Wow! That thought crossed my mind repeatedly over the course of tonight’s Season Finale of Psych. While the episode still served up some great laughs, it was a much more tense, scary, and dramatic episode than what Psych fans are used to.

Personally I loved it, I thought Roday’s direction was great, and I loved the shots he cribbed from Hitchcock, especially Lassie getting chased by the remote control airplane a la North by Northwest. I loved the Mary and McNab red herrings, and of course Gus' "What about my face" line. And I absolutely loved the song that played over the final scenes. ("I Go To The Barn Because I Like The" by Band of Horses) There was so much to love in this episode, and I didn't want it to end.

And, I don’t know about you, but I was honestly worried someone was going to die. First I thought McNab was dead, then when he wasn't I was worried again. I never really feared for Juliet’s life as I think she and Shawn will get together before anything happens to either of them, but I was genuinely worried that Shawn was going to have to watch Abigail die. I also feared for Henry’s life for a few seconds when Shawn chose to save Abigail over catching Mr. Yin, as I was worried Henry would be ambushed by our secret killer.

But lets discuss the thing I’m sure you’re all wondering about: That last moment where we see a picture of Mr. Yang (Ally Sheedy) and young Shawn. What does this mean? Does Shawn know that he knows Yang from when he was a kid? Is he hiding this fact from everyone else? What was their relationship like? And more importantly how long will we have to wait to see Yang again?

Personally I think Yang was someone who worked at his school, or someone he met on a field trip. Someone Shawn has no memory of having met as a kid, but who clearly had an impact on a very crazy woman. (I'll admit for a second I thought it was Yang and her son, Mr. Yin, and thought his resemblance to young Shawn was indicating that Yang and Shawn had a kid together. But I mostly attribute that to having originally watch the episode on a tiny square on my computer monitor)

During my interview with Ally Sheedy and James Roday on Monday several questions were asked about Mr. Yin and Mr. Yang. I didn’t want to spoil any of last night’s episode so I held those questions and answers for today. So keep reading to find out a little bit more about the serial killers that haunt Shawn and Gus at night. (This part of the interview is pretty Roday heavy as most of the questions center on last night's episode and the future of Psych)

I asked Roday and Sheedy when and if we’d be seeing her character again. Sheedy said that “there is a strange secretive sort of story going on here,” and deferred to Roday who said that “it’s fair to say we have not seen the last of her and we’ll leave it at that.”

Of course the questions that everyone wants to know is what is up with that picture that appears to be of young Shawn and Mr. Yang? Of course neither stars wanted to comment to much on that questions. “James can answer it.” Sheedy said, while Roday replied “I don’t even want to talk about that last moment.” So it seems like we’ll have to wait a few months to find the answer to that question.
"You're just amazing...My most admiral foe...That's why I chose you...We're going to be working together again...Shawn I knew you'd come."

Another question we’ll have to wait for a definitive answer to, just who is Mr. Yin. When asked if there had been any clues to that mystery Roday said there was nothing overt. “We’re still sort of working that out ourselves, but we’ll make sure that when we do finally sort of come clean we’ll do our best not to make it one of those things where retrospectively it’s like, well, that couldn’t have been possible. We’ll do our best not to cheat. I don’t think we’ve backed ourselves into any corners so far. We’ve kept it pretty ambiguous. We’ll just come up with something really cool and then lay it out there.”

Roday also said that the idea to make a trilogy out of the Yin/Yang killers came from Andy Berman and himself. “[We thought] that it would be fun to do a trilogy within the landscape of Psych. For a while it was just me and Andy that thought that was cool and then we did the first one and it kind of went over like gangbusters. And Ally was a huge part of our campaign to keep going because I think she did such a marvelous job with that character that it’s like how can you not want more of that?”

Roday also said that credit had to be given to Jimmi Simpson (Mary) who came in and “created this unbelievable sort of character that we didn’t want to see the end of yet either.” Roday said a lot of different things just came together and it was a no-brainer to do another one. “We started thinking about the second Yang, I think a day after the first one aired and everybody was so pumped about it. We have not stopped thinking about it since because we still have more work to do.”

Asked whether or not he thought the dramatic tone of this episode would change the series tone Roday said a hearty no. “I don’t think it’s going to change the tone. I think it’s another sort of feather in the cap of Shawn’s growth. Obviously I’m not getting younger; the character is not getting younger. None of us are getting younger so we have to start addressing that. This is a pretty good jumping off point, I think going into season five of just like wow, everybody sort of needs to check in with themselves and recognize that you can’t be a kid forever and maybe that should start informing our behavior a little bit.”

Roday also said that there while there would still be plenty of laughs in the next season, this episode would serve as a way to push the growth of Shawn’s character. “We’re still going to be plenty silly. This is just a character beat for him more than anything. He’s mortal even though he likes to think sometimes that he isn’t. This is sort of just a wake-up call. It’s good. You’ve got to do that kind of stuff once you get this deep into the series so that you feel like you’re going somewhere.”

