Sorry,
I've been busy with my Monk
Fun Page. It just seems to suck up
all my time, but I never miss an episode
of Psych and as soon as I get the chance
I'll be sprucing things up around here.
—7/5/09
I
stll haven't had the time to do a full
out update on this page, but I did sit
in on the Psych conference call they set
up to hearld the start of the fourth season
this Friday August 7th. –8/5/09
"Extradition:
British Columbia"
with guest star Cary Elwes
So,
here's the contest:
Send
me an email naming your favorite episode
and why it's your favorite episode. Spelling
counts. Send me a picture (nothing huge,
please) of a pineapple along with it.
You
must be a U.S. resident to enter the contest.
Please be aware that if you win you'll
eventually have to tell someone where
you live so we can send you your prize.
Entry into the contest means it's okay
with you if I publish the entry. All entries
must be received by midnight PST on August
21st. Them's the rules.
Courtesy
of the fine folks at Electric Artists,
two winners will receive:
Psych Season 3 DVD
Psych Magic 8 Ball
The
contest is over. The winners will be announced
shortly.
It's
Heeeere. USA Network's newest baby [actually,
it's not the newest anymore] made its
debut on July 7th 2006 after the fifth
season premiere of Monk and so
far it's achieved great success. Great
ratings, awesome
demographics and good reviews (mostly)
have already earned USA's freshman series
a second season pickup
[and a third and a fourth and no doubt
soon to be a fifth].
It
did have a few things going for it right
out of the gate, like the same awesome
time slot that Monk rode to critical
and popular acclaim, as well as the best
lead in USA has to offer. Psych also has
an upcoming episode written by Lee Goldberg
and William Rabkin, who've made some nifty
contributions to the aforementioned Monk
(as well as a bunch of other stuff you
can find out about if you google them.)
Not only that, but Psych's got
some pretty cool crossover promos with
Monk.
Palm Reading
Office
As
far as not-Monk-related stuff that Psych
has going for it, well, there's these
two guys:
James Roday
Dulé
Hill
James Roday, who plays
Shawn Spencer the fake psychic detective,
is a bicentennial baby. He was born on
April 4th 1976. He shares his birthday
with another favorite actor of mine the
late Anthony (Psycho) Perkins. James was
born in San Antonio, the most beautiful
city in Texas and home of the Alamo. His
birth name was James Roday Rodriguez,
but he later dropped Rodriguez. He graduated
from Taft High in San Antonio and earned
his B.F.A. in acting from New York University.
He polished his craft on the New York
stage and then headed to Hollywood. Prior
to Psych Mr. Roday's main claim to fame
was as a supporting actor in a string
of failed series (Ryan Caulfield: Year
One, First Years and Miss Match) and as
Billy Prickett (a character I don't remember
from the original series) in the big screen
remake of The Dukes of Hazzard. That's
the last time I'm going to mention it.
If we keep bringing it up his Jessica
Simpson nightmares may never go away.
Poor guy. He's also a writer/filmmaker
(He's written a yet to air episode of
Psych and a couple of independent films.)
He's just a bundle of talent ready to
explode.
Guy
#2 is Dulé Hill. He's already managed
to impress me. He spent a few years on
The West Wing honing his acting
skills. Still more impressive, he understudied
Savion Glover. For a tap dance fan like
me that is an unbelievably awesome credit
to lead off a resumé. He performed
with Harold Nicholas in a tour of The
Tap Dance Kid. THE Harold Nicholas!
(If you haven't heard of The Nicholas
Brothers, they were two of the most amazing
dancers who ever lived, both are gone
now, and they specialized in flash. Watch
Orchestra Wives or Stormy
Weather or The Pirate if
you don't believe me. You'll thank me
later.) Not only can Dulé act,
dance and sing (traditionally known in
the business as a triple threat), he can
also play poker. With a combination of
luck, skill and testicular fortitude he
made it to the championship table on Celebrity
Poker Showdown two years in a row
(2004-2005). Mostly he just bluffed. Now
that's real acting.
They've
also got some veteran TV talent. Corbin
Bernsen (L.A. Law)plays Shawn's
father Henry Spencer. I recently saw him
wasting his talent on General Hospital.
