CSI ends its run with two-hour episode
CSI FINALE
Sunday, CBS, CTV Two
NEW YO R K There was scant evidence suggesting it would be a hit.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was a last-minute pickup by CBS, plugged into a Friday lineup whose widely forecast surefire hit would be a reboot of The Fugitive, not a quirky little drama dwelling on hair fibres and blood spatter.
“I thought it was never going to succeed,” says Jorja Fox. At the time she had a recurring role on The West Wing as a Secret Service agent, “but I thought, ‘How fun would it be just to take this ride for a little while!’ By Christmas, I figured I would be back on The West Wing.”
“I figured there would be an audience for it,” says William Petersen — “among those people who do crossword puzzles. I never thought the audience would also be everyone who’s never done a crossword puzzle!”
Though set in Las Vegas, CSI occupies the world of forensic investigators who solve criminal cases not in the streets or an interrogation room, but in the lab, where the truth reveals itself in the evidence they probe.
Debuting in October 2000, CSI was an out-of-nowhere smash (The Fugitive flopped). But that was just for starters. It would spawn two long-running spinoffs, set in Miami and New York, and recently gave birth to a third, CSI: Cyber, which now will survive it as the 15-season run of the original CSI comes to an end Sunday with a series finale.
The two-hour farewell brings back bygone stars including Marg Helgenberger (who played bloodspatter expert Catherine Willows until departing three seasons ago) and Petersen (who headlined for eight-plus seasons as lab boss Gil Grissom). At least two series regulars declined to return: George Eads as Nick Stokes and Elizabeth Shue as Finn.
Petersen recalled that in 2000 he was looking for a TV series, “but I didn’t want to play a lawyer, a cop or a divorced dad. CSI was something different, and while we didn’t know what it was going to be, we wanted a chance to figure it out.”
He got his chance and loved the experience, he says, then moved on in 2008 to pursue theatre work. Now he is joining another series, WGN America’s Manhattan, for its second season starting Oct. 13.
Being back on the CSI set for the finale “was like no time had passed,” he says. “It felt like yesterday.”
“It was a delight to be back with Billy,” says Helgenberger. “We always had great chemistry. ”
But as the series marks the end, some viewers thought they’d never see, the inevitable question arises: Why was CSI so big, for so long?
“What our show did was give you the truth,” Petersen says.