Roday was then asked how he thought fans would react to the finale and the choices made by the characters. “I hope they dig it. There is not a lot of build up to it and I think our publicity guys have done a really good job of sort of getting everybody’s anticipation up and like I said I think we’ll get away with it partially because it’s a finale and everybody gets a few months off to sort of process and water cooler talk and you don’t have to sort of adjust yourself to come right back next week and watch us save a sea mammal of some sort.”

Roday continued saying that it’s easier to do these heavy episodes at the end of the season. “[It] buys us a little bit of latitude and the fact that it’s a little darker and a little scarier and the stakes are pretty high is fun I hope for fans. It’s a nice sort of curve ball that we don’t throw very often. Also, I think it’s a treat to watch good actors doing good work on a show that you’re a fan of. I think that’s what Ally and Jimmi and the rest of the cast sort of delivered in spades in this episode. They certainly all made me look good.”

Finally Roday was asked about the cameo he and girlfriend and Psych co-star Maggie Lawson had in the movie Gamer, and whether or not the mustache he had was his idea. “We’re buddies with the filmmakers. I’ve known [writer/directors] Mark [Neveldine] and Brian [Taylor] for a while and they just called and said, “Hey do you guys want to come to New Mexico for a day and do some silly stuff?” We were on our way across country to visit Maggie’s family anyway so we just made a quick pit stop and did that silly stuff. The mustache is always my idea, man. Any time I can exploit that thing I do because it’s serious and it’s real.”

Labels: Interview, Psych

Two days after participating in the Tony Shaloub inteview, I got the privilege to take part in an interview with the two of the stars of USA's Psych. As much as I love Monk, Psych is quite possibly my favorite show on TV. It's a perfect blend of hilarious comedy and clever mystery. For the next few weeks I'll be looking forward to 10/9c on Fridays so I can sit down and enjoy some of the hilarity that is James Roday and Dule Hill. And so being able to ask these guys a question and listen to them answer several others was a real treat. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Q: I know that you’ve both played very different characters in other things. I know that Mr. Roday had actually played alongside to Maggie Lawson in Fear Itself and Mr. Dulé you had a wonderful part on West Wing for a while. So how do you feel now about playing comedy? Do you enjoy it better; do you like doing horror or drama more? How does it feel?

D. Hill I actually enjoy comedy; it’s a lot of fun. After doing seven years of drama on West Wing to be able to come and work with Roday and the rest of the cast has been a blast. It’s something different, especially working with Roday where he likes to improv a lot it challenges me to work on different muscles that I haven’t used before.

J. Roday Well, first of all I just want to thank you for reminding me that I did in fact appear in Fear Itself; I often forget that. Secondly, I would say I’ve actually done a lot more comedy than I’ve done drama. It’s weird the way that worked out, because when I came out of theater school I took myself way too seriously, so it’s kind of ironic that I ended up sort of going down the comedy path.

But I think what makes this role special compared to some of the other stuff that I’ve done is just the fact that I’ve had the opportunity to live with it so long and sort of watch it sort of grow and nurture it, not unlike you nurture a plant. And working with a great group and an unbelievable cast and sort of having the freedom to do what we do on the show sort of sets it apart from any role that I’ve played, comedy or drama. It’s just been a special ride. It’s been a special ride.

Q: The show is known a lot for its kind of fast-paced banter between your characters Shawn and Gus. And so what I want to know is how much sort of say do you guys get in what goes on in the dialog, particularly between the humorous segments and something like the nicknames that Shawn makes up for Gus? What goes on with those types of moments?

J. Roday Unlike, I think, the majority of shows on television right now we actually have a frighteningly high amount of say in what we do with the dialog. A lot of times it comes in great and all we have to do is say it, but any time we sort of recognize an opportunity to throw something in or add something or if we have a better name for Gus than the one that came in we just pull the trigger.

We’re pretty good at monitoring ourselves so that we only do it if we’re making it better, and it’s very rare that we find out later that the people down in LA were disappointed because we changed something. They’re usually pretty pleased.

D. Hill Yes. And the names that we come up with most of the time it has to do with somebody that we know, somebody in the cast knows or somebody that one of the writers knows or a producer, something like that. I would say pretty much eight times to of ten there is some relation to the crazy name that Gus is being called.

Q; How many of the pop culture references come from you, including the Chad Michael Murray reference?

D. Hill I would say about 99.9% of them do not come from me. Maybe if there’s something in the ‘70s that might be something that I came with, but most of the ‘80s references I have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s not until after I film it that I turn around and say, “Okay, now what was that about?”

J. Roday Who were the twins that you knew that I had never heard of in Tuesday the 17^th?

D. Hill The twins? Oh, the Mowli Twins.

J. Roday The Mowli twins. That was your 0.01% man.

D. Hill That and what’s the other one? I don’t even know if it made it to air, the Gill Scott Heron.

J. Roday Oh, that was. That made it two. That made it two.

D. Hill Gill Scott Heron. That’s my two for the year.

J. Roday Yes. Most of them come from the writers and then I throw in my fair share as well. Chad Michael Murray became the target of some early jabbing for us after I saw some interview where it was like a behind the scenes of House of Wax and he was wearing a wife beater. It was just a real serious interview, and I got such a kick out of it that we had to have some fun at his expense. Hopefully he’s a good-natured guy with a sense of humor.

