We had the chance to participate in a conference call chat with James Roday and Dule Hill, who are here to talk about the 6th Season of the hit series Psych, which premiers Wednesday, October 12 on USA at 10:00/9:00 Central. This fan favorite is USA's longest running series on air and this season offers some of the most fun and exciting episodes to-date.

Psych has amazing guest stars in store for this season, which I have to share with you including; William Shatner, Danny Glover, Kristy Swanson, Cory Feldman, John Rhys-Davies, Joey McIntyre, Jason Priestley, Molly Ringwald, WWE Superstar "The Miz" and in the season Premier, Shawn Rescues Darth Vader, Malcolm McDowell - oops, did I say that right? Malcolm McDowell. So without further ado, here are James and Dule.

Question: First of all I wanted to hear about the fan appreciation day, what's going down and how did that come about?

James Roday: Well you know, last season after we wrapped we did a little, we did like a little four-day college tour where we kind of hit every major region of the country and said, "Hi," to some of our fans at a couple different universities. And in lieu of something like that again, we're kind of centralizing the whole celebration to one location, which is the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.

So Thursday we'll be kicking it at the Ziegfeld, and we'll get to hang out with about 1000 of our fans that will be attending from all over the country. And we'll screen the premiere and we'll do a little Q&A and we'll give away some swag. And it should be fantastic and a great opportunity for us to say, "Thank you."

Question: Since you just wrapped, is there anything you can dish about the season finale, is it a cliffhanger?

James Roday: Yes, there's - that is fair to say. There is a shocking ending that I hope our fans will not soon forget.

Question: "I heard two different things from you and Andy Berman about the Clue episode; is it definitely off?"

James Roday: It is not off, it's just not a part of our 6th Season. It's still very much in the hopper and all of the key players are still committed, we just weren't able to shoot it this season because of various scheduling conflicts. But it's on tap for next season -- knock on wood -- probably the first or second episode.

Question: Halloween episode I believe with vampires and also an Indiana Jones inspired episode as well as a Cuckoo's Nest inspired episode. Could you talk a little...

James Roday: Yes, we did in fact deliver on those other ones. Those are in the can. Those are fully produced and being mixed.

Dule Hill: We also have a Shining episode this year too.

James Roday: Shining is what you get in place of Clue. So we still felt like we should swing big.

Question: Well, what about Halloween?

James Roday: Halloween is the vampire episode. And I think it's airing the week of Halloween.

Question: And is there any special guest stars in that one or?

James Roday: Kristy Swanson, the original Buffy, and Corey Feldman, one of the Frog Brothers from The Lost Boys, and Tom Lenk, a regular on Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series.

Question: So it's a lot of Buffy's?

James Roday: Yes, we went Double Buffy.

Dule Hill: And Blacula makes a guest appearance also.

James Roday: Yes.

James Roday: Guest appearances, Blacula and the Vampire Lestat.

Question: First question is, "Maggie has Twitter, Dule has Twitter, Tim has pseudo-Twitter, when is James getting Twitter?"

James Roday: Twitter, now what is that?

James Roday: You know what it's - I'm not anti-Twitter, I just, I'm warming myself up. I'm just doing some pre-Tweeting loosening up exercises, making sure that my diet is in order. I just want to be in the best possible shape when I take this exciting journey into the Twitosphere.

Question: Speaking of social networking, you guys are embarking onto some new territory with the Hashtag Killer, what is that - how do you guys feel about embarking on that new territory?

Dule Hill: I think it's fun. I mean obviously, you know, that whole interactive and social network stuff is a big part of today's society and our fan culture, so anything that we can do to engage them some more and keep them...

James Roday: Mama.

Dule Hill: ...interested in our show, I think is a fun journey. And it's something different. And I hope people are enjoying it. I haven't had a chance to play it myself yet, but it seems like it'll be a fun thing to play.

James Roday: (Unintelligible).

Dule Hill: That's Roday talking to his dog, in case you were wondering.

