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Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 55 with 'Chuck' creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak

Dan and Alan also talk press tour and review 'Big Love'

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, Jan 14, 2011 2:22 PM

The

 

Happy Friday, Listeners!
 
As promised, it's a special bonus installment of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast. And it's a big one! In addition to catching up on several more days of Press Tour talk and reviewing the Season 5 premiere of HBO's "Big Love," we have an epic, awkward, sometimes hilarious conversation with good-natured "Chuck" creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak.
 
We continue to be having tech issues. On Monday, the podcast was too quiet. So we tinkered with this one and it's possible that I over-compensated and this version is too loud. There was some softness in the Schwartz/Fedak part and we wanted to make sure you could hear the conversation.
 
Hopefully, you'll be able to find the proper volume to enjoy this week's podcast...
 
Here's the breakdown...
 
Press Tour Rundown - 00:00:00 -  00:20:40 
A candid conversation with Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak - 00:20:40 - 01:09:20
A review of the "Big Love" S. 5 premiere - 01:09:45 - 01:21:10
 

As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]

 
And here's the podcast...

 

Firewall & Iceberg - Podcast 55

Dan-feinberg-sm
Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
Related Searches: Firewall & Iceberg, Podcast, daniel fienberg, Alan Sepinwall, TCA Press Tour, Chuck, Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak

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  • Default-avatar

    Marc

    With all due respect, they did do a panel for Body Of Proof in August. I can understand why you might not remember that.It was almost 6 months ago and You have tons of panels to attend and I imagine they all blend after a while. I actually agree with you that they should have had panels for the midseason shows again, since a) when they had panels for them they only had done the pilot and now I believe all have completed their 13 ep order so they would know their shows a lot better now, but mostly b) like you said it was so long ago and these shows are debuting soon, so why wouldnt ABC want to promote them?

    Just playing devil's advocate here, I follow a lot of TV people and there's lots of cynicism snd snark during most of these panels. Is it possible ABC thought if they re-paneled these shows, many critics would have eviscerated them and said "we did this already"? Maybe that's what they were thinking. Who knows? Considering they had ample time left in the day, it is rather curious why they didn't do it anyaway or at least put together a panel of showrunners with Levitan,Lawrence etc

    January 14, 2011 at 4:30PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Marc: Nobody didn't remember that they did a "Body of Proof" panel in August. Well, I can't speak for Sepinwall. But I certainly didn't have any lack of memory regarding them doing a "Body of Proof" panel.

      -Daniel

      January 14, 2011 at 5:20PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Marc Sorry, I must be mistaken. I thought when you were describing their lack of panels you mentioned that they had Body Of Proof coming up and that there was no panel for it in the Summer (unlike the other midseason shows). I must have heard wrong. Sorry bout that. Thanks for the response. Really nice job describing all the TCA days by network these last few weeks. It's fun for us that aren't there (well it is for me). It was enjoyable to listen to. Also loved the live blogs during network exec sessions.

      January 14, 2011 at 5:40PM EST
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Marc - Sigh. I'm sick. I'm can't guarantee with absolute certainty what I said. I certainly remember the panel and would have loved for it to be paneled again... Such is life...

      -Daniel

      January 14, 2011 at 5:56PM EST
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    Tausif Khan

    Yay! Special Podcast! Interview podcast!

    January 14, 2011 at 5:24PM EST Reply to Comment
  • A_talkback_profile

    belinda

    Please start a podcast (or more) with some of the Mouse/Rat tracks!

    January 14, 2011 at 6:40PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Chuckfan808

    This is the only podcast I've listened too. Laughed during the whole interview.

    January 14, 2011 at 6:45PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Joe

    Brotherhood never really did go anywhere, i'll give you that but it was a great show. The characterizations on that show up until season 3 were only next to Sopranos in their realism.

    January 14, 2011 at 7:07PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Tausif Khan

    -To let you guys know about the technical issues for this podcast. For the interview with Schwartz and Fedak the audio kept on going in and out for interviewees.

    -I believe early on in the podcast Alan made the statement that the creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle was in fact dead then some what recanted because he did not know if in fact he was dead. In keeping with this podcast shouldn't you have asked the creator to email you himself to confirm that he is in fact alive (in the same manner that Piper Perabo has been asked to email you about the pronunciation of her name)?

    -In response to JJ Abrams support for Undercovers. My tongue in cheek response is JJ Abrams doesn't care about black people. I am only half kidding here (and I am not really blaming JJ Abrams) in the sense that I think NBC could have done more to promote the show itself and not just JJ. This is the type of show that Cosby fought for the functional black family. Only this time it is for a different genre. NBC should have done a better job. Human Target,a spy-fi (Ausiello might have copy righted this) show on Fox, got moved from Friday to Wednesday at least.

    January 14, 2011 at 8:24PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Tausif Khan Also I thought that what bits of the audio interview I heard were very funny.It was very well done. Although it seemed that parts of the interview would have been better done in video.

      January 14, 2011 at 8:27PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Stacy I think NBC promoted the heck out of the show-sadly it was just kind of a boring show-it had nothing to do with the race of the actors.

      January 15, 2011 at 12:22AM EST
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    maryploppins

    Oh my god is the sound always this bad?? I know you always say you have sound issues. but this weird up and down volume thing with Schwartz and Fedak's voices is making me want to gouge my ears out!!!! It's like, "I have to ... the last ... utes of episode ... teen are the BEST ten ... any Chuck epi ... VER."

    January 14, 2011 at 10:17PM EST Reply to Comment
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      maryploppins I want to listen to this so bad but I don't think I can take it any longer ... I am missing every third word. I can't even follow along properly.

      January 14, 2011 at 10:35PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Tausif Khan Yeah I agree. I stopped the podcast every half an hour to recollect myself. I also read other things in other tabs while the podcast was playing so I got odd pieces of conversation. However, I imagine that if you are a die hard Chuck fan you would want to hear every word.

      January 15, 2011 at 5:31AM EST
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    SpyTV

    I enjoyed the Schwartz/Fedak interview. Alan, thanks for asking about the intersect suppression device, but not sure I gained any insights as to its purpose---Fedak seemed to have an answer--but not revealed in this interview. Let's hope it's in the back half of the season (that's OK, I really don't need spoilers). I also thought of the Arabian Nights reference when I was watching "Leftovers", I laughed when Schwartz and you brought that up.

    The funniest line of the podcast? When Schwartz described Sarah next fighting through Cambodia, and Dan responds "This time we win!" Still chuckling over that one. Nice job.

    January 15, 2011 at 2:04AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    chudleycannonfodder

    Thank you for talking about calling out PLL.

    January 15, 2011 at 2:14AM EST Reply to Comment



  • I think you guys grossly underestimate how well the Chuck interview went (other than the sound issues, which were unfortunate). It was hilarious and interesting. Great time. Probably the best podcast you've ever done, honestly.

    January 16, 2011 at 3:36PM EST Reply to Comment

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