Q: What detectives, in real life or in fiction, have been an influence for the characters?

J. Roday You know what, I go to this movie called Without a Clue that not a lot of people saw. It was Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, and the idea behind the movie was that Watson was the brains of the operation and Holmes was just this very theatrical sort of charlatan that diverted people’s attention and got all the ladies. It’s a very, very funny movie that not a lot of people have seen.

But I love the fact that it was sort of rooted in the idea that these two guys absolutely, positively were dependent on one another to solve a crime, because Holmes was sort of the face of the franchise but Watson was the guy that sort of kept their feet on the ground and did a lot of the thinking. That’s not exactly what the dynamic is on Psych, but the sort of ying yang element of it of there’s no way that either of these guys could work on their own and there’s no way that they could accomplish what they were doing without the other one is definitely sort of a big element of what we do on Psych.

So that’s my answer. I feel decent about it. I’m passing it off to Dulé.

D. Hill I guess for myself it’s not any real I guess template that I came in to with a preconceived notion about like in terms of a previous detective team. I guess if I had to choose one I would say Cosby and Poitier in Uptown Saturday Night. I want to say that would be the equivalence that I could think of, but besides that there’s not really anything that I’ve thought about before to say yes, this is what the template is.

Q: I just wanted to know what was behind the decision to actually feature Vancouver in the premiere episode?

D. Hill I think it’s that we work in Vancouver. We’ve been working—

J. Roday Yes, it was an opportunity to finally not worry about everything that was in the background of all of our shots. We actually could play the locations for the actual locations, and make believe stickers and Canadian flags all those things were good. And it was actually a lot of fun; I’m glad we’ve lasted long enough to do one to do that. It was fun.

D. Hill And we finally didn’t have to move our palm trees with this; we could leave the palm trees—

J. Roday That’s right, our three movable palm trees got an episode off.

D. Hill Right. They were tired, you know what I mean; the palm trees were tired. With every episode they were...

J. Roday We gave them a much-deserved break.

Q: I really enjoy the pop culture references that you make in the series, and I just wondered if you could be in any television show of the past which would it be? Or if you could spoof a show as an episode what would it be?

J. Roday Well, my answer is one in the same. I would have given anything to be on Twin Peaks, and if we last another season we will be doing a Twin Peaks episode. So there you go.

Q: Really. That would be interesting to see. Dulé?

D. Hill I guess for myself if I could have been a Cosby kid.

Q: Cosby kid.

D. Hill Yes, of course. If I could have been on Cosby that would have been great for me. And I guess if we could spoof any show I would say maybe Fame; I could be Leroy.

Q: Fame. Oh, you really have to do that I think. I’m going to petition for it.

D. Hill Sounds good.

Q: At Comic Con you kind of teased that Twin Peaks would be this season. Is that not true?

J. Roday That is not true, unfortunately. I think that something got lost in the translation there. This season has sort of been locked for a while; there are no unaccounted for episodes. That was us teasing with the hoax that if some of our executives were in the audience it was like a hint, hint listen to how bad everybody wants this. You have to keep us on the air. It’s a promise; it’s definitely a promise that if there’s a season five Twin Peaks will definitely happen.

D. Hill I guess a little teaser too Twin Peaks would be Ray Wise doing our show this year. A little prelude.

J. Roday That’s true. It’s a Twin Peaks prelude.

Q: If you could investigate anybody who would it be?

D. Hill If I could investigate anybody who would it be?

J. Roday I think I might have to just really roll up my sleeves and investigate Monica Bellucci and just make sure that she’s living her life along the straight and narrow, she’s not cutting any corners in life, in her work; just really get in there and make sure that she’s on the up and up.

D. Hill And from my side I would investigate (Does a goofy voice) Halle Bear, who is also Halle Berry.

J. Roday That’s it; this is classy stuff you’re getting from us today.

Q: It just seems like you have a blast; the show is so fun to watch. And I was wondering if the show is as much fun to shoot as it is to watch?

D. Hill Yes.

J. Roday Absolutely.

D. Hill We have so much fun up there. The cast is great, the crew is even greater, and we just have a lot of fun. No one takes themselves too seriously; we all come to work and we are pretty much getting paid to laugh all day. We sing songs; we have the best singing crew in Vancouver. One day if you get a chance you come up there and we’ll have them sing you Happy Birthday just for no reason in particular. We sing Happy Birthday about three or four times a day just because. There’s a really great bunch of people up there.

J. Roday And we don’t pay royalties for it. It’s free; we can sing Happy Birthday for free.

Q: I wanted to talk about some of the telltale references. I actually thought it was really funny the jokes that you made about The Mentalist in the premiere. When that show started were you guys like going, “Hmm, that sounds familiar,” and was it sort of fun to sort of point that out on screen?

