Psych Season 6 Returns 10/12 at 10 PM ET/PT. Interview with Roday & Hill Part 2

Psych returns on Wednesday 10/12 at 10 PM ET/PT with an entirely fun new batch of episodes that look to be really stretching the limit of PSYCH’s plot thread, characters and more!!

Series premiere synopsis:
While on a mission to retrieve a stolen Darth Vader collector’s item from the British Ambassador’s son at the British Consulate Residence in Santa Barbara, Shawn finds a dead body left in one of the rooms. In order to get SBPD on the case to find her killer, Shawn tells Lassiter and Juliet that the image of a dead body at the British Consulate Residence came to him in a psychic vision. However, Shawn’s credibility as a “psychic” could be placed in jeopardy if SBPD finds out he actually witnessed the dead body in person and didn’t “divine” the image of her murder.

Malcolm McDowell and Polly Walker guest star in “Shawn Rescues Darth Vader,” premiering Wednesday October 12 at 10/9C!

PSYCH’s move to Wednesday nights in 2010 attracted the biggest P18-34 audience in the series’ four-year history of the series, breaking 1 million viewers for the first time ever in a year (1.13 million). It was the most watched scripted series on cable Wednesday nights in 2010 among total viewers (4.57 million).

Club PSYCH kicks off fall with an exhilarating digital ride with a massive social media murder whodunit engaging fans via Facebook, Twitter, Club PSYCH and USA’s Character Chatter. This season includes new levels of Squirrel Assassins, a ’90s Challenge to test your pop-culture smarts, and more installments of the popular Find the Famous Pineapple. In the mobile space, fans can download the new version of the PSYCH Vision App to get exclusive video like PSYCH outs, writer commentaries, and a making-of video on the go.

INTERVIEW! Operator: The next question is from Allison Nichols.

Allison Nichols: Hi, how are y’all?

James Roday: Hey Allison.

Dule Hill: Allison.

Allison Nichols: So now that Shawn has Juliet, now Gus is all by himself. Is he ever going to have a longer relationship than like an episode or two?

Dule Hill: I think we’ll have to see what happens in Season 7, but in Season 6 he makes a valiant effort to attain that. He goes for it.

You know, you can’t blame Gus for trying in Season 6, he’s actually put his – throwing his hat into the ring and he’s out there, you know, really trying to make it happen. But we’ll see what happens going into Season 7, maybe he’ll get past the one-episode love interest then.

Allison Nichols: I’m waiting for Shawn to try to fix him up with some random person on the street or something.

James Roday: I don’t know how much faith Gus would have in a Shawn setup.

Dule Hill: Right.

Allison Nichols: Yes, that could go downhill pretty fast.

Dule Hill: Exactly. But then again, Gus hasn’t been doing too great on his own so, you know, at a certain point he might say, “You know what, what the heck?” (Unintelligible).

Allison Nichols: Just go from person to person, just have him ask everyone.

Dule Hill: Right.

Allison Nichols: And you know, you have a whole bunch of themed episodes I guess, you know, you did the Twin Peaks episode. Is there something you haven’t done yet? I know you said you’re going to do the Clue episode next season. But is there something you really want to do that just hasn’t happened?

Dule Hill: Well I know Steve Franks has talked about it for a couple of season now and it hasn’t actually happened yet, but I hope that in Season 7 we can actually make the musical episode happen. I mean I started – that’s how I started in the business — doing musicals — so it would be great to bring that to Psych and be able to sing and dance in an episode, and not just in a Psych-Out.

James Roday: Agreed, yes I think that’s kind of the pinnacle of theme episodes that we’ve yet to do. So that’s the big apple that hopefully we’ll be able to slice up and feed to all of our fans.

Allison Nichols: Yes actually that’s been talked about for a while it just hasn’t happened.

James Roday: You know it’s tricky, it’s not something that you could throw together. You know, other shows have tried it to varying levels of success and I think because Steve has such a love for music, you know, his band sings our theme song, it’s really important to him to hit a homerun with it.

And I think that’s why there’s been a little bit of Indian giving in the past, because you know, he realizes – I think it really hit him this past off-season, like just how much work it’s going to take to do it right and that’s why he postponed it. But I think he’s committed and I expect it to happen next season.

