Military TV, Television - Military Times

Fishburne joins ‘CSI’ team

Laurence Fishburne joins the top-rated CBS drama Thursday as the big-name replacement for departing star William Petersen, but his character, Raymond Langston, is far different from Petersen’s Gil Grissom.

Langston is a former pathologist, something new to the team of Las Vegas criminalists, and he will join them as the lowest-level CSI rather than filling Grissom’s spot as supervisor of the unit. He stopped practicing medicine after failing to detect an “angel of mercy” killer at his hospital.

“Here’s a guy, we’re assuming late 40s or early 50s, who is a really smart dude. He’s a doctor. But he’s the new guy learning the CSI skills,” says Fishburne, who has acted primarily in film and theater. “How do you deal with that?”

Langston enters “CSI” as a college lecturer whose closed-circuit interview of a serial killer (Bill Irwin) draws the interest of Grissom, who is investigating a new murder with a possible connection to the imprisoned man.

In the second part of the story (Jan. 15), which is Petersen’s last episode, entomologist Grissom brings on Langston as a consultant, leading to his eventual appointment to the unit.

Fishburne, 47, who has signed through the 2009-10 season, says Petersen’s departure in the ninth season is much more significant than his arrival. The loss of a central actor and character “is going to be sad and disappointing. I cannot presume that my presence is going to fill that gap. I think it would be completely arrogant to think, ‘I’m coming. It will be all right.’ No, it’s not. The bug man is leaving.”

Executive producer Carol Mendelsohn says the actors have made such a significant transition “extremely easy,” and the character change opens new doors. (Petersen may return if an episode is “creatively right,” she says.)

Grissom’s departure moves Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) into a new role as team supervisor, and Nick Stokes (George Eads) becomes more of a teacher.

Langston, with his medical background, can do tasks the CSIs can’t. “Dr. Robbins (Robert David Hall) asks if he wants to help cut during an autopsy. That’s something Grissom never did,” executive producer Naren Shankar says. Over time, the show may explore how Langston’s study of criminal behavior leads him to examine his own tendencies.

Shankar says Fishburne, a Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee, “has that authority, that internal confidence” that extends to his character.

Mendelsohn also has seen a surprising side to the actor. “I’m a huge Laurence Fishburne fan. Sometimes, he scares me in the movies, like when I think of Morpheus. And then I look at him in ‘CSI’ and want to hug him. It’s a reaction I never expected.”

Fishburne, who has filmed six episodes, says he hopes the two-episode overlap with Petersen will help him gain audience acceptance in the same way Grissom’s recruitment of Langston helps ease his arrival on the team. “I definitely get the benediction from him,” he says. “But ultimately, it’s down to whether the audience is willing to accept the character or not.”