Overview
CSI Las Vegas is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS Productions, which became CBS Paramount Television in the fall of 2006. Formerly a co-production with the now-defunct Alliance Atlantis Communications, that company’s interest in the series is now owned by investment firm GS Capital Partners, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs. CBS Paramount acquired AAC’s international distribution rights to the program.
The show has been heavily criticized—almost since its debut—by police and district attorneys, who feel CSI portrays an inaccurate image of how police solve crimes, and by the Parents Television Council, who note the level and gratuitousness of graphic violence, images and sexual content seen on the show. Nevertheless, CSI became the most-watched show on American television by 2002. The success of the show encouraged CBS to produce a franchise, starting in May 2002 with the spin-off CSI: Miami and then again in 2004 with CSI: NY.
The show is now in syndication and reruns are currently broadcast in the US on the Spike and TV Land cable networks.
CBS renewed the show for a ninth season, which began airing on October 9, 2008. With the departures of William Petersen and Gary Dourdan, the ninth season stars new characters played by Lauren Lee Smith and Laurence Fishburne.
As of the fall of 2008, CSI commands an average cost of $262,600 for a 30-second commercial, according to an Advertising Age survey of media-buying firms.
Conception and development
During the 1990s, Anthony Zuiker caught producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s attention after writing his first movie script. Bruckheimer wanted an idea for a television series. Zuiker didn’t have one, but his wife told him about a Discovery Channel show she liked about forensic detectives who used DNA and other evidence to solve cold cases (The New Detectives). Zuiker started spending time with real-life LVMPD crime investigators and was convinced that there was a series in the concept. Bruckheimer agreed and arranged a meeting with the head of Touchstone Pictures. The studio’s head at the time liked the spec script and presented it to ABC, NBC and FOX executives, who decided to pass. The head of drama development at CBS saw potential in the script, and the network had a pay or play contract with actor William Petersen who said he wanted to do the CSI pilot. The network’s executives liked the pilot so much that they decided to include it in their 2000 schedule immediately, airing on Fridays after The Fugitive. Initially it was thought that CSI would benefit from The Fugitive, which was expected to be a hit, but by the end of the year 2000 CSI had a much larger audience.
Filming locations
CSI was initially shot at Rye Canyon, a corporate campus owned by Lockheed Corporations situated in the Valencia area of Santa Clarita, California. Other shows such as The Unit and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have also been shot there.
After the eleventh episode, filming shifted to the Santa Clarita Studios and only second unit photography, such as the shots of the Las Vegas streets are done on location in Las Vegas, Nevada. Occasionally, when required, the cast will also shoot on location in Las Vegas, although more often the locations will be substituted by California locations. Santa Clarita was originally chosen for its similarity to the outskirts of Las Vegas.Some of the California locations include the Verdugo Hills High School, UCLA’s Royce Hall, the Pasadena City Hall and, as of October 2007, the California State University, shooting has moved away from Santa Clarita, the city and the surroundings have proven so versatile that CSI still shoots some of its outdoor scenes there.
Style
Stylistically, the show has drawn favorable comparisons to Quincy and The X-Files.The show’s gadgets and occasional usage of yet-to-be-invented technology have moved the show nominally into the genre of science fiction and garnered it a 2004 Saturn Award nomination for best network television series. The series also occasionally lapses into the realm of fantasy, such as a 2006 episode, “Toe Tags” which is told from the point of view of several corpses in the CSI lab who reanimate and discuss their deaths with each other.
The series is known for its unusual camera angles, percussive editing techniques, hi-tech gadgets, detailed technical discussion, and graphic portrayal of bullet trajectories, blood spray patterns, organ damage, methods of evidence recovery (e.g. fingerprints from the inside of latex gloves), and crime reconstructions. This technique of shooting extreme close-ups, normally with explanatory commentary from one of the characters is referred to in the media as the “CSI shot.”Many episodes feature lengthy scenes in which experiments, tests, or other technical work is portrayed in detail, usually with minimal sounds effects and accompanying music – a technique reminiscent of Mission: Impossible. Often the lighting, composition, and mise-en-scene elements are heavily influenced by avant-garde film
Music
CSI’s theme song is Who Are You, written by Pete Townshend with vocals by Roger Daltrey, both of The Who,as the title track of their 1978 album. The show’s spinoffs also use The Who songs as their theme songs: Won’t Get Fooled Again for CSI: Miami and Baba O’Riley for CSI: NY, both recorded by The Who in 1971 for their album Who’s Next. This was parodied in an episode of Two and a Half Men, where a CSI parody used Squeeze Box as its theme. The Who’s Roger Daltrey made a special appearance in a season seven episode, Living Legend, which also contained many musical references such as the words “Who’s Next” on a dry erase board in the episode’s opening sequence.
Throughout the series, music plays an important role; artists like The Wallflowers, John Mayer, Method Man, and Akon (with Obie Trice) have performed onscreen in the episodes The Accused is Entitled, Built To Kill, Part 1, and Poppin’ Tags, respectively. The Wallflowers’ Everybody out of the Water can be found on the CSI soundtrack CD. Mogwai is often heard during scenes showing forensic tests in progress (see Style, above) as are Radiohead and Cocteau Twins, but several other artists have lent their music to CSI including Rammstein - used heavily in Lady Heather’s story arc. Sigur Rós can be heard playing in the background in Season 2 episode- Slaves of Las Vegas - The Turtles (Grave Danger) and Marilyn Manson (Suckers). Industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails have also been featured multiple times throughout the three series’.
Plot
The show follows the cases of the Crime Scene Investigation division of the Las Vegas Police Department, usually referred to by officers as the “Las Vegas Crime Lab.” Anthony E. Zuiker chose to set the series in Las Vegas because—as mentioned in the pilot—that city’s crime lab is the second most active in the United States, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation lab in Quantico, Virginia.The division solves crimes almost entirely through forensics evidence, which may or may not come to conclusion of a murder or accidental death. The bizarre conclusions of these cases often force one to question morals, beliefs and human nature in general.
