johnny galecki

This is the year of breakthroughs: First the iPhone, now the tall, dark and handsome nerd.

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Zachary Levi, megastore technician and hero of "Chuck."

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Greg Gayne/Warner Brothers
A pair of brainiacs: Johnny Galecki, left, and Jim Parsons.
They are not unrelated.

"Chuck," a very funny new comedy on NBC tonight about a computer salesman inadvertently turned secret agent, could not have happened without Bill Gates and Sergey Brin. Or Steve Wozniak, Konrad Zuse, Alan Turing and any of those other smart, spindly men in glasses and short-sleeve shirts who developed the first computers and made it possible for brainy nerds to become billionaire tycoons.

Neither could "The Big Bang Theory," for that matter. This more conventional CBS sitcom also starts tonight and has not one but two nerds as leading men, math brainiacs who live together and have no life until a sexy blonde moves in next door.

Television used to relegate the nerd to the role of sidekick or worst best friend, but now ― on "Chuck" and "Big Bang" (and also on the CBS crime drama "Numb3rs") ― the nerd is the hero, and he even gets the girl.

Homo sapiens hasn't evolved all that much since prehistoric times; the female of the species still seeks the best provider, even if he's the one with an asthma inhaler and a pocket protector who plays Xbox Live and collects "Star Trek" memorabilia. Today's tool-using man is a tool.

Chuck (Zachary Levi) leads "the nerd herd," a team of computer technicians who work for a discount megastore called Buy More and make house calls in a red-and-white nerd-herd mobile. He's not unattractive; he's certainly less repulsive than his short, hairy and unctuous best friend, Morgan (Joshua Gomez). But Chuck hasn't had a girlfriend since his college love dumped him for his handsome, athletic roommate. He spends his free time moping and playing computer games.

By the end of the first episode Chuck has stumbled on the most top secret of secrets in the national intelligence community, gone on a date with a gorgeous blond spy and defused a bomb by sending it a computer virus attached to the Web site of a Serbian porn star.

The series is part spy spoof, part workplace comedy, and it is a genuinely engaging homage to the nerd hero.

Nerd wasn't even a word, arguably, until it showed up in a Dr. Seuss book in the 1950s. But it quickly entered the culture as a way to identify a new subspecies: men who were unusually intelligent, but comically inept. Before the computer, the closest equivalent in movies was the woolly-minded academic, and studios were careful to cast good-looking movie stars in the part, from Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby" to Gary Cooper in "Ball of Fire." (Even Fred MacMurray had been a leading man before he became the star of "The AbsentMinded Professor" and "Son of Flubber.")

Losers have always been lovable ― from Cyrano to Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin to Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen. But Silicon Valley and Boston's Route 128 made it possible for losers to become rich and even more lovable, especially to gorgeous young women in search of a nest egg. Power is an aphrodisiac, and nothing is quite as powerful as huge piles of money.

Hollywood made it official in the 1980s with movies like "Revenge of the Nerds," but television has been more conservative. Judd Apatow was an executive producer of a television experiment, "Freaks and Geeks," a 1999 show that was canceled after one season. It still has a cult following, but never became a bona fide hit.

Mr. Apatow took his vision to the big screen, where his recent successes include "Superbad" and "Knocked Up." They prove just how far the nerdification of America has come: Mr. Apatow's beau ideal is the chubby and socially graceless character played by Seth Rogen.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Mr. Apatow's movies ― and the longevity of the CW reality show "Beauty and the Geek" ― the networks are giving nerds another shot.

"The Big Bang Theory" is centered on two mathematicians named Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki). When Leonard suggests that they invite their pretty new neighbor, Penny (Kaley Cuoco), to lunch, Sheldon replies that they already have a commitment: watching Season 2 of "Battlestar Galactica." Leonard notes that they have both seen it before. Sheldon, who is somewhere on the spectrum between set in his ways and obsessive-compulsive, replies, "Not with commentary."

Chuck has interests similar to those of the heroes of "Big Bang," including a lack of interest in chasing women, but his comedy is more inventive ― the better bet in a new era in which the nerd no longer loses, but the best nerd show wins.

CHUCK These two guys are really nerdy. Really, really nerdy. They're so nerdy they play Klingon Boggle and obsess over "Battlestar Galactica" DVDs and sketch out math equations on chalkboards in their spare time. They're so nerdy their social lives don't extend much beyond MySpace and MMORPGs - you know, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. They're so nerdy, they . . .


Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts And so it goes on CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," which clubs us over the head with the same that's-how-nerdy-they-are jokes over and over again. The sitcom, which premieres tonight at 8:30 on Channel 4, deploys the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" zingers relentlessly and gleefully, as if they aren't as old as, say, the big bang theory. It's one of those laugh-track sitcoms that has exactly one comedy routine and just keeps hammering it home until, at last, you shut down and run for cover.

Johnny Galecki from "Roseanne" stars as Leonard, and he signifies Leonard's extreme nebbishness with a pair of big black-rimmed glasses and a silly Poindexter voice. Jim Parsons co- stars as Sheldon, Leonard's more neurotic and fussy roommate, who is prone to having little cranky fits. Both physicists, Leonard and Sheldon have huge IQs and zero social skills. Instead of "Dumb and Dumber," they are "Smart and Smarter."

The guys' comfortably cerebral existence is shaken up when a pretty waitress, Penny (the bland Kaley Cuoco), moves into the apartment next door. Strangely, Penny doesn't much notice that her new friends are on another plane of existence, except to comment that they're " 'Beautiful Mind' genius guys." Meanwhile, Sheldon and Leonard bumble their way through their new friendship, finally trying to retrieve her TV from her macho ex-boyfriend. They wind up without their pants, and without Penny's TV.

Don't get me wrong: This isn't a hateful half-hour, one of those sitcoms that screams bad sex jokes at you and asks you to listen to endless bickering posing as wit. Created by Chuck Lorre (of "Two and a Half Men") and Bill Prady, the show might even have been engaging, if the one-liners came less frequently and the characters had a little more dimension. As it is, Sheldon and Leonard are merely laughable, if sweet, and they are
Creating quality laughs for television isn't rocket science, though it may benefit from some quantum physics. In the new CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory (premiering tonight at 8:30 pm/ET), Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons play Leonard and Sheldon, super-brilliant roommates who realize they don't necessarily have all the answers when a bubbly blonde beauty named Penny (8 Simple Rules' Kaley Cuoco) moves in across the hall. Complicating matters further will be the arrival of Galecki's "former wife," fellow Roseanne alum Sara Gilbert, as a geeky love interest. TVGuide.com asked Galecki if this Big Bang will create Monday-night sitcom success.
TVGuide.com: I said this the other day to [Big Bang cocreator] Chuck Lorre, but I don't think he believed me: I was watching the pilot during my commute, and I had to turn the DVD player off because I was laughing so much.
Johnny Galecki: Oh, very cool!

TVGuide.com: The dialogue is funny, the situation is funny, the character types are funny....
Galecki: Yeah, I'm feeling very fortunate. I love this group of people. We're having a fantastic time over there. They've really made having fun a priority, and I think that's coming across.

TVGuide.com: Did you have any hesitations about playing such an utter geek who at times may end up getting pantsed by a bully?
Galecki: [Laughs] No, not at all. These characters have a real passion for physics and science and numbers, so much so that they love immersing themselves in that world. When you are like that, you can miss out on a lot of life experience, and I like the idea of my character wanting to change a little bit. He has this nagging feeling that maybe the rest of the world is having a fuller life than he is. That's the great thing about doing a series, if you're lucky enough for it to last, that you get to explore this individual in so many different environments and situations. I love that [Leonard and Sheldon] have this passion. That's why they're likable characters.

TVGuide.com: Is any small part of Leonard coming from a real part of you?
Galecki: Definitely. I was a huge theater geek growing up, and that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from 7 years old on. Friends there in the Midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of Pippin were few and far between. [Laughs] That's what I love about the script; it's about feeling like an outsider and getting frustrated by being misunderstood.

TVGuide.com: Is it a bit like being an ER cast member, having to spout all that technical jargon and mumbo jumbo?
Galecki: A little bit. I hate admitting it, but that stuff isn't easy. People always ask about learning all of your lines as an actor, and it's generally the easiest part of the job. But to have this science jargon come out of your mouth and say it in the natural, casual way these guys would is not easy.

TVGuide.com: Does a sitcom vet like you still break or go up on a line?
Galecki: I try not to break. Kunal [Nayyar, who plays fourth-banana Rajesh] was saying the other day that he knows at this point that he can look to me when he starts to break and I'll steel him up. But I've had to think of some horrible, dark and fiercely nasty things in those moments. [Laughs] We're having so much fun, it's hard not to break sometimes.

