Anthony E. Zuiker, Creator of "C.S.I"

It's no accident that the hit television dramatic series "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation" takes place in Las Vegas. Series creator Anthony E. Zuiker had spent most of his life in Las Vegas. His mother was a card dealer (and then pit boss) at one of the big casinos. His father was a Las Vegas cop.

Before embarking on a successful career in the entertainment business, Zuiker earned $8-an-hour on the graveyard shift as a shuttle tram operator between the Mirage Hotel and the Treasure Island Casino.

Dustin Lee Abraham was Zuiker's boyhood friend. He was a writer and actor in Hollywood and suggested that Zuiker, who had always excelled as a writer in high school, write a screenplay. He wrote an original screenplay about a sport bettor and gave it to Abraham. The script got him an agent and a manager. His first selling screenplay was "The Harlem Globetrotters Story." Columbia Pictures bought it.

Zuiker and Jerry Bruckheimer

Long-time Hollywood player Jerry Bruckheimer liked Zuiker's writing style, as evidenced in his screenplays, and asked Zuiker to pitch television series ideas. At the time, Bruckheimer was best known as a successful film producer with a string of box office hits that included "Beverly Hills Cop", "Top Gun" and "Pearl Harbor." When he met Anthony Zuiker, Bruckheimer was just starting his television "show runner" empire.

"C.S.I." was among Zuiker's pitches for Bruckheimer. It was his wife Jennifer who had triggered the idea for "C.S.I." when she told him to watch "The New Detectives", a Discovery Channel TV reality series about forensic detectives.

According to Zuiker, his "C.S.I." pitch to Bruckheimer was as follows: "... a lady's on the floor dead. A pink elephant is in the backyard and a plant's knocked over. ... What happened?"

On that pitch and Zuiker's writing skills, Bruckheimer gave him a development deal for "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation." To write the show pilot script, Zuiker rode the graveyard shift with real Las Vegas CSI's for five weeks.

Anthony E. Zuiker and Success

"C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation" debuted in 2000. It became an instant hit series and then a franchise with spin-off series, "C.S.I: Miami" and "C.S.I: New York." Zuiker was so successful that he went back to Las Vegas to give his parents enough money for both to retire from their jobs.

Zuiker's boyhood friend Dustin Lee Abraham has been one of the key "C.S.I." writer-producers.

As the old chestnut goes, sometimes life imitates art and it did for Anthony E. Zuiker when his father committed suicide on the night that he was onstage receiving his fourth "People's Choice Award" for "C.S.I." As if out of a show script, Zuiker immediately flew to Las Vegas to piece together the events that led to his father's death.