Post by Naj on Feb 24, 2006 14:02:50 GMT -5
... and the American wayCrime procedurals knock ’em dead in the ratings. But can that last much longer?
By SID SMITHChicago Tribune
“Just look at the shelves of any bookstore in any airport, and you see how much people love crime and mysteries, how much they love solving puzzles,” says Jan Nash, an executive producer on the CBS hit “Without a Trace.”
“There’s something about all the crime shows on TV that depict the police and other people in a search for the truth,” she says. “They let you believe that, in a world where bad things happen, justice will prevail.”
“It’s a measure of how complicated the world has gotten since 9/11, when thousands were wiped out,” says novelist Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch novels and the recent best seller “The Lincoln Lawyer.” “Just because statistics tell us that violent crime is actually down, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t scared.”
Murder, they wrote. And keep on writing. And the viewing public stays tuned. The original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” has been the No. 1 show in Nielsen ratings 12 weeks of the season so far, followed closely by the increasingly popular “Without a Trace” and regularly accompanied in the top 20 by the Miami and New York “CSI” spin-offs, “NCIS,” “Cold Case,” “Criminal Minds,” and the “Criminal Intent” and “SVU” versions of “Law & Order.”
For the week of ratings ending Feb. 5, skewered by the Super Bowl — whose offerings snagged the top three spots — “CSI” managed to come in at No. 6, followed by “Without a Trace” at No. 8, “CSI: Miami” at No. 9, “CSI: NY” at No. 11, “Criminal Minds” at No.16, “Numb3rs” in a tie at No.17, “NCIS” in a tie at No. 19, followed by a tie of “Bones” and “Close to Home.” Nearly half of the top 20 were procedurals.
Like many observers, William Petersen, whose lead role in the original “CSI” has won him TV superstardom, cites the trial of O.J. Simpson.
"People were beginning to get interested in forensics, and then O.J. hit for a year, and everybody got swept up in it," he argues.The “Law & Order” franchise, though not as steeped in forensic detail as the “CSI” trio, nevertheless deals with criminal investigation and justice.
“People forget that ‘Law & Order’ goes back to 1990,” notes Dick Wolf, executive producer of the “Law & Order” lineup. “We were around a lot earlier than O.J.”
Indeed, as early as 1990, with the arrival of the Kay Scarpetta novels of Patricia Cornwell, set in a Richmond, Va., coroner’s office, forensic fascination found its way into fiction.
The “CSI” forensic emphasis has helped make microscopic, anatomical photography and geeky, scientific lingo omnipresent on TV, part of what Cornwell refers to as a “Star Trekian” age. But, Petersen says that, ironically, the first “CSI” came about as something original, unlike any other TV crime show to date. Now widely imitated, it began as one of a kind.
“People at the network wanted nothing to do with a TV show about fingerprint dusters,” Petersen says. “But this kid named Anthony Zuiker, who was running the tram at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, had a friend in CSI-type investigations in Las Vegas, and he came up with this idea.”
Timing helped.
“The culture had just been through this postmodern period of green tea and Buddhism, with everybody asking the big questions,” Petersen says. “People were lost. These guys had answers. You see a close-up of a broken toenail inside a shoe, and that becomes an important clue. Instead of the big things, it’s about the littlest things. And they become the most important things. It’s a new way of perceiving, and I think that spiritual aspect of the show is why people keep watching.”
Wolf has another view.
“There have been three staples of TV drama for the last 60 years: the Western, the medical show and the crime drama,” Wolf says. “The Western has disappeared. In TV drama, the higher the stakes, the more dramatic, and no stakes are higher than life or death.”
Explaining the success of “Law & Order,” he says: “Sending people to prison is no joke, and how people do that is interesting."
He refuses to see “CSI”or even “Law & Order” as anything but new clothing on an old dress form.
“TV is not about ideas,” Wolf says bluntly. “It’s about execution. And writing and casting. That’s why most of TV drama’s biggest stars have been character actors, not romantic leads. Peter Falk. Telly Savalas. Angela Lansbury. They can inhabit a role for years, and that’s the TV challenge. I like to say a successful movie lasts 110 minutes. A successful TV series lasts 110 hours.”
Mark Gordon, the enterprising producer behind “Criminal Minds” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” the ABC medical soap opera many see as a crime-streak antidote, says that "the public has always been fascinated by crime.”
“Crime in American fiction dates from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s in potboiler novels and film noir, not to mention tabloid journalism. In the past few years, TV just figured out a way to capitalize on that in a different manner.”
Lately, others raise more serious issues, in particular questioning the growing public assumption that “CSI” is pure reality, not part scientific fantasy.
That bothers novelist Cornwell tremendously.
“We have a really serious problem on our hands, and TV has made it so much worse. ‘CSI’ is fun to watch and entertaining.
“But, more and more, jury members believe that police and scientists work every case with this huge bag of tricks, and if they don’t, the victim and jurors feel the case has not been adequately investigated.”
Petersen agrees.
“Unfortunately, for many lawyers, judges and prosecutors, people expect to see ‘CSI’ in the courtroom,” he says. “They can’t always provide that. Not every case is all about DNA.”
Despite that heady concern and this season’s ratings bonanza for crime shows, there are signs the inevitable shift in the wind is stirring. After resting at the top of the heap all fall, “CSI” actually lost the No. 1 ratings spot in recent weeks to the return of “American Idol.” Tassler also says the success of the crime series helps finance more adventurous programming, such as pilots planned this fall about a young man who falls for a woman who’s a member of a cult, and another about the professional and private lives of a community of government agents.
