Nerd, nerd, nerd, the nerd is the word

Chuck Bartowski is a nerd. This is not an insult. It says so right there on his shirt, on the sign under which he stands all day and on the company car that he drives, all of which proudly declare the name of his tech support crew at the electronics superstore where he works: “Nerd Herd.”

If that weren’t enough, he can’t seem to figure out how to talk to the women that his sympathetic sister keeps pushing in his direction. It probably doesn’t help that his fingers have game-controller blisters and that he slips into quotes from “Batman” without thinking.

He’s also something of a rarity on television: a nerd who is the hero of his own story, as the main character in NBC’s upcoming fall drama “Chuck.” Sure, part of that is due to his having downloaded a mainframe’s worth of government secrets into his brain, resulting in him becoming a target of and reluctant operative for the country’s security and spy agencies. It’s a concept so geek-porny that it’s a wonder the nerds who write for television ever give us anything else.

But even with all of the secret-agent stuff, the fact remains that the lead character of “Chuck” is a brainy guy whose social skills leave something to be desired. And he’s not the only one this upcoming fall season. The CW’s “Reaper” follows almost the exact same template, with Mad Libs-style differences: Sam Oliver works in a Home Depot-like warehouse, can’t talk to women, and discovers on his 21^st birthday that he’s been contracted to the devil to collect escaped souls. Meanwhile, over on CBS, “The Big Bang Theory” forgoes the saving-the-world aspect but ups the ante with not one, but two quantum physicists who, shockingly, can’t talk to women.

Nerds aren't new

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Nerds on TV are not particularly novel. They’ve been a staple of the small screen since the beginning. Even though the character was already a dozen years old, “Adventures Of Superman” brought Clark Kent to television starting in 1951. And what was “mild-mannered reporter” if not code for “nerd”? The stereotype thrived in any number of genres, from sitcoms to action shows like “Riptide,” which tossed computer hacker Murray “Boz” Bozinsky into the middle of the sun, fun and moustaches of a mid-‘80s Los Angeles detective agency.

Still, nerds existed primarily as supporting characters, brought in for comic relief and perhaps as a way for the hero to save the day without getting all of that girl-repelling braininess all over him. That was the case even with shows like “Family Matters” (where the immortal Steve Urkel practically dominated) and “Head Of The Class” (which was populated with gifted, mostly awkward high schoolers), where the main characters were the Winslow family and unconventional teacher Mr. Moore.

“Head Of The Class” offered something new, though, possibly as a result of coming so close on the heels of John Hughes’ similarly themed “The Breakfast Club” the previous year: a sympathetic attitude. That’s been picked up sporadically ever since, reaching its apex in heartbreaking everydork Brian Krakow from “My So-Called Life” and the latter group of “Freaks and Geeks.”

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