J. Roday It was. No one is off limits when it comes to us, including ourselves. We’ve made fun of our own sort of resumes on this show. As long as they have a sense of humor over there I would think that they would be sort of flattered and get a kick out of it.

Obviously, it’s not malicious in any, but it’s what we do on our show and if you’re going to go make a bigger show that’s kind of like our show and get four times as many viewers and Emmy nominations then you should expect to hear about it when our show airs.

T. Tidmore Hey, guys, thank you for talking with us today.

J. Roday Hey. No problem.

T. Tidmore I’m a big fan of the show and my son is a one-year old and loves your theme song. I have a video online of him dancing to the theme song.

J. Roday Nice.

T. Tidmore Do you guys have a favorite episode to film or that you think is the best episode you guys have done so far?

J Roday I like different ones for so many different reasons, but I can say that for me personally, just as an actor, I think the most fun I’ve ever had on our show was an episode called Life’s Camera Homicidio when my character got thrust into the world of a Spanish telenovela and I got to improvise in both English and Spanish. That was a blast.

D. Hill Well I guess for that episode I guess Roday to be able to improvise in Spanish he was getting in touch with his roots so he was really excited about that.

But for myself it would still have to go back to American Duos. I just can’t help it, I just loved dressing up as Michael Jackson and being able to do a moonwalk, have John Landis direct me while I’m dressed up as Michael Jackson in Thriller. And there was a crowd there, too, so you can’t really beat that. You can’t really beat that. That’s one of my all time favorite experiences on Psych.


Q:Could tell us about this upcoming season, whatever you feel free to share either overall or specifics about what we can expect this season.

J. Roday In terms of sort of themes for episodes you saw that we’re doing sort of an expedition Canada, catch a jewel/art thief episode, and we’re doing sort of a Shawn and Gus save an old western town and everything that comes along with that that you could imagine, including a grizzled, gray bearded James Brolin.

D. Hill Exorcism episode.

J. Roday Yes, we’re paying tribute to the Exorcist with our exorcism episode featuring the aforementioned Ray Wise, who is just fantastic in the episode I have to say. Just really came in and knocked it out of the park.

D. Hill American Werewolf in London homage.

J. Roday That’s right, a little love letter to American Werewolf in London and werewolf movies in general featuring David Naughton, obviously, and Josh Malina. And lots of other fun stuff.

I have to say I think we’re kind of storming out of our gates this year with some really good stuff. I think last year we stormed in our heads, but we were actually like trotting at a casual pace, and this year I actually think we’re storming out of the gates for real.

Q: I was wondering if at this point there are any may or may not things you would tell us about what’s going to happen.

J. Roday Well there may or may not be a continuation of the story that capped off our season last year, An Evening With Mr. Yang.

D. Hill And there may or may not be something big coming.

J. Roday There may or may be our biggest guest star ever appearing on the show down the stretch. And we may or may not be getting another dose of what Gus’ hair looked like in the ‘90s. How’s that?

Q: My question is just this year they released two books for Psych and your characters and everything, and I was wondering if you were to ever read those yourselves and you could come up with your own kind of merchandise what would you like to see?

D. Hill Well I would read it if I had one and if I knew there was one that was out.

J. Roday I was going to say it’s good to know that there are books out. I didn’t know that.

D. Hill Maybe I’ll try to read it one day on the set.

J. Roday Merchandise.

D. Hill I would have to say a video game. I love video games anyway, so a Psych video game somehow that I could play on Xbox or Wii would be great.

J. Roday I have to say I think the idea of a talking bobblehead was pretty solid, and someone actually came up with already and did it. I love the idea of little Shawn and Gus bobbleheads.

D. Hill Which, by the way, I have my President Obama bobblehead also. So when I get my Psych bobbleheads it will be Shaun, Gus, and President Barack Obama bobbleheads sitting on my counter.

J. Roday I might give you Ichiro Suzuki bobblehead just so that you can add it and it would be a quartet.

D. Hill Sounds good.

Q: For the record, Without a Clue is one of my favorite movies of all time.

J. Roday Good man. Good man.

Q: Now look I was wondering if you, James, had visited any actual psychics in order to watch and observe them in action? And if you, Dulé, being an encyclopedia of useless knowledge that oddly becomes useful every week, is it anything like the way your brain works in real life?

D. Hill Well from my side no; I try not to fill up my brain cells with useless information. So most of the time I’m pretty much just learning it as it comes in the scripts.

J. Roday And for me I visited a couple psychics back before we shot the pilot just because I was sort of interested to hear their back stories and sort of how the power manifests itself.

And of course you never know if they’re legit or not, but there were some interesting stories in terms of like physicalizing the gift. I was interested to hear like does it ever take over your body, does your body heat rise, stuff like that; anything that I could steal. Of course I did not tell them while visiting that I was going to be playing a fake psychic nor did they figure it out on their own, so maybe that tells you everything you need to know about the people that I met with.

And I have to say, for the record, my favorite line from Without A Clue is after Michael Caine pokes a dead body with a stick and announces to everyone, “It is my opinion that this man is dead.” So there you go.


Q: I’m going to go back to the American Werewolf episode. You wrote that, James. Right?

