when Summer Glau, who had played River Tam, guest-starred in season four opposite Baldwin's Casey.

Which Rush song gives Chuck the pattern he needs to beat the arcade game Missile Command?

Tom Sawyer: the game's designer had hidden real launch codes behind its final level, so when Chuck beats it using the song's pattern he stops a missile attack.

What do the spies on Chuck call their secret underground base?

Castle sits under the Orange Orange yogurt shop, so the spies walk through a shopfront to reach their mainframes; from season four the CIA runs the Buy More itself as its cover.

Which rival superstore do the Buy More staff go to war with in Chuck's fourth season?

Large Mart is where Chuck first spots the pilot's bomber; in season four the feud with it turns into open war between the two stores' staff.

Which director of Chuck's first hour became an executive producer via his company Wonderland?

McG had been an executive producer on The O.C. alongside one of Chuck's creators; born Joseph McGinty Nichol, he has answered to McG since infancy because an uncle and a grandfather were already called Joe.

Which Hollywood event cut Chuck's first season short at thirteen episodes?

A writers' strike shut production down after 13 episodes even though NBC had ordered a full season, and the last two aired together on one night in January 2008.

Chuck got a six-issue comic-book mini-series in 2008 from an imprint of which publisher?

DC Comics published it through Wildstorm, an imprint that had started out at rival Image; two of the show's own team, Peter Johnson and Zev Borow, wrote it.

On which holiday does Bryce Larkin, believed dead, walk back into Chuck's life in season one?

Thanksgiving: Bryce resurfaces needing Chuck to convince the CIA he never went rogue, just as the Buy More braces for its biggest shopping day of the year.

Which Night Court star played Roan Montgomery, the faded master spy who coaches Chuck in seduction?

John Larroquette's Roan was once the world's greatest spy and is well past his best when Chuck meets him; in season four the team is sent to Morocco to rescue him.

At the end of season two, Morgan quits the Buy More to train as a chef at which chain?

Benihana: he follows the dream to Hawaii and is back within months, having failed the course and lost his girlfriend to a classmate.

Which fish belonging to Big Mike gives a season-one episode of Chuck its title?

A marlin: in the season-one finale the spies strip the whole store overnight hunting for bugs, and the receiver turns out to be hidden inside Big Mike's plastic fish.