Despite an ill-starred year which saw many new series fall by the wayside, Zachary Levi returns in a second season of the spy-spoof drama. He talks to JOANNA HUNKIN
KEY POINTS:
This time last year, Zachary Levi was on top of the world. He had the title role in a new spy spoof series and got to chase round after bad guys, blowing stuff up.
He also got to work next door to Pushing Daisies - a series that premiered alongside Chuck last year - and had a free Pie-Hole T-shirt. Life, he enthused merrily, was sweet.
But this year, the Pie Hole is gone, a casualty of last year's writer's strike fallout. And Levi is a little less chipper.
"With Daisies, we all came out together and they were right next to us [on the studio lot]. It was really sad. I became good friends with those guys. They did their last episode and then the next week were clearing out their stage.
"I walked around one of their empty stages and it just hit me. It was really sad. I just kind of stood there in a daze for a second. It's sobering. And it gives you perspective. We could be gone too, you never know.
"There's so many crazy variables in the formula of what makes an ongoing television show. Unfortunately, it is just part of the business."
Luckily for Levi, his show seems to have cracked that formula, with their unique blend of action and comedy, and a hearty shot of romance and unrequited love for good measure.
"There is nothing else like it," Levi says firmly. "It's fun and entertaining, a little campy and tongue-in-cheek. It's a show the whole family can watch and everyone gets something from it."
Sitting in his home in Studio City, California, Levi has just wrapped the second season of Chuck, which clocked in at 22 episodes - nearly twice as many as the first season.
And while the show hasn't catapulted to the top of the ratings charts, Levi is confident the series will be back for a third showing.
"We haven't had fireworks go off but we've been a slow and steady burning campfire," he says of the ratings. "We're not losing audience, if anything, every week, we gain a bit more."
Here in New Zealand, the series earned respectable ratings (but never featured in the week's top 10 programmes).
It has also caught the eye of some of Hollywood's leading talents, who joined the series as guest stars throughout the second season.
The Green Mile's Michael Clarke Duncan appears in the season premiere, followed by John Laroquette of Boston Legal and Lost's Dominic Monaghan. Celebutante Nicole Richie also puts in an appearance, as does The Fast and the Furious actress Jordana Brewster.
The series has earned a strong critical following over the past two years, and featured on many a Top 10 list for 2008 television - including Time magazine's top 10 TV series of the year.
"The media has always been pretty supportive of the show. From day one we've been well recognised and appreciated. And we've got a core audience that is unwavering.
"In America, on NBC, there's a lot of shows that have not been doing well at all. And a lot of shows that have been cancelled, like Kath and Kim and Knight Rider.
"Even the shows that are critically acclaimed, like The Office and 30 Rock don't get astronomical numbers ... All things being equal, I think we are in good shape to stick around."
LOWDOWN
Who: Zachary Levi, who plays cyber-geek-turned-government-agent Chuck
Born: September 29, 1980, Louisiana
What: Chuck returns to TV2, Wednesday, 9.30pm
Trivia: One of the Season 2 episodes was filmed in 3D to cross-promote NBC's Superbowl coverage, which saw the network hand out 150 million sets of 3D glasses.
