What Are Medium's Hottest 3-D Tricks?

Tonight at 10 pm/ET, NBC's Medium enters a new dimension — the third one, to be exact — with the broadcast of a special episode introduced by a "resurrected" Rod Serling and featuring scenes that, when viewed through 3-D glasses (available in the current issue of TV Guide), will literally leap out at viewers. The premise facilitating the 3-D segments: Psychic Allison Dubois (played by Emmy winner Patricia Arquette) has eye-popping visions when she looks at the paintings of a troubled young artist.

Who planted the seed of this idea in series creator Glenn Gordon Caron's head? None other than the artist formerly known as Pee-wee Herman. "I was reminded of my enthusiasm for 3-D at a party Patricia had," he tells TVGuide.com. "There, I ran into Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman), whom I had never met before and who is a collector of television memorabilia. He confessed to me that one of the things he owned was a test I did with Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd years ago for Moonlighting, in anticipation of doing a 3-D episode — one that we never actually made.

"That got my wheels spinning," he adds, "and here we are!"

How did the Medium cast react to the news that they would literally be "entering" people's living rooms? Did anyone, say, make a mad dash to a plastic surgeon for a nose job? "Jake Weber has made a couple of nose jokes," Caron shares. "Mostly, the cast is excited. When I mentioned it to Patricia one night at dinner with her and her significant other, Thomas Jane, who is actually a big 3-D aficionado, he chimed in and went, 'Wow, really? You're going to do that?'"

What are the standout examples of the 3-D effect in tonight's episode? Will any fireplace pokers be jabbed at viewers à la Friday the 13th, Part 3? "The two that, pardon the pun, jump out at me are a moment when a butcher's cleaver is thrown across a kitchen — that's pretty incredible — and a moment later on when a woman is lying in the woods under a tarp, about to be buried alive, and her hand sort of reaches out into your living room.

"Those two scenes are the most dynamic," Caron attests. "It's all pretty creepy."

Is Caron pleased with the end product? When we spoke to him, the final touches were still being added but he says, "I've certainly seen it in enough of a stage of completion [to say] it's quite thrilling." Being a perfectionist, however, he notes, "I always think of 800 things I wish I had done. I'm hoping we get a chance to do another one."