PSYCH: Exec Producer Steve Franks is “Brazenly Overconfident”

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with Psych creator and show runner Steve Franks. He is a very fun and gregarious interviewee, willing to share his thoughts on many topics, including some things to look forward to this season and next.

Is there a confirmation yet for Season 7?

No, not yet. But we’re, as always, brazenly overconfident about that.

Would you do a movie to wrap things up if there is no Season 7 of Psych?

I would want to do a Season 7 and a movie. That would make me happy. And I want to make sure, if we do the movie, I’d want it to be something that was in theaters. Even if it’s a small run in theater and not just do a direct to video, you know, like a double episode of the show. I’d want it to feel special. I’d want it to feel like it was something that was worthy of being in the theaters.

Do you see an end to Psych?

The second I feel like we’re just doing the exact same thing again, then I think we should get out while people still have good memories of the show. But at this point, I have so many things that I want to do. I’ll do the show as long as they let us and as long as it’s fun, and as long as people like it.

What would be the pinnacle episode of Psych when we finally have to say goodbye to it?

I think I have something that ties things together and brings us right back to the pilot in a great way. And I think that a good ending to a show, you know, resolves the question that’s posed in the pilot. And it would be really nice if we have the luxury of knowing what the end of the show is and to be able to work towards that.

About being so interactive with the fans?

Our fans are, and I mean this in the best way, they are crazy fans. They are just so, they’re so, they love the show. They know so much about the show. They’re so warm and so cool. And, they’re happy people. They’re like cool fans to have. We like talking to our fans just as much as they like talking to us.

What was it like participating in Fan Appreciation Day at the Ziegfeld in New York City?

I can’t tell you how overwhelmed I was. It was amazing. And if you guys ever have your own television show…you should have a premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater because it was spectacular. I’m recommending now that we do this every year. I actually asked them to do it for every episode. But I think they weren’t too keen on it.

You promised Psych fans at South by Southwest Interactive that when Psych’s Facebook fan page reached 2 million you would treat them to an instructional tap dance video. Where is it?

I actually was wondering if Dulé would remember that when we hit it the other day. Unfortunately, all of our offices are closed already, but I am all ready for the Steve Franks instructional worst tap dancing video of all time.

What can you share about the upcoming season?

The first four episodes of the season are spectacular. And it doesn’t really let off from there.

Why didn’t the much anticipated musical episode make it into season 6?

It was one of the things where my day job was getting in the way of my dream job, which is to write and direct the musical. So I made slow, but not that great, progress on it. And I finally, in about the end of May, realized I’m not anywhere close to having enough done for this. So I said, you know what, I’m very brazenly overconfident about a Season 7. I’m going to push it into Season 7 and it gave me an opportunity to then say, Oh my God, now I have to come up with an episode to do in my slot, which gave me the opportunity to do a Raiders of the Lost Ark episode and bring Despereaux back. So it was a win for me and probably a little bit frustrating for people waiting for musical. But now that I’m giving it the proper amount of time and attention, it‘s going to be twice as good as first imagined.

How do you approach a musical episode?

That is the Number 1 question, that ‘how do you do it? Do they just start singing? Do you have to explain it?’ If you think about shows that have done musical episodes, I think Scrubs had the most genius way to get into it and that there was a woman who had a condition where she only heard people singing. And it was all sort of inside her head. And I thought ‘that’s brilliant.’ How do we come up with something as cool as that?

And I think I have something that’s pretty cool. And what is fun about it is I don’t think you’ve fully realized everything that’s happening until the very last scene of the show. So if I pull it off correctly, I think I have a very cool way to do it. And like I said, it’s one of those things where this is, you know, as hard of a thing as I’ll ever do to pull this musical off. And so there’s going to be a lot of work that goes into it.

Other than the musical, what type of episode would you most like to do?

There’s a couple that I couldn’t figure out. And, you know, even in regards to the pilot, I’ve always wanted to figure out how we could actually do a legitimate Star Wars type episode. But since they’re not in space and it’s not a long time ago in a galaxy very far away, you know, I don’t know exactly how we pull that off perfectly. But the sky has been the limit. We’ve been able to sort of…go off on any tangent that we’ve wanted to.

What can you tell us about the Despereaux episode?

Every time Cary comes up, we know it’s going to be the most fun we’ve had during the season. There’s always been, like, a little action element to the Despereaux episodes. And this time, my goal was let’s just get to those action pieces and let’s do more than we ever imagine this show could do.

Was the character William Shatner portrays later this season (Juliet’s father) created with him in mind?

No. We did not write this with Shatner in mind at all. We didn’t think he was available. And it worked out completely for the best because we didn’t write a Shatner type character. And I think if we’ve known it was Shatner playing it, we would have written it differently. It’s one of the best episodes of the show we’ve ever done. And I think it doesn’t air until like eighth. So you’ve got a couple of months to wait for it.

Is there a chance for any sort of crossover to happen?

I always love when they cross-pollinate shows. White Collar would be fun because when we were in New York for the Ziegfeld thing, we were trying to figure out how we could shoot like two days in New York and Shawn and Gus go to New York and maybe we could use the White Collar crew or something like that. Actually, you know what, I think I would like to do a Burn Notice one because then I could go to Miami. And I could go to Miami and we could blow stuff up. So, you know, and we could jump in a car across the bridge. So that would be fun. So I’m going to do between White Collar and Burn Notice. I would love to do a crossover episode.

Which character on the show do you think most resembles you in personality?

Well I always feel like I’m half of Shawn and half of Gus. I mean when, if, you meet me, I talk like Shawn. I sort of present that kind of unsounded overconfidence at all times. I try not to stress about anything. I do define my life about, I make all my decisions on, what’s fun. But I’m also not a rule-breaker. So I’m always the guy that says, ‘Oh my God. It says Do Not Enter. We should not go in there.’

Psych airs Wednesdays at 10pm/9c on USA.