J. Roday Yes. I co-wrote that with my best friend Todd Harthan.

Q: Can you talk more about it? It was my favorite movie of all time. And is John Landis directing?

J. Roday Wow. I’m right there with you; it’s definitely one of my favorite movies of all time. The original plan was to have Landis direct it for obvious reasons. He is off directing a feature in England right now. So we got the incomparable Andrew Bernstein to step in in his place, who did a fantastic job, who Dulé has known since his West Wing days.

It’s not unlike Tuesday the 17^th; it’s an episode that needs to sort of stand on its own feet, but will definitely have moments where we’re winking and nodding and proclaiming our love for the original. But it has its own little story and its own little twists and turns.

Just having David Naughton on set was enough for me, because I got to pick his brain for the better part of a week and ended up getting a signed picture of him mid-transformation with the elongated torso reaching up at me. That’s getting framed and going on a wall.

Q: Who would you like to see on the show and who do you think they would play?

J. Roday My answer is going to stay the same until we get him on. The answer is David Bowie, and anybody he wants is whom he will play.

D. Hill And for myself I would like to get someone like Chris Tucker on the show. It would be great if he could play some kind of, I mean he could play anybody he wanted to also, but he could play some kind of relative of mine or something. It would be a lot of fun.

J. Roday I think David Bowie could also play David Bowie if he wanted to, and Shawn and Gus could just have an episode where they hung out with David Bowie.

D. Hill I think David Bowie could play Mr. Guster in season five.

J. Roday He could.

D. Hill There you go—because we change my dad all the time. Like dude, your daddy is David Bowie. … is not showing.

J. Roday That would be fantastic.

Psych airs Friday Nights on USA at 10/9c starting TONIGHT!

Labels: Interview, Psych

Last week I had the tremendous pleasure of taking part in a conference interview with the wonderful Tony Shaloub. He shared a lot about his experience playing Adrian Monk and how he's become like Monk himself. He also shared his thoughts on how this final season would play out. Tony was an amazing guest and it was wonderful to just listen to him speak, as he's an articulate and kind man. Today of course brings us the premiere of the finale season, and so without ado here is some excerpts from that interview.

Q: I was wondering, what’s the lasting impression you want audience members to take from watching your show and watching you?

T. Shalhoub: That’s a great question. I think, if I had to choose one thing, I would say that I would want people to take away this idea that sometimes people’s problems or neuroses are really the things that are kind of a blessing in disguise, and even though there’s, you know, sometimes there’s pain associated with these things that sometimes in the face of adversity with obstacles to overcome, people can really kind of soar and find their higher selves and I think that’s what we’ve tried to do on the show is we’ve portrayed this character as someone who turns his liability, his liabilities into assets per his life. And that there’s – and I hope that when we get to the end – I don’t know this for sure, but I hope when we get to the end of season eight that we’ll have seen some real healing from Monk, and I believe in that. I believe that there is healing and that there is change, and that all of those things are – they are just really, really key to all of our lives.

Q: You talked about the character and what he sort of means, but in terms of the pantheon of great television series, what sort of legacy do you think this show leaves, and what do you sort of take away from it in that regard?

T. Shalhoub Well, I think one of the things that will be remembered about this show, I hope will be remembered, is that at a time when there was, in a lot of television, especially with the onslaught of cable and in a period where television is kind of redefining itself, that there were precious few shows on the air that were suitable for a wider audience, like a younger audience, you know, people in their 30’s and then people like elderly people in the 70’s and 80’s. That there was a show that all those different demographics could tune into and appreciate, and would appreciate on their own level.

And I think there aren’t a lot of shows like that. There haven’t been a lot of shows like that in the last decade. And I hope that that’s something that people will focus on and remember for a long time, you know, that it’s still possible to do interesting stories and good comedy without having it have to be all exclusively adult themed kinds of things or super violent or with language that some people might feel is inappropriate for younger audiences, and that this show was kind of able to stand out and do that.

Q: One time when I interviewed you, you mentioned that you’re the only one at your home who knows how to absolutely – the only right way to load the dishwasher, which struck me as a kind of Monk thing to say.

T. Shalhoub I’m not the only one in my home. I’m the only one in my community, I think, my entire neighborhood, I’m pretty sure.

Q: Who knows how to load the dishwasher right? My question is, have you found that the longer you play Monk, that the differences between you, Tony, and the character has eroded, which is to say, have you become more like him, and he more like you, over the years?

T. Shalhoub I would say yes, absolutely. I mean, I resisted it for a long time. I wrestled with it. I fought with it. I was in denial about it and all of that. But inevitably, you know, there have been some – you know, as I said, in interviews too. I feel like I’ve been infected in some way by this character. Tendencies, you know, minor tendencies that I’ve had in my life prior to Monk have just kind of ballooned and expanded and it’s inevitably. I mean, I just, there’s no point in trying to – I’ve given up trying to resist it. I’ve had to just surrender to it. I mean, I’m hoping that when Monk is over that I’ll have some period of recovery, but I’m not holding my breath.

