Psych at the Paley Center

Photo credit: Wire Image

Hi everyone. This is Kristi and I'm back! This time, it’s to share the fun times that were had this past Thursday night when Psych was at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles. In attendance for the panel were: James Roday (Shawn Spencer), Dule Hill (Burton ‘Gus’ Guster), Timothy Omundson (Detective Carlton Lassiter), Maggie Lawson (Detective Juliet O’Hara), Kirsten Nelson (Chief Karen Vick), Steve Franks (Creator/writer/executive producer), and executive producers Chris Henze and Kelly Kulchak. Oh, and did I mention, Jimmi Simpson (Mary Lightly) was the moderator! \o/


Beware of spoilers

Now, everyone knows that this blog is run by three Super Psych-Os. Well, this event was a huge thrill for us. I for one was living vicariously through my twitter feed. Here are some highlights (beware of spoilers):

From @psychwrites, being helmed that night by Steve Franks’ assistant Brittany Hilgers:

Best picture ever!!!!!! http://twitpic.com/1hnlnd

James just compared shawn to dirk diggler.

"I died in the arms of James roday"--jimmi Simpson

From @insidethetube:

New season finds the #Psych crew in Jackie Chan mode and Lassie, Gus tapdancing. Say what?!

From @thesurfreport:

Lassie isnt a SWAT team member cause the dept knows if they put an automatic weapon in his hands, it would be bad. #psych

James Roday: if Shawn could find a female version of Gus, he'd settle down. #psych #paleycenter

There were some great videos taken that night as well. These were recorded prior to the panel while the cast was walking the red carpet. Yep, there was a red carpet. This first group is from Whedonopolis. There are five videos from the main cast and Steve Franks: here. This one is an interview done by Zap2It with Steve Franks and Chris Henze: here.

For a more indepth look at the evening check out The Futon Critic.

I really wished I could have been there. From all accounts, it was a laugh a minute and insightful. So, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll see ya'll later.

Kristi

Happenings at the USA Network

A lot happened this past week for a lot of different USA shows. Here’s a rundown of what happened, in case you missed it!

Burn Notice

BIG news for all Burn Notice fans! Season 4 starts up on Thursday, June 3 at 9/8C but while you watch, you don't have to worry about the show getting cancelled anytime soon. Burn Notice has been renewed not ONLY for Season 5, but for Season 6 as well! The article about the renewal in Variety

says, "Network execs say seasons five and six will run a minimum of 15 and 18 episodes, respectively." This is incredible because no USA show has had over 16 episodes in a season before.

So keep watching and just sit back and enjoy. Burn Notice isn't going anywhere for a very long time.

Covert Affairs

The show doesn't premiere until July (date TBD), but USA is starting to advertise for its premiere.
The released its first trailer, and it looks SO cool!





You can join the Facebook Fan Page and follow CovertAffairs on Twitter. (notice there is no "USA" at the end b/c it's too long)

Also, follow Chris Gorham on Twitter. He's one of the stars.

After all of this, if you are still wondering what exactly the show is about, here's a synopsis:
Covert Affairs: New jobs are tough- especially when your new employer is the CIA. Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) is fluent in six languages, has traveled all over the world and is besting her fellow CIA trainees in every test, but that doesn't explain why she's suddenly summoned by CIA headquarters to report for active duty as a field operative a month before her training is over. What she doesn't know is there may be something-or someone-from her past that her CIA bosses are really after. With the help of Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), a tech ops expert who was blinded while on assignment and is Annie's unofficial guide to this inscrutable world filled with intrigue, danger, and bureaucratic red tape, this quick study won't be kept in the dark for long.

Read more at: Daemon's TV

Psych

On Sunday April 18^th James Roday and Maggie Lawson will be on the Kevin Pollack Chat Show which airs live online at http://www.kevinpollakschatshow.com/live/ at 3pm Pacific (6pm Eastern). After it airs, it will be available for viewing here.

Also, the cover art for the Psych Season 4 DVD was released this week. Still no word on what extra features it will have but it will be released on Tuesday, July 13th. 

For more information, click here.

White Collar

The show started filming this week. Since Tiffani Thiessen is very pregnant, they filmed her scenes with Tim Dekay while still in LA. Production in New York started on Thursday. Jeff Eastin posted photos from both sets on his Twitpic page.

Royal Pains

Season 2 premieres on Thursday, June 3 at 10/9C after Burn Notice. The cast is currently in Puerto Rico to film their premiere!
In the meantime, USA is holding a contest to win a trip to the set in the Hamptons! To enter, click here.

As new seasons start to film and air, there will be more news for you and we’ll have more of these rundowns.

-Jenna

A Holiday I Can Get Behind...

It’s April 4, 2010. Do you know what today is??

Well…yes, its Easter, but its also James Roday’s 34^th birthday!!

(It’s Robert Downey Junior’s birthday too but that’s neither here nor there.)

James Roday is my favorite actor. Psych is the first thing I saw him in, and besides him being laugh-out-loud funny, this man can do everything. If you aren’t a big Psych fan (*gasps*) then let me introduce you to James.