James Roday: (Unintelligible).

Dule Hill: He's not losing his mind over there.

Question: I was wondering if you could (tell us) a little bit about some of Gus's upcoming nicknames this season.

James Roday: Oh wow.

Dule Hill: Thank you. Thank you very much, thank you. Make it a Bloody Mary. I don't know Roday, what are some of the nicknames? I always - once they come and go, I kind of forget about them until they air.

James Roday: We did - the only one I can remember is because I just finished watching the cut for Shining yesterday and we do Eddie Adams from Torrance, which I believe is a Boogie Nights reference.

Dule Hill: Okay, okay. I'm kind of blanking out. I'm sorry I don't have the - a better answer for you right now. I can't remember some of the names I've been called this year.

Question: "What are the possibilities of seeing the remaining members of High Top Fade Out with the - all the members of New Kids on the Block on the show one day?

Dule Hill: It would be a fun Psych-Out. I don't know - I mean that'll be - I don't know if that'll ever happen; that's a lot to ask. I think we can maybe work it out where we can get some members of High Top Fade Out, our (Quarterblack), and a member of New Kids on the Block all in one season. I think we can make that happen this year.

James Roday: That was the super - our Superhero episode. There's like a vigilante superhero like combing the streets of Santa Barbara, cleaning them up one bad guy at a time. And it may or may not be Joey, we don't know.

Question: Now that you guys are done shooting, what are you going to get into during your free time?

James Roday: Well if Dule will allow me to sing his praises, he will be appearing on Broadway in New York, starting in December, in a play called Stick Fly opposite Mekhi Phifer and Ruben Santiago-Hudson and a trio of wonderfully rich Broadway stage actresses that everyone should make a point to circle in their calendars and get to New York to see the man on stage.

Dule Hill: It should be a good time. And it's produced by Alicia Keys, who I just (found out)...

Dule Hill: ...is doing the music for the play. So you know, even if we are terrible the music will be good.

Question: what's your favorite Psych-Out that you've done? They all seem like so much fun, but what's your favorite?

Dule Hill: For myself it would be either the one we did with Joey, which because when you start involving real, you know, musicians and real singers and real artists singing their own songs with you, you can't really top that.

Dule Hill: It would be the one that we did with Joey, and then it would be the original one that we did in the pilot, Man in the Mirror, because that's kind of what started the whole machine going with the Psych-Outs. And that was just really just Roday and I having a lot of fun off camera. And then we got to the final shot just, "You know what, let's put it on tape. Let's just do it." And it turned into this whole big Psych-Out phenomenon so. Those are...

James Roday: Yes and in the spirit of doing Psych-Outs with the original artists, I'll mention a drunken rendition of Head Over Heels that we did with Chris Smith.

Dule Hill: Yes.

Question: All right. What do you guys think - is there anything this season that you kind of learned about yourself or just in general, do you - since this season started?

Dule Hill: That I learned about myself?

James Roday: That it takes less takes and less stairs for me to get winded when we're in pursuit of bad guys.

Dule Hill: I probably learned something about the - I mean I like Vancouver but the love kind of starts to fade as my seasons go on. You know, the rain gets a little worrisome.

Question: So one of the several traditional things in terms of psychos going crazy to watch every new episode is of course Gus's nicknames, the "Gus don't be," they heard it both ways and the pineapples. What are you going to show us in those department this season?

James Roday: Well there's definitely some nicknames, there's definitely some Gus Don't Bes. One that we're particularly proud of that you'll see in the Jennifer Lynch episode entitled Guillermo del Toro presents (Autopsy Turvy), which will air late in the season. So asterisk that one for a Gus Don't Be. I don't want to spoil it. And I believe there's still a pineapple every episode. I think that's just a machine that kind of takes care of itself.

Question: Yes, great. And one of my favorite nicknames is (Gus Diddy Showbiz) with the extra T for extra talent, which is yours Dule?

