The Pilot CSI hit screens in 2000 via a pilot that saw beardy wonder detective, Gil Grissom (William Petersen), and his team of crime scene detectives go about their business solving a variety of cases for the Las Vegas Police Department. The success of this pilot was all about the setup, where viewers got to see Petersens protagonist solve a crime by way of toe nail clippings while also witnessing how the rest of the department take on some intricate cases in the city of sin. Like all great pilots, this episode ended with a tantalizing sting in the tail. Simple, maybe, but this one really started something. What Did It Change? CSI changed the way we choose to watch crimes be solved on the small screen. Gone was our dusty reference point of the beleaguered detective, solving a crime with a grimace and only instincts to rely on, and in its place was the smooth sleuth reliant on whizzy technology and nigh-on impossible DNA testing. Quite simply, this pilot signified the birth of the procedural crime genre for a new generation. Legacy Cold Case, Bones, Body Of Proof, NCIS, Numb3rs, Criminal Minds and pretty much any detective show bar The Wire that aired this millennium were influenced by CSI.
Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing.
He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.
