Reading Minds with the Stars of PSYCH

A talk with the stars and producer of the new "fake psychic" series.

USA's new series PSYCH has a very clever and amusing setup: Shawn Spencer (James Roday of The Dukes of Hazzard movie) is a private detective who has developed a strong clientele thanks to his advertised services as a psychic. The catch is that Shawn is a fraud; he's a talented detective to be sure, but he's not in the least bit actually psychic. So each week, he first has to solve a crime, and then make up a plausible scenario to his client about how he figured it out using his psychic abilities.

IGN TV took part in a Q&A with Roday, former West Wing star Dul¿ Hill -- who plays Shawn's friend and partner Gus -- and the "freakishly tall" (his own words) creator/executive producer Steve Franks, for a fun talk about what it's like to portray the world of a fake psychic, the difficulties of shooting a show set in California in Vancouver, and the potential for PSYCH: The Musical.

Question: Steve, how did the show come about? How did you come up with the idea?

Steve Franks: My dad and his three brothers are all police officers, and my dad wanted nothing more than [that] for me; the only job in the world was to be a police officer. I chose a different path, and so I sort of thought about taking that a little further. When I was a kid, we'd be in a restaurant, [and my dad] would actually ask me how many people were wearing hats in the restaurant. And he was training me in his own way to follow his footsteps. And then of course I chose the one profession he has no concept of in the world. So I sort of brought that idea forward. And I always wanted to do something with a guy who is pretending to be psychic and had no psychic abilities but just had a great grasp of details and has basically been trained to see and read people in such a way that he can just pass that off as a psychic ability.

(L-R) Corbin Bernsen, James Roday and Dul¿ Hill on Psych

Q: Have you guys ever been to psychics, and did you learn anything interesting from it?

James Roday: Yes, I did a little. I laid a little groundwork before we shot our pilot. I met with a couple of psychics. One up in Vancouver, a very interesting woman, led a very interesting life. And I have to say, the energy in her home and the energy surrounding her was very unique. And she spoke with a very sort of calm and soothing British accent, which was all it took to sell me. I was like, "Wow, it feels kind of weird in here. You sound kind of weird. I believe that you can do stuff." But no, she just -- she said she feels things. She feels things very deeply, like more so than the average human
being. And you know, I figure if Pel¿ was born knowing how to play soccer like that, why can't people feel things really deeply? So I buy it. I totally buy it. And I'm now ripping her off.

Dul¿ Hill: I called Madame Cleo. That's what I did.

Q: Do you expect a backlash from the psychic community?

Steve Franks: In a way we're sort of&#Array; It's like you split a room. You go into a room, and you say that there's a psychic here; it seems that, half the people, there's no way they're ever going to believe it, and half the people think, "Perhaps." I believe there's something out there. I believe that there's some sort of connection that people have. But I also think that it's really fun to sort of make fun of that, especially a guy who is&#Array; he's not making fun of psychics. He's just really a good private detective. But the police aren't going to go come knocking on your door and give you cases if you happen to say, "Hey, I'm a really good detective. I can help you out." So it's sort of an opportunity where he talks his way out of something. So it's not that we're so much making fun of them. In fact, we want to embrace them because we don't want them to put a hex on us.