TVGuide.com: In the pilot, the elevator in the guys' apartment building is out of order, forcing them to plod up the stairs. Why do I have the feeling it will never be fixed?
Galecki: You are a smarter man than I. I did not foresee that, but yes, it is still broken.

TVGuide.com: It would seem to allow for some fun walk-and-talk moments.
Galecki: It does.... Any movement like that adds a natural feeling to a scene, as opposed to just sitting down at a table full of props.

TVGuide.com: For instance, they have a funny debate during that first time up the stairs….
Galecki: Yeah, about if a stair is as little as 2 millimeters off, you'll trip on it.

TVGuide.com: Sara Gilbert guesting as another potential love interest for Leonard ― how did that come about? Whose idea was it?
Galecki: That was Chuck Lorre, initially.

TVGuide.com: All three of you date back to the Roseanne days….
Galecki: Yeah. We had talked about another actress because Sara had just had a baby, but she decided she could do it. She jumped at it, and I'm actually on my way to rehearsal with her right now.

TVGuide.com: What's her character like?
Galecki: She plays Leslie Winkle, a lab/work partner of Leonard's, which I love because you can see another side of him. Versus dealing with Penny, where there's so much fumbling, this is his work environment where the hallways are lined with accolades and he's a bit of a rock star. Having Sara there, there's an immediate comfort and confidence.... We had a blast.

TVGuide.com: What else can you tease about the first episodes?
Galecki: It's great watching the different characters interact. It feels like the writers are moving our characters around like chess pieces: "Let's put these two together, let's put these together now.... " I've never seen a group of five characters have such different results when you mix them up. My character and Sara's character, the flirtation there, that sort of redefines how Penny sees Leonard. Like, "Hmmm, wait a minute now.... "

TVGuide.com: What sort of prior dating history has Leonard enjoyed?
Galecki: I think there's not much of one! He's entirely thrown by Sara's character. They come from the same world and speak the same language ― science and physics ― so there's fun interplay. It drives us to get away from our Roseanne characters.

TVGuide.com: No Darlene-David in-jokes between you two?
Galecki: No. No, no, no. If it was just that, it'd be gimmicky. [Another Roseanne alum, Laurie Metcalf, guests on a later episode.] The truth is, [Sara and Laurie] are just so talented and life is too short to not work with people you can learn from and love spending time with.

TVGuide.com: So, how long until we get the "extreme makeover" episode where Penny gives the guys some fashion tips?
Galecki: [Laughs] That's not a bad idea.

TVGuide.com: It could be like Homer Simpson, where as soon as he shaves, it grows right back. She could style them up and....
Galecki: [Laughs] They slowly unravel, yeah. Somehow that Prada suit just starts looking rough.



NBC, tonight at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.

Directed by McG; produced and created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. Produced by College Hill Pictures, Wonderland Sound and Vision, in association with Warner Brothers Television.

WITH: Adam Baldwin (Major John Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan Grimes), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah Walker), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie Bartowski), Zachary Levi (Chuck Bartowski).

THE BIG BANG THEORY

CBS, tonight at 8:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 7:30, Central time.

Directed by James Burrows; Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, co-creators and executive producers. Produced by Warner Brothers Television.

WITH: Johnny Galecki (Leonard), Jim Parsons (Sheldon), Kaley Cuoco (Penny), Simon Helberg (Howard Wolowitz) and Kunal Nayyar (Rajesh Koothrappali).

It's Monday, time to get your geek on!


NBC
In "Chuck," our computer-geek hero discovers that real life is really dangerous. Zachary Levi (with Gwendolyn Lao) stars.
When: Tonight at 8; Where: KNSD / Channel 39 (Cable 7); ?

Thanks to the computer-savvy heroes from "Chuck" and "The Big Bang Theory," the comic-book achievers of "Heroes" and the time-traveling "Journeyman," Monday is nerd night. Who knew the biggest square peg in town would be your television?

The unfashionable fun gets a stylish send-off with "Chuck" NBC's new adventure romp about an unassuming techie who becomes the repository for a load of sensitive government secrets. After its warm welcome at Comic-Con in July, the word is already out about "Chuck." This nobody is somebody special.

The smart guy in question is Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), a computer wizard and a member of the Nerd Herd, the team of techies in charge of ministering to the baffled masses who patronize the Buy More superstore.

Even in his short-sleeved dress shirt and tie, Chuck is cute. He has a supportive sister and a nice group of equally computer-obsessed friends. And like the best nerds, he can laugh at his own dorkiness. It's not the same as being able to change it, but it's better than nothing.