Dule Hill: That one's up there, but my favorite is always the original, I'm guess I'm a big fan of the original ones (unintelligible) Gus (Sillypants) Jackson; one, because it made Gus a Jackson, you know, and I'm a big fan of the Jackson's so; and then it also caught me off guard when Roday first did it and I was like, "What did this cat just call me? Did you just call me (Sillypants)?" But that's my favorite.

Question: Great. You're probably also the show with the biggest amount of pop references and stars, you're getting Danny Glover and William Shatner, that's probably pop references heaven. What is your favorite Season 6 reference?

Dule Hill: Again for me that's - I'm going to have to like tap out on that one because I'm really blanking out on the references this year. And I don't know if it's just because we just finished and I kind of just dumped everything out of my mind. But as I'm going back and trying to think I cannot really come up with, just on top of my head. But that one I'm going to tap out on.

James Roday: There's a visual reference in our vampire episode where we're in a very strange vampire bar and we approach the bar and the bartender has his back to us and when he turns around to face us there's a music queue and the actual casting of the bartender that comes together to create what I feel is a pretty delicious 80s visual reference. So I'll go with that.

Question: "If you could have any crossover with whatever show, which would it be?"

Dule Hill: U.S. Network, I would want to do White Collar. I mean, that's on the air right now, I would say White Caller, a show that was off the air, I would still go back to Monk.

Question: "Now we all know that the Blueberry is almost a stable character of the show itself, but at one point is Shawn's wooing of that girl, he said that he's been thinking about getting a car. So do you think he would ever abandon Gus and the Blueberry in that way and actually get a car of his own and lose the motorcycle?"

James Roday: No, I think he was just - those were just - that was just sweet nothings. That was just sugar talk.

Question: Tell us a little bit about what it was like working with William Shatner.

James Roday: Unbelievable.

Dule Hill: Right.

James Roday: The man is - I mean he's an icon obviously but watching him work was an honor in and of itself. I mean he's a machine. He was totally invested. He had - and I say this - this is not me editorializing or exaggerating, he had the heaviest load that we've ever given a guest star on our show. He pretty much drives the entire episode. He had the same schedule as Dule and I. And it was just remarkable. I mean not only did he know everything, he had questions, he had thoughts, he had concerns. You know, he was modulating his performance and he just - he really, really wanted to knock the role out of the park. And then to top it off, when the weekend came and you know, and Dule and I basically beach ourselves and recharge our batteries so that we can get back to it Monday morning, (Bill), flew to Calgary and did two live shows on Saturday and Sunday, and then flew back to Vancouver and was back at work at 6:00 am Monday morning. The man is 80 going on 20. And like I said, "It was humbling and it was a really honor just to watch him work and pick his brain and be around him."

Question: And my first question for you is, obviously you both have a good relationship with each other, but have there ever been times where you've had a falling out and you had to do a scene together and kind of get through it?

Dule Hill: No.

James Roday: No.

Dule Hill: No.

James Roday: Not even once.

James Roday: Yes, I think the closest thing to any sort of real difficulty is I think we both had to fight our way through scenes when we were very, very ill. That's about the worst of it.

Question: So now that Shawn has Juliet, now Gus is all by himself. Is he ever going to have a longer relationship than like an episode or two?

Dule Hill: I think we'll have to see what happens in Season 7, but in Season 6 he makes a valiant effort to attain that. He goes for it.

You know, you can't blame Gus for trying in Season 6, he's actually put his - throwing his hat into the ring and he's out there, you know, really trying to make it happen. But we'll see what happens going into Season 7, maybe he'll get past the one-episode love interest then.

Question: I'm waiting for Shawn to try to fix him up with some random person on the street or something.

James Roday: I don't know how much faith Gus would have in a Shawn setup.

Dule Hill: Right.

Question: Yes, that could go downhill pretty fast.

Dule Hill: Exactly. But then again, Gus hasn't been doing too great on his own so, you know, at a certain point he might say, "You know what, what the heck?" (Unintelligible).

