Like a house that had its "for sale" sign up too long, the "Monk" script just sat there.

It had been shuffled between networks and between stars. Surely, there must be something wrong with it.

"When I first read it, I thought it was a good idea, but it would be hard to pull it off," Tony Shalhoub recalls.

Fortunately, his manager nudged him to give it a try. "Monk" became a cable hit, winning seven Emmys — three for Shalhoub.

Now it reaches broadcast TV. On Sunday, the USA Network's "Monk" and "Psych" temporarily take over prime time slots on NBC.

The move is a rarity; networks have avoided cable shows, even during the writers' strike. That might be a little because of cable's language and violence — and more because of its cynical tone. These two shows, however, are different.

"People can forget about everything else and just have fun with us," said Dule Hill, who stars in "Psych" with James Roday. "We have three generations watching us."

There's another factor: Most cable shows are complex, weaving plot lines from week to week. Cable can do that, with endless chances to rerun previous episodes; broadcast can't.

These two shows don't try. Each is simply crime-of-the-week; the fun is in the twists:

"PSYCH"

Shawn (Roday) is the son of an ex-cop (Corbin Bernsen). He's great at observation, but no one respects that; instead, he pretends to be a psychic.

Roday did some research, meeting professional psychics. "I made sure I told them I was playing a real psychic," he said.

None sensed he was lying, he said. "That might say something about their authenticity."

Reluctantly helping Shawn is his button-down friend, Gus, played by Hill. "At first, he was written more as a nerd ... I didn't want to play him that way," Hill said.

He was urged to re-read the script. "I thought, 'This could be cool. He thinks he's a ladies' man, which he really is not."'

Hill filmed the "Psych" pilot during the final "West Wing" season, then raced from the end of one show to the start of its opposite: "West Wing" wanted every word to be said as written; "Psych" lets its actors (Roday, especially) improvise.

The plan is to start with a "Psych" featuring Lou Diamond Phillips as an FBI psychic.

"MONK"

Adrian Monk is a crime-solver who happens to be obsessive-compulsive. He frets about any change in his orderly life.

"The script had been around for so long," Shalhoub said. "It had been at ABC first ... They would tilt it for certain actors."

At one point, it was aimed at Michael Richards, with lots of sight gags. Shalhoub wasn't sure. "I wondered, 'Is this guy brilliant or is he just the luckiest detective in the world?' "

That was soon settled: Monk is a great cop, sometimes paralyzed by his fears. The murder of his wife Trudy left him more fragile than ever.

Against that dark backdrop, there's gentle humor.

"I liked what they did in the pilot film," Shalhoub said, "going into the kindergarten class, with all the coughing and sneezing ... That's funny. I've never seen anything like it in a cop show."

It set a pattern: Monk would be thrown into situations that make him squirm.

Working with him are cops (Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford) and an assistant. It was Sharona (Bitty Schram) for three seasons, then Natalie (Traylor Howard).

A seventh season, with 16 episodes, is ahead. That starts in July on USA, alongside the third "Psych" season. First, the shows get their NBC spotlight.