James Roday, the star of USA’s Psych, says his show is the perfect hybrid of traditional TV crime-solving and off-the-wall goofball comedy.

He’s not satisfied, though, because there’s still one thing missing: He desperately wants David Bowie to do an episode.

“That’s my stock answer to every question regarding who I’d like to have come on the show, who I’d like to have sing our theme song, who I’d like to meet for coffee in a completely unrelated, non-Psych atmosphere,” Roday says, his tongue only partly in cheek.

“I would want it to be Bowie so I could hang out with Bowie. And I would actually request that he would come as his character from Labyrinth.”

Psych — in which Roday plays a phony psychic detective, a wisecracking slacker whose actual gift is extraordinary observational skills taught by his policeman father — returns from a winter break at 9 p.m. Wednesday, the show’s new home after three and a half seasons on Fridays.

Alas, no Bowie yet. But Roday, a 30-year-old San Antonio native, did hang out with World Wrestling Entertainment star John Cena while filming the return episode. Given that he’s a lifelong wrestling fan, it was almost as good.

We chatted with Roday last week.

With Monk no longer in production, Psych is the network’s longest-running original show. How does that make you feel?

I feel older. And my knees feel older. It’s a testament, I think, to the sort of little-engine-that-could mentality that we’ve had from the very beginning with this show. That we’ve sort of stuck around long enough to be anybody’s flagship show feels good for us.

Not only does John Cena guest-star in the return episode, but you and co-star Dulé Hill guest-hosted WWE Monday Night Raw on Monday. Did you demonstrate any of your best wrestling moves, like “Going Boneless”?

Here’s my fear: If I flash some of the stuff I have, all of a sudden there’s a conflict because Raw wants me to join the roster and obviously I have commitments to Psych. So I have to pull back so I can get out without a contract offer.

If Shawn and Gus, the characters you and Hill play, were a wrestling duo, what would their names be, what would their costumes be like and would they be heroes or villains?

That’s thought-out, it’s intense, it’s thorough, it’s timely, it’s appropriate. And my answer is going to be rather rudimentary. I’m going to call us Black and Tan [cover names they used in an episode involving male models]. Me, of course, being Black and Gus being Tan. And I’m going to say we come to the ring in our Black and Tan wannabe male model attire and we are what is known in the WWE universe as “jobbers,” meaning it is our job to come in and get our butts beat by whatever tag team they’re trying to push.

Of all the crazy nicknames Shawn has given Gus, do you have a favorite?

I’m going to be a traditionalist and say Silly Pants Jackson. It’s my favorite just because it was the first one.

What does the future hold for Shawn and Jules (Maggie Lawson) as a couple?

Our dear show creator, Steve Franks, has sort of ambiguously informed us that he does have definitive plans for Shawn and Juliet in Season 5, which we haven’t started yet. As far as the stretch run here in Season 4, it’s a little more tangled up and complicated for a little while longer.

Besides Bowie, any thoughts about who should do the theme song?

The Chipmunks should do it. We could structure a holiday episode where the Chipmunks come in and do their thing. Who doesn’t want to hear their theme song sung by the Chipmunks? Am I crazy? Am I wrong on this? It would be awesome and so squeaky. We could give Theodore a solo, but nobody would know it was Theodore because they all sound the same when they sing. But we would know.

Any other potential guest stars you’re dying to bring in?

There is a mini-Psych dream that, before it’s all done, we would have all five members of The Breakfast Club. We’ve only nailed two [Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson], so we’ve got our work cut out for us. I think Emilio Estevez is going to prove especially tricky. These are the kinds of goals we set on our show.

source: star-telegram.com