Airing in March 2007
and co-written by creator
Steve Franks and star
James Roday, the season 1
finale was a send-up of
sorority slasher films that
had fake psychic detectives Shawn
(Roday) and Gus (Dulé Hill) investigat-
ing the connection between a suppos-
edly haunted mental institution and the
deaths of two college students. With
legendary director John Landis (Michael
Jackson’sThriller,An American Were-
wolf in London) at the helm, the hour
boasted both the show’s most shocking
murder and most violent fight scene
up to that point—and it was the first in
a long line of parody episodes that came
to definePsych’s eight-season run.JAMES RODAYIt was my first foray into
television writing...so I immediately
went toBlack ChristmasandThe House
on Sorority Row. In my first draft, [soror-
ity sister] Bianca [Chelan Simmons] was
decapitated at the top of a staircase,
and then her head bounced down thestairs one at a time and landed at the
bottom. The killer was dressed in a suit
of armor at the top of the staircase
with an ax. Steve was like, “I just don’t
think we can do that.” Then we went
back to the drawing board and came up
with the old toaster in the bathtub.JOHN LANDISJames called me and was
very convincing on the phone, so I did
it. [Steve] allowed me to basically shoot
it any way I wanted, which is unusual on
television because TV series have
house styles and directors are usually
like traffic cops. My first thought was,
“Well, how grisly are these killings?
How scary can I make them?” Then it
became clear very quickly that I really
[couldn’t] make them too scary
because that’s not the tone of the show.
So that was a balance to strike.RODAYThe stunt...where the girl gets
backed into the window and falls to her
death was something we initially were
not going to show. And John was like,
“Do you want everyone to immediately
stamp you as a basic-cable show that
has no money?” We were like, “Well,
no...” He’s like, “Then you do the stunt!
Trustme,it’sworthit.”STEVE FRANKSThis was the first serious
salvo for the battle for complete insan-
ity on the show. [The network was]
like,“Wedon’tknowwhatwe’regoing
to do with this. Guess we have to go
along.” The thing that saved it is that it
looked amazing. It looked like a movie.
John’s the one who brought true,
huge production value to the show.
It became the marker of what this
show can and will be.Roday and Franks co-wrote
Psych: The Movie, which will air
on USA Network Dec. 7.5-MINUTE ORAL HISTORYPSYCH
“SCARY SHERRY:
BIANCA’S TOAST”
Creator Steve Franks, star and
co-writer James Roday, and
director John Landis chat about
the seriously spooky Halloween
episode.By Chancellor Agard2007
Dulé Hill and James RodayNancy Thompson
A Nightmare on
Elm Street 198405 Erin
You’re Next
201306 Casey Cooke
Split 201707 08 Selena
28 Days Later 2003Ripley
Alien 197909 Reiko Asakawa
Ringu 1998Dana Polk 10
The Cabin in the
Woods 201204FARIS I owe everything to that movie.
After the premiere I flew back to
Washington state and saw the movie
in a strip mall with my parents, and
it wassold out. I couldn’t believe it.
People were going a little crazy for it.
I had to have a talking-to to myself
about enjoying that experience a
little too much. [Laughs]
CARMEN ELECTRA(Drew Decker)
Honestly, I had no idea it was going
to do so well. I got tickets to go see
the movie in the theater, and I sat in
the back with a real audience, and I
remember after my scene, everyone
cheered! It was the coolest thing
ever. [Laughs] To this day, I don’t
think I’ve ever been to a movie
where that happened. Well, maybe
Star Wars?
WEINSTEIN Other studios were going,
“What just happened?” It was like
winning the Super Bowl. Just the
most unbelievable thing.
KEENENIt was a really,reallygreat
feeling. For me, it was sort of
redemption after having to move on
fromIn Living Color.
HALL It was huge to have an African-
American director open an R-rated
comedy that was that big. It broke
the ceiling for what was possible. It
was a movie that was really diversely
cast, and we saw young audiences
gravitate toward that. It wasn’t a
white film, it wasn’t a black film,
just, “Oh, Brenda’s black, Cindy’s
white.” It was just a movie.
SHAWNIt was the right movie at the
right time done by the right people.
[Laughs] That’s really what I feel
like it was... And you never know,
another one can happen. There’sALAN ZENUK/USA NETWORKalways room.X