When Psych was picked up he dropped the
gig and his character was blown up. Still
ruggedly handsome at 51, he should widen
the shows demographic.
So
what's it about? Publicity can sometimes
be misleading but here's how USA Network
describes it:
Raised
in Santa Barbara, Shawn possesses uncanny
powers of observation honed by his police
officer father, Henry (Bernsen), who drilled
young Shawn to note even the smallest
of details from his surroundings as a
way of grooming him for his inevitable
career in the family business. Unfortunately,
when a rift develops between father and
son, Shawn finds himself taking a series
of random jobs instead of becoming the
detective he was groomed to be. However,
for the fun of it, he makes a habit of
calling in tips to the police about cases
he reads about or sees on television,
and when one of his tips appears too close
to the truth, the police are convinced
that Shawn is an accomplice and arrest
him. Using his charm and well-tuned talent,
Shawn convinces the cops that he's actually
a psychic, and although highly skeptical
of his explanation, they hire him to help
solve tough cases. With the reluctant
assistance of his best friend Gus (Hill),
Shawn uses his skills of observation and
charismatic personality to become the
detective he was trained to be, opening
his own PI agency - PSYCH, and solving
cases for an ever-suspicious - but grudgingly
impressed - police force. —Courtesy
of Network Publicity
It
was considerate of USA to go to all the
trouble of creating a companion for Monk
and to schedule it on the same night when
they know I'm going to be home. I'm fully
committed now: I've added Psych to my
TiVo Season Passes.
Psych
in the News
What
could be better? After only eight episodes,
a season two pick-up, great ratings, awesome
demographics and now the icing on the
cake: it's award time!
Excerpt
from Yahoo.com USA
Network's James Roday of 'PSYCH' Gets
Nod for 'Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical'
by the 11th Annual Satellite Awards
Friday December 1, 3:08 pm ET
#1 New Show
NEW
YORK, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- James Roday,
who stars in USA Network's new hit show
PSYCH, received a "Best Actor in
a Comedy or Musical" nomination for
the International Press Academy's 11th
Annual Satellite Awards.
Roday
is in good company. His competition includes
Steve Carrell ("The Office"),
James Spader ("Boston Legal"),
Ted Danson ("Help Me Help You"),
Stephen Colbert ("The Colbert Report")
and Jason Lee ("My Name is Earl").
Excerpt
from The Hollywood Reporter
Returnees have USA psyched
USA Network loves its TV psychics.
Sep. 18, 2006
By Nellie Andreeva
The network has
picked up its oldest series, the
drama "The Dead Zone,"
and its latest entry, the dramedy
"Psych," for another
season.
"Psych"
has received a 16-episode order
for a second season to launch in
summer 2007 as well. The pickup
was a no-brainer given the show's
strong rating performance behind
the network's hit "Monk"
on Friday night.
"It
was a hit out of the box,"
Wachtel said of "Psych."
" 'Monk' has been the game-changer
for us, and 'Psych' is as close
to a perfect match as you can get."
"Psych,"
from NBC Universal TV, stars James
Roday as a perceptive man who helps
police solve crimes by pretending
he is a psychic.
Steve
Franks, Kelly Kulchak and Chris
Henze are executive producing.
With
the pickups of "Dead Zone"
and "Psych," USA has ensured
that its two successful programming
blocks — the sci-fi themed
"4400" and "Dead
Zone" and the quirky detective
dramedies "Monk" and "Psych"
— will remain intact for another
year.
There
was a nice spread on James Roday
in TV Guide the week of July 31st
-August 6th. Here's the article:
Click
to enlarge
(It's big, so it may take a while
to upload)
Excerpt
from The
Futon Critic
Friday, July 21, 2006
NBC GETTING 'PSYCHED' FOR MONDAYS
IN AUGUST WITH RE-BROADCASTS OF
NEW USA NETWORK HIT SERIES, 'PSYCH'
ON AUGUST 7 AND 14 Released by NBC
BURBANK,
Calif. -- July 21, 2006 -- NBC
looks to "psych" up
viewers on hot August Monday nights
by featuring one of this summer's
biggest cable hits with two re-broadcasts
of USA Network's new hit series,
"Psych" on Monday, August
7 and Monday, August 14 (both
8-9 p.m. ET).
