Ann Donahue Talks Hectic Showrunner Job

See Also: 'Bully For You' Episode Guide

For Ann Donahue, there is one constant in running CSI: Miami: she's always trying to develop good new stories for her series. But she recently revealed that beyond that, no day is the same.

"Everything else is keeping the machine running," Donahue told the British CSI Magazine. "Casting - and you never want to cast wrong, it can ruin a perfect script - working with editors and CGI artisans, making script changes based on a location you want (or can’t have), approving wardrobe, making sure guest characters look their part, talking to the network about promoting episodes that are coming down the line, talking to the network about script changes, meeting with next week’s director to make sure she understands the script, talking on the phone from the set of this week’s director because something is confusing or they have a better idea, and so on!"

Although Donahue said she enjoyed the variety of her job, she added that the "only bad thing is that you wish you had more hours in the day!" One thing Donahue would presumably like to fill that time with is reading up on advances in the field of forensics, which she said was a great inspiration for the stories on CSI. In particular, she said that during her time on the original CSI, she came up with the story for "Bully for You." after reading about a device that could "smell" the difference between various brands of perfume.

"The eyewitness was certain of a killer, based on scent, which is subliminal but misleading," Donahue said, recalling the story of the second-season episode. "I then looked for a character who was young enough and vulnerable enough to run with testimony based on the scent of the killer (since the killer was behind a door, committing the murder). I wrapped that story around the preponderance of bullies in high schools – something that had been floating in the back of my mind since the Colombine massacre."

There are many other examples of real-life events inspiring CSI stories, including even the bizarre tale of a man who blew blood out his nose on the wall, as featured in the second-season episode "Scuba Doobie Doo." To read more from Donahue on this, head over to the full interview with the CSI: Miami showrunner on the web site of the official British CSI magazine.

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