Anthony Zuiker

October 2006

By Anna Carugati

Given the huge success of
the forensic drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY in the
U.S. and around the world, it’s hard to believe that just a few months before CSI was picked up by CBS, its creator, Anthony Zuiker,
was a tram operator at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Equally incredible is
that Zuiker wrote the script in about four days, and CSI was the last pilot ordered by CBS in 2000, the last
pilot shot and the last show placed in the schedule. As Zuiker refers to his
creation, “it was the little engine that could.”

WS: There are many documentary producers who claim
that their programs on forensic science served as inspiration for CSI. Where did CSI come from?

ZUIKER: Back in August 1999, my wife was watching a show
called The New Detectives, a
sort of documentary show on the Discovery Channel, and she made me sit down to
watch it because she thought it was a great show. At the time she was pregnant
with my first son, and when your wife is pregnant she lets you go outside to
play for an hour a day and the rest of the time I was catering to her,
obviously. So she talked me into not playing basketball that day for my one
hour of exercise, and I sat on the couch and we watched The New Detectives. It was the episode in which a cheerleader from
the Oakland Raiders was murdered by a photographer. I remember the narrator was
showing the crime-scene investigator actually pull a hair out of the passenger
seat area with the little white seed of the hair follicle still attached, and
that suggested that the hair was actually yanked out of the head in a struggle.
I was fascinated that they could deduce all of that based on finding the hair
and seeing the seed, and that’s really where the inspiration for the entire
show was born.

WS: What’s the secret to keeping all three shows
different and yet successful?

ZUIKER: I believe the secret is really in the formula of CSI: fractured-time storytelling with interesting,
compelling scientific mysteries and a timeless cast. It’s really a “howdunit”
and a “whodunit,” and I believe a lot of people in the world do love a good
mystery. We give them the satisfactory experience of following a cast they care
about and a mystery that intrigues them and eye candy that surprises them, and
as they watch they learn more about science and crime solving. It’s a timeless
formula that when done correctly can be enjoyed by many for years and years to
come.

WS: Has the show changed you in any way or your
perception of humankind?

ZUIKER: The one thing the show has done is open my eyes to
the fact that there’s a lot of bad in the world, which is scary, but at the
same time, I think that myself and people who watch the show have some level of
comfort that there are people out there, the unsung heroes of crime-scene
investigation, that actually can come into a crime scene and bring peace of
mind and justice to a survivor on the worst day of their lives. I believe
that’s inspiring, to know that people are out there doing that.

WS: You’ve spent time with them, over the course of
producing CSI?

ZUIKER: Yes, absolutely. Realistically it isn’t a very
glamorous job, it really is tough in the field. It’s long hours, it’s a lot of
death and sorrow from day to day. At CSI we obviously sex it up and make it interesting and entertaining, but
I think if you’re a crime-scene investigator as a profession, you respect the
show [because it has] raised awareness. If there’s a negative about the show
it’s the fact that it sometimes gives people false expectations in terms of
crime solving and the time frame of a crime being solved. I don’t think that
America sometimes understands that the technology we have on the show isn’t the
same technology that most labs have in the country. So hopefully in the next
six months I’ll be going to Washington to lobby the Senate and House of
Representatives for more funding for local crime-scene investigation
departments, because I believe that the show has had such a worldwide impact
that money spent on crime solving is money well spent.

WS: How involved are you with the three shows?

ZUIKER: I’m a show runner for CSI:NY along with Pam Veasey, my partner in crime! The
main focus is to maintain the level of quality and the vision of the show going
forward. I usually write one or two of the other shows per year, but my main
focus as the creator of the franchise is to keep it healthy, keep bringing
fresh new ideas to the public and now [moving into] the multi-platform [world] of cell phones, the Internet and wireless entertainment.