Question: What is your favorite aspect of social media events like the PYSCH Slumber Party and the Social Sector?

Dulé Hill: Well the main thing about social media in general is interacting with the fans. And what I like about when USA comes up with different ways to engage the fans is the engagement. Like at the Slumber Party, being able to tweet back and forth and seeing in real time what they enjoyed about the show that was airing, seeing their videos that they touted where I actually saw them on TV. Being able to interact with them is what I enjoy the most. 

Question: Steve, do you vicariously live through others to learn more about social media events and those participating?

Steve Franks: I'm not [on Twitter], but I sort of peer in occasionally and sneak a peek. I've been hounded to get onto Twitter and I think I'm going to do it this year. I couldn't do it in time for the Slumber Party, but I looked back and I loved watching the crawl during the Slumber Party. And it's amazing and it's incomprehensible that you can have that kind of a media feedback from the people that love the show and just what's going on live. And it's really exciting and I think it's really one of the great things about our show is we say so much attention to our fans and how they feel about things. A lot of shows I always look at, those people, they have some sort of crazed, strange fans. And our fans, I don't know, they're just good people. They just seem like nice people. I love that we draw such a positive group of people and, it's always fun and interesting to hear what they have to say.

Dulé Hill: We have the greatest fans in the world.

Question: Will PSYCH be at Comic-Con this year?

Steve Franks: You know what? That's what we're pushing for as well, and we'll see what happens with that. I can't wait to get to San Diego and I hope that they make it happen because it's always a question mark. I know that USA had a much-reduced presence there in 2012, but they brought us along anyway. So it's fantastic and we have lots of things that we could show people at ComicCon.

Dulé Hill: And we're looking forward to seeing you all, too.

Dule Hill & James Roday in "No Country for Two Old Men"

Question: Is there anything that you can talk about Season 8?

Steve Franks: We haven't even gotten into the writer's room yet.

I'm not going to say that we don't have ideas for that, but the eight order was something we asked. Usually you don't get a pick-up until you've aired, and we didn't want to lose our crew and the people up in Canada that we love so much. So we pushed for "Hey, give us eight and, we'll see what happens from there."  

Steve Franks (cont): And we were happy and just really grateful that the network stepped up and did that. They literally gave us a pick-up without having any of our episodes get on the air, having no idea what the numbers would be. So it's a tremendous leap of faith on their part. And I think the show has been a tremendous leap of faith on their part because we do some pretty crazy, insane stuff that -- I don't know if you've noticed -- isn't really on the rest of their network.

So the fact that they sort of let us run with the ball and follow these crazy flights of fancy is a tribute to them. And in Season 8, we want to push that envelope a little further. I can't wait for people to see what Season 7 has in it, because it's, I think, the ultimate heights that we've reached on this show in several places. And for the most part I think that the quality has gone up once again. So I'm excited. I think it's a high standard to go into Season 8. We've been on the air for eight years, so and with an eight order it's like we want to make sure that the show is what the show is.

Even for the last couple of years, we didn't want to begrudge anybody a really tremendous opportunity. And Maggie's opportunity is just off the charts. It's a great thing, and I have no doubt that the sad day whenever the show ends, that every one of these cast members is going to do something as big as, if not even larger than, this show. But we can work with anything, as we say. Except for Dulé - except for not having Dulé. Other than that, we're fine.

Dule Hill & Parminder Nagra in "Juliet Takes a Luvvah"

Question: Dulé, so your character finally gets a girlfriend this season.

Dulé Hill: Finally?

Question: Yes. How would you describe Gus as a boyfriend?

Dulé Hill: How would I describe Gus as a boyfriend? I would say he's perfect. In my mind, Gus is perfect as a boyfriend. He's had a lot of time to think about it, a lot of time to do different charts and do different research about what qualities women look for in a boyfriend and made sure that he has his list and he's checked it twice. So he's ready to take the plunge. Now I don't know what his girlfriend may think about him but I think from Gus's side he's perfect.

Question: Well, she sticks around after Shawn accuses her of being a serial killer. That's a good sign for Gus.

Question: Can you tell us anything about fun dating scenes that Gus and Rachael have?

Dulé Hill: This is more of a Steve Franks thing. Steve, you might remember; we shot that so long ago that I'm a little dazed. I know we go to a carnival? Some kind of circus?

Steve Franks: There's a circus involved. You guys go miniature golfing. Gus hits all the notes.

Dulé Hill: Anything that's exciting, Gus tries to take her off to do it. It's great passion, but it doesn't always work out the way that he planned.

Question: Now that Gus has a girlfriend and Shawn and Juliet are together, how will Shawn and Gus's relationship be changed?

