Scene Stealer: Highly rated ‘CSI’ is Zuiker’s signature body of work

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2002 | 8:26 a.m.

Over the past five years almost everything has gone Anthony Zuiker's way.

But last month's Golden Globes award ceremonies were an exception.

Zuiker is an executive producer of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," the top-rated CBS drama (seen locally Thursdays at 9 p.m. on KLAS-TV Channel 8).

Set in Las Vegas, "CSI" is part cop show, part medical drama. (Think of it as a much hipper "Barnaby Jones" meets a high-tech "Quincy," and even that's not doing the hourlong show justice.)

A ratings and critical smash, "CSI" was nominated with five other programs for Best Drama Series.

"I had this fantastic speech all ready for the women I work with," Zuiker, a nearly lifelong Las Vegan, said. "I'd been practicing it for weeks."

When the winner was named, Zuiker's heart skipped a beat.

"I heard 'sa'," he said, mimicking the 'C' sound in the show's title. "Then I heard '...ix Feet Under.'"

"CSI" had lost out to the new HBO series, "Six Feet Under," a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family who own and operate a funeral home. The show's success should come as no surprise, since it was created by Alan Ball, himself a TV writer who achieved notoriety when he won an Oscar for his "American Beauty" script.

"I called Alan and congratulated him. But I'm keeping the speech for the Emmys," Zuiker, 33, said with a smile. "I feel good about our chances."

Zuiker (pronounced ZIKE-er) has been married for three years and has a son who turns age 2 in two months. The family lives in an nondescript home in a nondescript Las Vegas neighborhood (the location of which Zuiker chooses to keep private).

"It keeps me grounded," he said.

In fact, other than a new Porsche he bought as a reward for his hard work in getting "C.S.I." made, there's nothing about Zuiker to suggest he is responsible for the hottest network drama since "ER" debuted on NBC in 1994.

He can still be seen some late Saturday nights at a local coffee shop working on "CSI" scripts, sitting in the same chair where he developed the idea for the show after his wife got him to watch an episode of "The New Detectives" on Discovery Channel.

"She said, 'This is really a fantastic world, this forensics thing," Zuiker said. "I sat down and watched it and thought, 'Yeah, this really is a neat world.' "

In early 1999 Zuiker had already met with uber-movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer about developing a TV show, but didn't have an idea for a program. After seeing the "The New Detectives," Zuiker had the concept and pitched the idea of a show about forensic detectives to Bruckheimer, who gave Zuiker the go-ahead to develop the drama.

Zuiker spent the next five weeks hanging out with Metro crime-scene analysts, taking notes and interviewing the analysts. He even based the show's two main characters, Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), on real-life Metro crime scene analysts Daniel Holstein and Yolanda McClary.

Zuiker decided to set the show in Las Vegas for several reasons, including his familiarity with the city, and also the fact that Las Vegas is a "perfect backdrop for a crime venue," with 30 million visitors each year and its reputation of never sleeping.

Once Zuiker had a clear hold on the characters and the basic concept of the program -- including its frequent use of flashbacks, recreations and manipulation of time -- he pitched the show to ABC network brass, who turned him down.

At that point in the season, it was too late to meet with either NBC and FOX, which had both already selected their new fall shows.

CBS was Zuiker's last option.

"I went in expecting a large room full of people and instead it was a small office with one person: Nina Tassler, senior VP of drama," Zuiker said. "She loved it and said let's do it and the next thing I know I was writing this thing in three weeks."

"CSI" was the last show CBS purchased. It was also the last program filmed and picked up by the network and the last to show up on its schedule: Friday nights, just after "The Fugitive."

"They said, 'If you can just maintain 85 percent of 'The Fugitive's' audience we'll be very happy. We crushed 'Fugitive,' " Zuiker said. "The next thing I know we're moved to Thursdays and are playing in the big leagues," opposite NBC's "Will and Grace" and "Just Shoot Me."

"It's been a runaway train ever since," Zuiker said.

A wild tale

Perhaps the biggest irony in Zuiker's story is in the tale itself.

Not quite a rags-to-riches story, Zuiker nonetheless defied odds even the most foolish gambler would be reluctant to take.

"My story just doesn't happen, I know," he said. "I hear it all the time."

Born just outside Chicago on Aug. 17, 1968, Zuiker's mother moved the two of them to Las Vegas six months later, where she found work as a casino dealer. Zuiker grew up a movie and TV buff, but by the time he got to Chaparral High School, he found a new passion: forensics.

"I thought it was like 'Quincy,' with dead bodies, but it was actually forensic speech, like speech and debate," Zuiker said.

Zuiker did well enough in forensics to receive full scholarships to several universities before graduating from high school in 1986. Five universities and four years later, Zuiker graduted from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a double major in communication and philosophy.

From there he worked for a nationwide investment firm and then as a stock broker. In 1995 Zuiker took a job as The Mirage tram operator during the graveyard shift, 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. He was later promoted to bellman before he joined the hotel-casino's advertising group. A few weeks into the job, however, Zuiker found himself repeatedly clashing with a supervisor.

After a childhood friend encouraged him to write movie scripts, Zuiker bought three books on how to write screenplays and within a matter of weeks produced his first script, "The Runner." After selling the script for $35,000, Zuiker quit The Mirage.

The story was eventually made into a low-budget independent film with a few big-name stars -- Courteney Cox Arquette, David Arquette, John Goodman and Joe Mantenga -- that went straight to video.

The script got him noticed, however, and for 18 months Zuiker was working on a film based on the Harlem Globetrotters before stepping down because of creative differences with the studio, Tri-Star. (Penny Marshall has since taken over the project and recently met with Zuiker about his script and ideas for the movie. Zuiker is optimistic he'll be brought on again to finish his version of the script.)

Meanwhile there are other film projects for Zuiker, such as writing the screenplay to biography on Hell's Angel founder Sonny Barger and polishing up the third act to the "Analyze That," the sequel to the Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal comedy, "Analyze This."

There's also his work on "CSI," which keeps him busy throughout the week, not to mention the commutes to Los Angeles.

"I'm Southwest's (Airlines) best customer," he said.

And it's all about to get busier for Zuiker as the network looks to spin off a "CSI" series set in Miami.

There's no doubt Zuiker is proud of his success. But it's not for what it's given him, but for what it's given those around him.

Four months ago Zuiker walked into Terrible's Hotel & Casino, where his mother worked, and handed her a check.

"I told her, 'Mom, you're working for me now, no more casinos. You can clock out now because you're done," he said. "It was a great moment ... to retire my mother. I'd always wanted to do that."