'Psych' stars' appeal is no mystery

There seems to be a small difference of opinion on the set of Psych. Should the hit USA series, which stars James Roday and Dulé Hill, be categorized first and foremost as a comedy? Or is it also a bona fide mystery/detective show?

The only reason this matters, mind you, is there are times at Psych when they make tough decisions about what ends up on the cutting-room floor. “I fall into the camp of never sacrifice a good joke to make the mystery better,” says Roday, aka Shawn Spencer, an offbeat but observant sleuth who pretends to be psychic. “But there are people at our network, and one of our executive producers in particular, who would disagree and say that you can always spare comedy on this show and that we need to have good cases that track.”

Even Hill, who plays sidekick Burton “Gus” Guster, is reluctant to go for the gag every time. “There should be a balance,” he says. “I know that people tune in to laugh every week. But it’s possible to have overkill if you have a joke on top of a joke on top of a joke on top of a joke.” Granted, that’s a precarious tower of jokes, but Roday and Hill have a three-season track record of making it work.

Besides, when the two stars met fans at Comic-Con in San Diego this year, the consensus was clear. “The majority of them are tuning in to watch us act like fools, not solve a mystery,” Roday says. So if you want a whodunit with precision plotting, we recommend a vintage Perry Mason episode. But if it’s a goofy good time that you’re jonesing for, check out Psych, which begins season four at 9 p.m. CT Friday, Aug. 7, on USA.

How much of the funny banter between your characters comes right out of the script and how much of it is the result of adlibbing? Hill: “Definitely there’s room to adlib. So the simple answer would be, no, it’s not all directly from the script. Most of the adlibbing, I’d say, comes from Roday and then it’s me just keeping up with him.” Roday: “We’re pretty lucky that we have a pretty long leash on our show. There’s a lot of room to sort of play around and maneuver. Sometimes that’s how we find our best stuff. Sometimes that’s how we find our worst stuff!”

Does your chemistry as a duo come naturally? Did you click from day one? Roday: “We’re always fine-tuning it. But we got very lucky in that we found that it came pretty easily, like peanut butter and chocolate. It’s like, ‘Oh, wow, these two things taste really good together.’”

What do you think of that other popular TV show with a fake psychic? Do you feel that The Mentalist stole from your show? And if so, any resentment? Roday: “I think it’s flattering. We make jokes about it because that’s what we do: We make jokes about everything. But the truth of the matter is we’ve been around long enough to sort of become somebody else’s derivative. That’s a good thing.”

Shawn has a knack for making up crazy aliases for Gus (such as Longbranch Pennywhistle, Ovaltine Jenkins and “Weepy Boy” Santos). How did that come about? And will there be even more name-game shenanigans this season? Hill: “Always. There will be an endless list of new names for Gus as long as the show is on.” Roday: “It’s part of the permanent fabric of the show. It started off as just an improvisation all the way back in the first episode after the pilot. It caught on with everybody in the writers room and on set. Everyone’s in on the joke now. So, yeah, there will be plenty of names.”

Shawn is the consummate prankster, but isn’t it about time that Gus turned the tables on him big-time? Or is Gus simply not quick enough to pull it off? Hill: “He tried to pull one off on Shawn last year [in the ‘Tuesday the 17th’ episode]. I guess he got him a little bit, but obviously he wasn’t quick enough to get him completely. Maybe he’ll try something again. That’s a good question as to whether he’s quick enough or not. He’ll make a valiant effort. But most likely, Shawn will eventually figure it out.”

Where does the ought-to-happen romance between Shawn and Jules (Maggie Lawson) stand heading into season four? Will they finally hook up? Or will the presence of Abigail (played by Rachael Leigh Cook) get in the way? Roday: “Maggie Lawson does such a wonderful job. I watch as a fan of the show and feel for her and feel for Shawn. But it’s a marathon, that relationship. There’s going to be a lot of going in circles and missed timing and hurdles that have to be cleared before something to ever actually happen. This season, Rachael Leigh Cook’s character is one of those curveballs. We’ll be seeing her sporadically over the course of the entire season.”

And when does Gus get a little bit of romance? Hill: “I think it will probably happen the second half of season four. It’s been a long time coming, so Gus has a little pent-up energy.”

James, have you ever pretended to be something you’re not, the kind of elaborate lie that your character constantly pulls on the show? Roday: “Well, back in college, I think I might have told a girl that I was a professional tennis player. Then, of course, she had never heard of me, so I had to dig deeper. Like, ‘I’m just sort playing satellite events, working my way up. I’m not ranked in the top 100 or anything.’ And all the while, I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this. It was just supposed to be a pick-up line and now I’m making up an entire life!’ If I recall correctly, it did work out. But it was a lot of work for a brief dalliance.”

Any chance that Shawn will “grow up” during the run of this show? Roday: “I think Shawn and Gus both are works in progress. They’re both sort of overgrown kids. But, yeah, Shawn is trying to be in a relationship and that’s new. The idea of maturing but not really maturing is kind of a high-wire act. And we have one episode coming up that actually gets pretty serious. My character gets shot and that was kind of interesting. I was separated from the rest of the cast for the first time. The way the story is told, we’re sort of broken into three groups. It was interesting because we each got to work with people that we don’t necessarily usually work with while we were separated for most of the episode. That was challenging and different. When you’re in season four of a show and you can still come up with something that is completely different, that’s saying something.”

If you could have the guest star of your dreams, who would you choose? Hill: “For myself, it’s Martin Sheen [with whom Hill costarred on The West Wing] and David Alan Grier. We’ve tried for Martin a few different episodes. He just hasn’t been able to work out yet. He does want to do the show. It’s just finding the right character for him to play.” Roday: “I’ve decided my answer to that question is going to be David Bowie until we get him on. So I feel like I’ll be saying David Bowie for a while!”