According to the conference call yesterday, there is great excitement among the cast members about Laurence Fishburne joining the show. "Everyone is just excited, and you can feel it on the set," said Carol Mendelsohn, one of the executive producers for
CSI. She continued, "One thing that excites us is that the character will feel more at home in the coroner's office than in the halls."
When asked about the storyline shifts that the introduction of Laurence Fishburne's character could cause, it was reiterated that his character would be joining as a CSI Level 1, not running the show. This leaves the possibility of promotion from within for Supervisor Willows and Nick Stokes, who was referred to by the producers during the conference call as being ready to be promoted. Furthermore, Carol Mendelsohn pointed out that these sort of shifts happen when any occurrence of significance happens in the storyline and that she views it as an "extremely positive thing" and that "as producers, we have embraced these shifts."
As for Laurence Fishburne's reaction to the show, he was not previously a fan, having never seen the show prior to being approached, but after viewing a collection of episodes sent for his consideration, he said that he found it "engaging, wonderful, dark and moody", which works for him, as much of his screen work is dark and moody as well and summed it up best with a simple, "Wow, this will work." Mr. Fishburne stated that he realizes that the important thing is the show itself and plans to work to fit in as part of the team, stating the importance, "Not to mistake my presence for the event... The event is CSI, the show." Laurence Fishburne explained that he plans to "Approach it (the role) with a theatrical style, if you will," which as he explained it, involves "throwing things in the pot" and really collaborating with others to see what works best.
Fishburne stated that he is not "stepping away from movies" to move to television, that he will still be making movies, but that he is excited to be joining CSI, as the last television role he played was that of the "Psychedelic Cowboy, Curtis" on Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Based on the current schedule, which is tentative, Mr. Fishburne is slated to start shooting on September 17th or 18th and is planned to be introduced in a story spanning episodes 9 & 10, scheduled to be show on December 11th. Again, Naren Shankar stressed that these dates were subject to change.