Adorable, right?

James Roday was born James Rodriguez on April 4, 1976 in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up on a military base where his dad worked, and his mom was a teacher. James attended the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU where he studied theater.

James in his early 20s. Taken from Red Dog Squadron's Facebook (RDS was co-founded by James)

After getting a bunch of small roles in movies and starring on a lot of failed television shows, James finally landed THE role: Shawn Spencer on Psych. He started out as just an actor, but soon James started co-writing an episode or two. Then James and co-star Dulé Hill became producers. In the third season, James co-wrote an episode with Steve Franks (the show's creator) called “Tuesday the 17th,” and James directed it! James also co-wrote and directed the Season 4 finale “Mr.Yin Presents.” He is a man of many talents and keeps himself busy!

During the filming hiatus, James starred in a play in LA called Extinction along with Michael Weston. You may know him as Hornstock in Psych’s “Cloudy, Chance of Murder”, Spencer in Burn Notice’s “Signal and Codes”, or as Lucas, the PI/Cuddy's boyfriend in House. I had the honor of seeing the play when it ran in New York City. I went on March 7^th with a bunch of friends (some who I met through twitter). The play was phenomenal. I judge how good an actor is by watching them in various things and determining if I see them as a single character no matter what they do or if they can convince me they are whom they are playing. James convinced me he was Finn. Yes, I got distracted a few times by the fact that I was literally two feet away from my favorite man in the world, but halfway through the play I forgot about all of that and just enjoyed every second.

After the play ended, we waited outside to meet James, Michael, and the two other cast members. It was without a doubt the best day of all of our lives. I could go into detail, but I own a Flip Camera so you can just watch it on youtube. 

Thats me with James!

The play was so good that I went to see it a second time. It was late, I was tired from being in the city all day, and James didn’t stay as long, but it worked out great. There were fewer people so I was able to talk to him more! (And get more hugs…wow, what a good hugger!) Here’s a fun fact that you won’t find anywhere else since I asked him directly:

James was signing someone’s magnet from the NBC store and no one was talking so i said, "James, what's the weirdest thing anyone has asked you to sign?"
"Someone wanted me to sign their boobs."
"Did you?"
"I did not."
"Alright…what's the weirdest thing you actually did sign?"
*thinks* "A birth certificate."

Yeah…James signed someone’s birth certificate. Lets all take a moment to wonder, “Why did someone HAVE their birth certificate with them, and why did they ask him to sign THAT?”

            So there you have it; a little history behind the birthday boy. He is my favorite actor and I wish him a happy and healthy 34^th year of life! (Hear that, James? You’re not allowed to get your appendix out for the sixth time. Five was enough.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!

Leave a comment below wishing James a Happy Birthday. If you don’t, he’ll look like this:

Oh, and Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it. :)

-Jenna

PS: Thank you Sam for staying up and checking this for me.
Jason Berger dubbed her James Roday's Biggest Fan and she was one of the girls who went to Extinction with me so I felt like she needed to approve of this post. 

Do YOU watch 'The Mentalist'…?

…because on April Fools Day, more than 11,000 people started following the ‘Mentalist Writers’ on Twitter. Without consent.

How did this happen? Two Words:

Jason. Berger.

Ok.. Technically that’s a name…

As brought out in our introduction blog, Jason is the former assistant to Steve Franks (The Creator of Psych). He still loves us Psych-os, and continues to help out with the psychwrites twitter page. (We love you too Berger! Wow- Did I just actually say that?) Somehow, though it doesn’t surprise me, he came up with the idea to turn @psychwrites into @mentalistwrites as an April Fools Day prank.

Pure. Genius.

So, at 10:13am EST/ 7:13am PST (Wow, Berger. Really? You are up THAT early?), @mentalistwrites made its first tweet: “FUN FACT: Simon Baker's hair takes 7 days to prepare. We call it ‘Baking’”

I, unfortunately, did not wake up until about an hour later. Rolling over to grab my phone off my dresser, I noticed it was flashing... clearly an indication I had a new message. This doesn’t happen often because a: I have no life, and b: I have no life. So I, of course, *had* to see who this message was from. Turning it on (while still half asleep I might add), I wasn’t shocked to see it was a message from Twitter. I was, however, utterly confused to see the name ‘mentalistwrites’ flashing across my screen. This lasted all of three seconds. The following exited my mouth as soon as I’d read the actual tweet:

“Berger.”

Yup. It had his name written all over it. All. Over. It. So, I ran… er… walked patiently… to my laptop in order to see what was going on. What I read didn’t come as a surprise, but it DID make me literally L.O.L.

After the 1st tweet, came a series of others:

#2: “FAKE SPOILER: Next season's premiere will center around finding a new partner. One who taps.”

#3: “Simon Baker's hair can predict: 1. the weather 2. the ncaa tourney (we doubted it too until it picked northern iowa over kansas.) 3. flavor”

And my personal favorite:

#4: “We changed our theme song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA”

You might remember that we've mentioned our fascination with Party in the USA. So that post alone made my day. (A blog entry to explain this to those of you who don’t know about/understand it, is coming soon! I promise!)

The prank wasn’t noticed by just us Psych-os, either. Even network executives noticed! Ted Linhart, (VP of Program Research at USA Network) tweeted: “I'm not the only one noticing psych writers posing as mentalist writers today, right?” Of course, he received his answer with a resounding ‘NO!’. His favorite tweet made by ‘mentalistwrites’? “RT @mentalistwrites: http://twitpic.com/1cfszm - Shh... Don't tell anyone, this is what we use to come up with our best ideas…” I have to agree. It’s one of my personal faves as well.

Most of the official USA Network show twitters such as Psych_USA, and BurnNotice_USA also joined in on the fun, by posting prank spoilers on their feeds. One of my favorites? “Psych_USA: Psych Season Five will feature our first completely silent episode, paying homage to the great silent films of yesteryear.” We all know, of course, how much Shawn likes his sound effects (not to mention how much he LOVES hearing himself talk), so this would never happen. But it was funnier than a pig in a blanket, rollin’ in a mud puddle. (Ok… Sorry… My country-fied just slipped out. No more of that. Scout’s honor!)

But did it stop there? HECK NO! ‘Mentalistwrites’ continued for EIGHT hours. But joining for a MAJOR bout of prank tweeting on 'mentalistwrites', was Brittney Hilgers (Steve Franks’ current assistant), and Ray Utarnachitt (script coordinator). Apparently, Tim Meltreger (Writer/Story Editor) joined in on the fun as well. And yes, they all totally ROCKED it.

They even went so far as to use the dummy ‘psychwrites’ account Berger created as yet an even funnier plotline to the story. (They *are* writers you know!) The tweets that came off the dummy account had me LMBO (And yes, that stands for ‘Laughing My Butt Off’, despite what Britt tries to tell you. ;) You know what I’m talking about Brittney!) I honestly have no idea who came up with this, but whoever did it deserves a raise. It went a little something like this:


mentalistwrites: We listen to this song at least 5 times a day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk

mentalistwrites: Ment-o's are big Selena Gomez fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_YR4dKArgo

mentalistwrites: #TeamSelena

psychwrites: HELLO???? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? I AM STUCK IN SIMON BAKER'S BASEMENT! PLEASE GET HELP!!!

psychwrites: I KEEP HEARING SELENA GOMEZ!!!! THIS IS LIKE 'RANSOM' BUT LESS LAME!

psychwrites: THERE'S TONS OF HAIR PRODUCT DOWN HERE! I'M TIED TO A BARREL OF DEP! DYNAMITE STRAPPED TO IT TOO! THIS IS LIKE THE DARK KNIGHT. Aw, Cool.

mentalistwrites: @psychwrites SHUT UP.

mentalistwrites: @PsychWrites At least @KenTucker likes us.

psychwrites: THE DOOR IS OPENING...IT'S....IT'S...Ken Tucker? HE HAS A CAN! HELP ME KEN! OH...OH GOD NO...HE'S POURING GASOLINE ON ME!!!

psychwrites: KEN TUCKER'S 'BURN NOTICE' LIGHTER DIDN'T WORK...GLAD USA NETWORK GIVES OUT CRAPPY SWAG!

psychwrites: I FELL OVER! THIS IS BAD FOR TWO REASONS. 1. MY KEYS ARE DIGGING INTO MY LEG. 2: I CANT FEED MY TOMAGOTCHI! :(

psychwrites: I WRANGLED AN ARM FREE! WHEW. TAMAGOTCHI? FED.

psychwrites: I'M FREEEEEEEE! I PUNCHED SIMON BAKER'S DOG "TUNNEY" AND BOLTED. SHARPEE'S MAKE POOR GUARD DOGS...



Aaaaaaand… cue mentalistwrites becoming psychwrites again.

First off… I’d like to know how psychwrites managed to keep their Tomagotchi alive this long? Mine died YEARS ago. (I was SO not cleaning up virtual dog poo. Don't ask.) Second… Thank goodness for crappy swag! We almost lost them! That darn Ken Tucker! I totally almost went all Jaden Smith on him and mentalistwrites. HOW DARE THEY!?

The funniest part? ‘Mentalistwrites’ lost approximately 400 followers during all of this. FOUR. HUNDRED! So, apparently, there are a lot of gullible people out there who are still trying to figure out what horribly evil person hacked their accounts and had them following ‘The Mentalist’. If you are one of these people, no worries… It’s safe to come back… I promise. ;)

So, to end this, I’m going to leave you with a quote posted on a particular someone’s twitter account:

“Genius is a word that gets thrown around all too often, but yeah, it was genius. ”- Jason Berger.


Well, Mr. Berger, it may get thrown around a lot, but its true. Well done, Jason. Well done.

 
PS: Be sure to check out the psychwrites Twitter feed for the full list of tweets from April 1st.
 
<3

~Suzanne
 
Undercover Characters is not in any way affiliated with USA Network or NBC Universal. No copyright infringement is intended.