Adrian Monk and Shawn Spencer are back, ready to catch crooks in their own, quirky ways.

For “Monk,” the eighth and final season starts Friday. Back in 2002, it launched a trend of scripted shows that debut on basic-cable in the summer.
“Psych” accompanies it, as part of that trend. “It's definitely an advantage to be on cable,” said James Roday, who stars as Shawn. “They can't afford to just give up on a show in a week or two.”
The big networks scrap shows with abandon; basic-cable doesn't. Among scripted, hourlong dramas, this summer has six on TNT, four on USA, two each on Scyfy, Lifetime and ABC Family and one big one (“Rescue Me”) on FX. And all of that started, mostly, with “Monk.”
There were original hours (led by HBO's “The Sopranos”) on pay-cable, but USA now was trying one on basic cable. “Monk” featured a police consultant who is obsessive, compulsive and afraid of … well, almost everything. The show is partly comedy (Tony Shalhoub, playing Monk, has won three Emmys in the comedy category), partly drama, mostly fun.
It mixes those elements in the season-opener, when the crime involves the one TV show Monk loved during his troubled childhood. There's even a scene in which a groggy Adrian imagines himself solving the crime in the middle of a “Brady Bunch”-type episode.
That mix is part of the “Monk” charm; four years ago, “Psych” was added, with its own goofy notion. “I thought it was an idea that had a lot of potential,” Roday said.
His character, Shawn, claims to be a psychic. He's not – he just uses the observation abilities preached by his father, a retired cop – but this is the only way people will listen to him. With his reluctant friend Gus, he sets up a psychic detective agency.
In some ways, the role is a natural: Most actors are good observers.
“I think I'm OK at observing people,” Roday said. “But there are some things I'm not good at noticing, like the traffic light that's changing from yellow to red.”
The show links him with key co-stars, including:
– Dule Hill as Gus. Hill arrived directly from “The West Wing,” in which every word need to be said as written by Aaron Sorkin; now he's in a show where actors can improvise. “It's about as far from an Aaron Sorkin set as you can get,” Roday said. “At first, he was thinking, 'What is that dude doing?'”
– Maggie Lawson as a police detective. “She's a huge ray of sunshine,” said Roday, who has also been dating her in real life. “She sort of energizes everyone on the show.”
– And Corbin Bernsen as his father. “I get to have Roger Dorn as my dad,” Roday said.
Bernsen played Dorn in the “Major League” movies, which Roday says he obsessed on.
“You grow up like every boy in Texas, where the ultimate goal is to be a football player or a baseball player,” he said. “Having a short, Mexican father, I finally realized that wasn't going to happen.”
Roday – born James Roday Rodriguez – says his dad has Mexican roots and his mom is “whatever the whitest thing there is.” He grew up in San Antonio, immersed in both cultures.
Then he got a theater degree from New York University, doing Shakespeare and Chekhov and such. “Coming out of college, I was about as serious as I could be.”
TV intervened, letting him loosen up. Now Roday has written several “Psych” episodes, directed one and is listed, with Hill, among the show's producers.
They film in Canada and the season-opener (with Cary Elwes as a scam artist) is set on the ski slopes. That's the sort of thing Shawn likes to try – and Adrian Monk likes to avoid.

For more small screen tips for tonight, as well as television stories of all sorts, visit MikeHughes.tv to read the TV writers column and blog.