It's game over for Carmichael Industries.
On Wednesday, the final episode of NBC's Chuck wrapped filming on Warner Bros. Stage 17 in Los Angeles, ending a five season run that began in 2007.
The action-comedy has given plenty of screen time to video game culture over the years, filled with references and cameos of every era of video gaming from Call of Duty and Nintendo Wii to Duck Hunt and Goldeneye. The apartment of lead character Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi) was filled with generations of video game consoles and a Donkey Kong table arcade game, marking the first time in many years where video games were used as background props on a network series.
Video gaming served as a focal point for several episodes of the series as well, most notably Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer from season 2 where the fate of the world rested in Chuck's ability to reach the kill screen on arcade classic Missile Command (yes, I know, the real game doesn't have a kill screen. Please don't geek out about it in the comment section) and Chuck Versus The Cubic Z from season 4, which featured a long line of fans awaiting the launch of a new hit game.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the weekly does of gaming culture in Chuck was the fact that Levi and co-star Joshua Gomez are big gamers themselves, speaking of it in a number of talk show appearances and interviews. Both were seen at this year's E3 Expo where they were present as attendees, excitedly previewing all of the upcomng games. Co-star Yvonne Strahovski is also no stranger to the video game world, doing voiceover work for hits such as the Mass Effect series and The Third Birthday.
"Difficult day," Strahovski said on her Twitter page. "We will walk away happy, though. Happy to have gone through this together, happy to have made friendships for life, and happy to have the greatest and best fans on the planet."
The final Chuck episode, Chuck Versus the Last Mission, is scheduled to air on NBC on Friday, January 27.
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The author of this story can be reached at PatrickScottPatterson.com and on Twitter @OriginalPSP.
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