Assignment X

Exclusive Interview: SMASH producers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank bring Broadway to NBC

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 02/06/2012

Brian d'Arcy, Frank Houston, Jaime Cepero, Anjelica Huston, Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, Debra Messing, Christian Borle, Raza Jaffrey in SMASH - Season 1 | ©2011 NBC/Mark Seliger

Getting an original musical onto Broadway is an epic undertaking. Getting a scripted network TV series depicting the travails of getting an original musical onto Broadway magnifies that epic undertaking into what some might consider realms of sanity-challenging difficulty. However, NBC and executive producer Steven Spielberg are bringing forth SMASH, which premieres tonight, Monday, at 10 PM. SMASH is about the creation of a new musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe. Debra Messing and Christian Borle play the songwriting duo who launch the project. Anjelica Huston plays their hard-nosed producer and Jack Davenport plays the temperamental director. Megan Hilty and […]Read On »

COMMENTS (5)

Interview: Ben Schwartz builds a HOUSE OF LIES

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 02/05/2012

Showtime’s HOUSE OF LIES, now in the midst of its first season Sundays at 10 PM and already renewed for next year, is based on a memoir by real-life former management consultant Martin Kihn. In the series, Don Cheadle plays Marty Kaan, the leader of a group of corporate management consultants whose vocabulary of head-spinning slick-speak can dazzle clients into ignoring the b.s. raining down upon them. Marty’s minions include Kristen Bell’s Jeannie Van Der Hooven, Josh Lawson’s Doub Guggenheim and, last but not least, Clyde Oberholt, played by Ben Schwartz. Schwartz, who recurs on NBC’s PARKS AND RECREATION as […]Read On »

COMMENTS (1)

TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Goodbye” – Series Finale

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/28/2012

Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski in CHUCK - Season 5 | ©2012 NBC

[Editor’s Note: Since the two-hour season finale of CHUCK is essentially two separate episodes strung together, AX decided it was best to review them individually] Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Ryan McPartlin, Sarah Lancaster Writer: Chris Fedak Director: Robert Duncan McNeill Network: NBC, Friday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: January 27, 2012 SPOILER ALERTS … of course. You’ve Been Warned! As the series finale of CHUCK picks up, it’s now two weeks later…. after Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) has ditched Chuck (Zachary Levi) because she’s not feeling it, she somehow ends up in the baggage compartment of […]Read On »

COMMENTS (14)

Exclusive Interview: CHUCK star Zachary Levi on the show’s finale and the prospects of future CHUCK movies

By CARL CORTEZ 01/27/2012

Zachary Levi in CHUCK - Season 5 | ©2012 NBC/Mitchell Haaseth

For five seasons Zachary Levi has taken his Chuck Bartowski character on CHUCK from slacker nerd to suave spy. The series ends tonight on NBC and Levi says it wasn’t without a few tears. The actor spoke with ASSIGNMENT X in this sit down interview where he spoke about his five years on the show, and, of course, if he thinks there might be CHUCK feature films in the future. ZACHARY LEVI: Who knows if there will ever be a CHUCK movie. The show lends itself to be a film. Every episode was like a mini-movie. It would be kind […]Read On »

COMMENTS (13)

Interview: CHUCK finale talk with co-creator Chris Fedak and actor Adam Baldwin

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN

Adam Baldwin in CHUCK - Season 5 | ©2011 NBC/Mitchell Haaseth

CHUCK, NBC’s cult hit comedy about a good-hearted big box store worker turned international spy played by Zachary Levi, comes to an end tonight with a two-hour series finale at 8 PM. To mark the end of CHUCK’s five-year run, NBC hosted a conference call on Monday with Adam Baldwin, who has starred on the series as experienced espionage agent John Casey, one of Chuck’s handlers, and Chris Fedak, who created the series with fellow executive producer Josh Schwartz. Here are some highlights of that conversation. On what can be said about the big finale, Fedak says, “It’s going to […]Read On »