Steve Franks: Dulé, what do you think?

Question: Are there going to be any double dates?

Steve Franks: I think there's at least one.

Dulé Hill: Okay, there is. You know I forgot, Steve.

And just for the record, everybody, I'm sitting here in the USA offices and I just came across a picture, a signed picture of the SUITS cast. So I just took a picture of me and the SUITS cast and I'm going to be tweeting it as soon as I get off this phone call.

Dule Hill in "Juliet Takes a Luvvah"

Question: Can you share anything about the musical episode, like what was the hardest part of writing it or anything?

Steve Franks: I would say - God I think the entire thing. I mean it basically encompassed the entire last season. And it's funny because Dulé and I are coming from a - from a position of, "A lot of these episodes we shot a year ago now." You know, and we - this is when they air and we're getting to fire up for the next year.

So for me, it was from the beginning of the season that I tried to get a head start just so I could pull off the whole musical. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take time off for my regular job running the show. I had to do both at the same time, so we tried to get a running start with the episodes last year before we even got going. And then there was time for me to go into my office with my acoustic guitar and close the door and try to come up with the songs.

Steve Franks (cont): I think that if I had thought about what I had to do in anything more than "What's the next step?" I think I would have gone insane, but I took it one piece at a time. And first it was coming up with songs and the story. And from there it was getting to a script. And then from there I sat down with Adam Cohen, our composer, and he turned these little acoustic guitar songs and ideas that I had into these marvelous orchestrations. Each step would have been overwhelming in each part, but because I was just like, "Okay. This week I'm playing my acoustic guitar and I'm getting paid for it. This week I'm coming up with this episode."

I think ultimately the most fun -- and probably the most difficult -- was when we actually did it. Because in the end, it wasn't like they shut the show down for two weeks so Dulé could rehearse and for James and Dulé to sit there and work out the dance numbers. We finished an episode one day and the next day we were off shooting this musical. And so we had a great choreographer in Paul Becker, but a lot of times we were seeing the choreography the day of or maybe they would work on it the weekend before. And we would put it up on its feet on location there. There was this terrifying great unknown each day of "What's this going to look like in the place we're shooting it?" And having to do adjustments and doing it on the fly. So it was wonderful and life-affirming to be done with it and I can't say that I have had a better professional experience or a more tiring one.

Dulé Hill: Speaking on behalf of the cast, we all were very impressed with how Steve handled everything. Because besides just writing the music and writing the lyrics and writing the episode and directing the episode and obviously dealing with the stuff that was going on back at LA, he really knocked it out of the park. We really didn't have any extra days to shoot the musical. It's a two-hour episode and we had our normal 14 days to shoot two hours, and he really came and knocked it out the park. So on behalf of the cast I'm going to say we were all very impressed with the job you did.

Steve Franks: Well, Dulé, I really appreciate that. It wouldn't have worked if I didn't have so many talented people to work with, so right back at you.

Dulé Hill: Let's just keep heaping praise on each other, Steve. Let's just keep heaping praise on each other.

Question: I hope there's video of you dancing.

Steve Franks: You may not hope for that, actually. I'm sure it's somewhere: they were shooting behind-the-scenes footage.

Question: Were there any surprises in the musical episode? Like, was anyone more talented than expected? Or less talented?

Steve Franks: I don't think we had any weak links. And by the way, if anyone was more talented than you'd imagine it'd have to be Dulé.

Question: Dulé, are you bucking for a raise or something?

Dulé Hill: I think that ship may have sailed at this point. It's never too late, though. It never hurts to try, you know what I'm saying?

But no, really, I was impressed with the entire cast. Even people who thought that they couldn't sing, came in and really did a great job. I was really impressed with Tim Omundson: he had this great baritone voice. Maggie had this wonderful angelic alto voice, maybe.

Steve Franks: Yes, she's an alto.

Steve Franks: Like Kirsten Nelson doesn't sing a lot, but when she does, she blows the doors off the place. It's pretty amazing. And Kurt Fuller was a tremendous surprise because for about three months, Kurt was not going to sing at all and wanted his voice dubbed. In fact, I was going to do dub his voice. We just tried to convince him. We put together a song and he came in and was absolutely terrified of singing. I think he did just a great, amazing job, really finding his song, and it's one of the great things that happened, another episode of "wow, if this wasn't Kurt, this wouldn't be nearly as fun as it is."

Question: Are any plans to release the musical episode as a CD?

