Mendelsohn: 'CSI' Has Become Desensitized To The Gore

Executive Producer Carol Mendelsohn recently appeared on the Simon Mayo Radio Show in England, where she revealed why the last couple of seasons of CSI have been the most gruesome.

"I think we've become desensitized to it as the years have gone on," she said. "Because I took out most of the maggots from the pilot, the Y incision became just part of a Y. But as the seasons have gone on, and the fans have watched more and more episodes, we do do Y incisions now, we see bugs."

Mendelsohn visited London to attend Crime Scene, an annual festival of film and literature devoted to crime fiction. Director Danny Cannon and novelist Max Allan Collins also attended the event.

Mendelsohn took the opportunity to talk to Simon Mayo about one of the reasons why she thinks the show is such a success. "Our cast," she revealed. "William Petersen (Gil Grissom) is incredible. And he really embraced playing a scientist, a quirky eccentric, rather-have-breakfast-with-a-bug, kinda guy."

"Through the marriage of actor and writer I think that the character of Gil Grissom is probably, I think, the best character on television right now. And we like to think of him as an American Sherlock Holmes," she added.

While in London, of course, Mendelsohn was asked about the possibility of bringing CSI across the pond. The writer revealed it is not something they have discarded. "We had intended to bring Gil Grissom to London last season for an episode," she revealed. "But we couldn't, for a number of reasons, last season. But it's still on the drawing board and we wanna do it very much."

For more information on Crime Scene 2005, visit this website.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!