Fans, Analysts Speak On 'CSI' Success

"From people's back yards all the way to Afghanistan and Iraq, there is a sense of uncertainty that 'CSI' addresses cleanly, clinically and satisfyingly to many viewers," said media analyst John Rash.

Speaking to Newsday, Rash, the senior vice president of Campbell-Mithun advertising, called television detectives "reflective of today's work environment...backed up by society's moral indignation over the seeming loss of control of everyday situations."

CSI, added Newsday, bucks the popular trend in crime shows of avoiding exposition - the necessary explanations of how things work, descriptions of scientific method or research, and the like.

"[TV producer] Stephen Cannell would always say, 'Put it in a scene about conflict, so it just comes out naturally; let it be part of character development, but God, don't just let it lay there,'" stated executive producer Carol Mendelsohn.

"But 'CSI' is all about exposition. The very things that wouldn't work on other shows I've been on - explaining why a chigger bite makes a bump, describing electrical current, describing how transmission fluid goes through a car - become the fodder of our scenes."

Newsday asked CSI fans to write in explaining why they enjoyed the series. One wrote, "The audience is made part of the investigative procedures. All members of the cast complement each other in a charismatic, natural way." Another said, "Science isn't pretty...but it certainly is informative." And, "on the shallow side, William Petersen is very yummy."

"Grissom can look at a piece of evidence, and you can see his wonderment," noted Mendelsohn. "You see that that bug or that piece of tree bark or that drop of blood has meaning to him as a scientist. And it decreases the distance between people and science."

To read more about the show's popularity, see the original article here.

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