Psych

The cast of Psych, from left to right: Maggie Lawson, Corbin Bernsen, James Roday, Kirsten Nelson, Dulé Hill, and Timothy Omundson

• Shawn Spencer (James Roday) is a freelance consultant with the Santa Barbara Police Department who pretends to be a psychic.
• Burton "Gus" Guster (Dulé Hill) is Shawn's best friend and business partner.
• Carlton "Lassie" Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) is the head detective for the Santa Barbara Police Department.
• Lucinda Barry (Anne Dudek) is Lassiter's work partner and love interest in the pilot which causes her to be transferred as it is against department protocol for partners to date (season 1).[lower-alpha 1]
• Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen) is Shawn's uptight and precise father and a former police sergeant.
• Juliet "Jules" O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) is a junior detective for the Santa Barbara Police Department and Lassiter's new work partner.
• Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson) is the SBPD Interim Chief and is later named Chief in "Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead", (main seasons 2–8, recurring season 1)

• Young Shawn (seasons 1–5: Liam James; seasons 5–6: Skyler Gisondo) is the younger version of Shawn Spencer.
• Young Gus (Carlos McCullers II) is the younger version of Burton "Gus" Guster.
• Buzz McNab (Sage Brocklebank) is a naive but lovable cop who often provides Shawn and Gus with clues.
• Madeleine Spencer (Cybill Shepherd) is a police psychologist who is Shawn's mother and Henry's ex-wife.
• Abigail Lytar (Rachael Leigh Cook) is Shawn's high-school crush.
• Winnie Guster (Phylicia Rashad) is Gus' mother.
• Bill Guster (season 2: Ernie Hudson; season 3: Keith David) is Gus' father.
• Mr. Yang (Ally Sheedy) was a serial killer.
• Mary Lightly (Jimmi Simpson) was a department psychologist who was an expert on Mr. Yang.
• Woody the Coroner (Kurt Fuller) is a police coroner with whom Shawn shares a mutual respect.
• Pierre Despereaux (Cary Elwes) is an extremely elusive Canadian art thief.
• Declan Rand (Nestor Carbonell) is a rich criminal profiler.
• Marlowe Viccellio (Kristy Swanson) is a woman Lassiter meets and later marries.
• Curt Smith (himself) is the former singer of the band Tears for Fears.
• Frank O'Hara (William Shatner) is Juliet's estranged father.
• Rachael (Parminder Nagra) is Gus' girlfriend.
• Lloyd French (Jeffrey Tambor) is Juliet's stepfather.
• Harris Trout (Anthony Michael Hall) is a special consultant hired by the mayor to increase efficiency at the SBPD.
• Betsy Brannigan (Mira Sorvino) takes over as the new head detective when Lassiter is promoted to chief.

The theme song for Psych is "I Know You Know" by The Friendly Indians, series creator Steve Franks' band. Some episodes in seasons three-eight use an extended version of "I Know You Know", consisting of the first verse and the chorus,[17] but most episodes use a shortened version, consisting of mostly the chorus. In some episodes, the theme song is changed, usually as a tie-in to the theme of the episode to come.

• The theme was given a Christmas theme for the episode "Gus's Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy". It was used again in "Christmas Joy" (3.09) and "The Polarizing Express".
• The song was sung in Spanish for "Lights, Camera... Homicidio" and "No Country for Two Old Men".
• It was expanded into a Bollywood-themed version sung in Hindi in "Bollywood Homicide" while each of the theme credits was shown first in Hindi, then in English.
• Boyz II Men performed an a cappella version of the theme for "High Top Fade Out". It was used again for the episode "Let's Doo-Wop It Again".
• In "Romeo and Juliet and Juliet", the main titles are translated in Chinese. However, the actual theme song is not edited.
• Curt Smith of Tears for Fears guest-starred in "Shawn 2.0" and recorded his own version of the theme. Smith also recorded a song ("This is Christmas") for the episode "The Polarizing Express".[18]
• Julee Cruise, who recorded the theme for Twin Peaks, recorded a slower, extended version of the theme for the Twin Peaks-inspired episode "Dual Spires".
• A superhero-themed version was recorded for "The Amazing Psych-Man & Tap Man, Issue #2". The main titles were also redone in a comic-book style.
• For the episode "Heeeeere's Lassie", the song and main titles were given a theme similar to The Shining.

The Christmas-themed and Hindi versions of the song also include variations on the main titles. The Hindi and Chinese-themed episodes phonetically translated words into Devanagari and Chinese characters, respectively, in their title sequences. The title sequence in the episode "Dual Spires" is an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the title sequence of Twin Peaks. The episode "100 Clues" featured an entirely new main title sequence based on the board game Clue. The actor names and title were shown on game cards similar to those of the cards of suspects in Clue.

