James Roday talks about great guest stars and his 'Twin Peaks' turn in 'Psych'

James Roday

Get ready for some ‘80s and early ‘90s flashbacks in the fifth season on "Psych." The dramedy series about a police consultant Shawn Spencer (played by James Roday), who has fooled law enforcement into thinking that he is a psychic, is going to feature a lot of guest stars who hit it big in the ‘80s or early ‘90s. (Among the most notable: Tears for Fears singer Curt Smith makes a guest appearance and has rerecorded the "Psych" theme song.)

Season 5 of "Psych" premieres July 14 at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time on the USA Network. The season will include a flash-forward of what Shawn and Shawn’s best friend/sidekick Gus (played by Dulé Hill) will look like in the future — and the older Shawn and Gus are played by, respectively, William Devane and Carl Weathers. And Roday is set to co-write a "Twin Peaks"-themed episode of "Psych." Roday spilled more details and told a lot of jokes as he talked about "Psych" in a recent telephone conference call with reporters.

James Roday in "Psych"

We know a little bit about a co-star that’s going to be coming on as a guest. Is there anyone else you can give away as maybe some guest stars?

Let’s see. Let me sort of roll film in my head quickly. We kicked it off with Jean Smart and John Michael Higgins, who were both lovely and very funny and fit I thought well into the landscape of our show. We worked with a lot of wonderfully physically adept Asian Canadians in our kung fu premiere. We have Freddy Prinze Jr. rolling through.

We’ve got Carl Weathers and Bill Devane teaming up for what I think might be one of the funniest episodes we’ve done in a while. They were both fantastic and they just killed it in a good way. When I say killed it, I mean they slayed it like you would slay a dragon, a sleeping dragon. Let’s be honest. One Peter MacNichol can slay live dragons. How could I forget Brad Rader, my dear friend from college. Adam Rodriguez is awesome and cool and looks great in the leather jacket.

Right now, we’ve got Nester Carbonell up here, who is just as sculpted in person as he probably appeared on "Lost." He’s timeless and his face is sweet and his hair is sweet and he’s a very sweet man as well. So I guess we’re the lucky ones right now. Sorry, because we’ve got him. He’s actually sitting on my lap with his hand over his mouth right now giggling and blushing.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

You mentioned the episode with Carl Weathers and William Devane, and that sounds like it’s going to be just completely hilarious and wonderful. What is their interaction going to be exactly with Shawn and Gus?

They teach us how to get the most out of our sexual performance. No. The truth is they’re a team. We’re a team. We in a very unlikely series of events have to end up sort becoming a foursome, as opposed to two twosomes, in order to solve a heinous crime that affected one of Santa Barbara’s most respected pillars of society whom they have a history with and everybody is fond of.

And it basically just without being like really on the nose, it’s kind of like this glimpse into Shawn and Gus’ fairly distant future and we just had a blast with those guys. They each brought their own little thing to the roles and the script was very funny. I’ve got to give my boy Todd Harvan a shout. He wrote a very funny script and these guys came in and knocked it out of the park.

James Roday in "Psych"

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done so far this year? Anything similar to the Spanish soap opera?

Well I think what we’re trying to sort of play the idea that yin kind of affected everybody. You kind of want to play up so that the gravity of what that experience was the fact that we live in Santa Barbara and that it was pretty heavy stuff and so they can kind of inform everybody’s little journey as we head towards finishing it which will also be this season. I think we’re trying to drop as many temples as we can for why Shawn is sort of re-evaluating his life and how he lives it and if he needs to sort of make some changes. And the Yin thing is sort of a catalyst for that, as well as for Juliet, and you know and for Gus, too.

One of my favorite moments of the series is at the very end of the end when Gus is on the phone and it’s that sort of short from way up above where he looks really small and he’s on the phone and he just realized, "Wow, Gus the pharmaceutical salesman has really come a long way." I’ll bet he didn’t have this in his head, you know, four years ago. So it’s affected everybody as much as it can on a silly, breezy, irreverent comedy whodunit.

And as far as craziness, this season so far, let’s see. I just participated fully in a kung fu battle. Steve [Franks, "Psych" creator/writer/executive producer] directed a premiere and I just went at it with some highly trained martial artists, in the martial arts studio, and I got my butt kicked but it was fun. And I actually did it myself as opposed to giggling with Steve and watching my stuntmen do it. So that was the closest thing to crazy. And you know what, I don’t get that crazy anymore man. I’m getting older. I chose my battles a little more carefully these days.

James Roday in "Psych"

Are you going to be on "WWE Raw," since you had to cancel your appearance on the show this past year?

I’ve been sort of in contact with those guys and you know they’ve said, "Absolutely, let’s make it happen." And I’ve said, "Absolutely, let’s make it happen." So hopefully yes. It would be great fun for me and a childhood dream come true. So fingers crossed. Maybe it’ll shake down later this year.

Tim Omundson said that he has the hardest job on the show above all the cast members because he’s not even allowed to crack a smile when you and Dulé Hill do something silly. Do you agree with him or is he inflating his importance or how hard his job is, and do you target him to make him laugh?

It depends on what time of day it is and how many shots we have left quite frankly. Tim’s job is difficult because he does always have to keep a straight face. It’s supplemented by the fact that he’s not very good at keeping a straight face. So it does make him an easy; it does make him an easy target, but it’s gotten to the point now where it’s sort of like if you walk by and see a baby holding a Kit Kat and you come away with the Kit Kat like, "Oh, wow."

You know what I mean? Like who’s really impressed. Like you took a Kit Kat from a child whose basic motor skills are just starting to develop. That’s kind of what it’s become, making Tim bust up in the middle of a take. It’s just not as satisfying as it used to be and it’s actually gotten a little sad if I’m being honest.

James Roday and Dulé Hill in "Psych"

A memorable Shawn and Gus moment is when Shawn went boneless. Was that scripted or was it improvised?

That was a Steve Franks special. [He] said to figure out what "don’t go boneless" meant and my take on it was just what kids do when they don’t want to leave someplace or they don’t want to do something and they just go completely limp. I figured it was some version of that since Steve does have children of his own and it just looks really funny when a grown man does it.

Is Season 5 really going to be the final season "Psych"?

No. If I said that, I didn’t mean to. I think I was referring specifically to finishing the Yin Yang trilogy, not the show.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

What is it that keeps both your and Dulé’s performances great and the writing so great?

Well. I mean I don’t know. We cut our own drugs. I mean we do that ourselves. You know what? I think it’s one of those planets aligned, a great group got together with great material and people actually watched it, situations where everyone from the writers’ room through our execs into Vancouver where we shoot recognize what a rare opportunity it is to be a part of an experience like this and does not want to let go. I think that’s what sort of motivates us to come in every day as if it’s still the first season and you know just keep that sort of kung fu death grip that we have on this show because we realize this could be as good as it gets for all of us.

It’s such a collaborative process; especially on our show that it effects the writers too. I mean they see how much fun we have. They want us to have fun. They get to come up and Steve is sort of an unprecedented show runner in that there’s so much autonomy. You know, writers get to come up and produce their own episodes. I mean it’s an opportunity that you’re just not going to find, and again I think they recognize that as well.

Our staff, with few exceptions, are incredibly experienced and have long, impressive résumés. And all of them will tell you like they’ve never worked on a show like this before. They’ve never been able to just pull an idea out of the deep recesses of their anus and have the show runners say, "Yeah man. Go give it a shot." And then get to come up and produce it and watch it happen. I mean it’s a really special thing that we have going on here. Aside from the fact that in terms of just the personalities, a lot of people hate each other.

James Roday in "Psych"

What ‘80s reference are you looking forward to this season?

We also pay homage to Carl Weathers in his episode very subtly and very quickly. If you’re not paying attention, you might miss it. He’s in the scene though. That’s your hint.

James, you’ve said in past interviews that you’re a big fan of "Twin Peaks." Would we ever see a "Twin Peaks"-inspired episode of "Psych," or would that be too esoteric?

This really is your lucky week man. You know what, we’ve had a "Twin Peaks" episode on sort of simmering like a sauce, like a fine Italian sauce … that we decided to go ahead and move onto the front burner this season, and it’s happening. So there you have. Esoteric.

I have these terribly high expectations for our "Twin Peaks" episode, and I will do everything I can to deliver something that will be both gratifying for die-hard fans, casual fans and even people who are completely unfamiliar with the series, we promise to deliver a good mystery and an episode with plenty of laughs so that they don’t feel left out.

Photo credits: USA Network