Steve Franks: I imagine that they would be the biggest fools in the world not to do that and to put a big push behind that. So I hope so. The good and bad of the musical is that...the good is that the network was blown away when we screened it for them. And the bad of it is they said "This has to happen outside of the regular run." So it's actually not even going to run where it properly should run inside the season. It's going to be a special two-hour event sometime after the season, maybe much later in the year. At least I'll have time to do that and to put that together, but I really think people should be able to have these songs. And God, it would be so exciting to have an official CD release. Counting reprises and all that, there's 14 little snippets of songs within the episode. So they should be able to do it, and I think we should get a bunch of people to picket out in front of USA offices there right in front of Brad Bernstein's office to make sure that that happens.

Timothy Omundson, Maggie Lawson, James Roday, Dule Hill, Kirsten Nelson, Corbin Bernsen

Question: What was your favorite moment, episode, guest star or theme of the new season?

Dulé Hill: I would say about so far it's our 100th episode, our CLUE episode. "100 Clues," working with Lesley Ann Warren, Garrett Morris... 

Dulé Hill: ...Martin Mull. It was a wonderful experience being with that caliber of actors with so much of the cast of CLUE, who some hadn't seen each other since they finished filming CLUE. That was just the icing on the cake for all the wonderful guest stars we've had over the years. And to be at the 100th episode and have this group of people come together, it was an amazing experience and something that I will remember as an actor for the rest of my life. So I'm very thankful for it. So that probably blows everything out of the water for the season.

Dulé Hill: Willie Garson just showed up in my office, so I'm going to be taking a pic with me and Willie Garson in a second. And I'll be putting up a pic of me and Willie Garson as soon as I get off this phone call. So stay tuned for that, everybody.

Question: There are nasty rumors circulating out there that Shawn and Juliet might be breaking up for some period or at some time. Is that fact or fiction?

Steve Franks: Well, there also is a rumor which I would like to address now. There's a rumor where as part of the big storylines of this season is Maggie is the first female astronaut sent to Mars. And that is true. It's 100% true. It's going to take people by surprise and I think they're going to love it. And it's a whole new direction for the show but a lot of it takes place in a space capsule. It's going to be amazing and great and there she confronts her inner demons as well a nine-foot high creature, not unlike the John Carter creatures. It's really spectacular.

As for rumor control: why would we want to control rumors?

But as far as Shawn and Juliet breaking up, I would like to think that they are meant for each other. But they do have a giant secret that has not been addressed. And we've been sort of creeping towards it. And so even if it's sometime in Season 8 or before that, at some point we have to address that. I think there'll be repercussions that come from that, but I think it's more fun to find out what happens. Remember our show is always a joyous, happy place, so nothing too awful ever happens to anyone.

Question: Are there any other surprises that fans can expect from this season, aside from the musical and Gus's girlfriend showing up?

Steve Franks: I think the biggest surprise is that I think most people are going to love the most is my cameo this season for three-and-a-half seconds. So you'll have to look for it, but I think that's going to be really the thing that defines this season. Don't you think, Dulé?

Steve Franks: Yes. He is the first retired police officer ever sent to Mars. Well, I'm giving away too much with that storyline.

Steve Franks: Yes. I think there's that and I think we have a lot of fun. We're taking our characters along this sort of their journey this year, and we're sort of moving the story forward a lot more than we usually do. I think there's going to be some fun surprises with Lassiter as well and just in terms of the sort of level of difficulty some of these episodes are.

We're doing a found footage episode that James directs that is entirely found footage for just about the entire episode. And the CLUE episode, like Dulé talked about, is so much fun. And it's just a really fast, fun ride and it's as giddy of an episode as we've ever done.

I think the drama will be surprising, the comedy should sort of walk up and slap you in the face a little bit, and I think there's just a lot of good stuff in the episodes. And to me the biggest surprise is that after seven years of doing this that it still feels like it's getting better.

And the cast? Nobody's slowing down or getting tired of it. That we're just discovering all sorts of great fun new things to do, and we love getting up to Canada and doing this. I don't know any other shows that far into their run -- going into eight years -- can say that, but we're happy to do this as long as they'll let us.

Question: Do you and James practice your riffs and fist-bump moments or are they just ad-libbed?

Dulé Hill: A lot of times they're organic. Say, I have one take where I think of something that I find room for on a second take. But the fist-bumps especially are very organic. I would say that most of the time those happen in the moment. And because we do and more and more takes, we start I guess massaging it into what we really desire for it to be. 

Steve Franks: To me I think that my favorite ones are they'll start from an idea in one take and then when I write and direct I love when that happens because I'll jump in and start adding to it and adding to it. The furthest it can go, the most ridiculous it can be, that's the happiest I get. Just last week I had to write up something about 'Indiana Shawn' which has my favorite run that we've ever done and it was this great run -- I think Dulé started it -- about players and what players do.