Exerpt
from Variety.com Posted:
Mon., Jul. 10, 2006, 4:55pm PT
'Psych' brings good fortune to USA
Cabler's skein makes good in debut By
JOHN DEMPSEY
USA
hopes Friday night will foretell
a bright ratings future. Net's
"Psych" bowed Friday as
the highest-rated debut episode
of a basic-cable series so far this
year. In
all, 6.1 million total viewers tuned
in, scoring USA's best numbers since
the two-hour "The 4400"
debut harvested 7.4 million viewers
in July 2004. (At that time, "4400"
was a six-hour limited series that
scored such big numbers USA commissioned
it as a series.)
“I
need you to write stuff down because
you know how I zone out when other
people talk.”
Psych-ology
101
The Psych Fun Page Review
Pilot Episode
Airdate: July
7th 2006
Psych’s
off to a pretty good start. It’s
got lots of potential and plenty
of time to grow if the ratings stay
as healthy as they are now. I love
the basic concept. In this day and
age of oh-so-serious, yet oh-so-ridiculous
psychic investigator dramas (no,
I don’t mean The Dead
Zone;that one’s
cool)I’m
ready
for one that doesn’t take
itself seriously at all. I’ll
admit I had my misgivings from watching
the promos. I was afraid Psych might
have the Deadly
Games syndrome. What? You
don’t remember Deadly
Games? Hardly anybody does,
but it starred…. I can’t
recall who it starred because he
was so obnoxious and easy to dislike
that he took the series to an early
grave. The show had great scripts,
awesome guest stars (Anthony Michael
Hall, Levar Burton, Brent Spiner,
Dwight Schultz, Shirley Jones) and
an adorable sidekick played by Stephen
T. Kay. But none of those good things
could save a show centered around
an essentially dislikable character.
I
like Shawn Spencer as played by
James Roday a lot more than I
thought I would, but I’d
also like to get more of a glimpse
beneath his smart-aleck exterior.
I hope what I get isn’t
just another layer of smart-aleck
with charm frosting. The show
relies primarily on comedy in
the pilot and it’s good
comedy, smartly played and easy
to watch, but there’s more
to it and every once in a while
we get a peek at the heart of
the show. It lies in Shawn’s
relationships with his father
Henry (Corbin Bernsen) and with
Gus (Dulé Hill.)
Seven-year-old
Shawn has his eyes closed in the
diner when that look of pride
passes over his father’s
face. He can’t see how his
father feels about him. He only
hears, “Adequate.”
His slacker façade is his
way of rebelling against a father
whose approval he thinks he’s
never had. Rather than suffering
the pain of trying and failing
to meet his father’s expectation
he simply doesn’t try.
“I
do give up… all the time,
but not until the moment is right.”
He won’t take that risk
with his father. He won’t
take that risk in his relationships
with
women and he won’t take
that risk with a steady job. His
friendship with Gus is the closest
thing he has to a real commitment.
Probably because Gus has never
let him down. (I am NOT trying
to encourage the inevitable weirdo
fan-ficcers who will want to construe
their relationship as “romantic”
even though the writers have gone
out of their way to emphasize
that the two are heterosexual.)
Shawn’s
relationships form the most intriguing
part of the show and the more
they play up those relationships
and the growth of the character
the better Psych will be. Something
else is going on with the Mom:
probably Shawn blames himself
in some way for his parents divorce.
Is she still alive? If so when
do we get to meet her?
“Let
me be honest with you, detective.
I used to work in a candy store
and it’s nothing like this.”
The
one thing I’m not so happy
with is the police force. Detective
Lassiter (Tim Omundson) in particular
is pretty much unbearable and not
in a good way. According to the
actor’s
bio on the Psych site, Omundson
has done Shakespeare on stage. I’m
sure he could handle it if they
want to give him something a little
less cliché to work with
here. I don’t nessecarily
have to like him, I just want to
see him fleshed out into a human
being. He does have pretty eyes
and he deserves some believable
motivations and backstory to go
with them.