CBS
The big brains of "The Big Bang Theory" have come to save the day. Kaley Cuoco (left), Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki are your stars.
When: Tonight at 8:30; Where: KFMB / Channel 8; ?

But none of that matters anyway, because things are changing for Chuck whether he likes it or not. Thanks to a surprise e-mail from an old college buddy, Chuck downloads a cache of super-duper classified intelligence directly into his brain. And suddenly, everybody wants him. Including some people who want him dead.

A giddy cross between "The Office," "Alias" and "Reaper" (which debuts tomorrow on the CW), "Chuck" is fast, funny and endearing. Thanks to the action-movie muscle of executive producer McG ("Charlie's Angels"), all the explosions and car chases move at a slick clip. And the sly hand of fellow honcho Josh Schwartz ("The O.C.") is evident in the show's savvy sense of humor.

As the lesser comedy, "The Big Bang Theory" proves that indulging in broad brainiac humor is easy. But "Chuck" knows there is more to it than Stephen Hawking jokes. McG and Schwartz love and understand the quirky Chuck, and the breakout performance by the ridiculously engaging Levi guarantees that the Comic-Con demographic will love him back.



NBC
In "Journeyman," Kevin McKidd plays a time-hopping journalist on a mysterious mission.
When: Tonight at 10; Where: KNSD/Channel 39 (Cable 7);

Niftily supported by Yvonne Strahovski as a smokin'-hot CIA agent and the riotous Joshua Gomez as the exuberantly odd best friend, Levy makes Chuck the leader of this season's underdog-hero pack. If the show can keep up, running with him could be the most fun we have all season.

If "Chuck" is the iPod of the Monday-night nerd fest, "The Big Bang Theory" is the 8-Track. It is old-fashioned and clunky, but it has its charms.

Johnny Galecki ("Roseanne") and Jim Parsons ("Judging Amy") co-star as Leonard and Sheldon, two genius roommates whose tidy little world is seriously rocked by the arrival of a friendly new neighbor who happens to be � Eeek! � a woman.

Clearly, this concept was not brought to you by Mensa. And judging by the Klingon jokes and "Battlestar Galactica" references in tonight's pilot, creators Chuck Lorre ("Two and a Half Men") and Bill Prady ("Gilmore Girls") don't have any extra-credit twists up their sleeves.

Fortunately, they do have two extremely appealing actors in their show. Cheerfully appalled by the messy intricacies of real life, Sheldon could be Niles Crane's younger, less neurotic brother, and Parsons plays him with a confident breeziness and wickedly good timing.




And as the marginally more aware Leonard, Galecki turns in a sweet, surprisingly courtly performance that gives "The Big Bang Theory" more substance than its "Two Men and a Babe" premise deserves.

Unlike the believably lumpy rejects of "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared," Leonard and Sheldon are the kind of cuddly outsiders who are just a hug away from being OK. "The Big Bang Theory" won't change the sitcom universe, but the prime-time world is a happier place with Galecki and Parsons in it.

Hoping viewers still have room in our lives for a new serial, NBC is following tonight's "Heroes" premiere with "Journeyman," a time-traveling drama that is promising enough to get us thinking as far ahead as next week's episode.

Created by "West Wing" veterans Kevin Falls and Alex Graves, "Journeyman" stars Kevin McKidd (HBO's "Rome") as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco journalist who becomes unstuck in time. If Dan gets into bed with his wife in 2007, there is a good chance he will wake up in Golden Gate Park in 1987. After wandering around in the past for a while, he will arrive back at home in the present, only to discover that he has been gone for two days.

It appears that Dan can travel only within his own lifetime, but just because he isn't being chased by woolly mammoths doesn't mean he's not in danger. Those sudden disappearances have Dan's wife worrying that old marital problems are resurfacing, and his editor begins to wonder if Dan is using drugs again. He even gets thrown in jail by his own brother.



AdvertisementBut there are benefits to Dan's calendar-hopping. He gets to see his now-dead fiancée again, he can test the limits of his cell-phone service, and and he can change the future in small ways that could serve some greater good. Or not.
With its suggestion of a shadowy plot behind Dan's missions and its knowledge that these cool new powers have serious repercussions, the "Journeyman" pilot is a deft mix of supernatural wizardry and grown-up drama. And the believably tortured McKidd leads a fine cast that includes former "Homicide" hothead Reed Diamond as Dan's skeptical brother.

Dan never knows where he's headed, and neither do we. But judging by this intriguing first episode, "Journeyman" might be worth the trip.