Psych Season 3 Set Visit: Corbin Bernsen
by Reg Seeton

THE DEADBOLT: You want to be known for more than one thing.

BERNSEN: Yeah, just to go on further. But even in the context of television you get guys like Ted Danson. There's a certain - and I'll just say this with all honesty, I guess - but there's a certain thing that when you're the lead of a show, one of the biggest - we talk about this, my managers and representatives and whatever, about finding the next step and the next level, is when you're the lead of a show, whether you're Ted Danson or Bruce Willis or Tom Selleck or whatever it is, there's this likeliness to accept you in different things. Whereas I keep feeling like I'm pigeonholed. I mean, not with this show. This is totally different from my L.A. Law character, and that's partly why I love it. The producers and USA and everybody recognizes and allows me to do something completely different. I mean, I've worn a suit and a tie twice in this show.

THE DEADBOLT: But you feel like you still need to prove yourself in every job?

BERNSEN: No. I really don't have to prove myself. I don't. Now it's about me wanting to do characters that are more interesting. In different kinds of context.

THE DEADBOLT: Initially, how did you find the entry point into Henry?

BERNSEN: Well, I guess part of it is they're not dissimilar. I have four sons, so I understand - I'm not a really good disciplinarian. My wife is much better. So I think my entry point was knowing where I lack as a father but Henry might be, you know. I think that really was a place. And yeah, I wish I could be more like this. And I'm getting better about that, being more disciplined with the kids about certain things. But that was really my entry point was sort of - I found what he was and what I wasn't with my kids. Because I’m of this attitude of love and gifts and money. Shower them with kindness and affection. And that still doesn't get the trash taken out on Tuesday.

THE DEADBOLT: The new emotional focus of the show can also give weight to the longevity of the show

BERNSEN: Well, certainly, yeah. You can only do so many - every murder's going to start to look the same and the jokes are going to start to sound similar. So yeah, it gives you room for more material.

THE DEADBOLT: How do you view the psychic aspect and the fake aspect? Do you believe in that?

BERNSEN: I'm actually a believer that there's something bigger and more. And again, with my youngest son who's 10, we were actually lying in bed this morning. He came and got into bed at 7am because he knew I was leaving. And we do this thing where I say, "What number am I thinking of between 1 and 20?" And within two he got 12. And then miraculously I said, "Okay, 1 and 50," and he got 36. And we do that, and he's astonishing. And there are things that have happened in my life that lean toward all that stuff. Even with my dad's passing, the morning it happened I woke up ten minutes before and I knew the phone was going to ring and the phone rang. I said to my brother - years ago he said, "Let's go get tickets to the Jimi Hendrix concert," and I said, "He died last night." Two hours later we found out he had died overnight. So I'm not saying I'm psychic, but I think you can plug into things.

THE DEADBOLT: Have you noticed how writing has changed in television between L.A. Law and Psych?

BERNSEN: Well, this is a different kind of writing. L.A. Law, I mean, Steven Bochco's words at the beginning were just - he's kind of like Aaron Sorkin. There's not a wasted word. Everything is very thought out. Steven is probably - and I don't know if he's writing it anymore, but he developed that whole thing that David Kelley and everybody has, that fine line that's really between comedy and drama, that life is. It's all about perception, about how you view [things] You know, a guy trips on the street. His life is shattered. He's embarrassed. Everybody else laughs at him. And Steven knew how to ride that line really well. And we do it here. We do it with Shawn and I. It's in there.

But this show - there's not a lot of difference because there's a lot of concern for the writing. What show was I on recently, or somebody was talking to me about? Some people who were also shooting up here in this town on a show... They're talking about, "It just doesn't matter what comes down the pipe. They'll just say [it on the page]. Uh huh. I'm saying this."

THE DEADBOLT: So it's consistency, basically, in the writing.

BERNSEN: Yeah, it is consistency. And it's really detail. We have - the writers are up here for each show. You don't see that. I mean, that's the first time I've ever seen that where the writers show up. So you sit there, and if you have a problem with something you work it out. You work it out right [there]. Or if I'm doing something, they'll correct me and say, "We really want [this]. You can do that but I want this one, too."

THE DEADBOLT: It couldn't be that way back in the day.

BERNSEN: What, back in L.A. Law days?

THE DEADBOLT: Yeah. It couldn't have been.

BERNSEN: No, back in those days with us it was, "Say the words that are there." I mean, I did a couple episodes of The West Wing and it's - I would do not the "um" and "errs" and if you didn't do it exactly as it was, you had to do it exactly as it was. So they didn't need to send kind of a set writer Nazi there to pound it in. But here it's good that we have writers because the show does have this free-form feeling to it, but you still have to sort of stick to the script.

THE DEADBOLT: You have to bowl, basically.

BERNSEN: Yeah. You have to bowl. You have to take the form, and then you have to bowl. But you have to bowl to form. It's not like, "Okay, let's take a new game and throw it that way." You've still got to throw it down the alley.

Season three of Psych premieres on July 18 at 10pm on USA.

For more on our trip to the Vancouver set of Psych, check out...

Psych Season 3: Set Visit Preview
Psych Set Visit: Visuals and Costumes with Mel Damski and Simon Tuke
Psych Season 3 Set Visit: James Roday and Dule Hill
Psych Season 3 Set Visit: Maggie Lawson