Allison Nichols: I feel like Psych could pull it off. Some shows that can’t – I mean you know, you have Once More with Feeling, which is Buffy, which was you know, that just – it has high standards.

James Roday: Right, exactly. And I think he knows that. And but the good news is, look he’s got a game cast and you know, he’s got his own band and they’re songwriters. And you know, it’s just a matter of putting in the time and you know, we should be able to execute.

Allison Nichols: That’s good. And Dule can just tap dance if you need to fill more time.

James Roday: There you go.

Dule Hill: See what I’m saying?

Allison Nichols: Have a tap dance sequence.

Dule Hill: Sounds like a plan to me.

Allison Nichols: All right, well thank y’all very much.

James Roday: You bet you.

Allison Nichols: Hope you feel better Dule.

Dule Hill: Thank you.

James Roday: Nice to get a…

Operator: The next question…

James Roday: Nice to get a “Y’all” in there.

Dule Hill: Yes.

Operator: The next question is from (Sammy Churano).

(Sammy Churano): Hi, it’s great to speak with you both again.

James Roday: What?

Dule Hill: Hey (Sammy).

(Sammy Churano): Hi, my first question for you is, we found out last season that Lassiter found out about Shawn and Juliet. How do you think that’s going to affect their relationship with him?

James Roday: You know, it’s a little touch and go out of the gates, but Lassiter himself finds love this season and I think that kind of helped cushion the blow. And you know, it’s pretty much back to business down the stretch.

(Sammy Churano): Okay. And my next question is, “If the whole cast of Psych were on Survivor, who do you think would win?”

James Roday: The whole cast.

And then you’d have some kind of showdown between Lassiter, Juliet and Henry. And I don’t know, you know what, I’m going to keep it in the family, I’m going to say that Henry Spencer pulls out the upset victory.

(Sammy Churano): Okay, and are we going to see more development between Henry and Shawn’s relationship this season?

James Roday: I think it’s less relationship driven and more just Henry driven, in terms of where he is, and where he is in his life, and what he wants, and stuff like that. The season finale addresses some of that stuff. But you know they are kind of – he’s still at the police station and they’re forced to sort of work with one another on a daily basis so that’s still happening. But then you know, I think we take it a little further with Henry towards the end of the season.

(Sammy Churano): Okay, one last question and I’ll let someone else go. Juliet seems to be a strong female character; do you think she’s inspiring female viewers or?

James Roday: You know, I think (Jules) has come a long way. I think you know, she was a junior detective when the show started, and you know, Maggie looked like she had just graduated high school. And you know, if you kind of track the evolution of that character I think it, you know, it is a little inspiring. I mean we’ve kind of watched both the actress and the role, the character kind of come of age on our show. And you know, she’s pretty tough and she takes care of business, but she’s still very feminine and all of that is sort of in place as well. And you know, considering that you know, she isn’t Shawn or Gus, and isn’t at the forefront of every episode, I think it’s a nice character to cite on TV, sure.

(Sammy Churano): Sounds wonderful. Thank you both, and feel better Dule. And try lemon and honey for your throat.

Dule Hill: Thank you, I’ve been doing that actually — lemon, honey and a little bit of rum.

(Sammy Churano): Wow I like that idea better. Feel better. Talk to you guys soon.

Dule Hill: Thank you.

James Roday: Bye.

(Sammy Churano): Bye.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Erin Galbraith.

Erin Galbraith: Hey you guys.

Dule Hill: How you doing Erin?

Erin Galbraith: Good, how are you guys?

Dule Hill: All is well, all is well.

Erin Galbraith: Other than Dule?

Dule Hill: Say that again?

Erin Galbraith: Other than you.

Dule Hill: (Unintelligible).

Erin Galbraith: I know how you’re doing.

Dule Hill: I’m doing – you know, even though I’m, you know, I’m coughing and all that, I’m still doing well.

Erin Galbraith: Well that’s good.

Dule Hill: How’s Pineapple (unintelligible)?

Erin Galbraith: Okay. So I’ve been absolutely addicted to Hashtag Killer. So in all fairness I shouldn’t even be here because I was the first victim. So hypothetically I’m dead.

Dule Hill: That’s right, I saw that on Twitter. Somebody said, “MockTurtlePower was – they were attacking you,” or something like that.

Erin Galbraith: Yes, I died on Friday. Anyway.

Dule Hill: So now you’re like Jesus. We’ll start calling you Jesus.

