Chuck: Do we carry any Rush CD’s?

Morgan: No, but not to worry buddy! I have every Rush track on my Zune.

Chuck: Wait, you have a Zune!?

Morgan: Pfft! No, I’ll go get my iPod.”

– Some recent dialogue from NBC’s “Chuck” (see video below)

Microsoft is adapting its Zune digital music player to the “realities of the market”–those created by recent turmoil in the economy, as well as the harsher ones created by Apple’s (AAPL) iPod juggernaut. It’s slashing prices across the Zune line in the hopes of protecting holiday sales.

Once priced at $199, the 16GB Zune will now sell for $179. It’s 8GB counterpart will sell for $139, down from $149. And the 4GB Zune will sell for $99.

The price cuts come just two months after Microsoft (MSFT) introduced the third-generation Zune platform. “Hopefully we have a good holiday season,” Zune marketing director Adam Sohn told CNet’s News.com. “We’re trying to take into consideration what the realities of the market are.”

Those realities being as harsh as they are, is $10 to $20 off really going to be enough to trump financial concerns and temper long-running consumer disinterest in the device?