Sure enough, while he's eating lunch in a Los Angeles cafe, two young women can't resist coming over to say how much they admire Weber's work and enjoy "Medium."

He's amused that the interruption comes just at the moment when he's talking about the "recognition aspect" of a TV star's life, which he says is "disingenuous for actors to complain about" even though he's not someone who would ever want to see details of his personal life in print.

"Medium," now in summer reruns, attracted an average 13.9 million viewers weekly in its first season. Patricia Arquette, who plays a crime-solving psychic who communicates with the dead, was nominated for an Emmy. Weber, 42, who plays her husband, is adamant that "it's Patricia's show," and he's full of praise for Arquette's talent. Yet he concedes the great strength of the series is the couple's feisty but loving relationship.

"Two people with a different sense of reality, a completely different perspective on the world. That doesn't sound unfamiliar," he says, noting they are, in many ways, not that different from many husbands and wives who try to find common ground to love each other and raise a family.

"I think that's what makes (the show) a cut above — the writing of a metaphor, the writing about a fantastical world and bringing it into a real life context that is accessible," Weber says.

The series is produced by Glenn Gordon Caron, previously known for the popular romantic detective series "Moonlighting," which ran for five seasons on ABC in the 1980s, and for the 1999 romantic sci-fi series "Now and Again," which aired for one season on CBS.

"Medium' is inspired by real-life research medium Allison DuBois and her aerospace engineer husband, Joe, who live in Phoenix. But Weber says he doesn't need to know much about the real Joe.

"I don't see any point. I'm not sort of playing him as much as I am Glenn's interpretation of him," says Weber. "Both Joe and Allison's personalities act as springboards for Glenn's imagination. I don't think we are meant to ape them, or ape their lives."

Caron concurs, adding the show is an allegory that provides "another way for me to do a sort of sneaky romance, which is what I always seem to be drawn to."

Caron cast Weber on the recommendation of co-producer Ron Schwary, who had produced the 1998 movie "Meet Joe Black," in which Weber co-starred.

"I absolutely believed in Jake next to Patricia and luckily they just seemed to have this terrific chemistry together. They both act in the same range," explains Caron.