Q: You’ve already talked about how, through the years, you’ve become more similar to Monk, and I was just wondering if, in your own life, you found some of his compulsions entering your life in small ways and, if so, kind of what they were.

T. Shalhoub Well, you know, they take so many different forms and kind of crop up at the oddest times really. Sometimes I feel like – there are moments when I feel like I’m just nothing like the character. But then something will happen, and I’ll just realize that I’m rearranging something on a table at a restaurant, which seems that in that particular moment, seems like it’s absolutely essential that the sugar packets are facing one way and that everything else has to stop until this particular task is completed. Then I realize, what the hell am I doing? I’m channeling the character again. So it would take me about an hour and a half to describe all of the things that occur, but just trust me. It just kind of comes over me in waves, and I have to really, really check myself and try and pull myself out of these things.

Q: The die hard fans don’t really need to be convinced to tune in to the new season, but for those who maybe know the show, but are not quite addicted yet, apart from the obvious things, is there anything you can give us about maybe why we really need to tune in to the new season?

T. Shalhoub Well, yes, that’s a really good question. I think people will be really gratified and startled maybe to see that the quality remains really, really high, that the stories are interesting, that we do a bit of what we’ve tried to do every season, which is kind of break our own rules and do some unexpected things. We always have interesting guest stars. We try to bring in people to do things that they may not be necessarily known for. We try to do our guest casting so that it isn’t completely on the nose. For example, we have Jay Moore coming in an upcoming episode that we shot recently. He plays a sort of super lawyer, a super kind of … Johnny Cochran super lawyer who never lost a case. And it’s really an interesting turn by Jay Moore. I think we keep it kind of just off center enough to make it interesting. I hope we do.

Q: I wanted to know, you know, how is the final season structured? I mean, the season premiere seemed like a very standard, great, hilarious episode, but when do we kind of get into the wrapping of things up?

T. Shalhoub Excellent question. What the writers have in mind is to do, you know, as you said, our normal standalone episodes for the first, I would say, 11, because we’re doing 16, as usual. So the first 11, I would say, are going to be standalone, and then the last 5 is when we’ll be kind of connected. They’ll have a connected tissue, and we’ll start to get into the wrap up, not just of Monk, but of some of the other characters as well. Then what they want to do is the final two episodes, number 15 and 16, it’ll just be one story, a two-part, you know, aired in two segments. Just to follow – that episode, I mean that two-part will involve the wrap up of Trudy’s murder, you know, the solving of Trudy’s murder.

Q: A number of seasons ago, it looked like Monk could actually solve Trudy’s murder. Has it always been the plan to wait until the final season to possibly solve it, or were there ideas along the way to solve it, and then continue on in a different plot angle?

T. Shalhoub No, I think from as far back as I can recall, it was always part of Andy Breckman’s agenda to save the wrap-up until the end, I think the biggest reason being that it keeps Monk in a bit of a fog, and it keeps him on his heels, this unresolved, this one case that he just cannot figure out, and that he’s just too close to, to figure out. And so I think it was always part of his plan.

Q: Trudy’s murder has been one of the most successful narrative arcs in television history, rivaling even Mulder’s sister Samantha on the X-Files.

T. Shalhoub Wow.

Q: So what do you think – while it’s going to be addressed in the final season, do you think it should be solved or left for the audience as more of a McGuffin?

T. Shalhoub I really think it should be solved. I know there are people who say that maybe it shouldn’t because that would mean that there would be life for this character beyond the series and that possibly the solving of Trudy’s murder would cure him in some way or take down his OCD symptoms, and then the character wouldn’t really be the character that we’ve come to recognize. But I really feel that we’ve worked this storyline so delicately and for so long that I think we owe it to not just the audience and to ourselves, but to the character of Monk and to the character of Trudy that we’ve created. I think we should solve it.

Q: How do you figure the season will find him in terms of the OCD, solving the case with Trudy will give him a little more control, or will he spin further out because there won’t be that big goal?

T. Shalhoub No, I think it will give him some – I think it will actually help him, and it will give him some kind of peace and some kind of – and in that peace, his OCD symptoms will begin to, you know, significantly drop away. And when that happens, I think he’ll be able to move forward in his life. You know, he won’t feel so paralyzed. He won’t feel so – he won’t have such an aversion to being with other people. He might even, who knows – I don’t know because the writers haven’t revealed this to me, but he might even be able to find love and romance in his life again. All those things, I think, remain, you know, all those things are on the table and are good possibilities.

Q: Over the years you have had a lot of guest stars on the show.

T. Shalhoub Yes.

Q: I was wondering if you had a favorite over the years and maybe a favorite you’ve worked with so far this year.

T. Shalhoub It’s so hard for me to pick a favorite because there have been so many great ones, and I’ve had the chance to bring friends of mine on the show, I mean, people that I’ve worked with in the past like Stanley Tucci and John Turturro and people that I’ve always wanted to work with like Laurie Metcalf. But I have to say, of all of the seasons, and of all of the guest stars, the most thrilling for me was last season working with Gena Rowlands on Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door. She was such a tremendous influence on me when I was a student and studying acting. I was a devotee of John Cassavetes movies and the movies she did even separate from him.