Question: Just go from person to person, just have him ask everyone.

Dule Hill: Right.

Question: Hi, my first question for you is, we found out last season that Lassiter found out about Shawn and Juliet. How do you think that's going to affect their relationship with him?

James Roday: You know, it's a little touch and go out of the gates, but Lassiter himself finds love this season and I think that kind of helped cushion the blow. And you know, it's pretty much back to business down the stretch.

Question: Okay, and are we going to see more development between Henry and Shawn's relationship this season?

James Roday: I think it's less relationship driven and more just Henry driven, in terms of where he is, and where he is in his life, and what he wants, and stuff like that. The season finale addresses some of that stuff. But you know they are kind of - he's still at the police station and they're forced to sort of work with one another on a daily basis so that's still happening. But then you know, I think we take it a little further with Henry towards the end of the season.

Question: Juliet seems to be a strong female character; do you think she's inspiring female viewers or?

James Roday: You know, I think (Jules) has come a long way. I think you know, she was a junior detective when the show started, and you know, Maggie looked like she had just graduated high school. And you know, if you kind of track the evolution of that character I think it, you know, it is a little inspiring. I mean we've kind of watched both the actress and the role, the character kind of come of age on our show. And you know, she's pretty tough and she takes care of business, but she's still very feminine and all of that is sort of in place as well. And you know, considering that you know, she isn't Shawn or Gus, and isn't at the forefront of every episode, I think it's a nice character to cite on TV, sure.

Question: Okay. So I've been absolutely addicted to Hashtag Killer. So in all fairness I shouldn't even be here because I was the first victim. So hypothetically I'm dead.

Dule Hill: That's right, I saw that on Twitter. Somebody said, "MockTurtlePower was - they were attacking you," or something like that.

Question: Or Shawn's channeling me or something because I'm still helping on the case.

Dule Hill: I hear that.

Question: That's pretty cool. But I'd like to know what sort of input and how much work you both put into the 7-weekmysterygame?

James Roday: Input; not a ton. We were a little tied up with the 16-week...

Question: Right.

James Roday: ...season. But we did give a couple full days to the shooting of it. And you know, it's weird, because it's a little disjointed and we didn't shoot it in sequence. So it'll be interesting to see how it all kind of unfolds once they put it all together and it starts happening on a weekly basis.

Dule Hill: But I will say I was there at the inception of the idea, because when I went down to South by Southwest, when I first got on Twitter, I was down there with Jesse Redniss.

Question: Right, he's the Vice President of Digital right?

Dule Hill: Right. We were all there talking after the event and somehow the Hashtag came up. And then he started talking about Hashtag Killer. From there I guess they took it and ran with it.

((Crosstalk))

Question: Well everyone is running with it.

James Roday: Well that's a good thing.

Question: It's awesome. So my next question is, "Can you guys tell us anything about the episode you just finished filming because everyone's totally in the dark, except we know that Jennifer Lynch directed it.

James Roday: Well it's a - it was an episode that Andy Berman and I wrote knowing that Jennifer was directing it. So that should give you a little (unintelligible) there. And...

Question: So it's going to be dark?

James Roday: Yes you know, it's just a strange little episode that kind of shows you some parts of Santa Barbara that you're not used to seeing, and some characters that you're not used to seeing. But it's all still very much in the spirit of our show. It's not a big - I wouldn't call it a, "Big dark departure episode..."

James Roday: ...along the lines of the Yangs or anything like that. But just a little left of center. And Jennifer did an absolute bang-up job of it. So we're pretty excited about it.

Question: And does that mean that you have confirmation that David Lynch watched Dual Spires?

James Roday: That we don't have. But if he didn't watch Dual Spires, I have a sneaking suspicion that he will watch Jennifer's episode. So one way or another, this time next year, I think we'll be able to say that, "David Lynch has watched an episode of Psych."

