‘CSI’ Wins without Flash

CBS drama soars to top of ratings with unorthodox formula

By Mike Hughes
The Cincinnati Enquirer TV Week – April 8, 2001

This is why Hollywood executives need all that expensive therapy:
They’ve learned all the usual rules. that shows must have flash, fury and lots of action. And then they learn that sometimes, those rules have turned out to be wrong.
Last season the big ratings hit was NBC’s talky The West Wing. This season it’s CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9 p.m. Thursday, Channels 12,7), a dark drama about a group of police forensics experts who use scientific clues to catch crooks.
Neither show is flashy but both are ratings hits.
“There was no expectation,” says producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “It was easy for us to sneak under the radar.”
In its original Friday slot, CSI did well in the ratings. In its new one, which follows Survivor, it has leaped into the top three on the weekly list.
CSI has had such surprising success that people have been trying to figure out why.
One explanation involves time slot: Most new dramas are tossed into 10 p.m. time slots where they face other dramas; CSI, like West Wing, never has faced competition from a major network drama.
There’s a more interesting answer: CSI works because it keeps viewers’ minds engaged.
“It’s fascinating to deal with people that are really smart at something,” says William Petersen, who stars as senior forensics officer Gil Grissom.
These crime-scene investigators are sharper than most viewers — and maybe most actors. “I was terrible at science, terrible at math, all those things,” Mr. Petersen says. “So it’s a real opportunity for me to live another life.”
That’s a life that can tear at people. These are forensics workers who arrive after a tragedy.
“I think forensics is a very intense and tough field,” says George Eads, who co-stars as Nick Stokes. “I would like to know what the job does to someone personally.”
This is something Mr. Eads has pondered since his boyhood in Texas.
“My dad’s been a district attorney for 22 years,” he explains. “I would see the autopsy photos that he would bring home for his work.”
As a steady way of life, dealing with the issues of death and crime can be tough.
“They eventually wear and tear at people,” Mr. Eads says. ‘The trick is not to get desensitized.”
Still, the work is vital. People with science smarts have become crucial in big cases.
“There’s the O.J. (Simpson) thing happening,” Mr. Petersen says. ‘This is the new world of crime-solving.”
Documentaries on cable have discovered that subject, too. And that’s how the show’s creator stumbled on the concept for CSI.
“My wife is the biggest cable junkie” says Anthony Zuiker. “One day, she’s watching this show called The New Detectives.”
“I said to myself, ‘You know what? There may be a series in this because I love forensics.’ It’s a whole other weird world.”
Weird worlds happen to be a specialty of Mr. Bruckheimer. His movies have taken viewers into the lives of fighter pilots (Top Gun), race car drivers (Days of Thunder), football coaches (Remember the Titans), cops (Bad Boys) and more.
As he puts it: “It’s what I call process…taking you inside a world that you’ll never be a part of, yet showing how it works and entertaining an audience.”
In the case of CSI, the process happens in Las Vegas, Mr. Zuiker’s hometown. To prepare CSI for the little screen, he spent five weeks observing the Las Vegas Police Department’s . criminology division. “(It was) the most horrific, exciting, exhilarating, crazy world,” Mr. Zuiker says.
Then he wrote the script. It reached Mr. Bruckheimer, who became the producer and cast the show meticulously.
Marg Helgenberger, an Emmy winner from China Beach, co-stars. She plays Catherine Willows — a character based loosely on a real Las Vegas police officer.
“(She’s a) single mother, two kids, graveyard shift,” Mr. Zuiker says of the real role model. “She does all the sexual assaults on children because she is female…. Cries once a night because it’s just emotionally draining.”
That’s what Mr. Eads finds fascinating about these people. They can leap easily between different moods and attitudes. And growing up with a district attorney for a father has made him acutely aware of balancing a gruesome job and family life.
“I saw my dad in (the courtroom). If that’s not acting, I don’t know what is,” he says.
This ability —to remain zestful in tough times— can be crucial to a prosecutor or an investigator…or an actor. ”This business is a real test of heart, will and endurance,” Mr. Eads says.     ♦