Psych

This article is about the TV series. For the social science, see Psychology. For extrasensory perception, see Psychic. For the style of music, see Psychedelic music.
Psych
Created by Steve Franks
Starring James Roday
Dulé Hill
Timothy Omundson
Maggie Lawson
Kirsten Nelson
Corbin Bernsen
Opening theme "I Know You Know" by The Friendly Indians
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 8
No. of episodes 121 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Steve Franks
Chris Henze
Kelly Kulchak
Mel Damski
Bill Callahan
Producer(s) Andy Berman
Gordon Mark
James Roday
Dulé Hill
Tim Meltreger
Tracey Jeffrey
Location(s) British Columbia, Canada
Running time 42 minutes
Production company(s) Pacific Mountain Productions
TagLine Television
Universal Cable Productions (2008-2014)
Universal Media Studios (2007-2008)
NBC Universal Television Studio (2006-2007)
Distributor NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Broadcast
Original channel USA Network
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Original run July 7, 2006 – March 26, 2014
External links
Website

Psych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network with syndication reruns on ION Television.[1] It is produced by Franks and Tagline Television's Chris Henze and Kelly Kulchak. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills"[2] and impressive detective instincts allow him to convince people that he solves cases with psychic abilities. The program also stars Dulé Hill as Shawn's best friend and reluctant partner Burton "Gus" Guster, as well as Corbin Bernsen as Shawn's father, Henry, a former officer of the Santa Barbara Police Department.

Psych debuted on Friday, July 7, 2006, immediately following the fifth season premiere of Monk, and continued to be paired with the series until Monk's conclusion on December 4, 2009. During the second season an animated segment titled "The Big Adventures of Little Shawn and Gus" was added to the series. It was the highest-rated U.S. basic cable television premiere of 2006.[3] USA Network renewed the series for an eighth season on December 19, 2012, to include eight episodes, and ordered two more episodes on June 25, 2013, bringing the episode order to ten.[4][5] On February 5, 2014, USA Network confirmed that the eighth season of Psych would be its last, with the series finale airing on March 26, 2014.[6]

Overview

Most episodes begin with a cold open in the form of a flashback to Shawn and Gus's childhood. The flashbacks usually involve Shawn and Gus being taught a lesson by a young Henry Spencer (Shawn's father), who wishes that his son would follow in his footsteps and become a law enforcement officer. These lessons often play a role for the climax of the episode. As a child, Shawn was taught by Henry to hone his powers of observation and deduction, often using games and challenges to test him. Each flashback also sets the theme for the episode.

Shawn originally becomes known as a psychic when, after calling in tips on dozens of crimes covered on the news which help the police to close the case, the police become suspicious of his knowledge. The police theorize that such knowledge could only come from the "inside" and they decide to arrest him as a suspect. To avoid being sent to jail, Shawn uses his observational skills to convince the police that he is psychic. The interim police chief warns Shawn that if his "powers" are fake, he will be prosecuted. With no choice but to keep up the act, and having proven himself an effective aid to the police in solving crimes, he establishes a psychic detective agency, Psych, and becomes a consultant to the police. Pretending to have psychic powers allows him to engage in strange and comic behavior as he turns real clues into hunches and otherworldly visitations. He enjoys teasing lifelong friend Burton Guster (Gus), a pharmaceutical representative, about Gus's eclectic interests as they drive around in a blue Toyota Echo nicknamed "The Blueberry"[7] solving crimes.

Head detective Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), playfully named "Lassie" by Shawn and Gus, quietly respects Shawn's crime-solving skills but doubts his psychic abilities and is constantly exasperated by his antics. However, junior detective Juliet "Jules" O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) and Chief Vick (Kirsten Nelson) are far less antagonistic – with O'Hara expressing belief in Shawn's abilities, while Vick is mum on the subject – and usually willing to give Shawn the leeway he needs to solve cases. Henry and Shawn have a difficult relationship, but despite this, Henry reluctantly helps Shawn on various occasions.

