The actiomedy ran on NBC from 2007-2012. Chuck (Zachary Levi) is your average dude who works in the electronic store, Buy More, in Burbank, California. Before he got that job, he was expelled from Stanford University. Then one day, he gets an email from his old college roommate (believe it or not, it was a young Matt Bomer), and his life is changed forever.
That email contained something called the Intersect, which is the entire merged database of the CIA and National Security Agency). Now, all of that information is stored inside Chuck’s brain, and it turns him into a supercomputer.
The NSA’s Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and CIA Officer Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) are sent out to investigate what happened to the Intersect. When the find out that it is in Chuck, they recruit him to be their newest spy. Together they fight crime in their own special way for five seasons.
Chuck has some of the most loyal fans in television history. Their viewers did whatever it took to keep the show on the air, including eating Subway. This morning they got a nice surprise as Levi (Chuck Bartowski), Strahovski (Sarah Walker), Baldwin (Colonel John Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan Grimes), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie Bartowski), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Vik Sahay (Lester Patel), Scott Krinsky (Jeff Barnes), and Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike) along with creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak get together to read one of the show’s favorite episodes.
One of the favorites from Chuck was Jeffster. It was the combination of two of Chuck’s co-workers, Jeff Barnes (Krinsky) and Lester Patel (Sahay). Not only did they cause mayhem at Buy More, but they were also in the coolest band. There was something so special about them, and I caught up with Sahay before he caught up with co-stars.
To read the interview and to watch the table read, then click here!
Vik Sahay is the boss of Stiffler in American Reunion and the Chuck hottie is showing us he is the boss of shirtless actors in the flick that comes out on April 6th. While filming the latest movie in the American Pie franchise in Atlanta, Lester took a little picture in his room showing us how he got his script for the raunchy comedy. After seeing that mirror image, I so want to read lines with him. Who knew he looked that good without a top. Now I really wish the NBC spy show had another season just so we could see Jeffster perform nude. How hot would that be?
BTW yes I know he is Canadian, but the titled worked better as such.
On January 27th Chuck is airing its series finale on NBC and before the show says goodbye I had to talk to Vik Sahay about the show coming to an end.
During this season’s third episode something huge happened to Jeffster and the two men that had become like one split into Jeff and Lester. I had to know is that how their relationship was going to end on the show? Sadly he couldn’t tell me too much due to legal reasons. But what he could tell me is that about it is, “It is a huge change. It is a change that continues. Not saying how long or what happens.†I know that is not that much, but he then added that “there is a shift and the repercussions are massive.” Hopefully it won’t be so massive that we won’t get at least one more song out of them.
So on that note, is there any chance of Jeffster touring once the show is over since us fans want that? Sahay shared with me what singing on the show has been like for him and the chances of Jeffster hitting the road. He said, “I love the fans and I love that they want that. I will say this, for all the terror that it has been singing the songs, and I mean pure terror, I don’t use the word lightly. It’s been frightening. I have grown to love it, and relish it, and singing and the idea of mastering music and working with musicians and finding the art. It has been pretty spectacular.” So is a tour out of the question? He ended the answer by saying, “It seems very unlikely, but not as unlikely as it seemed when I first began doing it.” So that means there is a glimmer of a hope, right?
And what does he hope will be the end for his character, Lester Patel. He wasn’t exactly sure about that and leaves it up to the writers. Although there is one thing he would like for Lester, “I would really love, and I am not saying it doesn’t happen or it may happen or it is happening, I would like some sort of female in Lester’s life. You know where you get the feeling that somehow, someway, this sad broken train wreck of a kid is going to be alright.†When it came to who that lucky lady should be, he didn’t have anyone special in mind.
What will always be on his mind is the wonderful cast and how they have been there for him. He said, “for me, I moved to Los Angeles to do this show and I didn’t really know too many people and these guys did become a crucial base for me and family, if I can use an overused term. But they were each supportive in a way that has beyond vital for me. It is a little like leaving the nest.”
