‘CSI’ creator lends talents to ABC’S ‘Whodunnit?’
Anthony Zuiker is so good at his job, he spared us all from a reality show called “Dead Celebrity.” Cris Abrego, who was almost single-handedly responsible for VH1’s wave of “celebreality” shows, came up with a series that would have put a dozen famous folks in a house, Clue-style, to solve weekly “murders.”
But after 18 months, the game play wasn’t quite right, so ABC entertainment president Paul Lee introduced Abrego to Zuiker, the onetime Mirage tram driver whose first TV script launched the global “CSI” phenomenon.
Pooling their experiences and expertises, the duo settled on “Whodunnit?” (9 p.m. Sunday, KTNV-TV, Channel 13), a murder-mystery competition series whose crime scenes are so fantastic, they replaced celebrities as the show’s star.
push it on me, and he never did.”
“Where it falls ultimately is where the child’s interests lie,” Earl Turner says. “The greatest thing you can do as a parent is to recognize that and to get out of the way.”
During those years Aaron didn’t want to audition for “Dance,” Earl says he reminded himself not to add up the price of dance lessons over the years, but to sit back and say, “I get that.” His own parents didn’t try to talk him out of leaving home and “running away with a band,” and “look how it turned out for me.”
That said, parents do relish their “told you so” moments.
Earl says that after Tuesday’s show, he told Aaron, “Remember when you were in middle school and you didn’t want anyone to know you were a dancer because you didn’t think it was cool?”
After the principal talked him into it, “the next thing you know, they voted him king of the eighth grade.”
“Sometimes there’s a plan for you. There’s nothing you can do about it; it’s just what your life is supposed to be,” he says.
“So, regardless as to how you try to deny it, avoid it, there’s a path you’re supposed to take. And your path includes dance. You’ve been a performer practically all your life.
“Sometimes God just has a different plan than the one we have,” Earl adds, citing his own career as a casino headliner in New Orleans being rained out by the storm Katrina. “My plan was to stay there four years. Obviously the plan was different. His life is going to include dance. It’s just the way it is.”