The Untold Truth Of Psych
One of many breezy, sun-soaked comedy-dramas on the USA Network during its 2006-'14 run, Psych was set apart by its kooky humor, weird overtones, and the fact that it was really funny. Psych starred James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a brilliant and hyper-observant police consultant who convinces his associates that he's psychic. Spencer fools most of his colleagues, but his constantly put-upon partner Gus Guster (Dulé Hill) knows his secret—and here are a few secrets you probably didn't know about Psych.
That's not really Santa Barbara
Psych is set in Santa Barbara, California, but, like many other TV shows, it actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tax breaks and other financial incentives make it cheaper to shoot there than expensive California. Early on, the show's production staff made pains to mask the bits of Vancouver that would show up in the background, including painting sunny California skies over snow-capped Canadian mountains. The crew also hauled a giant plastic palm tree from location to location to give off a California feel. After a while, they stopped trying so hard and settled for a Santa Barbara that just looked a little bit Canadian.
He's not your Bud
The show makes frequent references to '80s pop culture, particularly The Cosby Show. But those references are both subtle and complicated. In a first season episode, several people tell Gus that he looks like Bud, Rudy's best friend from The Cosby Show. While there is a resemblance, actor Dulé Hill did not play Bud. (Ironically, he had another bit part on the show as a young actor.) Bud was portrayed by Deon Richmond...who showed up on Psych as Gus's new boss, Mr. Richmond. Gus nicknamed him—you guessed it—Bud.
(Almost) Breakfast Club reunion
They landed the brain, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal, but Psych never got the athlete. Clearly a show a little bit obsessed with the '80s, Psych managed to cast almost every actor from the main cast of the 1984 teen classic The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall appeared in a season 8 episode, Ally Sheedy appeared four times, Molly Ringwald surfaced in the episode "Shawn Interrupted," and Judd Nelson can be seen in "Death is in the Air." John Kapelos, who played Carl the janitor in The Breakfast Club, also showed up in two episodes. With the exception of Paul Gleason (who played Principal Vernon, and died in 2006), the odd man out is Emilio Estevez. However, in one of the last episodes of the series, Shawn gained entry into a halfway house by using a fake name. The name he uses? You guessed it: Emilio Estevez.
The finale was an amusing mess
The scene in the finale during which Shawn proposed to Juliet (Maggie Lawson) was one of the last ever filmed for the entire series. And getting it on camera was total chaos. The script initially called for Shawn to drop the ring into blood pooling around the head of a murder victim, but network censors nixed that. Roday was as nervous as if he were really proposing, and drank three shots of bourbon to calm down for the scene. (Hill drank two for good measure.) It was also Maggie Lawson's last day on set, and she was crying so much that her makeup had to be constantly reapplied.
The Twin Peaks episode was a long time coming
One of the show's most famous episodes is "Dual Spires," a 2010 entry that paid extensive homage to David Lynch's surreal Twin Peaks on its 20th anniversary. The episode was star James Roday's idea—he started pitching a Peaks-based episode during the first season, and the writing staff finally went for it after the success of an earlier Alfred Hitchcock-homage episode Roday had written. Twin Peaks cast member Ray Wise had a recurring role on Psych, so he was called up for an appearance. Parts were written for seven other Peaks cast members: Catherine Coulson, Dana Ashbrook, Sherilynn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Lenny Von Dohlen, and Robin Lively. Everyone invited agreed to appear, but one other idea was nixed: Lynch himself. Initially there'd been a part written for him (a creepy, mysterious mayor named Douglas Fire), but the producers decided they'd feel terrible about the entire episode if Lynch read the script and didn't care for it.