Dule Hill: Or at least part of an episode. He's going to at least watch at least some of it.

James Roday: At least some of it.

Dule Hill: (Unintelligible). You know, (unintelligible)...

Question: So you know, this show has had so many guest stars in every single season, and this one is no different. So do you guys have any initiation rituals? You know, how do you bring them into the Psych family?

Dule Hill: We don't have initiation rituals, we do have I guess, sendoff rituals.

James Roday: This is true.

Dule Hill: Yes, whenever a guest star has wrapped, we always send them off with a Happy Birthday song by the Psych cast and crew, which I've got to say, "We sing pretty well."

James Roday: It's the one song everybody knows and we've been able to really start playing with some unorthodox harmonies and crescendos. I think the cast - I think the guest cast get down with it. There's always...

Dule Hill: They always cry.

James Roday: There's always that initial sort of moment of, "But wait a minute it's not my birthday." But then they get it.

Question: That's a very sincere gesture of you guys.

James Roday: Indeed.

Question: So you know, having spent six seasons now with Shawn and Gus, of course you know the characters extremely well, but do you ever find yourself surprised by something that, you know, has been written into the script or that either one of you bring up in improv, you know be it an interest of Shawn and Gus' or a reaction, or anything else of the sort?

James Roday: I get surprised two or three times a year, when our writers come up with something for the purposes of one episode that Shawn has supposedly had as part of his character for much longer than that, so a strange way of talking or a fear of something.

A lot of times we'll just sort of invent something for the purposes of an episode as a theme. And I'm suddenly sort of thinking, "Wow, that's odd. I didn't have that last week." They've done that to me a couple of times this season.

Dule Hill: And I've got a...

James Roday: Well, all of a sudden there was an episode where Shawn had a - has a great fear of death and doesn't know how to deal with it, which is odd because of course we were around death every week.

Dule Hill: Right.

James Roday: But it served the purposes of the one episode that it's in, so we rolled with it.

Dule Hill: I was - I'm learning how to expect the unexpected when dealing with the Psych writers, which - so I don't really get too surprised when things come around. But having that mentality also leaves - I mean it leaves the room wide open for the writers to do what they do and come up with all these amazing stories and roles for us to get into. So that's kind of my motto of each season is, "Expect the unexpected." When you have Andy Berman, Todd Harthan, Steve Franks, Saladin Patterson, you know, all these cats all in one room, you can expect something crazy's going to come out of there.

James Roday: Yes, as a matter of fact. Our Shining episode will feature a brand new, completely different rendition of the theme song.

Dule Hill: And we do get a re-run. We get a re-run of the Boyz II Men a cappella version. (Unintelligible)...

Dule Hill: Since (Quarterblack) is returning.

Question: So can you talk a bit about the Indiana Jones episode and working with John Rhys-Davies?

James Roday: Yes that episode came out really well, and it's also the third installment of the episodes involving the Despereaux character, played by Cary Elwes. And for my money, it's the best of the trilogy for sure -- a lot of fun.

And yes, John Rhys-Davies was a blast man. We didn't get to work with him a ton but, you know, he came in and he was, you know, kind of bigger than life and sort of what you would imagine. And he was a real sweetheart.

Dule Hill: Fun guy to work with. Full of energy.

Question: Awesome. So do you, either of you have any like crazy or fun fan stories to tell us about?

James Roday: I still think it's going to be tough for me to top a fan wanting me to sign their boob. It's just, we've been asked to sign a lot of things, and I just didn't see that one coming.

Dule Hill: The question is, "Did you?"

James Roday: I did not. I did not.

Dule Hill: See me on the other hand, I probably would have. If she gave me a Sharpie, I would have been like, "Sure, why not? It's your booby you know? You do what you want to do with it."

Question: Just hope they don't get it tattooed on there.

Dule Hill: Exactly.

Question: What about you Dule?

