Take a Trip to Dual Spires with Psych

What better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking series Twin Peaks? Get a super obsessed fan – who just happens to be the star of the USA Network series Psych – to co-write an episode that is a beautiful homage to a show that “got rid of the envelope,” pushing the boundaries of what a television should or is expected to be and has never truly been replicated. This was a “love letter from one show to another” and it was quite spectacular.

Tonight’s episode of Psych is entitled “Dual Spires” for the quiet and eerily creepy small mountain town where Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and his best friend Burton “Gus” Guster (Dule Hill) are invited by an anonymous email to visit their annual Cinnamon Festival. But soon a mysterious death pulls the Psych team into the zany and scary world of this little town and its inhabitants.

On Monday night much of the cast of Psych as well as 5 of the 7 Twin Peaks cast members who appear in this tribute episode made an appearance at the Paley Center for Media to not only watch the world premiere of this episode along with an excited and packed audience but also to share how this episode came to be and how they were all brought in to participate.

The members of the night’s panel included moderator Craig Tomashoff from TV Guide Magazine; Psych cast members James Roday, Dule Hill, Timothy Omundson, Maggie Lawson and Corbin Bernsen and Twin Peaks alumni Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Catherine Coulson, Lenny von Dohlen and Robyn Lively.

At the start of the panel James was, of course, asked how the episode came about, explaining that he pitched the idea to Steve Franks, the executive producer and creator of Psych, during the first season of the show, but that it took four years to get it done. Thankfully it was perfect timing in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Twin Peaks. Maggie then chimed in that it was “like Christmas every day” for James (in putting the tribute episode together).

Then talk turned to how the Twin Peaks cast members were brought on board with James explaining that he and Dana Ashbrook (who was unfortunately unable to attend that night’s panel) have been friends for years so “he didn’t have a choice” but join in. Sheryl Lee mentioned that she and Timothy have known each other for “decades” and she eventually heard through the grapevine about the episode with her manager getting the script to her not that long afterward.

Lenny von Dohlen spoke up saying that it was fantastic to see his former co-stars and filming the episode with them and the cast of Psych were “maybe the best I (have) ever worked with”; while Catherine Coulson (who played the Log Lady) stated it was “great to see everybody again and the Psych team was so welcoming” to them and joked she couldn’t “get over the amount of pie consumed” during the making of the tribute episode.

In talking about coming up with the script, James said he “swung for the fences” trying to get as many Twin Peaks moments and references into the episode as possible while his co-writer, Bill Callahan, had the tough job of making up a plausible story and leveling out the episode.

While James is obviously the ultimate fan of Twin Peaks, Dule was on the opposite side of the spectrum, watching a marathon of the episodes before the filming of “Dual Spires” took place and he joked to the audience that he still hasn’t “recovered from it yet.”

When asked how she was chosen for the legendary role of Laura Palmer, Sheryl explained she had never worked in television or film, primarily working theatre, but David Lynch (the creator of Twin Peaks) saw her head shot hanging on the wall in her manager’s office. She soon received a call, asking her to meet with him to about his new, mysterious project. She quipped that she was very young at the time, sitting on her hands for the interview with David as he asked if she would be okay with playing a character “who would be killed, wrapped in plastic and stuck in the water for hours.” She naively said “yes,” but had “no idea what I was getting into”.

Catherine and Ray Wise then spoke about “Bob,” explaining he (Frank Silva) was the show’s prop master who accidentally got into one of the scenes within the show and it was decided thereafter that he would be Bob. “They just kept putting Frank in scenes and he didn’t know what to do,” quipped Catherine, “but he continued to be the prop master of the show.” She also stated that Deputy Andy was actually David’s limo driver, which got laughs from the audience.

To round out the night, Corbin Bernsen talked about the chemistry among the cast members on the set of L.A. Law and how he thought that “could never be matched,” but he found that chemistry again with the cast of Psych, adding further that “every actor should to have this.”

Be prepared for a magical night of recollections, eeriness and memories of Twin Peaks when “Dual Spires” airs tonight at 10/9c on the USA Network.