Wolf is monkeying with his formula with his latest, “Conviction,” which will premiere in March on NBC. It’s set in a district attorney’s office. The focus is on the regular characters, not the procedure, and we learn all about the personal lives and career worries of these twentysomething attorneys on the job.
article
By SID SMITHChicago Tribune
“Just look at the shelves of any bookstore in any airport, and you see how much people love crime and mysteries, how much they love solving puzzles,” says Jan Nash, an executive producer on the CBS hit “Without a Trace.”
“There’s something about all the crime shows on TV that depict the police and other people in a search for the truth,” she says. “They let you believe that, in a world where bad things happen, justice will prevail.”
“It’s a measure of how complicated the world has gotten since 9/11, when thousands were wiped out,” says novelist Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch novels and the recent best seller “The Lincoln Lawyer.” “Just because statistics tell us that violent crime is actually down, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t scared.”
Murder, they wrote. And keep on writing. And the viewing public stays tuned. The original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” has been the No. 1 show in Nielsen ratings 12 weeks of the season so far, followed closely by the increasingly popular “Without a Trace” and regularly accompanied in the top 20 by the Miami and New York “CSI” spin-offs, “NCIS,” “Cold Case,” “Criminal Minds,” and the “Criminal Intent” and “SVU” versions of “Law & Order.”
For the week of ratings ending Feb. 5, skewered by the Super Bowl — whose offerings snagged the top three spots — “CSI” managed to come in at No. 6, followed by “Without a Trace” at No. 8, “CSI: Miami” at No. 9, “CSI: NY” at No. 11, “Criminal Minds” at No.16, “Numb3rs” in a tie at No.17, “NCIS” in a tie at No. 19, followed by a tie of “Bones” and “Close to Home.” Nearly half of the top 20 were procedurals.
Like many observers, William Petersen, whose lead role in the original “CSI” has won him TV superstardom, cites the trial of O.J. Simpson.
"People were beginning to get interested in forensics, and then O.J. hit for a year, and everybody got swept up in it," he argues.The “Law & Order” franchise, though not as steeped in forensic detail as the “CSI” trio, nevertheless deals with criminal investigation and justice.
“People forget that ‘Law & Order’ goes back to 1990,” notes Dick Wolf, executive producer of the “Law & Order” lineup. “We were around a lot earlier than O.J.”
Indeed, as early as 1990, with the arrival of the Kay Scarpetta novels of Patricia Cornwell, set in a Richmond, Va., coroner’s office, forensic fascination found its way into fiction.
The “CSI” forensic emphasis has helped make microscopic, anatomical photography and geeky, scientific lingo omnipresent on TV, part of what Cornwell refers to as a “Star Trekian” age. But, Petersen says that, ironically, the first “CSI” came about as something original, unlike any other TV crime show to date. Now widely imitated, it began as one of a kind.
“People at the network wanted nothing to do with a TV show about fingerprint dusters,” Petersen says. “But this kid named Anthony Zuiker, who was running the tram at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, had a friend in CSI-type investigations in Las Vegas, and he came up with this idea.”
Timing helped.
“The culture had just been through this postmodern period of green tea and Buddhism, with everybody asking the big questions,” Petersen says. “People were lost. These guys had answers. You see a close-up of a broken toenail inside a shoe, and that becomes an important clue. Instead of the big things, it’s about the littlest things. And they become the most important things. It’s a new way of perceiving, and I think that spiritual aspect of the show is why people keep watching.”
Wolf has another view.
“There have been three staples of TV drama for the last 60 years: the Western, the medical show and the crime drama,” Wolf says. “The Western has disappeared. In TV drama, the higher the stakes, the more dramatic, and no stakes are higher than life or death.”
Explaining the success of “Law & Order,” he says: “Sending people to prison is no joke, and how people do that is interesting."
He refuses to see “CSI”or even “Law & Order” as anything but new clothing on an old dress form.
“TV is not about ideas,” Wolf says bluntly. “It’s about execution. And writing and casting. That’s why most of TV drama’s biggest stars have been character actors, not romantic leads. Peter Falk. Telly Savalas. Angela Lansbury. They can inhabit a role for years, and that’s the TV challenge. I like to say a successful movie lasts 110 minutes. A successful TV series lasts 110 hours.”
Mark Gordon, the enterprising producer behind “Criminal Minds” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” the ABC medical soap opera many see as a crime-streak antidote, says that "the public has always been fascinated by crime.”
“Crime in American fiction dates from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s in potboiler novels and film noir, not to mention tabloid journalism. In the past few years, TV just figured out a way to capitalize on that in a different manner.”
Lately, others raise more serious issues, in particular questioning the growing public assumption that “CSI” is pure reality, not part scientific fantasy.
That bothers novelist Cornwell tremendously.
“We have a really serious problem on our hands, and TV has made it so much worse. ‘CSI’ is fun to watch and entertaining.
“But, more and more, jury members believe that police and scientists work every case with this huge bag of tricks, and if they don’t, the victim and jurors feel the case has not been adequately investigated.”
Petersen agrees.
“Unfortunately, for many lawyers, judges and prosecutors, people expect to see ‘CSI’ in the courtroom,” he says. “They can’t always provide that. Not every case is all about DNA.”
Despite that heady concern and this season’s ratings bonanza for crime shows, there are signs the inevitable shift in the wind is stirring. After resting at the top of the heap all fall, “CSI” actually lost the No. 1 ratings spot in recent weeks to the return of “American Idol.” Tassler also says the success of the crime series helps finance more adventurous programming, such as pilots planned this fall about a young man who falls for a woman who’s a member of a cult, and another about the professional and private lives of a community of government agents.
Wolf is monkeying with his formula with his latest, “Conviction,” which will premiere in March on NBC. It’s set in a district attorney’s office. The focus is on the regular characters, not the procedure, and we learn all about the personal lives and career worries of these twentysomething attorneys on the job.
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