As
for the Interim Police Chief (Kirsten
Nelson), with the delay between
the production of the pilot and
the production of the series will
she still be pregnant? I remember
her from one of my favorite Buffy
episodes: "Doublemeat Palace."
She was good.
I
understand that Anne Dudek who played
junior detective, Lucinda is out
and they have a new girl coming
on board when they go to series.
She’s played by Maggie Lawson,
a slightly younger actress who may
well be intended as a love interest
for someone other than Lassiter.
The mystery
is solid, but I had it figured along
with Shawn, maybe a little before,
going by the only-guest-star-whose-name-I-recognized
rule which I usually use for Canadian
productions. If they have to spring
for tickets to Vancouver that’s
probably your killer right there.
Don
S. Davis who plays McCallum,
really is a great character actor.
Some of the Psych audience may be
too young to have seen him in Twin
Peaks as Major Briggs. In it he
gave one of the single best performances
I have ever seen, as the Major describes
a dream he had to his son as they
sit in the diner. Incredible. He
doesn’t have a chance to attain
those heights with this character,
but he does a pretty good job and
what’s more he brings out
the best in James Roday. In the
scene where he confronts McCallum
with what he’s done Shawn’s
no longer just a flippant kid. “I’m
not quite finished,” he says,
with an undercurrent of strength
and purpose.
“You
are without a doubt the worse detective
I have ever seen.”
"Congratulations,
Kid. You just hit the disappointment
exacta."
The kidnap
case brings to mind Frank Sinatra
Jr.. Anybody remember that case?
19-year-old Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped
in 1963 and after the culprits were
caught they unsuccessfully attempted
to implicate him in his own kidnapping.
Even though this was never substantiated,
rumors persisted for some time.
I am so out of my demographic, aren’t
I? But Maybe the Psych writers had
that in mind.
Apropos
of nothing else, Vancouver lighting
always seems a little grey to me.
You get more vibrant colors in L.A..
Maybe if they’re successful
enough they’ll be able to
make the move down.
The
Psych Out moment was very cool.
More Dulé singing. More Dulé
dancing. More Dulé.
And
in conclusion I’d like to
say, Dule Hill. Adorable. More please.
And
more Corbin Bernsen... wearing blue.
— July 12th
2006
Inappropriate
Virulence Mean Things
People Have Said About Psych
USA's
just-launched "Psych"
series, seems to be a bottom-line,
consultant-driven concoction with
a lowest common denominator thrust.
Full
Article
So the main problem for "Psych"
is that audiences won't much like
his smart-alecky nature. Full
Article
It's easier to zone out while watching
"Psych," whose lead character
is far more annoying than endearing.
The plot congeals rather than thickens
while the acting seldom rises above
pedestrian. Caricature trumps characterization,
never more so than when snarly cop
Carlton Lassiter (Tim Omundson)
is browbeating our hero with the
subtlety of Bluto clubbing Popeye.
Full
Article
The hammy younger actor isn't quite
as cute as he thinks he is, and
he belongs on a louder comedy series
, a laugh-track sitcom in which
his clowning might fit in more naturally.
Full
Article
James
Roday (The Dukes of Hazzard movie),
who as the allegedly psychic and
definitely smart-mouthed Shawn Spencer
is supposed to be humorously vain
and rakishly charming, comes across
as merely smug and irritating. Full
Article
James
Roday, the youthful star of Psych,
tries much too hard to make a character
of his alter ego, Shawn Spencer,
who's just a guy with a gimmick.
Full
Article
The
actor, who looks a little too much
like Ben Stiller for comfort, can't
even match Stiller's limited capacity
for comedic timing or subtlety -
and that's saying something. Full
Article
Better
show title? Monk for Morons. Grade:
C- Full
Article
Psych
is a one-trick pony that quickly
deteriorates into a rather humdrum
mystery once the novelty of watching
Spencer fake his psychic revelations
wears off. Full
Article
No
one likes a jerk. They’re
difficult enough in real life, so
it's a mystery as to why a network
would create a show centered on
a self-involved, unlikable mug whose
only redeeming quality is his ability
to solve crimes through his powers
of observation.Full
Article
