Thoughts on the New CSI Spinoff?

From CSI Files:

CSI: Miami and CSI: New York have both been cancelled, but the CSI franchise might not be done growing. CBS has announced that an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation airing this spring will serve as the backdoor pilot for another spinoff. In a departure from the franchise’s usual formula, the new series will focus on cyber crimes, inspired by the work of CyberPsychologist Mary Aiken. The main character is Avery Ryan, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cyber Crime Division in Quantico, Virginia. Here’s the logline for the spinoff:

Technology, as we know it, has amplified human behavior to the point where faceless criminals are committing crimes at global proportions with a touch of a button.
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The pilot will be written by CSI creators Anthony Zuiker, Carol Mendelsohn and Ann Donahue. Zuiker, Mendelsohn and Donahue will serve as executive producers, along with CSI producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Executive Producer Jonathan Littman. Aiken is also listed as a producer on the project.

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What are your thoughts on this?

Kinda ridiculous. You've got 2 perfectly good spinoffs now cancelled; why not bring one or BOTH back?!?

Actually, this is an old pilot that CBS had in development a couple of seasons ago. They ordered the script from Zuiker, but it was never sent to pilot.

I like the move as it represents old school TV development. I know people are referring to it as a “spinoff”, but it is really an “embedded pilot”. The nets used to do this all the time. Hell, I think Golden Girls had one just about every year with only Empty Nest’s making the cut. By filming an embedded pilot, the net gets to see if the premise will work without actually incurring the cost of a pilot and the episode itself automatically gets included as part of the parent series syndication deal. This practice should work really well with today’s technology because the nets would get immediate feedback as to whether the viewers like the pilot or not.

Also, think of this. Intelligence is more than likely a goner, and if CBS picks up this new show, they can have Marg play Catherine Willows in the new show because her character left CSI to work for the FBI.

As much as I have loved the original CSI from the very first episode, I think it has run it's course. The spark is gone. I am glad to see that Anthony will be involved and hopefully some of the writers who left will return and a new cast will bond like the original CSI cast did. New blood, new ideas.. I am all for it.
I will also say that I like Intelligence. It has my attention so far.

I'm ready for CSI itself to end. I can't believe it's turned into a silly show that not only am I not excited about anymore but that I actually don't watch all of the episodes anymore. And yet, I feel I need to stick it out (at least as long as George is on it), so they need to put me out of my misery and cancel it. :lol:

The spinoff? No thanks. Most network TV shows these days are so cliche and ridiculous that I only watch one or two of them.

They're going to have a show based on the type of crime that in any given week can be handled on "CSI", "NCIS", "Criminal Minds" and a whole host of cable shows - can't say as I see it as lasting long. Unless they get some actors that I'm real interested in watching I don't see me as watching it. The only reason I watch "CSI" at this point is George Eads.

What was the last backdoor pilot that CBS had that worked? "NCIS: LA"? I know "NCIS: Red" didn't make it past the backdoor pilot stage and whatever the "Criminal Minds" one was called only made it a few episodes.

Also, think of this. Intelligence is more than likely a goner, and if CBS picks up this new show, they can have Marg play Catherine Willows in the new show because her character left CSI to work for the FBI.

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I prefer "Intelligence"! And it doesn't mean that it's a goner. This season the networks have been experimenting with shows only running (at most) 13 episodes (or with splitting a season into 2 half seasons). Shorter seasons cost less. Besides, Catherine's specialty was blood spatter analysis. Can't see her having enough consistant work in this type of crime.



Susan

Are they really in any kind of position to be handing off story lines to a spin-off?

ragincajun said:

I know people are referring to it as a “spinoff”, but it is really an “embedded pilot”.

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This was my first thought when I heard the news. It could probably have been a separate project spear-headed by Zuiker and Co., but they're using the CSI franchise as a diving board instead of pitching it based upon its own merits.

That being said, it seems like an interesting enough premise. Maybe it'll help liven up TalkCSI a bit too?

Not that some other franchises needed to be refreshed on television or anything (*coughStarTrekcough*). It's nice to know CBS will milk something so irrelevant and tired for as long as it can because YAY! cutting-edge technology exists and we must acknowledge it! Whoops--don't mind this Miami*/NY fan. A lot of conflicted thoughts about this. I guess if every single other show can have a spin-off this/next year, CSI may as well get one more crack at it.

*Don't get me wrong, Miami was practically (no--literally) a fan-fic and had its chance. It was rather fun to see 'Made in Jersey' fail hilariously, though.

Finch said:

ragincajun said:

I know people are referring to it as a “spinoff”, but it is really an “embedded pilot”.

Click to expand...

This was my first thought when I heard the news. It could probably have been a separate project spear-headed by Zuiker and Co., but they're using the CSI franchise as a diving board instead of pitching it based upon its own merits.

That being said, it seems like an interesting enough premise. Maybe it'll help liven up TalkCSI a bit too?

Not that some other franchises needed to be refreshed on television or anything (*coughStarTrekcough*). It's nice to know CBS will milk something so irrelevant and tired for as long as it can because YAY! cutting-edge technology exists and we must acknowledge it! Whoops--don't mind this Miami*/NY fan. A lot of conflicted thoughts about this. I guess if every single other show can have a spin-off this/next year, CSI may as well get one more crack at it.

