Ryan McPartlin on Chuck Season 4 and the awesome statue

If it seems like Chuck has been on-the-bubble since premiering in the fall of 2007, that’s probably because it has been. Like NBC stablemate Parks & Recreation, Chuck is a fan-adored, critically lauded television show that simply has trouble breaking through to larger viewership. For once though, things are looking slightly less eleventh hour: NBC picked up the backend of Chuck’s fourth season yesterday, ensuring that fans will get a total of 24 episodes between now and May. Then the waiting starts all over again. Co-star Ryan McPartlin is used to this, but that doesn’t make him any less excited at the prospect of more Chuck. The man who plays Captain Awesome rang up Movieline on the day of the full season order to discuss the good news, his thoughts on the season thus far, and, of course, fantasy football.

It looks like congratulations are in order.
Yes, that’s what we’re hearing. It all just kind of happened within the last hour, as far as I know.

What do you know?
I know as much as you do. But I guess [co-creator] Chris Fedak told the cast and crew that we have 11 more episodes. A back 11.

That’s got to be exciting, especially because it seems like Chuck is perpetually on-the-bubble.
You know what? We’ve gotten used to it with this show. We almost don’t pay attention to ratings anymore. It’s like, “Whatever!” The good thing that NBC has done is they’ve known we’re a quality show. They’ve been behind the show and they even came out and said before our show launched this year, “Hey, at some point it’s our job to find an audience for the show, because there’s nothing else they can do.” Everyone who watches it, loves it. We’re just happy we have that hardcore following that keeps us coming back. They’re very vocal on the Internet. So we keep coming back, no matter what. So, fourth season — a full season. Pretty amazing. Who knows? Maybe there will be a season five. The show never goes away.

You mentioned the huge Internet following. Do you think that’s the type of fanbase needed to keep a fringe series on the air nowadays?
We’re in an interesting climate, when it comes to the television industry. Not to get too technical or boring about it, but: There are so many outlets where you can watch a TV show — you can watch Chuck on DVD, Hulu, NBC.com or on TV, plus the DVR side of that. The struggle is that NBC really only makes money off the advertising. It’s crazy to me because there are billions of dollars advertising based on Nielsen ratings and they sample 10,000 homes of the hundreds of millions of people we have in this country. The whole thing sounds a little screwy to me.

It has to be frustrating.
At the end of the day, that’s the only system the networks and advertisers have to gauge how much can be spent on ad time. Our show, thankfully, has found ways to make money through product placement, which is something that other shows can’t do. You can’t go on The Event or Desperate Housewives and plug Subway. You know, it is amazing how up to speed our fans have gotten with how the show makes money, to keep the show on the air. You didn’t hear about that five years ago; you didn’t hear fans going “We have to go buy a Toyota Sienna because they’re plugging it on Chuck!” I also think it works on our show because we can do it in a comedic way.

Yeah, last week Captain Awesome couldn’t stop talking about the Toyota Sienna.
Yeah, unfortunately I think they’re writing Awesome as my life. I live in the suburbs; I’m in the process of getting the mini-van, as we speak. The reality of my life is fodder for the writers and entertainment for the audience. You wouldn’t necessarily picture me, Hollywood actor driving around town in a sweet mini-van. The spy stuff is great, and that’s always exciting to do. But to play the relationship drama — the realness that comes from Awesome and Ellie and all those things. Like, I really did buy a sound machine for my wife in real life. And that ends up in the script, I’m like, “Did I tell you guys that?”

A big hallmark of Chuck is the chemistry between the cast. Are you guys friends in real life or is that all just a clever ruse?
It’s funny, because I always envisioned working with a group like the group I’m working with now. Like, “We’re going to be the best of friends!” I got my wish. I ended up working with a group that’s all relatively the same age — even that old man Adam Baldwin, nudge nudge, wink wink — and we all do hang out a lot, at a lot of events for the show. And there’s free drinks at those things, so we’re not fighting over who’s going to pick-up the tab. Then at work, we all spend a lot of time with each other, too. An extraordinary amount of time, actually. Josh Gomez [who plays Morgan] and I — we are co-owners of a fantasy football team together. We call it Captain Morgan.

That’s amazing. How do you like co-owning a team?
The biggest fight every week is that we have [New York Jets QB] Mark Sanchez and [Minnesota Vikings QB] Brett Favre. Josh is from New Jersey and he wants Sanchez each week, and I’m a fan of Favre. So we argue every week and we’re the worst team in the league.

Who else do you have?
It was a team of Jets players to begin with and I had to pick up some others. We have [New York Giants RB] Ahmad Bradshaw, [Minnesota Vikings WR] Randy Moss, [Atlanta Falcons WR] Roddy White. It looks good on paper, but at the end of the day they’re not producing.

I have Bradshaw on one of my teams. He never scores touchdowns.
No, [New York Giants RB] Brandon Jacobs scores the touchdowns. Ugh.

Getting back on track, I have to ask you about the 9 foot tall Captain Awesome statue that appeared in “Chuck vs. the Coup d’Etat.” Was that actually real?
They built that bad boy! It cost some money. To make a joke like that costs some bucks. I think it’s still on set right now — they reattached the head, which got torn off during the episode. At some point I’d like to get my hands on it.

Were you just blown away when you saw they built that?
You know what? It was something that I guarantee when the show is over and I’m looking back on it, I’ll say ‘That was unbelievable. There was actually a statue built of me!’ But when you show up on set, on Chuck, there are so many amazing things that happen. I was more blown away that Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton were there — actors that I’ve grown up loving their movies — than the statue of myself. It was great and really funny, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t love myself that much that I’m that blown away by a statue. It was just another one of those weeks where they outdid themselves.

The quality of the Chuck guest stars is really impressive. Do you think that’s because the guest stars get so much good stuff to do?
Yeah, and I’m going to have to talk to the writers about that. They’re taking time away from Captain Awesome. No, but they do. And I think we’ve relaunched a lot of careers. People who have gone away for whatever reason and they’re like, “Hey let’s go back to Chuck and get our own show!” Angie Harmon was on Chuck, now she’s got a hit show on TNT.

Chevy Chase got Community after appearing.
Yep. Scott Bakula — though he was already on TNT with his hit show. It’s like, if Chuck Norris is looking to relaunch his career, we’re perfect for that.

Norris would be ideal. Before I let you go, can you give up any hints about upcoming episodes?
Well, the hunt for Chuck and Ellie’s mom is becoming central to the storyline. I like the fact that Awesome and Ellie are involved in that, as well. So you’re going to see more of Captain Awesome and Ellie trying to crack codes on their own and thinking that Chuck’s not involved, to keep him out of it. It’s pretty interesting.

Are you relieved that Awesome and Ellie finally know Chuck’s secret identity?
The show always has to evolve and the writers have done a great job of that. You can’t string something along for so long that it does jump the shark. The writers have had to put it all on the table, every year because you never know if we’re going to get more episodes. We were already breaking the last episode of this season. And then you get 11 more episodes and you have to figure these things out really quickly. It’s a testament to Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz that they’re able to tackle this stuff so expertly.

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