Erin Galbraith: Or Shawn’s channeling me or something because I’m still helping on the case.

Dule Hill: I hear that.

Erin Galbraith: That’s pretty cool. But I’d like to know what sort of input and how much work you both put into the 7-weekmysterygame?

James Roday: Input; not a ton. We were a little tied up with the 16-week…

Erin Galbraith: Right.

James Roday: …season. But we did give a couple full days to the shooting of it. And you know, it’s weird, because it’s a little disjointed and we didn’t shoot it in sequence. So it’ll be interesting to see how it all kind of unfolds once they put it all together and it starts happening on a weekly basis.

Erin Galbraith: Cool.

Dule Hill: But I will say I was there at the inception of the idea, because when I went down to South by Southwest, when I first got on Twitter, I was down there with Jesse Redniss.

Erin Galbraith: Right, he’s the Vice President of Digital right?

Dule Hill: Right. We were all there talking after the event and somehow the Hashtag came up. And then he started talking about Hashtag Killer. From there I guess they took it and ran with it.

((Crosstalk))

Erin Galbraith: Well everyone is running with it.

James Roday: Well that’s a good thing.

Erin Galbraith: It’s awesome. So my next question is, “Can you guys tell us anything about the episode you just finished filming because everyone’s totally in the dark, except we know that Jennifer Lynch directed it.

James Roday: Well it’s a – it was an episode that Andy Berman and I wrote knowing that Jennifer was directing it. So that should give you a little (unintelligible) there. And…

Erin Galbraith: So it’s going to be dark?

James Roday: Yes you know, it’s just a strange little episode that kind of shows you some parts of Santa Barbara that you’re not used to seeing, and some characters that you’re not used to seeing. But it’s all still very much in the spirit of our show. It’s not a big – I wouldn’t call it a, “Big dark departure episode…”

Erin Galbraith: Okay.

James Roday: …along the lines of the Yangs or anything like that. But just a little left of center. And Jennifer did an absolute bang-up job of it. So we’re pretty excited about it.

Erin Galbraith: And does that mean that you have confirmation that David Lynch watched Dual Spires?

James Roday: That we don’t have. But if he didn’t watch Dual Spires, I have a sneaking suspicion that he will watch Jennifer’s episode. So one way or another, this time next year, I think we’ll be able to say that, “David Lynch has watched an episode of Psych.”

Erin Galbraith: Awesome.

Dule Hill: Or at least part of an episode. He’s going to at least watch at least some of it.

James Roday: At least some of it.

Dule Hill: (Unintelligible). You know, (unintelligible)…

Erin Galbraith: Okay I just have one small thing…

Dule Hill: …he’s a different kind of guy.

Erin Galbraith: One small thing left, “Did you know that Japa Dog is opening in New York City?

Dule Hill: I saw that. Somebody – these are – this is the thing again about Twitter, and I know I keep going back to it, but somebody tweeted me a picture of it yesterday…

Dule Hill: …”Japa Dog is coming to New York.”

Erin Galbraith: It’s really too bad that they’re under construction during Fan Appreciation Day, because they should have planned better.

James Roday: They should have.

Erin Galbraith: They could have got a lot of customers.

Dule Hill: I want to be there though.

James Roday: Good for Japa Dog.

Erin Galbraith: Okay, well those are my questions.

Dule Hill: (Unintelligible).

James Roday: Dude, thank you Erin. You know we’re behind you, we’re thinking of you okay?

Erin Galbraith: Thank you. Thank you guys so much. And Dule, feel better.

Dule Hill: Thank you. But didn’t you say you were coming to Fan Appreciation?

Erin Galbraith: No I’m not coming.

Dule Hill: Oh you’re not, okay, okay. Well see you next time though. Talk soon.

Erin Galbraith: I wish, I hope so.

Dule Hill: All right.

Operator: The next question is from (Allison Ebner).

(Allison Ebner): Hey guys, thanks for chatting with us today.

James Roday: You bet you.

Dule Hill: No problem.

(Allison Ebner): So you know, this show has had so many guest stars in every single season, and this one is no different. So do you guys have any initiation rituals? You know, how do you bring them into the Psych family?

Dule Hill: We don’t have initiation rituals, we do have I guess, sendoff rituals.

James Roday: There’s always that initial sort of moment of, “But wait a minute it’s not my birthday.” But then they get it.