Cast and characters

Main characters

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

Recurring characters

Episodes

Season Timeslot (ET) # Ep. Premiered Ended TV Season
Date Premiere
Viewers
(in millions)
Date Finale
Viewers
(in millions)
1
Friday 10:00 pm (July 7, 2006 – February 20, 2009)
15
July 7, 2006
6.06[9]
March 2, 2007
4.48[10] 20062007
2 16
July 13, 2007
4.33[11]
February 15, 2008
4.70[12] 20072008
3 16
July 18, 2008
4.89[13]
February 20, 2009
4.83[14] 20082009
4
Friday 10:00 pm (August 7, 2009 – October 16, 2009)
Wednesday 10:00 pm (January 27, 2010 – March 10, 2010)
16
August 7, 2009
3.98[15]
March 10, 2010
2.95[16] 20092010
5
Wednesday 10:00 pm (July 14, 2010 – May 29, 2013)[lower-alpha 1]
16
July 14, 2010
3.68[17]
December 22, 2010
2.90[18] 2010
6 16
October 12, 2011
3.00[19]
April 11, 2012
2.71[20] 20112012
7 16
February 27, 2013
2.94[21]
May 29, 2013[lower-alpha 1]
2.18[22] 2013
8
Wednesday 9:00 pm (January 8, 2014 – March 26, 2014)
10
January 8, 2014
2.28[23]
March 26, 2014
1.93[24] 2014
Notes
  1. 1.0 1.1 The episode "Psych: The Musical" aired as a special two-hour event at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on December 15, 2013, outside of the seventh season's primary run.

Production

The show uses White Rock, British Columbia, Canada for its Santa Barbara, California setting.[25] Psych also incorporates Vancouver and various locations around the Lower Mainland of British Columbia as a backdrop. Santa Barbara is on a mountainous coastline without bays and just has the few Channel Islands miles offshore. Many of the overlooking helicopter shots and set up shots (in which the exterior of the Santa Barbara Courthouse is shown) are actually filmed in Santa Barbara. The animated segments "The Big Adventures of Little Shawn and Gus" were created by J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc. The music, effects and sound design for "The Big Adventures of Little Shawn and Gus" were created by Fred Weinberg.

Theme song

The theme song for Psych is "I Know You Know" by The Friendly Indians, series creator Steve Franks' band. Some episodes in Seasons 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 use an extended fuller version of "I Know You Know", consisting of the first verse and the chorus,[26] 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.

Variations

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" (5.12) is an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the title sequence of Twin Peaks. The episode "100 Clues" (7.05) 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.

Pineapple

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 almost every episode as a running gag. The pineapple is a major marketing point for items related to the show on the USA website.[28] There have also been fan movements, such as fan-made websites, dedicated to finding a pineapple or pineapple-related object in each episode.[29]

Series finale post-show

Following the series finale on March 26, 2014, the USA network aired a live post-show. The hour-long special was hosted by Kevin Pereira and featured series stars and creator/executive producer Steve Franks.[30]

Response

Critical reaction and ratings

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.[3]

From the San Jose Mercury News:

James Roday (Miss Match) is utterly charming and delightfully funny as Shawn Spencer (who may not be Psychic but who does have wonderful powers of observation), and he gets fine support from Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law) as his cop father and Dulé Hill (The West Wing) as his Dr. Watson-esque sidekick.[31]

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Psych is one of those happy collisions of an intelligent script and an appealing cast. Roday's a charmer, nice looking but more charismatic than pretty, and ably paired with West Wing alumnus Dulé Hill, who plays Shawn's ultra-responsible childhood friend Gus.[32]

As the show continued to grow, it became a mainstay and the premiere television show on the USA Network. Critics and fans have given high praise to the chemistry between the entire cast, most notably Roday and Hill. The themed episodes and overall creativity have also been received well. Positive critical reception for the show has dramatically increased as the show has gone on. Significant applause has been given to the show for remaining fresh and witty, even as they pass the 100 episode mark, and the online fan community is extremely lively.[33]

Nominations and awards

Syndication

In July 2011 ION Television announced that Psych would become part of its 2012 broadcast in syndication.[38] 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 NBCUniversal Cable & New Media Distribution adds all 16 new episodes of season 7 to ION’s existing library of seasons 1-6 of Psych and includes rights to future seasons.[39] Psych is also aired on the Cloo channel and on the Esquire Network channel.