COMMENTS (2)

Exclusive Interview: CHUCK star Yvonne Strahovski kicks ass to the end as the NBC series signs off

By A.C. FERRANTE

Yvonne Strahovski in CHUCK - Season 5 | ©2012 NBC/Mitchell Haaseth

For five years, Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski has kicked ass as CIA spy Sarah Walker on NBC’s action-comedy CHUCK. In that time, Sarah has went from a cold, closed-off spy, to a loving wife (and still stellar spy) to the show’s titular character Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi). While the ups and downs of CHUCK being on the bubble for its five years on the air has certainly provided anxious butterflies for the cast and crew during the run, Strahovski says the journey has been worth it. With the series signing off with a two-hour season finale tonight, the actress spoke […]Read On »

COMMENTS (10)

Interview: CHUCK co-creator Josh Schwartz looks back on five years of the NBC series

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 01/26/2012

Joshua Gomez, VIk Sahay, Julia Ling, Zachary Levi, Scott Krinsky and Mark Christopher Lawrence in CHUCK | ©NBC/Mitchell Haaseth

CHUCK, the romantic spy comedy that has lasted five seasons on NBC, draws to a close with a two-hour series finale this Friday night at 8 PM. Co-created by Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz, CHUCK has chronicled the evolution of Zachary Levi’s Chuck Bartowski from nerdy Buy More employee to confused spy to genuine hero and husband of more experienced fellow spy Sarah Walker, played by Yvonne Strahovski. Schwartz, who previously created THE O.C. for Fox and still has GOSSIP GIRL on the CW, is now in post-production on his feature film directing debut FUN SIZE and is in pre-production […]Read On »

COMMENTS (6)

Exclusive Interview: Callum Keith Rennie joins THE FIRM

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN

Callum Keith Rennie in THE FIRM - Season 1 | ©2012 NBC/Frank Ockenfels

In NBC’s new dramatic thriller THE FIRM, airing Thursdays at 10 PM, ten years have passed since the events in John Grisham’s best seller, which became a 1993 film starring Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere. Mitch is a lawyer who took down the legal partnership he was working with when he discovered they were allied with organized crime. In the series version, developed for television by Lukas Reiter, Mitch, played by Josh Lucas, his wife Abby (Molly Parker), their young daughter, Mitch’s secretary Tammy (Juliette Lewis) and Mitch’s brother Ray, played by Callum Keith Rennie, have all spent a decade […]Read On »

COMMENTS (4)

TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Bullet Train”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/24/2012

Yvonne Strahovski in CHUCK - Season 5 - "Vs. The Bullet Train" | ©2012 NBC/Byron Cohen

Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Ryan McPartlin, Sarah Lancaster Writer: Nicholas Wooton Director: Buzz Feitshan IV Network: NBC, Friday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: January 20, 2012 “Chuck vs. the Bullet Train” is obviously paying an homage to all kinds of thriller train movies, with just about every train cliche except smashing through a station. And with all the back and forth, it looks like everything is coming together for one whopper of a finale next week on CHUCK, not to mention full circle. Bad guy Nicholas Quinn (Angus Macfadyen) thinks he’s got Chuck (Zachary Levi) […]Read On »

COMMENTS (2)

TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. Bo”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/17/2012

Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Ryan McPartlin Writer: Kristin Newman Director: Jeremiah Chechik Network: NBC, Friday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: January 13, 2012 “Chuck Vs. Bo” starts out with Sarah (Yvonne Strahovksi) telling Chuck (Zachary Levi) that she’s had it with spying. What? The world of CHUCK without evil forces out for world domination? Not for long because Chuck makes the fatal error – he says, “one last mission.” This time it’s to recover something Morgan (Joshua Gomez) left behind while partying in Vail, Colorado, back when he was still in his buggy Intersect phase. […]Read On »

COMMENTS (0)

Latest Buzz