I was the one who actually when we were casting that particular episode, The Lady Next Door, there were a number of names on the list, and I pitched her name. And I was stunned and thrilled to find out that she wanted to do it. And then working those eight days with her was just, you know, I felt really, when we finished that episode, I felt like I could retire, that I had done everything I needed to do now. She was so gracious and so good, and of course she’s been nominated for an Emmy for that episode too, so I will hopefully see her at the Emmys in September.

Q: I wanted to know how many of the old faces for past episodes are we going to see as a way of saying good-bye this last season?

T. Shalhoub Well, we’ll certainly, I’m sure you’ve probably read because there’s been a lot of publicity about Sharona coming back. Bitty Schram is going to come back for episode – I believe it’s episode number 12, which will start shooting in September. And they want to bring that character back and kind of wrap it up and kind of give that a good send off. A lot of people really missed that character and the dynamic between Monk and Sharona. And so we’re all looking forward to that.

Of course, we’ll see Harold Krenshaw comes back, one of my favorites. He’s the other OCD patient who is always kind of in competition with Monk, played so brilliantly by Tim Bagley. He’s going to return for at least a couple of episodes.

And well, that’s it. I mean, of course, Dr. Bell, the psychiatrist will be in a number of episodes. I don’t think – people have asked if we’re going to see Ambrose. I don’t really think that's in the cards simply because that’s … John is so busy. It’s difficult to schedule him in. I mean, if I had my way, we’d do kind of what Seinfeld did and bring back almost every guest star there ever was on the show, but ours is going to go in a different direction.

Q: A big loss for your show throughout these years was the loss of Stanley Kamel as Dr. Kroger.

T. Shalhoub Yes.

Q: And we know kind of how Monk is dealing with the loss of the character, but can you tell us a little bit about Tony dealing with the loss of Stanley?

T. Shalhoub You know, it’s been really tricky, and we all speak … it’s almost as if he has never left us because his name comes up in stories, and anecdotes come up about him all the time on the set. And he’s missed, but we try to sort of keep him alive in our – you know, keep in our midst. He was there from the very, very beginning, from the pilot episode, and I have to say, you know, those scenes, those Dr. Kroger scenes in the pilot were so important, just in terms of my process, my discovery of who Monk was.

I think those scenes in particular were the most informative for me and the richest. They really, really helped me to kind of define the parameters of this guy, of my character. So, yes, I kind of carry that with me and have for all these seasons. And now, when I’m in these sessions, these scenes with Hector Elizondo, who plays Dr. Bell, I can’t even go into these scenes without just this little – I sort of do this little internal toast, as it were, to Stanley Kamel because he was the original doctor. I like to think that he’s kind of there in those sessions with me. He is missed.

Q: After you’re done with Monk, are you going to take a nice long vacation, or will we get the pleasure of seeing you more on the big screen?

T. Shalhoub Well, I don’t want to take too long a vacation, although I do think I need a break. I start to – whenever I take too long a break or don’t work a while, all my demons start to resurface, and I go a little nuts. And I did work on an independent feature this past winter, which I hope will be coming out soon called Feed the Fish, a movie that I acted in, but also co-produced, and a really nice … so we’re looking for distribution to sell this picture, so people should look for that.

But beyond that, I want to really, really take some time for myself to decide which direction to go next. I might do some theater for a year before I do any more television. I think I need a break from hour long episodic for a while.

Labels: Interview, Monk

Peter Murrieta (Far Right)

Peter Murrieta's writing career began in college when a professor recognized his gift for humor and introduced him to a Comedy Corner, a sketch comedy group. After writing and performing with them he made the big move to Chicago to try to join the famed Second City improv group. After taking some classes he found himself as part of the touring company where he understudied Stephen Colbert (Which Murrieta says was "a real fun time," and that Colbert is a "real smart writer, and someone I really enjoyed talking with.") During his five years in Chicago Murrieta met his wife and his manager.

Eventually Murrieta moved to LA where he found himself as part of the set decorating crew on "The Mask" before being selected as a Walt Disney Writer's Fellow, which was his first job writing in the industry. After that Murrieta worked on NBC's Hacienda Heights, Common Law, Between Brothers, Ask Harriet, Jesse, and Three Sisters before creating his first show, Greeting From Tucson, which lasted one season on The WB. He then moved onto All About the Andersons and Hope & Faith before landing his current job on Wizards of Waverly Place.

I met with Murrieta virtually, thanks to the magic of e-mail, to ask him about writing, the strike, and what he does during his free time.

What made you want to be a writer, and did you always want to write
specifically for TV?

I think three things made me want to be a writer -- the show MASH, watching my dad and mom watching the Dean Martin show when I was a small child and seeing them laugh, and having people tell me I was funny. And yes, I always wanted to write for TV. TV is where writers get to create characters that you live with for year after year, and the idea of that has always appealed to me more than movies, where it's a two hour drop in on someone's life and then it's done.

