Last night was the Season 4 finale of the USA Network’s TV series Psych. The Hitchcock-inspired episode is directed by the show’s star, James Roday, and guests stars Ally Sheedy (best known for her role the 1985 film The Breakfast Club) who is reprising her role as the serial killer, Mr. Yang.

During a recent conference call interview Roday talked about being a fan of Alfred Hitchcock and the Psych homage to his films. He also revealed what it was like to work with the ’80s pop culture icon, Ally Sheedy.

The Psych Season Finale is a Hitchcock Homage

Roday not only starred in the final episode of the season, as he does each week, but he also directed it. He said he drew his inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock, stating, “I really do try to stay as faithful to Hitchcock as I could both aesthetically and in pacing and I just shamelessly ripped off four or five shots straight out of his films, quite frankly. It was an homage episode and I’m a Hitchcock fan, and Andy Berman who wrote the episode with me, is a Hitchcock fan. As much as we could get away with doing Hitchcock in a Psych episode that’s definitely what we set out to do.”

Does Roday have a favorite Hitchcock movie? “I am a huge Psycho fan. I have always been a Psycho fan… I just think Hitchcock sort of revolutionized the idea of the chiller twist that horror films attempted to be predicated on since Psycho came out. That is the original jaw dropping twist that set everything else in motion. I love that movie, and Anthony Perkins is fantastic in it and it’s shot amazingly and yes, that would be my number one.”

Hitchcock was known for creating an entire movie in his head before any shooting happened. Roday was asked if he approached this episode that same way. He replied, “No. Hitchcock, God love him, he’s one of the great masters of all time, but he did used to stick to that whole idea that the entire movie was in his head before he stepped on set for the first day and that never once in his entire career did anything ever change. That’s the most impossible thing in the world for me to believe, if for no other reason than something must have fallen over at some point or exploded or something.”

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The Psych season finale is extremely Shawn focused and kind of features a little more dramatic pivotal moments for his character. Do you think this in any way will change the tone of the series next season?

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.

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.

Don’t miss the most shocking PSYCH finale ever as a killer targets Shawn using scenarios from classic Hitchcock films. Ally Sheedy guest-stars in Psych’s season finale, co-written and directed by James Roday – “Mr. Yin Presents” -premiering tomorrow at 10/9C on The USA Network!

source: forcesofgeek.com

This episode takes on classic ALFRED HITCHCOCK films and it is done in a successfully creative way. Watch the season four finale of PSYCH, Wednesday night on USA NETWOK.

I participated in an interview call with JAMES RODAY, who is always a joy to speak with and ALLY SHEEDY who was just incredible and I wonder if she still hangs out with JOHNNY 5? Here is what they had to say about the season finale of PSYCH and their roles:

Lena Lamoray: James, how do you think the fans are going to react to the finale and some of the choices that were made by the characters?

JAMES RODAY: 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.

I think the fact that it’s the end of the season 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.

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On Monday afternoon I had the opportunity to check back in with James Roday of USA’s “Psych” (you can check out the original interview here), and this time he was joined by legendary actress Ally Sheedy (who was, of course, part of “The Breakfast Club”). Sheedy is back to portray serial killer Mr. Yang in the season finale (you can read a spoiler-free advance review here), and she was also part of the John Hughes tribute during the 2010 Oscars Sunday night.

My time, though, was limited mainly to “Psych”-related questions. My first inquiry had to deal directly with a personal quest Roday told me about earlier this year — getting David Bowie on the show. When asked about a potential future appearance by the once-Goblin King, Roday had this to say:

“It’s a long shot man…he’s always in some exotic place and he’s tough to track down. I feel like our best shot was probably back on [season two episode] ‘American Duos’ when Landis who is friends with him reached out and tried to make it happen.

“We’re going to keep trying, but I have to be realistic — and I want you all to be realistic with me — there is a less than 30% chance that it will happen.”

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It has been said that there is approximately only a 1 in 100th of a chance that a person will land a job working in theater in New York. The chances of working successfully in the industry are smaller than that. Sometimes, though, you meet people like EXTINCTION’s James Roday (of the hit television series “Psych”) and Michael Weston (“House”) who make you forget that the odds of doing so are not stacked so high – who make you truly believe that if one can simply “find good material, do what you know and grow it into something bigger” (to quote Roday) that enriched careers in entertainment are truly achievable.

In their latest collaboration, Roday and Weston play two friends on a reckless weekend in Gabe McKinley’s new play EXTINCTION, now running at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Wayne Kasserman directs. Roday and Weston are reprising their roles Off-Broadway in EXTINCTION following its acclaimed, sold-out run this past fall in Los Angeles at the Elephant Space theatre in Hollywood.

With a cast also featuring Amanda Detmer and Stefanie E. Frame, EXTINCTION tells a story about what transpires between two college buddies whose annual outing of male-bonding and debauchery veers precipitously off course.

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