THE RETURNED
Fan fave Petersen ‘back home’ for ‘CSI’ series finale
S unday night’s final episode of “CSI” would’ve been seriously compromised without the return of William Petersen — who originated the role of iconic “CSI” protagonist Gil Grissom when the CBS series premiered in 2000.
Petersen famously left the show in 2008 — at the height of its success — to nourish a neglected theater career. and though Ted danson came on board to lend some leading-man gravitas, many people felt “CSI” was never the same.
Petersen, who now lives in Chicago, says he was never tempted to come back. “I hate [it] when actors decide they’re leaving and then decide they’re coming back,” he says. “We were cool when it went down and how Grissom was going to leave.”
Luring him back to close out the series — once CBS declined to renew “CSI” at the end of its 15th season — did not prove difficult. Series creator anthony E. Zuiker and executive producer Jonathan Littman invited Petersen out for drinks at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, where they’d first met in 1999 to cast the series, and talked about filming one last show. “We wanted to say goodbye to the fans. To thank them,” Petersen says.
But there was no story, not even an outline — and once the show was evicted from its soundstages at universal, not even a studio. Everybody got busy. Zuiker came up with a story, told over two hours, that reunited the original “CSI” team.
[Original star Marg Helgenberger left the show in 2012 but also returned for the finale.]
“There’s been an explosion at the Las Vegas casino owned by Catherine Willows [Marg Helgenberger],” Zuiker says. “Gil Grissom … has gone on to find poachers that are illegally fishing in the ocean. We come to find out the bombing leads back to a key character from the series.”
For Petersen, stepping into his old role again in a north Hollywood studio was like slipping on a comfortable pair of loafers — and, fortunately, his memory did not desert him. “I remembered everybody’s names. Jesus, if you can do that ...” he says. Still, the real end was bittersweet. “I think the actors didn’t want to see the show end, even though Marg had left and Paul [Guilfoyle, who played Capt. Jim Brass] had left. In each scene we got to say goodbye to each other’s characters. and the actors could say goodbye to each other.”
“CSI” has more-than-earned its place in the pantheon of great television series, changing the way crime shows were produced and stories were presented — with still shots and hyperspeed graphics of forensic evidence playing a major part in the narrative. The ratings went through the roof — it was regularly averaging over 25 million viewers at one point — and it spawned a phenomenally successful franchise, with spinoffs set in Miami, new york and, finally, in cyberspace (“CSI: Cyber”).
and even though he dominated the show for half its run, Petersen says his favorite season was the show’s inaugural run.
“It was so daunting to figure it out and make each episode better than the one before. It was one of the most creative years I’ve ever spent in my life,” he says. “We were creating it all together ... Trying to figure out how to explore these characters in a procedural sort of way.
“It was exhausting, but never more creative.”