Big Things Are Coming Up On 'CSI'

See Also: 'Cockroaches' Episode Guide

It's busy on both sides of the camera.

With William Petersen (Gil Grissom) leaving CSI: Crime Scene Investigation this week, Laurence Fishburne's Dr Raymond Langston will be coming into the lab full time. However, even the ones behind the scenes aren't sure where things are heading for the new guy. "We don't know what the character is going to be," Fishburne told TV Guide. "The wonderful thing about this whole television thing is that we're all discovering it, we're trying to create it from episode to episode to episode."

When it was first revealed that CSI would be getting a new major character, spoilers indicated that he would have a genetic predisposition to violence. Executive producer Naren Shankar said that facet of the character is no longer on the table because the information was out of date. "Very early research on the character had indicated that there was a syndrome that was sort of more prevalent in serial killers," Shankar said. "That turned out not to be the case."

Petersen is expected to be back behind the scenes when William Friedkin ("Cockroaches") returns to direct CSI's 200th episode. The episode will be filmed in Las Vegas, which hasn't happened in a long time. While Petersen will be around for episode 200, he probably won't appear on screen. However, executive producer Carol Mendelsohn promised that he would be back eventually. "Grissom will come back in an organic way, to visit or be on a case with the people that are his family," she shared. Fishburne jokingly added, "Billy said he would be back to make sure I didn't burn the joint down."

Country star Taylor Swift will visit CSI to guest star in an upcoming episode. In her acting debut, Swift will portray Haley Jones, the troubled teenage daughter of seedy motel owners. Changes that occurred to the character over the past year have produced tragic results. Shankar explained that the episode will start in the present before revisiting the past, season by season. Swift, he said, would have a lot of dramatic moments in the episode.

The original information is from TV Guide. Additional information about Swift's role on CSI is from NBC Philadelphia.

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!