EW.com’s Michael Ausiello has recently posted a quick bit of news that has me looking forward to the return of a show I already look forward to anyway: Scott Bakula is slated to appear on Chuck as Pops (I’m fairly certain that won’t be his actual name) Bartowski. According to the article, “Chuck made a promise to his sister, Ellie [Sarah Lancaster], that
he was going to find their dad in time for her wedding,” Schwartz
explains. “And it’s something that Chuck becomes consumed with pursuing
during the second half of the season. “But when he finds him, he’s not necessarily a guy who wants to be
found,” Schwartz continues. “He’s living in a trailer, he’s disheveled,
he’s paranoid and he’s claiming constantly that Ted Roark (Chevy Chase)
— who he used to work with — stole all his ideas from him. And Ted
Roark has now become this super-successful software billionaire, and
Chuck’s dad has become an eccentric, living in the shadows.”
This is cool news to learn. I’ve been a fan of Bakula’s going back to of course his Quantum Leap days, and even watched him on Star Trek: Enterprise. The issue I’ve seen him mainly have over the course of his career is that he doesn’t always seem to land good roles in between his mainstay TV gigs (Although apparently his underwear modeling career was going good at one time). Throughout his career he’s stayed mostly with television, with stints on shows such as Murphy Brown and more recently, State of the Union. However, he has ventured onto the big screen, in films such as Necessary Roughness and Lord of Illusions, as well as smaller parts on Color of Night and American Beauty. His niche, especially in his two signature roles are upstanding paragons of virtue, so to see him play a burned-out and bitter shut-in could be interesting. His stint on Chuck starts in April.
I’m fairly certain he’ll be more fully clothed also.