(Allison Ebner): That’s a very sincere gesture of you guys.

James Roday: Indeed.

(Allison Ebner): So you know, having spent six seasons now with Shawn and Gus, of course you know the characters extremely well, but do you ever find yourself surprised by something that, you know, has been written into the script or that either one of you bring up in improv, you know be it an interest of Shawn and Gus’ or a reaction, or anything else of the sort?

James Roday: I get surprised two or three times a year, when our writers come up with something for the purposes of one episode that Shawn has supposedly had as part of his character for much longer than that, so a strange way of talking or a fear of something.

Dule Hill: And I’ve got a…

(Allison Ebner): Any good ones you can share?

James Roday: Well, all of a sudden there was an episode where Shawn had a – has a great fear of death and doesn’t know how to deal with it, which is odd because of course we were around death every week.

Dule Hill: I was – I’m learning how to expect the unexpected when dealing with the Psych writers, which – so I don’t really get too surprised when things come around. But having that mentality also leaves – I mean it leaves the room wide open for the writers to do what they do and come up with all these amazing stories and roles for us to get into. So that’s kind of my motto of each season is, “Expect the unexpected.” When you have Andy Berman, Todd Harthan, Steve Franks, Saladin Patterson, you know, all these cats all in one room, you can expect something crazy’s going to come out of there.

(Allison Ebner): Absolutely. And (unintelligible) on that, but will we be getting any special renditions of the theme song this season?

James Roday: Yes, as a matter of fact. Our Shining episode will feature a brand new, completely different rendition of the theme song.

Dule Hill: And we do get a re-run. We get a re-run of the Boyz II Men a cappella version. (Unintelligible)…

(Allison Ebner): Wonderful.

Dule Hill: Since (Quarterblack) is returning.

(Allison Ebner): Great, well looking forward to it. Thanks so much.

Dule Hill: Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Jamie Ruby.

Jamie Ruby: Hi again.

Dule Hill: Hi (unintelligible).

Jamie Ruby: So can you talk a bit about the Indiana Jones episode and working with John Rhys-Davies?

James Roday: Yes that episode came out really well, and it’s also the third installment of the episodes involving the Despereaux character, played by Cary Elwes. And for my money, it’s the best of the trilogy for sure — a lot of fun.

Dule Hill: Fun guy to work with. Full of energy.

Jamie Ruby: Awesome. So do you, either of you have any like crazy or fun fan stories to tell us about?

James Roday: I still think it’s going to be tough for me to top a fan wanting me to sign their boob. It’s just, we’ve been asked to sign a lot of things, and I just didn’t see that one coming.

Dule Hill: See me on the other hand, I probably would have. If she gave me a Sharpie, I would have been like, “Sure, why not? It’s your booby you know? You do what you want to do with it.”

Jamie Ruby: Just hope they don’t get it tattooed on there.

Dule Hill: Exactly.

Jamie Ruby: What about you Dule?

Dule Hill: And for me it goes back to, still when I was (Bring a Noise, Bring the Funk), and coming out of the stage door, and as one fan asked for my sweaty towel, you know, because I – it was a tap dance show so I came out all sweaty. And I was wiping my face with it, and they just wanted the towel so bad. And I said, “Sure, take it.” And he took it and he ran down 49th Street screaming at the top of their lungs waving the towel. And I was like, “Wow,” you know, I was like, “For one sweaty towel? Okay, that’s a lot for one sweaty towel.”

Jamie Ruby: Well at least they were happy.

Dule Hill: Yes. I guess it’s the little things in life.

Jamie Ruby: Yes. So if you two weren’t acting, what do you think you’d be doing?

Dule Hill: I was going off to become a corporate lawyer; that was my – I was in my junior year of college at Seton Hall going for a Business Finance degree. And then my next step was to go to law school to become a corporate lawyer.

James Roday: If I wasn’t doing anything related to the entertainment industry I’m sure I would probably be working with animals in some capacity. I don’t know if I would have had the discipline to make it all the way through medical school to become a vet, but maybe. Zoo; zoo might be fun too. Being a zookeeper, that feels fun.

Jamie Ruby: All right. All right, well thanks both of you so much.

Dule Hill: Thank you.

James Roday: Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from (Jean Jackal).

(Jean Jackal): Hi again.

