[edit] Casting

In 2000, the head of drama development at CBS saw potential in the pilot script of CSI, so she passed it on to actor William Petersen, who had a pay or play contract with the network. Petersen has said that many TV shows were offered to him over the years, but he “didn’t want to get locked down". CSI appealed to him, due to the complexity of the role of Grissom, a character from whom he would be able to learn a lot, an interesting role that would not become boring over the years.[5][6]
Gil Grissom was not the first scientist portrayed by William Petersen. In the 1986 film Manhunter Petersen portrayed a forensic scientist named Will Graham who has the ability to empathize with psychopaths, such as Hannibal Lecter. Coincidentally, Graham pursues serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, played in Petersen's film by Tom Noonan. Noonan also played a clever villain pursued by the CSIs in season three "Abra-Cadaver".

[edit] Appearances

Gil Grissom first appears in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the pilot episode. After this he has appeared in almost every single episode throughout the show's eight years, except in "Hollywood Brass", from season five, an episode that turns entirely around Jim Brass; besides him, only three other regular characters appear.[7]
Again, William Petersen did not appear during the season six episode "Gum Drops". This episode was originally going to be how Grissom was convinced that an abduction victim was still alive. When Petersen's nephew died, he flew home and was unavailable for the filming of the episode, which turned out being centered around Nick.[8]
During 2007 (CSI's season seven) William Petersen took a break from CSI to appear in a five week run of the Trinity Repertory Company production of Dublin Carol in Providence, Rhode Island, resulting in Grissom taking a sabbatical, being replaced by Liev Schreiber, as Michael Keppler, who developed a small story arc through "Sweet Jane", "Redrum" and "Meet Market".
Carol Mendelsohn, one of the show's producers and writers considers Grissom the center of the show.[9] He does play an important role on most episodes, although he is not always the center, for example both "Grave Danger" episodes, which center around Nick, there is also "The Execution of Catherine Willows", "Weeping Willows" and "Built To Kill, Part 2" which center around Catherine.

[edit] Public reaction

This fictional character has an extensive fan base. There are more than one thousand videos made using this character in sites such as YouTube and a thousand more depicting his relationship with Sara Sidle. Of more than twenty-thousand fan fictions written about CSI in FanFiction.Net, more than half include Gil Grissom.[10] There are also many other sites that update daily news about either Gil Grissom's status on CSI or William Petersen's activities in real life.[11][12]
The GSR ("Grissom and Sara Romance"; the abbreviation is a pun on the term for gunshot residue, often mentioned in CSI) has accumulated an extensive fan base during the years with some sites getting thousands of viewers a week.[13] Some fans consider this "ship" very similar to the one of Mulder and Scully in the X-Files. From the beginning, both shows showed a lot of chemistry between the two co-workers, leading viewers to assume that a relationship between the two would soon begin, when in fact it would take years of a platonic relationship and sexual tension for something to actually be seen, with both couples only sharing their first on-screen kiss in the eighth season of their respective shows.
In August 2007, upon rumors of Jorja Fox leaving the show, a grassroots campaign started.[14] Thousands of fans that want to save "the GSR" and Jorja Fox, have donated to the cause, collecting over $8,000 for gifts and stunts targeted at CBS executives and CSIs producers and writers. Some of the stunts included a wedding cake delivery to Carol Mendelsohn, 192 chocolate-covered insects with the message "CSI Without Sara Bugs Us" to Naren Shankar and a plane flying several times over the Universal Studios of Los Angeles with a "Follow the evidence keep Jorja Fox on CSI" banner.[15] Another side of the campaign includes mailing the show's producers a dollar, so as to save Fox's contract "one dollar at a time". As of October 16, according to the site's running tally, more than 20,000 letters with money or flyers have been mailed to the Universal Studios and to CBS headquarters in New York from forty-nine different countries since the campaign started on September 29.[16][17]
On September 27, 2007, after CSI's season eight premiered, a miniature model of Gil Grissom's office (which he was seen building during season seven) was put up for auction on eBay. The auction ended on October 7 with the prop being sold for US$15,600, which CBS donated to the National CASA Association.[18]

[edit] Character background

[edit] Family life

Grissom was born on August 17, 1956 in Santa Monica, California to a middle-class family and grew up in Marina Del Rey, California. His father was a botanist and his mother ran an art gallery in Venice. Grissom's father died when he was nine years old, most likely from heat stroke. His father inspired his love of the natural sciences.[19]
He was raised Roman Catholic. He told Sara Sidle in a season seven episode that, while he is not really a practicing Catholic anymore, he practices a sort of "secular Catholicism, which implicates ritualizing aspects of everyday life and then viewing them with a spiritual intensity they would not otherwise possess".[20] During one case, a priest asked him if he was still a practicing Catholic. Grissom asked the priest how he knew he was since the subject didn't come up. The priest responded, "When you greeted me, you said 'Father.' Only Romans do that. People of other faiths say 'Reverend' or 'Minister'."
Grissom's mother was deaf and because of this, he knows sign language[21] and can lip read.[22] He inherited his mother's otosclerosis, a disease which nearly led to the loss of his hearing. But he underwent corrective surgery[23] and his hearing problems have never resurfaced.

[edit] Pre-Vegas

Growing up he became an avid reader and an amateur scientist, conducting necropsies on the corpses of animals he found in the neighborhood. In a season two episode he told Warrick that in high school, he was a "ghost", meaning that he did not belong to any group in particular.[24] When he was in college, Grissom financed his first body farm with his winnings from a high stakes poker game.[25] At the same time, he also attended boxing matches to learn about the patterns of bruise formations on bodies and eventual blood spatters from the injuries.
He became a forensic entomologist, earning his degree in biology from UCLA. Grissom has a PhD, but it is not made clear in what or where from. [26]

[edit] Career

Grissom once mentioned losing a body while in Minneapolis, implying he spent time there before taking a job in Las Vegas.[27] This is mentioned again when he works with his former mentor, Dr. Phillip Gerard, played by Raymond J. Barry, stating that he used to work for him in Hennepin County, whose seat is Minneapolis.[28]
He became the night shift team supervisor for the Las Vegas CSI unit on the second episode of the series, after Jim Brass got demoted following the death of co-worker Holly Gribbs.[29]
In season seven, Grissom took a sabbatical to teach a class at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts for four weeks.[30] Prior to his sabbatical, Grissom had been showing signs of "burnout". Upon his return, however, he appears reinvigorated and tells Warrick Brown that he "missed" Las Vegas."[31] Since Warrick's murder at the start of season 9, and Sara's departure, however, his burnout seem to be resurfacing. This is particularly evident in Say Uncle, where, at the end of the episode, he expresses deep regret over solving a particularly depressing case.

[edit] Character development

[edit] Evolution through the years

Early episodes revealed Grissom to be a witty, enthusiastic and quirky scientist, who had some sense of humor. He flirted regularly and seemed to be constantly on a hyperactive state.[32][33]
However, when he began to lose his hearing, Grissom retreated into himself and lost a lot of the nerdy spark he once had. He became easily irritable and unapproachable.[34] After his surgery, he lightened up a bit, but he has never gone back to the whimsical science nerd he once was.

[edit] Personality

Grissom in the series is often regarded as well-educated, but unusual in his approach toward his work and social life. In the series, some of his comments and actions can be seen to dumbfound his co-workers and superiors. His relationship with his subordinates in the office is portrayed as being a father figure to the team, however very professional in his work.
In addition to being somewhat of a polymath beyond his career training, he exhibits Asperger-like traits, and in a second season episode




PLEASE PUT COMMENTS BELOW
I LOVE GRISSOM