Psych

Steve Franks created Psych for USA Network, and it premiered on July 7, 2006, right after the fifth-season premiere of Monk; the two stayed paired until Monk ended in December 2009. The pilot drew 6.1 million viewers, the highest-rated scripted premiere on basic cable that year. The setup: James Roday's Shawn Spencer, raised by his ex-cop father Henry (Corbin Bernsen) on observation games and drills, has been phoning in tips on crimes he saw on the news, and the police decide knowledge that good must come from the inside. To avoid being charged he claims to be psychic, the chief warns him he will be prosecuted if the powers are fake, and he opens a psychic detective agency called Psych with his lifelong best friend, pharmaceutical salesman Burton "Gus" Guster, played by Dulé Hill.

USA had introduced a new logo and campaign in 2005 under the tagline "Characters Welcome," and Psych was that idea in full: a mystery show built on the banter between Shawn and Gus, their blue Toyota Echo nicknamed the Blueberry, Timothy Omundson's perpetually exasperated head detective Carlton Lassiter ("Lassie" to the boys), Maggie Lawson's Juliet O'Hara and Kirsten Nelson's Chief Vick. Most early episodes opened with a childhood flashback of Henry teaching young Shawn a lesson that would pay off at the climax. The theme, "I Know You Know," was recorded by the Friendly Indians, Franks's own band, and the show rewrote it for special episodes — a Boyz II Men a cappella version for Gus's singing-group episodes, a Julee Cruise version for the Twin Peaks tribute "Dual Spires." The pineapple started as an improvisation: Roday picked one up in the pilot and asked, "Should I slice this up for the road?", and a pineapple turned up in every episode afterward, with fan sites devoted to finding it. Santa Barbara was played by White Rock, British Columbia.

USA renewed the show for an eighth season in December 2012 and confirmed in February 2014 that it would be the last; the finale aired on March 26, 2014, followed by a live aftershow. Rotten Tomatoes scored the first three seasons at 89 percent. The cast never really left: Psych: The Movie aired on USA in December 2017, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home launched with the Peacock streaming service in July 2020, and Psych 3: This Is Gus followed in November 2021.