2013

Nelson, 43, had been through many pilot seasons as an actress since moving to LA in 1995, and she knew there was a large chance that "Psych" could go the way of so many other shows and not be picked up. But she also couldn't deny feeling something extraordinary around that bar.

"I think that is when we kind of looked around and thought this is different, this is special," Nelson said during a Skype interview from her home in the Studio City area of Los Angeles. "We kept our fingers really tightly crossed because it was easy and you wanted to be friends and you wanted to keep going."

Keep going "Psych" did. The series premiered in 2006 with 2.2 million adult viewers ages 18-49, making it the No. 1 new original series in basic cable prime time that year, according to the network. In 2013, "Psych" remained one of the top five original series on cable Wednesday nights with 1.87 million adult viewers aged 18-49.

On Sunday, USA will broadcast the long-awaited two-hour special, "Psych: The Musical," and on Jan. 8, the show's eighth season is set to premiere, featuring an episode directed by Nelson.

Joining an exclusive club of TV shows that have done a musical episode, including "That '70s Show," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Scrubs" and "Oz," "Psych: The Musical" feels much like any other "Psych" episode. The series, which previously featured storylines involving music and dance, has a vaudevillian sensibility and the series' stars James Roday and Dule Hill, have a Martin and Lewis-type of musical cadence to their interactions.

A dramedy similar to "Moonlighting," "Psych" follows the antics of Shawn Spencer (played by Roday), a sort of "mentalist" with keen observation skills, who pretends to be a psychic to get out of trouble with the Santa Barbara Police Department and ends up doing such a good job that the department hires him and his best friend Burton "Gus" Guster (Hill) as consultants.

Nelson, who plays Santa Barbara Police Chief Karen Vick, started singing and playing piano at five years old and continued to refine those skills throughout her years at Franklin Fine Arts Center on the near North Sideand her tenure as a member of the Chicago Children's Choir. A pastor's daughter, Nelson said that music has always been a large part of her life.

"I wanted to be a concert pianist at Carnegie Hall, that is what I wanted to do from really early on," Nelson said. "I actually was the accompanist for a couple of the musicals I was in growing up."

Nelson's song in the musical episode comes after her detectives botch their investigation into the escape of Z, a psychotic musical writer (played by Joliet native Anthony Rapp). In the song, Nelson hits a high G (which, for the musically averse, is a very high note).

"I think I heard it back at my apartment," her co-star Hill joked. "That was all people were talking about when I came to work the next day, was the note that Kirsten hit."

The cast first realized they all had musical proclivities while filming the pilot and the beginning episodes of the first season: "Especially in those early years, the days would be so long, like 12 or 15 hour days were not unheard of," Nelson said, "and James and Dule would be in every scene of every episode and they would really, really need to keep their energy up and they found that singing made-up improv songs was the answer."

"Psych" creator Steve Franks spent years figuring out the logistics involved in creating a musical episode and carving out time to write the songs. When the musical finally went from wish to reality, he said Nelson was the only cast member who called him to say she "really, really wanted" to be a part of the episode.

Because "she called me and said that, (I thought) I will definitely write something for her," he said. "It wasn't until we went into the studio to record the songs that I realized how great she was and I was actually really bummed that I hadn't written more for her because I think she is the most talented singer of the group."

The musical episode was written to air in the middle of Season 7, but due to scheduling challenges and other concerns, the show was pushed back. The decision to delay the musical's air date resulted in the episode having some (major) continuity errors.

"I am suggesting people make a drinking game out of it and every time something is factually incorrect as it is in the storyline now, take a drink," Franks joked.

Craig Kinzer, one of Nelson's professors, remembered Nelson having a "total theater sensibility."

"She was someone who took her commitment to the enterprise of making theater totally," he said. "She wasn't just in it for the glory of the stage, but she really used theater to learn so many things about so many things."

Nelson and some of her fellow theater graduates founded the now-defunct Roadworks Productions soon after finishing college.

Both Abby Epstein and Debbie Bisno, fellow Roadworks founders, said that within the company, Nelson was known as someone you could count on.

"Kirsten had a kind of roll up your sleeves vibe about her," Bisno said. "She got stuff done and you could give her a job and count on her, and it wasn't like somebody else who might be late to rehearsal."

Neither Kinzer, Epstein nor Bisno were surprised to hear that Nelson moved from in front of the camera to behind it. "I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that she created the show and is executive producing," Bisno laughed. "In fact, I better get in line to work for her someday."

Nelson's episode, "1967: A Psych Odyssey," was not an easy one to shoot, Franks admitted. That show centers on a cold case from 1967 and shifts between the '60s and the present. Also, each of the cast regulars play two parts: their Psych characters and a totally separate character in dream-like version of the late '60s.

"She handled all the pressure and all of the things that we piled on her with humor and skill. She was such a natural," Franks said. "It is wonderful that you sort of put your faith in somebody and that faith is rewarded ten times over."

"She was really on her A-game, she really knew what she was doing," Hill said. "She seemed very comfortable in that seat. She gave really good notes. I had so much fun working with her as a director."

Being able to direct was "the prize I was hoping for in employment at 'Psych,'" Nelson said. While she said she is open to directing more "Psych" episodes, she quickly added that she doesn't want to stop acting any time soon.

"I still want to have acting as my first love," she said "I am capable of directing and I am good at that. In order to have longevity as actors, you have to keep changing it up a bit; you have to bring other talents to the table. I want this to be another feather in my cap instead of replacing what I already have."

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