DVD releases

Seasons one through six are available on DVD in Regions 1, 2 and 4, as well as for online streaming on Netflix and Hulu and online download in the US, Canadian, UK, and Australian iTunes Stores. In addition, the seventh season is available on DVD in Region 1 and in the US, Canadian, and UK iTunes Stores. The episode "Psych: The Musical" is available on DVD in Region 1 and for download in the US iTunes Store, as well as for online streaming on Netflix and Hulu. The eighth and final season is also available for download in the US iTunes Store. Despite being available in HD over streaming and download video services, and seasons four through eight being filmed in HD, no Blu-ray release of Psych exists.

Title Ep # Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
The Complete First Season 15 June 26, 2007 April 24, 2008 April 30, 2008
The Complete Second Season 16 July 11, 2008 June 7, 2010 March 3, 2010
The Complete Third Season 16 July 21, 2009 February 21, 2011 March 2, 2011
The Complete Fourth Season 16 July 13, 2010 July 18, 2011 August 22, 2012
The Complete Fifth Season 16 May 31, 2011 May 21, 2012 September 5, 2013
The Psych-O-Ween Collection 4 September 11, 2012[40] TBA TBA
The Complete Sixth Season 16 October 16, 2012 July 26, 2013 August 14, 2014
The Complete Seventh Season 14 October 8, 2013 TBA TBA
Psych: The Musical 4 December 17, 2013[41] TBA TBA
The Complete Eighth Season 10 April 1, 2014[42] TBA TBA
The Complete Series 122 October 7, 2014[43] TBA TBA

Novels

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

Title Author ISBN Publication date
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read William Rabkin 0-451-22635-6 January 6, 2009
Mind Over Magic 0-451-22744-1 July 7, 2009
The Call of the Mild 0-451-22876-6 January 5, 2010
A Fatal Frame of Mind 0-451-23159-7 August 3, 2010
Mind-Altering Murder 0-451-23252-6 February 1, 2011
Psych's Guide to Crime Fighting for the Totally Unqualified Chad Gervich 1-455-51286-9 May 7, 2013