Now you know how he feels about the cast, what does he want to say to one of most supportive fan bases out there. He had a heart-felt message for you, “I don’t know what to say that hasn’t been said. It is a three pronged experience that I have had on Chuck that I feel is honorably unique to this show. The cast and crew of Chuck are an unbelievably special group. Then getting to play Lester, who I love and feel for and to have it happen every day. And then the fan experience, I mean, it such a part of the show. It is so crucial; it’s the lifeblood of the experience of being on this show that I cannot say thank you enough. I am so moved and touched by the attention and the care that they have given us through the years. We live and die by them. We are here for them. It is something never I will forget.” And we will never forget him.
At one point during our conversation he summarized the experience on the show as “utterly beautiful craziness!†So what “utterly beautiful craziness” does he have coming up next? While filming the final scenes for Chuck, he was flying back and forth from LA to Winnipeg, Canada to film a movie called My Awkward Sexual Adventure. Earlier this year he shot American Reunion, the fourth American Pie movie, and he said that the film that’s out on April 6th is going to be a phenomenal picture and that it was tremendous experience to work on it.
But not everything he does is a comedy, he also worked on a drama called Afghan Luke that is waiting for a US release date. He described it to me by saying, “it’s a kind of dark, gritty drama about Canadian journalists who go to Afghanistan for a story they believe is happening. While they are there they get themselves in to very big trouble because they are foolish. I play an ambitious journalist who is hustling for this story of the century in Afghanistan.” He added that it was great to get back to his Indy roots and enjoyed working with Nick Stahl, an actor who is admired for a long time and now calls a friend. He concluded by saying, “It is a cool, out there film.â€
I am sure this is not the last we will hear of Vik Sahay and there is so much more coming up on the horizon for him. So before the sun goes down on Chuck next month, you can watch all new episodes of the spy drama tonight and every Friday at 8p on NBC.
Vik Sahay is not one of the spies on Chuck, but that didn’t stop the actor from breaking his finger while filming a scene for one of the last few episodes of the show. Lester Patel posted the above pictures on his Facebook and said, “They say dying is easy, comedy is hard, and fingers…well, they break. I should know. Behold the finger I sacrificed at the Chuck altar yesterday trying to make a bit work on set …the ladies say I shoulda put a ring on it…” Now I am totally picturing Jeffster singing Single Ladies at the Buy More to pick up chicks. Can you totally see that happening?
But back to Vik, he was a real trooper about the whole situation. According to a rep after he broke his finger, he went to the hospital and as soon as he was done he went right back to work. Maybe Jeffster also gets the Intersect and that is why he was able to go back to work minutes after breaking his ring finger.
Good thing for NBC he didn’t break his middle finger because that could have lead to a censorship issue, if you know what I mean.
But before we get to the episode where he breaks his finger off camera, tune into Chuck tonight on NBC at 8p to hear what shocking comment he says about Jeffster.
Chuck and its cast went to San Diego Comic Con and in a preview video they hinted the fifth and final season is doomed, but for some reason I think it is going to be the complete opposite. I think that Josh Scwartz has some brilliant things planned for Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Captain Awesome and Jeffster, but I am not sure I can say the same for poor Morgan. Although I shouldn’t say anything bad about him, now that he knows Kung Fu!
Now over to Jeffster for a second, how great did Vik Sahay’s voice sound as he sang Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger. Maybe NBC would consider giving Jeffster a spinoff that is a half hour comedy. Jeff and Lester quit the Buy More and try to make it as singers, but the only jobs they can get in the music industry is fixing computers. While working on the computers they sing their songs and add their one of kind music videos to the people’s hard drives they are working on? C’mon NBC you don’t want to go completely Chuckless, do you?
When it comes to Chuck as excited as I am to watch the show when it comes back on October 21st, I am sad that it will be the spy show’s final 13 episodes.
