one thing that really struck me when listening to "the psychologists are in" is just how many people had their lives changed thanks to psych. so many people that worked on psych keep telling stories about how they were on the verge of giving up, but they gave psych a chance and psych changed their lives.
james roday rodriguez was a street musician in los angeles that occasionally went to auditions for shows. he was about to move to new york and work on broadway. he talked about how he told his agent "look for things on broadway because i'm moving", and how he was looking for apartments in new york. then, when his agent told him about psych and convinced him to audition, james was so set on moving to new york that he told himself, "i'm not even going to try because i don't want this job, but i'll do it just to see what happens." he didn't purposefully fail and do a bad job, but he also did not try as hard as he could've because he didn't want to be in la anymore, and yet, he got the job.
corbin bernsen talked about how he had just finished working on a movie and how he didn't want to do shows anymore, but then his agent told him about psych. he also shared that he didn't try as hard as he could've because he didn't think of himself as a "dad" character. he also did not want to do hour-long shows. but he got the job and it changed his life.
andy berman (one of the writers) had a very similar experience to james. he was telling his agent "i don't even want to be a writer anymore", but steve franks wanted him on psych, so he went to the audition thinking "fuck it, i guess it won't hurt", and he ended up writing the "9 lives" episode. it was the first idea he pitched to steve and steve loved it so much that he made andy berman the producer of that episode and flew him out to vancouver, which is not something that usually happens on shows.
listening to the podcast is so eye-opening!