Psych Cast and Creators on Psych 2: Lassie Come Home and Timothy Omundson’s Return | ATX Television Festival
On June 7, 2020, ATX Television Festival’s virtual event, “ATX TV…From the Couch,” hosted a pre-recorded virtual Psych reunion panel with creators Steve Franks and Chris Henze, as well as cast members James Roday, Dulé Hill, Kirsten Nelson, Maggie Lawson, and Corbin Bernsen.
They shared some memories from filming Psych as well as teased their upcoming movie, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home which will air on NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock.
Franks said that this film has been a long time coming, and has been done for over a year. He joked, stating, “We didn’t even know there was something called a peacock when we started writing this, and now we are going to take the entire peacock on our shoulders and carry it to success.”
It was an emotional panel as part of the discussion focused on Timothy Omundson’s absence from the first movie and return to set for Lassie Come Home.
As most people know, Omundson was not in the first Psych movie due to suffering a stroke just prior to the start of shooting for the movie.
Franks reflected, “We rewrote the movie to accommodate just getting him in somehow with the idea that we’re going to do another one of these, and it’s going to revolve around Tim in whatever he is up for at that point.”
Franks said that Psych 2: Lassie Come Home “is far more emotional than I believe anything that we’ve done, especially in those scenes with Maggie and Tim.”
Lawson shared that “at one point [Franks] actually said, ‘Be Maggie and Tim in this scene,’ and neither one of us could get through it because we were both so emotional because it was such a moment. Honestly, [Omundson] is so good in this movie.”
Franks chimed in, “What Maggie didn’t tell you is when they were doing the scene as Maggie and Tim, there was not a dry eye in the entire room. It was as powerful for us almost as it was for them.”
Hill shared, “The moment that Tim actually walked onto the set in Vancouver, that’s a moment I will never forget.”
He continued, “There was a hole when we were filming the first movie. As much fun as we all had doing it, Tim wasn’t there, and it’s not Psych without Lassie. It’s a version of Psych, but it’s not Psych. And when he walked through that door, it really, really just touched us all to see the power of his recovery, the power of his perseverance in the midst of a struggle will himself back to Vancouver onto the set of Psych was awe-inspiring.”
Hill then offered a lighter memory of filming Psych 2: Lassie Come Home with Omundson.
“There’s a little tradition that I stole from Josh Malina that I would go around and knock off people’s scripts out of their hands when we were rehearsing because Josh Malina is a troublemaker; he likes to create trouble. He used to do it to me all the time, so I started doing it to everybody else. So we are starting to rehearse the first scene, and Tim just takes his time while we’re there, makes his way over to me, and I’m here going over my lines. The next thing I know, he knocks my sides out of my hands.”
Hill said, “But in that moment it’s an ‘okay, let’s go have some fun. Tim is back everybody.'”
The movie boasts some fantastic guest stars — Joel McHale, Sarah Chalke, Richard Schiff, and Allison Miller — one of which was a complete secret to Omundson.
Franks shared, “Joel McHale is a really close friend of Tim’s and worked with Maggie on a wonderful show,” before turning it over to Lawson to elaborate.
Lawson said, “James [Roday] I think had this idea. He reached out to me to reach out to Joel for this role…I reached out to Joel. He immediately responded. He was emotional. He was honored in every way. He loved the show, but Tim means so much to him, and he was just in.”
“We wanted to keep Joel a secret for as long as we could to surprise Tim,” Lawson shared, which was a daunting task.
“It seemed not so possible, but we managed to pull it off. We managed to get Joel to Vancouver without Tim knowing and have this amazing moment. He is so lovely. I cannot say enough about him because he was in from the beginning…for Tim, he will do anything for him. And I think as long as Tim lives, he’ll remember this moment, and Joel made it so special for him and for everybody,” Lawson concluded.
Sure enough, Tim Omundson replied to a fan on Twitter who had tweeted about this part of the panel.
One of the greatest surprises of my life. I love all these people so much 🥰‼️ https://t.co/QQCAtwOU88
— Timothy Omundson (@Omundson) June 7, 2020
Allison Miller’s guest star role is a little top secret. Franks described it as “a really fun role that is vital,” but he didn’t want to give anything away.
Roday joked, “Well, everybody loves a basic cable comedy network drama crossover. It’s a tale as old as time. It works.”
Fans can expect lots of fun callbacks and easter eggs on Psych 2: Lassie Come Home.
Roday shared, “There’s a giant callback to a single moment from the pilot that I don’t think will be lost on anyone, mostly because we’ve only been asked about it seven million times.”
Franks added, “I think we have a pretty solid fanbase, and I think they really enjoy when we reference the most minuscule of moments in our show, and it’s like there’s nothing too obscure for us, so we can go obscure on our own world. There are things in there that most people will miss.”
“When this first started, I was ordering up props that were either replicas or the exact things from old episodes. There’s one thing from the think tank episode that’s in James’ hand that we even cut to, and it’s a wide shot. It’s crazy the things that we do, but someone’s going to find it. Someone will see it,” Franks continued.
“Sometimes we reference things that we wish we’d done better the first time. So we’re not afraid to make fun of our own show, and we’re not afraid to love our own show,” Franks concluded.
And the panel ended with giving us an exclusive sneak peek of the first four minutes of the movie.
Gus: No Shawn, no more embarrassing nicknames, especially in front of peers and professionals.
Shawn: Gus, don’t be the night your dad fell asleep inside your mom. We can’t just stop doing bits we’ve been doing for ten years. We have fans. They have expectations. There will be a huge backlash.
Gus: Shawn, we are two dumbasses. We do not have fans.
The sneak peek makes it evident that this is a very Lassiter-centric movie. Seeing Lassiter on my screen, interacting with Shawn and Gus again, brought me so much joy. Check out the sneak peek below!
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Psych 2: Lassie Come Home will air on Peacock on July 15, 2020.
Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival’s virtual event right here. There is still more to come!
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).