References

  1. "About | Psych". ION Television. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  2. Season 1, episode 11: "My heightened observational skills are considered a gift by many many people, but I'm here to tell you, they can be a burden."
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Psych Debuts As This Year's Most-watched New Show in Basic Cable". The Futon Critic.
  4. Seidman, Robert (December 19, 2012). "'Psych' Renewed for an 8th Season by USA". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  5. "‘Psych’ Gets Order For Two More Episodes, One To Be Determined By Fans". Deadline. 2013-06-26. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  6. Bibel, Sara (February 5, 2014). "'Psych' Canceled by USA After 8 Seasons; Series Finale to Air March 26". Zap2it. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  7. Barrett, Annie (2010-07-21). "'Psych': Dulé Hill answers your questions, Part 1 | PopWatch | EW.com". Popwatch.ew.com. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  8. "High Top Fade Out". Usanetwork.com. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
  9. Kissel, Rick (July 12, 2006). "Talent skeins boost nets". Daily Variety (Penske Business Media). OCLC 60626272. Retrieved June 5, 2013. (subscription required)
  10. "Wrestling in Top Spot in Cable Ratings". The Associated Press Online (Highbeam Research). Associated Press. March 9, 2007. OCLC 464378787. Retrieved July 30, 2013. (subscription required)
  11. Kissel, Rick (July 18, 2007). "'Bee' sings for NBC: but Fox keeps up streak". Daily Variety (Penske Business Media). OCLC 60626272. Retrieved September 2, 2013. (subscription required)
  12. Seidman, Robert (February 20, 2008). "Top Cable Shows Through Feb 11-17: SpongeBob vs. Lebron?". TV by the Numbers (Zap2it). Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  13. Seidman, Robert (July 22, 2008). "Nielsen Ratings Cable TV Top 20: Home Run Hit for ESPN". TV by the Numbers (Zap2it). Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  14. Seidman, Robert (February 24, 2009). "WWE RAW, The Closer and Monk lead weekly cable viewing". TV by the Numbers (Zap2it). Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  15. Seidman, Robert (August 11, 2009). "iCarly, Burn Notice, The Closer, Royal Pains, WWE RAW and Monk top week's cable shows". TV by the Numbers (Zap2it). Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  16. Seidman, Robert (March 11, 2010). "Psych Ends Season On a So-So Note". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
  17. Gorman, Bill (July 15, 2010). "Wednesday Cable: Hot In Cleveland Steady; Tosh.0, Top Chef, ESPY Awards, Psych Premiere Ratings & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  18. Gorman, Bill (December 26, 2010). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: ‘Mythbusters,’ ‘Top Chef,’ ‘Psych,’ ‘Meet the Browns,’ ‘WWE Tribute To The Troops’ & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
  19. Gorman, Bill (October 13, 2011). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: 'South Park' Rises; 'American Horror Story' Falls; + Brewers/Cards NLCS, 'Psych' Premiere, 'Ghost Hunters' & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  20. Bibel, Sara (April 12, 2012). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: 'South Park' Wins Night, 'Psych', 'America's Best Dance Crew', 'House Hunters', 'Restaurant Stakeout', 'Duck Dynasty' & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  21. Kondolojy, Amanda (February 28, 2013). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: 'Duck Dynasty' Dominates Night + 'Psych', 'Top Chef', 'The Daily Show', NBA Basketball & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  22. Bibel, Sara (May 30, 2013). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: NHL Playoffs Win Night, 'Psych', 'The Real World', 'Love Thy Neighbor', 'Mythbusters', 'Melissa & Joey' & More". Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  23. Bibel, Sara (January 9, 2014). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: 'American Horror Story' Wins Night, 'My Strange Addiction', 'Psych', 'Real World Ex-Plosion' & More". Retrieved January 9, 2013.
  24. Kondolojy, Amanda (March 27, 2014). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: 'Duck Dynasty' Finale Tops Night + NBA Basketball, 'Psych', 'Workaholics' & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  25. "Filming locations for "Psych" (2006)". imdb.com. amazon.com. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
  26. A later version of the song performed by the Friendly Indians revealed a second verse that was not used at any point during the course of the show.
  27. "Psych TV Series  Curt Smith  This is Christmas". Usanetwork.com. 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  28. "Comedy Television Series and Mystery TV Show  Psych TV Series  USA Network  What's With The Pineapple?  USA Network". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  29. psychpineapple.com
  30. 'Psych' Series Finale Airs Next Week on USA
  31. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/columnists/charlie_mccollum/14976592.htm
  32. Mcfarland, Melanie (2006-07-05). "On TV: Future holds a lot of fun for 'Psych' viewers". Seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  33. Atkin, Hillary. "‘Psych’s’ James Roday, Dule Hill Savor Series’ Creative Freedom". Variety. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  34. "IIG  08/09/2007 Press Release". Iigwest.com. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  35. "The IIG Awards". Iigwest.com. 2010-08-21. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  36. 2010-11-11 by Corinne Heller (2010-11-11). "Emmy Awards 2010". OnTheRedCarpet.com. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  37. "ION Media Networks | Press Releases". Ionmedianetworks.com. 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  38. "ION Media Networks | Press Releases". Ionmedianetworks.com. 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  39. Lambert, David (June 27, 2012). "Psych - A Spook-Tackular DVD is Announced in the Form of 'The Psych-O-Ween Collection'". TVShowsOnDVD. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  40. Lambert, David (October 8, 2013). "Psych - DVD Announcement for 'Psych - The Musical': Date, Cost, Box Cover". TVShowsOnDVD. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  41. Lambert, David (January 14, 2014). "Psych - 'The Complete 8th Season' Announced: Date, Correct Price, Extras, Package". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  42. Lambert, David (July 15, 2014). "Psych - We Predict 'The Complete Series' DVD Set to Arrive This Fall". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved August 5, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Psych.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Psych