*Don't get me wrong, Miami was practically (no--literally) a fan-fic and had its chance. It was rather fun to see 'Made in Jersey' fail hilariously, though.

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The guys behind the Star Trek movie reboot (Kurtzman & Orci) who have also created such shows as Fringe, H50, and Sleepy Hollow have spoken with CBS about creating a new Star Trek series. However, Star Trek is now owned by Paramount, and the heads of CBS and Viacom do not get along very well. So instead of beating that horse, CBS picked up another pilot from them, Scorpion which is about a group of geniuses who solve top secret crimes for the government and which will be directed by the director of the Fast & Furious movies.

I don't believe that Intelligence is doing so bad, that CBS would drop it. Marg should be fine. I still don't like this idea, but I'll watch anything once.

This has nothing to do with Miami or NY. Something must have been going on behind the scenes with Miami for them to cancel it, and CBS hung in there with NY as long as was financially possible. They cut back episode orders and moved it to Fridays and it still wasn't performing like they needed it to.

I think Intelligence is a good show, hope it gets picked up. The new CSI sounds like
it should be interesting; look forward to seeing the pilot for it.

ragincajun said:

However, Star Trek is now owned by Paramount[...]

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Paramount has been the distribution/production company for Star Trek for 25+ years and I'm sure they certainly don't own all of the rights to Trek (if I recall correctly, the dispute partially had something to do with CBS having rights to the JJ-verse and Paramount over the older stuff or vice versa). My point was that despite the IP dispute, I'd rather see another iteration of a show that hasn't been saturating the market as much as CSI and its copycat shows over the last 10 or so years. Not to mention CBS doesn't have much in the way of genre shows right now and that's something which has been growing in popularity on other networks.

ColonelWorf said:

This has nothing to do with Miami or NY.

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It's just an interesting observation that they cut down two spinoffs only to revisit the idea of another a short time later. It's also something Zuiker himself admitted to have no interest in--granted this was several years ago. Considering the fact that CBS execs stated that Miami's cancellation specifically was largely due to CBS' excitement about a themed lineup and not the result of budget restraints or ratings, their reverting back to another CSI spinoff within two years makes me ponder their reasoning for wasting all that time.

I'm definitely not in the position that Miami or NY should come back, but this decision to bring in another spinoff seems like a security blanket instead of a well thought out addition to the lineup, and it's predictably a financial move rather than an artistic one. No surprises there. The quality of the new show will probably suffer as a result.

The spinoff might save TalkCSI though. :lol:

EDIT: I just had a thought (dangerous, I know!)...since Miami and NY both presumably still exist in the CSI-verse, it might be interesting if the new spinoff had a crossover at some point featuring cameos from an actor or two from the defunct shows.

I'm interested in seeing who they'll hire to fill out the rest of the cast. If Scott Bakula can still land a television job (NCIS), I can only imagine who they'll hire for CSI. :lol:

Finch said:

ragincajun said:

However, Star Trek is now owned by Paramount[...]

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Paramount has been the distribution/production company for Star Trek for 25+ years and I'm sure they certainly don't own all of the rights to Trek (if I recall correctly, the dispute partially had something to do with CBS having rights to the JJ-verse and Paramount over the older stuff or vice versa). My point was that despite the IP dispute, I'd rather see another iteration of a show that hasn't been saturating the market as much as CSI and its copycat shows over the last 10 or so years. Not to mention CBS doesn't have much in the way of genre shows right now and that's something which has been growing in popularity on other networks.

ColonelWorf said:

This has nothing to do with Miami or NY.

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It's just an interesting observation that they cut down two spinoffs only to revisit the idea of another a short time later. It's also something Zuiker himself admitted to have no interest in--granted this was several years ago. Considering the fact that CBS execs stated that Miami's cancellation specifically was largely due to CBS' excitement about a themed lineup and not the result of budget restraints or ratings, their reverting back to another CSI spinoff within two years makes me ponder their reasoning for wasting all that time.

I'm definitely not in the position that Miami or NY should come back, but this decision to bring in another spinoff seems like a security blanket instead of a well thought out addition to the lineup, and it's predictably a financial move rather than an artistic one. No surprises there. The quality of the new show will probably suffer as a result.

The spinoff might save TalkCSI though. :lol:

EDIT: I just had a thought (dangerous, I know!)...since Miami and NY both presumably still exist in the CSI-verse, it might be interesting if the new spinoff had a crossover at some point featuring cameos from an actor or two from the defunct shows.

I'm interested in seeing who they'll hire to fill out the rest of the cast. If Scott Bakula can still land a television job (NCIS), I can only imagine who they'll hire for CSI. :lol:

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With the show's being produced by Brucky, it is also possible there could be cameos for some old Without a Trace and Cold Case characters as well. :thumbsup:

As for the lead in the new show, I hope they make Avery a female character. I would love to see a more mature actress like Angela Bassett, Christine Lahti, Meg Ryan, or Marissa Tomei in the role.

It just seems like laziness on CBS's part. They can't come up with something else for an upcoming season but another spinoff. Surely there are other shows out there, but they don't want to give one a chance without trying a spinoff first. It'll probably go down in flames, then they'll have no choice but to bring in the non-spinoff show as a mid-season/mid-winter/spring replacement. :devil: