The first season of Psych originally aired in the United States on the USA Network television network between July 7, 2006 and March 2, 2007. Produced by Universal Cable Productions and Tagline Television, the series was created by Steve Franks, who served as executive producer with Kelly Kulchak and Chris Henze.
The comedy-drama series focuses on Shawn Spencer (James Roday), a police consultant who pretends to be psychic, and his assistant Burton "Gus" Guster, a pharmaceuticals salesman. The season consisted of an extended pilot episode and fourteen 43-minute episodes, which aired at 10:00 p.m. on Fridays. Franks conceived the idea for the show when producers at Columbia Pictures requested he pitch them ideas for a TV program while he was working on the film Big Daddy. Initially rejected, the concept was shelved for several years until Franks collaborated with Kulchak to create an hour-long TV show. USA Network picked up the program, initially ordering an eleven-episode season.
Overall, the first season has received generally positive reviews from critics. Initially, the show was met with mixed reviews, with episodes later in the season receiving generally positive reception. Many critics compared the series to its lead-in program, Monk, leading to negative opinions on the program's originality. The premiere episode was watched by approximately 6.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated scripted series premiere for a cable network. However, ratings decreased for the following episodes, with the next highest-rated episode achieving just 4.76 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings. The season finale, "Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast", received the best reviews of the season and saw an increase in viewership.
Cast Main cast James Roday as Shawn Spencer Dulé Hill as Burton "Gus" Guster Timothy Omundson as Carlton Lassiter Anne Dudek as Lucinda Barry ("Pilot" only) Corbin Bernsen as Henry Spencer Maggie Lawson as Juliet O'Hara
Recurring cast Kirsten Nelson as interim police chief Karen Vick Liam James, Josh Hayden, and Kyle Pejpar as Young Shawn Spencer Sage Brocklebank as police officer Buzz McNab Carlos McCullers II, Julien Hill, and Isaah Brown as Young Gus Patricia Idlette as Police Officer Allen
Guest stars
Don S. Davis as Camden McCallum Sr. ("Pilot") Pascale Hutton as Katarina McCallum ("Pilot") Richard Zeman as Miklos Prochazka ("Spellingg Bee") Bud Collins as himself ("Spellingg Bee") Christine Chatelain as Lacey Maxwell ("Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece") Tom Butler as Attorney General Maxwell ("Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece") Gina Holden as Bethany ("Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece") Diego Klattenhoff as Dylan Maxwell ("Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece") Anne Marie DeLuise as Raylene Wilcroft ("Woman Seeking Dead Husband: Smokers Okay, No Pets") Steve Bacic as David Morrison Wilcroft ("Woman Seeking Dead Husband: Smokers Okay, No Pets") Ben Cotton as Barlow ("Woman Seeking Dead Husband: Smokers Okay, No Pets") Scott Michael Campbell as Wes Hildenbach ("9 Lives") Carlos Jacott as Terrance ("9 Lives") Peter Michael Goetz as Griffin Mahoney ("Weekend Warriors") Claire Coffee as Sally Reynolds ("Weekend Warriors") John Ross Bowie as George Cheslow ("Weekend Warriors") Frank Whaley as Robert Dunn ("Who Ya Gonna Call?") Bre Blair as Talia ("Shawn vs. the Red Phantom") George Takei as himself ("Shawn vs. the Red Phantom") Wanda Cannon as Leslie Breyfogle ("Shawn vs. the Red Phantom") Ashley Williams as Trish Connors ("Forget Me Not") Lisa Banes as Edna Crocker ("Forget Me Not") Kurtwood Smith as Brett Connors ("Forget Me Not") Richard Kind as Hugo ("From the Earth to Starbucks") Tamara Mello as Amanda ("From the Earth to Starbucks") Nicole Lyn as Jessica ("From the Earth to Starbucks") Ryan Robbins as Vernon Stallings ("From the Earth to Starbucks") Mayte Garcia as Darcy ("He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead") Colin Cunningham as Marvin ("He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead") Teryl Rothery as Glenda ("He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead") Michael Weston as Adam Hornstock ("Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder") Jolie Jenkins as Sandra Panitch ("Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder") Donnelly Rhodes as Judge Horace Leland ("Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder") Keegan Connor Tracy as Priscilla Osterman ("Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder") Christopher Moynihan as Tom ("Game, Set... Muuurder?") Thomas Kopache as Leonard Sirtis ("Game, Set... Muuurder?") Dan Lauria as Bill Peterson ("Poker? I Barely Know Her") Kris Lemche as Brandon Peterson ("Poker? I Barely Know Her") Debra Mooney as Mrs. Lassiter ("Poker? I Barely Know Her") Chris W. Martin as J. P. Berger ("Poker? I Barely Know Her") Mercedes Ruehl as Detective Goochberg ("Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast") Shannon Woodward as Alice Bundy ("Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast") Alexandra Breckenridge as Becky ("Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast") Chelan Simmons as Bianca ("Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast")
Episodes
Production
Conception and development Steve Franks originally conceived the concept for Psych while working as the lead writer for the 1999 film Big Daddy. After he successfully pitched the film to producers with Columbia Pictures, Franks was requested to come up with ideas for five new TV programs. He presented the shows to Columbia, who rejected all proposals. Among the outlines he presented was the source for Psych. After the programs were rejected, he shelved the ideas. Franks would not reopen the idea for Psych until several years later, when he met with producer Kelly Kulchak about creating a one-hour long TV program. After discussion, Franks presented the idea for Psych, which Kulchak deemed to be "brilliant".
After finalizing an episode draft for Psych, Franks and Kulchak pitched the show to all major TV networks, including the Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC, ABC, and CBS. The show was rejected by each network they presented the idea to. Kulchak stated that "it was a great pitch and that everybody laughed, but no one wanted to buy it". She attributed its rejection to the show's unique comedy–drama format, which was virtually unused by a TV show at the time. They then pitched the show to several cable networks, where it was again rejected. The final network Franks and Kulchak pitched the show to was USA Network. The network "loved the concept", and decided to produce the show.
Franks has cited multiple sources as inspiration for the show. His father, as well as multiple uncles, are former Los Angeles Police Department officers; Franks has given real-life experiences as direct inspiration for numerous events which occurred in the first season. Franks later explained that his comedic inspiration for the program was that he always "thought it would be fun to apply my comic sensibility to a cop show". He has since explained that the inspiration for the fake-psychic concept in the show was due to a longtime wish to write a show about a man with "no psychic abilities but just had a great grasp of details". The program's unique comedy drama format has been explained by producers to have been inspired by several 1980s detective shows. A prominent source cited by executives and actors was the TV show Moonlighting. Other sources include programs Remington Steele and Simon & Simon.
USA Network first announced their potential broadcasting of Psych on June 17, 2005. The network stated that they had requested a pilot episode of the series, to be managed by Tagline Productions. The original working name for the series was "Psyche". It was announced on August 30 that the production for the show's pilot episode would begin shortly, and the episode would likely air in 2006. On January 5, 2006, USA announced the Psyche would be competing against In Plain Sight, written by David Maples, and Underfunded, written by David Breckman, for air time and broadcasting slots. Later in January, the network confirmed that the pilot episode for the show would air later that year. They also announced that the show's name had changed to Psych. On February 21, 2006, USA Network announced that it had ordered eleven one-hour episode scripts for Psych. They confirmed that the show would take Monk's Friday night time slot, and that the pilot episode, planned to be two hours in length, would be broadcast on July 7.
Broadcast
Psych's first season commenced broadcasting in the United States on July 7, 2006, and ended with the airing of "Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast" on March 2, 2007. The season's first eight episodes aired during July and August 2006, while the remaining seven were broadcast from January through March of the next year. For the entire first season, Psych aired at a 10:00 P.M. ET/PT time slot on Fridays. Every episode in the season, save the premiere, ran for an hour, including commercials. Twelve of the season's fifteen episodes were 43 minutes in length, while "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece" and "Woman Seeking Dead Husband: Smokers Okay, No Pets" ran for one minute less, and "Pilot" was a special extended episode. The episode "Pilot" ran for 66 minutes, in an hour-and-a-half time slot with commercials. The international version of the episode ran for an extended 90 minutes. USA Network's sister broadcast network NBC aired episodes from season 1 on August 7 and 14, 2016.
The show's time slot had previously been occupied by the first season of USA Network's revival of Kojak, which lasted for ten episodes in mid-2005 before being cancelled. After Kojak's cancellation, the slot was replaced by hit series Monk. The show was entering its fifth season, and received very high ratings in the Friday timeslot. Hoping that Psych would share in Monk's successful ratings, USA Network executives moved the fifth season to a 9:00 P.M. slot on the same day, airing directly before Psych. The pairing was well-received, being called a "well-written comedy-mystery block that comprises some of the best two hours on television".
Crew
Tagline Productions and Universal Cable Productions produced the first season of Psych; series creator and showrunner Steve Franks was the executive producer, along with Kelly Kulchak and Tagline executive Chris Henze. Jack Sakmar, Kerry Lenhart, and Mel Damski were co-executive producers, while Paulo De Olviera and Wendy Belt Wallace produced, and Tracey Jeffery was the consulting producer. Erin Smith was the production manager and Michael McMurray was the director of photography, while Allan Lee and Anupam Nigam acted as the season's script editors. David Crabtree, James Ilecic, Allan Lee, and Gordon Rempel were the script editors. Music for the first season was written and composed by Adam Cohen, John Wood, and Brandon Christie.
Michael Engler directed the pilot episode, which was written by Steve Franks. The following three episodes were developed by Franks, who returned to write the season's tenth episode, "From the Earth to the Starbucks", as well as co-authoring the season finale with James Roday. Andy Berman, who would often present scripts which were a few dozen pages too long, wrote the third, eleventh, and twelfth episodes for the season. Executive producers Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar collaborated to write the seventh and fourteenth episodes, with assistance from Douglas Steinberg on the latter. Script editor Anupam Nigam also wrote two episodes. William Rabkin, who would later write a series of novels for the series, collaborated with Lee Goldberg to write the ninth episode.