Dule Hill: Hi again.

(Jean Jackal): Hey. James, your such a sports fanatic, I wonder how you’re preparing for a possible NBA withdrawal, and specifically a Spurs withdrawal?

James Roday: Well it’s unfortunate…

Dule Hill: Sorry, let me say real quick this, first withdrew last year, if you didn’t notice.

(Jean Jackal): Don’t say that.

James Roday: It’s unfortunate because you’d like to think that they could handle their business, like everybody else in the world has to handle their business, so that they don’t have to cancel a season. It’s funny the way that athletes and their unions and the owners, you know, kind of pull these scams on us, because you never see doctors deciding, “You know what, we’re not going in and saving lives this week. We’re out,” or teachers deciding they’re not going to go and teach school for six months. It’s like it’s unfortunate that this happens, but as sports fans that are devoted from, you know, pretty much as early as you can hold a basketball, we always end up forgiving them and we always end up coming back to the trough when they get back.

I’d like to think that it won’t be a lost season, and that it’ll be a strike shortened season. And the last time we had a strike-shortened season, San Antonio Spurs won their first championship so.

(Jean Jackal): That’s right.

James Roday: Maybe that’s not a bad thing. And maybe for an old bunch of guys like the Spurs, it’s just what the doctor ordered you know? A little less wear and tear on the legs, they can come in and steel one.

(Jean Jackal): I also was just…

Dule Hill: And in the meantime, let me just say the – it looks like the 49ers and the Jets may be going to the Super Bowl. How about that, huh?

Dule Hill: Yes I know, but we’re not going to talk about that right now.

(Jean Jackal): Also James, I was just wondering, are you still planning maybe to come back to your hometown for the holidays?

James Roday: I would like to get there for a couple days, sure. I have to figure out when that will be, but it is still on the books for me to get there sometime in December, yes.

(Jean Jackal): And how did William Shatner’s character – he’s Juliet’s dad right?

James Roday: Yes.

(Jean Jackal): …respond to Shawn? How does he take to Shawn? I imagine they locked horns a little bit.

James Roday: Well we had some fun there because it’s kind of like, you know you can’t snow the snowman, you can’t con the King of Con, so he kind of had the ability to see right through Shawn and that made things really interesting. And then Shawn of course sort of fired back by seeing through him and calling him on all of his BS. So we had sort of an interesting game of one-upsman-ship and a little bit of a chess match going on, with the common thread of course being that they both do care very much about Juliet.

(Jean Jackal): And do you have a date for that episode at all, or do you know when that might air?

James Roday: When does that air? I want to say…

(Jean Jackal): November or?

James Roday: Yes, November or December.

(Jean Jackal): That’s specific.

James Roday: It’s pretty vague. It’s not in the first four, which takes you through mid-November, or at least the first week of November. And it’s not the finale of the first half. So I would say, “Late November is probably – probably feels right.”

(Jean Jackal): Okay, thanks. And thanks for the Spurs quotes.

James Roday: Always (Jeanie).

(Jean Jackal): Take care.

Operator: The next question is from CJ Allan.

CJ Allan: Hey guys, it’s CJ and Heather here again.

James Roday: Hey Buddy.

Dule Hill: Hey.

CJ Allan: How’s it going?

James Roday: Good man.

CJ Allan: Well we’ve got one question each; I’ll go off first, forget ladies first, it’s me first. And you were talking about how you’ve got British family; have you ever thought about coming across to England and visiting and kind of seeing your small-mid Psych fans across here?

Dule Hill: I actually do want to come over, and I was planning to come over this fall but then the play came up, then the schedule couldn’t really work with me making my way over there. But probably next summer. Probably on one of my hiatus’ I plan to make the trip over to the U.K. and see what it’s talking about over there. you know, I definitely want to see some family, and I have a lot of friends over there too, so you will see me soon.

CJ Allan: Well I definitely recommend it. You’ll love it across here.

Dule Hill: I have a feeling I will. You know, I think I’m going to have a good time, so I’m looking forward to it.

CJ Allan: And Heather, I think you wanted to ask a question as well?

Heather G: Actually it was just a silly comment really, but I just wanted to say that, “I think Gus’s nickname, one of his nicknames next year should be Dorkino Maximo.

Dule Hill: Dorkino Maximo. You know we could – probably could make that happen. You’d have to…