In the episode "Pilot", James Roday improvised by picking up a pineapple and saying, "Should I slice this up for the road?" Since then, pineapples have appeared in every episode as a running gag, whether just one in the background or the actual mention of it. It is Shawn's go-to housewarming gift. The pineapple is a major marketing point for items related to the show on the USA website.[19] Fan movements, such as fan-made websites, have also been dedicated to finding a pineapple or pineapple-related object in each episode.[20]

Before season 8 was aired, the show did a special, 88-minute musical episode. This episode does not fit chronologically in the narrative; there are situations in the episode that would imply that it takes place sometime before the middle of season 7.

Following the series finale on March 26, 2014, USA Network aired a live post-show entitled "Psych After Pshow." The hour-long special was hosted by Kevin Pereira and featured series stars and creator/executive producer Steve Franks.[21]

In July 2011, ION Television announced that Psych would become part of its 2012 broadcast in syndication.[22] During 2012, reruns of the show mostly ran on Saturdays as a marathon. In 2013, ION Television announced the acquisition option pick-up of season seven of Psych. The deal with NBC Universal Cable & New Media Distribution adds all 16 new episodes of season seven to ION's existing library of seasons one–six of Psych and includes rights to future seasons.[23] As of January 2017, Psych start airing on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries and is also airing on ION Television.

Psych scored a 4.51 rating and an average of 6.1 million total viewers at its premiere, which made it the highest-rated scripted series premiere on basic cable in 2006 in all key demographics (households, P18-49, P25-54, and total viewers), according to a USA Network press release, quoted from the Futon Critic.[4]

Notes

Psych was the winner of the Independent Investigations Group Annual Award for "Excellence in Entertainment" for advancing the cause of science and exposing superstition. Accepting for Psych was staff writer Daniel Hsia.[45][46] James Roday was nominated for the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Actor – TV Series Musical or Comedy.[47] James Roday was also nominated for the 2009 Ewwy Award for Best Actor in a Comedy. Psych was nominated for its first Emmy Award in 2010 in the category Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode "Mr. Yin Presents...".[48] Adam Cohen and John Robert Wood were the composers for this episode. Psych was nominated for its second Emmy Award in 2012 in the category "Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media" for their interactive game "HashTag Killer". In 2012 and 2013, Psych was nominated for the People's Choice Award for "Best Cable TV Comedy". In 2014, Psych won the People's Choice Award for "Best Cable TV Comedy" in its last nomination.

William Rabkin has written and published five novels based on the series. The novels are written in third-person narrative style. Additionally, Chad Gervich (Small Screen, Big Picture) has published a crime-fighting guide based on methods presented in the show.

On May 8, 2017, USA Network announced Psych: The Movie, a two-hour TV movie to air December 7, 2017.[49] All the original main cast would return for the TV movie, which was directed by series creator, Steve Franks, and screenplayed by Franks and series star, James Roday. Zachary Levi was later announced for the movie, as the main villain, "Thin White Duke",[50] while Jazmyn Simon – Dulé Hill's real-life fiancée – played Selene, a romantic interest for Gus.[51] On July 5, 2017, Charlotte Flair announced that she would be in Psych: The Movie as Heather Rockrear.[52]

On June 28, 2017, former guest star Ralph Macchio joined the cast reprising his role as Nick Conforth,[53] the police academy officer who trained Shawn and Gus in season 5. Principal photography took place from May 25 to June 18[54][55] in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was later announced that Timothy Omundson would have a reduced role due to a stroke, but would still appear.[56] In addition, Kurt Fuller, John Cena and Jimmi Simpson were confirmed to be reprising their respective roles of Woody Strode, Ewan O'Hara and Mary Lightly.

On February 14, 2019, it was announced Psych: The Movie 2 was greenlit and all the main cast would return for the TV movie, set to premiere in 2019.[12] On April 18, 2019, it was announced Joel McHale would be joining the TV movie, as well as Jimmi Simpson, reprising his recurring role as Mary Lightly.[57] On September 17, 2019, it was announced that the sequel had been renamed Psych 2: Lassie Come Home and would instead be airing on NBCUniversal's new streaming service, Peacock. Consequently, the movie will only debut after the streaming service is launched.[58][13] In a November 2019 interview with Larry King, Timothy Omundson revealed that the film would revolve around the characters rallying together in support of Lassie's recovery following a stroke, mirroring Omundson's real-life stroke which led to his reduced presence in Psych: The Movie.[59]

Although series creator Steve Franks had originally indicated that he had hoped for and planned on at least six revival movies, leading up to the release of the second one, he noted plans to "figure out all the other ways to keep doing this."[60]