Dule Hill: And for me it goes back to, still when I was (Bring a Noise, Bring the Funk), and coming out of the stage door, and as one fan asked for my sweaty towel, you know, because I - it was a tap dance show so I came out all sweaty. And I was wiping my face with it, and they just wanted the towel so bad. And I said, "Sure, take it." And he took it and he ran down 49th Street screaming at the top of their lungs waving the towel. And I was like, "Wow," you know, I was like, "For one sweaty towel? Okay, that's a lot for one sweaty towel."

Dule Hill: Yes. I guess it's the little things in life.

Question: Yes. So if you two weren't acting, what do you think you'd be doing?

Dule Hill: I was going off to become a corporate lawyer; that was my - I was in my junior year of college at Seton Hall going for a Business Finance degree. And then my next step was to go to law school to become a corporate lawyer.

James Roday: Yes, if I was...

Dule Hill: Would have I been enjoying myself? I don't know if I would have, but that's what I probably (unintelligible).

James Roday: If I wasn't doing anything related to the entertainment industry I'm sure I would probably be working with animals in some capacity. I don't know if I would have had the discipline to make it all the way through medical school to become a vet, but maybe. Zoo; zoo might be fun too. Being a zookeeper, that feels fun.

Question: Hey. James, your such a sports fanatic, I wonder how you're preparing for a possible NBA withdrawal, and specifically a Spurs withdrawal?

James Roday: Well it's unfortunate...

Dule Hill: Well sorry, first...

James Roday: ...you know, because you'd like...

Dule Hill: Sorry, let me say real quick this, first withdrew last year, if you didn't notice.

James Roday: It's unfortunate because you'd like to think that they could handle their business, like everybody else in the world has to handle their business, so that they don't have to cancel a season. It's funny the way that athletes and their unions and the owners, you know, kind of pull these scams on us, because you never see doctors deciding, "You know what, we're not going in and saving lives this week. We're out," or teachers deciding they're not going to go and teach school for six months. It's like it's unfortunate that this happens, but as sports fans that are devoted from, you know, pretty much as early as you can hold a basketball, we always end up forgiving them and we always end up coming back to the trough when they get back.

I'd like to think that it won't be a lost season, and that it'll be a strike shortened season. And the last time we had a strike-shortened season, San Antonio Spurs won their first championship so.

James Roday: Maybe that's not a bad thing. And maybe for an old bunch of guys like the Spurs, it's just what the doctor ordered you know? A little less wear and tear on the legs, they can come in and steel one.

Dule Hill: And in the meantime, let me just say the - it looks like the 49ers and the Jets may be going to the Super Bowl. How about that, huh?

James Roday: Not if (Mark Sanchez) plays like he did the other night.

Dule Hill: Yes I know, but we're not going to talk about that right now.

Question: Also James, I was just wondering, are you still planning maybe to come back to your hometown for the holidays?

James Roday: I would like to get there for a couple days, sure. I have to figure out when that will be, but it is still on the books for me to get there sometime in December, yes.

Question: And how did William Shatner's character - he's Juliet's dad right?

James Roday: Yes.

Question: ...respond to Shawn? How does he take to Shawn? I imagine they locked horns a little bit.

James Roday: Well we had some fun there because it's kind of like, you know you can't snow the snowman, you can't con the King of Con, so he kind of had the ability to see right through Shawn and that made things really interesting. And then Shawn of course sort of fired back by seeing through him and calling him on all of his BS. So we had sort of an interesting game of one-upsman-ship and a little bit of a chess match going on, with the common thread of course being that they both do care very much about Juliet.

Dule Hill: Glad that you all are still interested after six seasons. And I hope you all enjoy what we have coming up.

James Roday: Enjoy Season 6. We'll talk to you guys later. Erin if you're still listening, best wishes. You're in our hearts and in our prayers. Later everybody.

Dule Hill: You all on the Twitosphere, everybody besides James Roday, check you later.

The 6th Season of the hit series Psych, which premiers Wednesday, October 12 on USA at 10:00/9:00 Central.

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/psych