Petersen: Don't Make Me A Hero

All good things must come to an end.

Before CSI: Crime Scene Investigation went on the air, nobody expected it to be the worldwide hit it has become. "We went to New York for upfronts [meetings with the press and advertisers before each season]," executive producer Carol Mendelsohn told the Chicago Tribune. "And nobody paid any attention to us. I really started to wonder, 'Does anybody even know we have a show?'" When the first episode aired on October 6, 2000, it was an immediate success. Those involved with the series give star William Petersen (Gil Grissom) a lot of credit for making CSI what it is.

"At the outset, Billy told us, 'Don't make me a hero,'" Mendelsohn explained. "I was from a TV school in which the star is always the hero so I had to rethink everything. He was responsible not only for changing the nature of his character but the nature of the show. He wanted all the CSIs to be seen as everyday heroes, just doing their jobs. That has always been the beautiful thing about CSI, that Billy was able to create the intensely collaborative atmosphere of an ensemble theater." Petersen echoed the comparison to the theater when he described filming the first season of the show. "It was like putting on 23 plays back to back to back to…. In retrospect, I enjoyed that," he said. "I can't remember being as intense, desperate or committed. Then after a while it became like a smooth-running train. But then we had to ask, 'Do we not care anymore?' We had to retrench. We couldn't let it slide. It was never about ratings."

Now that the show is in its ninth season, Petersen is preparing to make his exit. He will return to his first love, the theater, starring in Dublin Carol at Steppenwolf's Upstairs Theatre in Chicago starting November 6. The tenth episode of the season will be his last as CSI's leading man. "Even when we are just talking about these last two episodes, we started to tear up," Mendelsohn said. "I know he's going to still be one of the producers and plans to be in the 200th episode [to be directed by William Friedkin], but such a large part of the success of this show is because of the kind of person he is. There is magic in Billy and Grissom. Everything we did was geared to Billy and he hasn't changed through any of it. He's humble, with his head on his shoulders…. This is very emotional. I am going to miss him terribly."

The original article can be read at the Chicago Tribune website.

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