Chuck/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion:
    • Adam Baldwin is playing a patriotic version of his Firefly character, without the greed, the beard, and the disregard for authority. It's also hard to ignore that their initials are identical, which may or may not be intentional.
    • Casey has said lines Adam Baldwin has used before -- as Jayne in Firefly.

Casey: You are starting to damage my calm, Chuck.
Casey: Shiny!
Casey: We're just happy to be doing good works.

He also threatened to remove Chuck's "man parts"; in Firefly, Jayne once threatened to show River his "man parts" if she kept insinuating the femininity of his name. :
    • In "Chuck Versus the Fear of Death", Casey asks Greta what kind of "crew" she used to be on.
    • There's also a mention of Full Metal Jacket. Animal Mother's line "Flush out your headgear, new guy" was also used by Casey at one point.
    • The first thing Scott Bakula says to Ellie? "Oh boy."
    • Emmett yelling "No touching!" at the hordes of Tyler Martin fans.
      • Speaking of Tyler Martin, he's pretty much what Charlie might have become if Locke hadn't helped him kick the drug habit.
    • In "Chuck Versus the Three Words", Morgan says that Carina is not some girl, but "basically a Swedish supermodel." Which is exactly what Mini Anden is in real life (you may have seen her as the former face of Armani Code).
    • Brandon Routh as Agent Shaw has donned glasses that look suspiciously like ones Clark Kent would wear.
    • In "Chuck Versus First Class", Hannah sees a character played by Stone Cold Steve Austin and tries to guess his profession-- "A professional wrestler, maybe?"
    • In "Chuck Versus the Mask", Hannah (Kristin Kreuk) mentions how handsome she thinks Shaw (Brandon Routh) looks. In that same scene, Chuck retorts with "Sure, if you're into the strong, Superman-y type of guy" - A twofer, as Routh previously played Superman, and Kreuk previously played Clark Kent's first love.
    • Chuck constantly referring to Dr. Leo Dreyfus in "Chuck Versus the Tooth" (as played by Christopher Lloyd) as "Doc". He then gets Chuck committed to a mental asylum.
    • "Chuck Versus the Anniversary" - Harry Dean Stanton as a Repo Man and Dolph Lundgren dropping several of his Rocky IV lines.
    • "Chuck Versus the Cubic Z" includes an Actor Allusion between two of its guest stars, as Stacy Keibler and Stone Cold Steve Austin have a brief reprise match.
    • In "Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror", Robert Englund shows up as a man who can make people have "nightmares they can never wake up from."
    • In "Chuck Versus the Leftovers", Mary Elizabeth Bartowski (played by Linda Hamilton) tells Chuck and Sarah to "Come with me if you want to live."
      • There's a scene in "Chuck Versus the Last Details" where a captured Mary Bartowski is doing pull-ups in her cell.
    • Sarah, undercover for Volkoff. With black-dyed hair and a catsuit. "I love a good suicide mission."
    • Volkoff, as played by Timothy Dalton, has one. As it turns out, he once worked for MI 6.
    • Of course, they couldn't have Carrie-Anne Moss as a guest star and not feature at least one Bullet Time scene (it happens in "Chuck Versus the Frosted Tips").
    • In "Chuck Versus the Hack Off", a scene featuring Carrie-Anne Moss is segued into a laptop running a Matrix code screen saver.
  • Ascended Fanon: Morgan's Fan Nickname, "The Beard", gets referenced several times, most notably in the episode title "Chuck Versus the Beard".
  • Directed by Cast Member: Zachary Levi (Chuck) directed "Chuck Versus the Beard" in Season Three, "Chuck Versus the Leftovers" in Season Four, and "Chuck Versus the Hack Off" in Season Five.
  • Executive Meddling: The third and fourth seasons have suffered somewhat from pacing issues, most of which can be attributed to the network holding off on ordering anything beyond the initial thirteen episodes until well after they are plotted out (which is why the thirteenth episodes of both seasons are wham episodes; they were also designed to be Grand Finales meant to end the show). The third season, while picked up, was given an additional six episodes as opposed to the standard nine, and as such required some condensation of the arc storyline into a shorter season. The fourth season has had the opposite treatment, where it has been given an additional eleven episodes as opposed to the standard nine. Oh, no.
  • Fake American: Yvonne Strahovski is Australian, and briefly uses her real accent while Sarah is masquerading as an Aussie.
    • Strahovski is actually Polish-Australian; English is her second language. Of course, Sarah spoke Polish in at least one episode.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Yvonne Strahotski.
    • Fans also christened Morgan "The Beard", which stuck.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • I Knew It!:
    • Who is Orion? Stephen Bartowski.
    • In Season Three, even Morgan knew Shaw lived. Come on, he was shot and fell in a river.
  • McLeaned: Bryce Larkin, Killed Off for Real at the end of Season Two when he had a pilot picked up elsewhere.
  • No Export for You: Want the show on Blu-Ray? You'll have to import the releases from America.
  • The Other Darrin: Maybe for Diane Beckman. The NSA's (unnamed in the episode) representative in the pilot was played by Wendy Mackenna, who was replaced by Bonita Friedericy from Episode 2 onwards. Word of God is undecided if they're the same person.
  • Screwed by the Network:
    • Rather, "Screwed By The Writers Guild of America" in Season 1 - Chuck, whilst not being a major hit, was a surprise hit for NBC and subsequently received a full season order. Unfortunately, this came during the strike and production on the season wasn't resumed when the strike ended.
    • Seasons 3 and 4 both received 13 episode orders, before receiving a full season order later on. The problem is that this only happened whilst the intended season finale was in production, leading to the seasons having a somewhat disjointed feel ** In the UK, Sky decided they didn't want to purchase the rights to show the fifth and final season of the show, and it's not likely someone else will purchase the rights for just the final season since Sky still own the rights to (and show, for that matter) the first four seasons. But it's okay, because Sky have several new shows that they're sure you'll enjoy.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • According to a discussion Alan Sepinwall had with the creators, they were originally going to try and hire Chuck Norris to play a major villain (most likely Leader from "Chuck Versus the Gravitron") in an episode that could only be titled "Chuck Versus Chuck".
    • The way Seasons 3 and 4 were picked up by NBC, with an initial order for 13 episodes, followed by a back 6 and back 11 (respectively) picked up when already in production, affected the way the storylines unfolded. Had the full season orders been made from the start, the first half plot would have extended over the full season instead. The back episodes of both seasons would have then formed the foundation of Seasons 4 and 5, respectively.
      • Related to this, Fedak and Schwartz would have explored concepts like Chuck without the Intersect in Season 4 more thoroughly (though this did get to be examined in Season 5).
    • Chuck allows Jill to escape at the end of Season 2, complete with a diamond engagement ring used for part of the cover, and her fate is never addressed for the rest of the series. Word of God is that she would have been brought Back for the Finale, but they ran out of time and money for it.
    • Apparently, Devon (Captain Awesome) was supposed to be a limited character who was supposed to turn out to be an enemy operative towards the end of season one. However, his popularity led to the idea being dropped and Awesome becoming a series regular. The idea was recycled into Jill and re-recycled into an arc in Season 3 where The Ring thinks Devon is the resident spy in the Bartowski family.
  • The Wiki Rule: The Chuck Wiki
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