Helgenberger, Petersen walk 'CSI' wild side
LOS ANGELES – CSI took viewers on some crazy rides during its 15 seasons.
It may have started with the maggots, which go hand-in-hand and just about everywhere else with dead bodies, central pieces of evidence for the show's Las Vegas crime scene investigators. Some CBS executives weren't comfortable featuring such vermin, says William Petersen, an original star who left in 2009 but returned for Sunday's two-hour series finale (CBS, 9 p.m. ET/PT).
"They were really tough on us all the way from the pilot through several episodes," says Petersen, joining another longtime star, Marg Helgenberger, for an interview during a shooting break. "When the show finally aired and found a broad audience (early), all of a sudden, they were like, 'Yeah, go ahead! Dig up those bodies!' "
Beyond the maggots, the groundbreaking procedural drama examined some pretty exotic lifestyle choices and Petersen and Helgenberger, who starred during the first 12 seasons, discuss a couple of memorable episodes during an interview with Paste BN.
"Plushies and furries, that's up there," Helgenberger says.
That would be Season 4's "Fur and Loathing," in which a dead man in a raccoon costume leads Helgenberger's Catherine Willows and Petersen's Gil Grissom to investigate a convention of adults who dress up in animal costumes. The episode pushed the sex angle pretty strongly.
" 'King Baby's' up there," Petersen says.
The notorious fifth-season episode investigated the case of "this large casino mogul who was into infantilism, which is (adults) who are obsessed with being treated like a baby, wearing diapers and being breastfed," Helgenberger says.
"And the playpen. The giant playpen. The giant crib," Petersen adds, laughing more with each word.
"That was a wackadoo episode," Helgenberger adds.
As TV's top scripted hit, CSI had broad latitude to examine bizarre and sometimes unappetizing topics, along with blood and other bodily fluids.
Hit status notwithstanding, even a top-rated series such as CSI had to toe the line after Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show on CBS.
"We kind of got away with more prior to the whole Nipplegate thing," Helgenberger says. "Then, all of a sudden, it was like, 'No, no, no, no, no. That can't be done. That can't be done. That can't be done.' I mean, more violence, but nothing having to do with sex and, like, oddities."