You've worked on several series that only lasted a few episodes, has that been difficult?

Not really. Or I suppose I would say it's not MORE difficult. The only hard part is that you spent the time getting to know a set of characters and then they're gone, forever.

You created Greetings From Tucson for The WB, based on your own life growing up in Tucson, what was it like having something you created on the air and was it difficult when it wasn't picked up for a second season?

It was one of the most amazing experiences of my career. The show was about my life growing up in Tucson, so it was very personal, very close. Being what the WB was, I considered it a success because we got a back order of 9 episodes. Most of the comedies at that point weren't getting that, even. And of course being cancelled is never good. But two things made it bearable. The day I got the call was May, 9 2003 -- the day my second son, Daniel, was born. And with perspective, I've got 22 shows that are all stories about my life that people got to see, and I'll get to share with my sons when they're older. I'm also very proud to have been one of the first Latino shows on the air. And a true ensemble show, as well. My God, it sounds like I'm campaigning for the DVD to be put out or something, doesn't it?

Now your working on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place, what's it been like working for a kids show and how different is the atmosphere in the writers room versus a typical comedy?

First time on a kid's show, and it's been a lot of fun. Most of the writers are all people I have worked with in the prime time world -- and the honest truth is, the atmosphere isn't that different. You want to tell a great story and you want to not talk down to your audience. Those things never change.

How has the strike affected you and your family personally?

The strike has affected me immeasurably. In both good and bad ways, I suppose.
I get to see my two sons and wife a lot more, now that I'm not writing and producing a show full time. But, it's balanced with a constant gnawing feeling that you don't know when it'll ever be over. Financially, of course, I'm hurting like almost every writer is.
Since the end of the summer, I’ve gone from being an executive producer of Wizards of Waverly Place, to Contract Captain, to Strike Captain, to “Showrunner 180 of 200” that walked off his/her show, to some jackass who’s just tired and wants it to be over, no matter what. Then I volunteered to serve on a Guild committee, only to find out it was the Strike Rules Compliance Committee. That’s the committee that goes after scab writing. And my feet hurt. Because I walk. Every day. Four hours a day at the start and now three. And you know what? I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Sure there’s been emotional roller coasters unlike any I’ve been through.
I’m leaving out the pit in my stomach that makes it feel like I’ve been at the beginning of a panic attack for eleven weeks, without the physical release of actually having the panic attack and putting my fist through some dry wall, while my wife or whoever’s near me looks for some wood I can bite on so I don’t chew off my tongue. But who doesn’t feel like that, right?

What hobbies do you enjoy outside of writing?

I coach baseball, my oldest, Joaquin is a two time all star switch hitting catcher for his little league team. I'm kind of bragging, but there you go. I have a couple of old cars I work on, my fav is a 1964 Lincoln Continental. And I own, with my wife, Aliza, a Comedy Improv Theater in Hollywood, "Bang Comedy Theater". You can find us at bangstudio.com.

And Finally, what are some of your favorite Television shows?

Battlestar, Lost, Heroes, The Wire, Old Rockford Files, MASH, Bilko, Sanford & Son, Taxi, Family Ties, Buffy, 30 Rock, Office

I'd like to thank Peter Murrieta for his time and wish him and all the other writers good luck as they return to their jobs in the next week or two as the strike has thankfully come to an end.

Peter Murrieta - Center with Blue Warmup

Labels: adopt a writer, Interview, Peter Murrieta

Today I went down to Fox Studios in Century City and joined the picket line of the WGA strike. While there I talked to quite a few people just to get some information and just to pass the time. I also did a couple of more interviews.

Later I hope to post the transcript of my interview with Kal Penn,(Left) star of House, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, and latter's upcoming sequel. (I'm hoping tonight, but as I've got to work on a paper and I'm super tired from my 4 hours of walking it may be this weekend)

Among those picketing were The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, The Simpsons' Producer Al Jean, The Office's Mindy Kaling, and many others I recognized, but whose names I can't think of right now.

Updated: Some of you are probably wondering why I'm so supportive of the writers and this strike. Simply Put: I may be one of them one day. My best friend and I have been slowly working on a script (We'll we were before the strike), and I've got about 10 other ideas floating around my head at any one time. So if one day I were to sell any of these scripts, chances are I'd become a guild member. And if I become a member of the WGA, I'd like to know that I'm making money off the fruits of my labor and not just handing more money to the studios.

If you need clarification as to what's going on watch the video below, it clears it up pretty good.



Personally I won't be watching any more streaming videos, or downloading any tv shows or movies from iTunes until the strike is over and the writers are getting a portion of the profits. But that choice is yours. If you want to know more about the Strike or what you can do to support it, you can head over Here, Here, or Here. Or you can read about it in the media, in publications which are mostly owned by the same companies that own the studios, and might be a little bias. You can also sign an online petition to support the WGA here and here.

Tomorrow Morning I'll be heading back to Fox, where all of the WGA members and supporters will be converging from 10am to noon. I'm sure I'll have some more interesting videos for you.
For now I'm going to do some work on one of my papers.

Labels: Interview, Strike