And it was all about "Why does a player need a GPS watch?" And by the time it was done it was this run that players need GPS watches they hike deep into the woods and they develop hypothermia. And that's why they need a GPS watch, which is the most ridiculous thing you can imagine, but by the time each take we would add one more thing to it. I don't know if I was slowing down the day, but I'm just sitting there laughing and going "Okay, we've got to do one more, we've got to do one more."

And whenever those happen, they're gold to me, because I think it's really the joy of the show just seeing these guys go on a tangent that seemingly means a lot to them for no reason at all.

Question: That's obviously a really collaborative set.

Dulé Hill: Very. I think it's a very collaborative set.

Question: What is your favorite non-Gus name that's been given by Shawn?

Dulé Hill: For me it always goes back to the first one, which is 'Gus Silly Pants Jackson,' because that was like the third episode of the season -- I think, it was the wedding episode in season one. He said it and he just threw it out there, and then after the take I said, "What did you just call me?" And it took everything I had not to break up in the middle of the scene. And that kind of started the whole ball rolling, so I've always loved 'Gus Silly Pants Jackson.

Question: If Gus didn't drive the Blueberry, what would Gus drive?

Dulé Hill: What do you mean? 

Question: Well, if you didn't have the Blueberry to drive, what would you drive?

Dulé Hill: I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.

Gus without the Blueberry, that's an alternate reality. I mean, that's like saying "If human beings lived without oxygen." What do you mean?

Dulé Hill: Well, if he didn't have the Blueberry, he'd have a Cranberry or a Pineapple or a Raspberry. He would have some kind of berry. It would be something that's some kind of berry. Here's a side-note, though, and correct me if I'm wrong Steve, but from watching the Slumber Party I honestly forgot that who coined the name Blueberry was Tim Curry in the "American Duels" episode.

Steve Franks: I was just going to bring that up. You know, I don't even think that was in the script.

Dulé Hill: I'm not sure if it was in the script. I mean, knowing Tim Curry, it probably wasn't. He was probably riffing.

Steve Franks: Yes, he said "I feel like I've been incarcerated in a blueberry."

Dulé Hill: Right.

Steve Franks: And he said "This car makes me want to weep and then die."

Dulé Hill: Exactly.

Steve Franks: Which I'm sure is James' line. James and I wrote that episode together and there's lines in there that are really funny, because it was back before James and my brains fused together into one, so you could really pick out which parts were James and which parts were mine. And the whole run about Kris Kristofferson's house, when he goes over to Henry's, was just one of my favorite scenes.

Question: Do you even like pineapples?

Dulé Hill: I love pineapple, actually. I think pineapples are delicious. It's a fruit I enjoy eating a lot. So people always feel free to send me pineapples, because I will eat them.


Steve Franks:I think pineapple is the greatest of all fruit. You know it's the international welcome fruit. It's something that I loved and [I'm] so excited that we're somehow helping the sales of pineapple all around the world. I think pineapple is the most majestic of all fruits.

Dule Hill in "No Country for Two Old Men"

Question: Dulé, are you ever going to direct an episode? Do you have any desire to do that?

Dulé Hill: I have some big news to drop on you right now: No. Roday is a filmmaker; he's a filmmaker and he loves writing scripts. That's not really me. I mean I love acting, I enjoy bringing words to life and characters to life. At least on the journey of PYSCH, I don't think you're going to see me hop behind the camera. There are way more talented people in that area that deserve to sit there instead of me being sitting there just because I've been one of the leads on the show for seven or eight seasons. 

Question: Will we ever to meet Chief Vick's family, like see her husband, see her daughter Iris? ?

Steve Franks: Well, I think my plan first of all is not have Tim Melchiger be Vick's husband. It's just another sort of shameless grab by Tim to get on the show once again. There's been a couple points when we were going to have him on and one thing led to another. We had a big story that actually hinged upon him, so we sort of keep it in our back pocket. Certainly, we have to see him before the end of season 17. So we'll figure that out later. But it's kind of like keeping the suspense alive.

I know we're running late on time, but I just wanted to say we appreciate so much the support we get from you guys. Because we always feel like we're a grassroots show. You know, we're not the newest. In fact, we're the oldest show -- we've tied the record for the longest-running show on USA this year in terms of scripted. And this far into the run to have such great support from all of you guys is really the reason that we stay on the air and that people know that we're coming back and why we have such a tremendous die-hard fanbase. I'm just so grateful to all of you people and we're so happy and excited to talk to you and maybe we'll talk some time again along the run of the season.