What's new

CSI: Season 6 ongoing thread (1 Viewer)

Malcolm R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
25,139
Real Name
Malcolm

Don't they get paid whether they're in the episode or not? Seems rather dumb to purposely exclude an actor from the script when you're paying him anyway.
 

Garrett Adams

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 27, 2000
Messages
931
Might be they gave him a breather after the previous episode where he played the role written for Grissom, thus getting more screen time.
 

Joseph DeMartino

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
8,311
Location
Florida
Real Name
Joseph DeMartino


It depends on the actor's contract. In an ensemble show like this some actors my be contracted for a full season of 22 or 24 episodes, while others may be only have a guaranteed minimum number of episodes (18, say) even though they're in the opening credits. The show still has first call on their services, but it also makes it easy for them to take outside work when they need it.

Either way the use or non-use of a given character can come down to the needs of a script. If you're paying the actor for a full episode anyway does it make more sense to have him standing around the set all day to get him for one five minute scene or just give him the week off and rewrite the scene to use another actor who is also already being paid. It isn't always about money. Sometimes it is about the needs of the story, sometimes it is about reminding your actors that the show does not need them (with one or two exceptions) to be a success. I'm not saying that's what happened here, just pointing out that it is one possibility.

Regards,

Joe
 

Paul McElligott

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2002
Messages
2,598
Real Name
Paul McElligott
So how about Part I of "A Bullet Runs Through It"?

I thought it was pretty emotionally raw and intense for an episode of CSI, especially the confrontation between the widow and the mother.

Looks like Nick inherited the mustache that Chip on NCIS had to shave off.

I get the feeling that Grissom will save the department's bacon, earning him even more brownie points with the brass upstairs (that would be the department brass, not Jim Brass).

Poor Sophia's going through the ringer on this episode. Looks like she aged about 10 years in the course of the hour.

Poor Greg. You think they could spare someone to help him process 20 blocks of crime scene.
 

TravisR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
42,425
Location
The basement of the FBI building
I thought this episode was probably the best episode of the year (so far anyway). The shoot out at the beginning was like Heat on a TV budget but that's still pretty darn good. I'm looking forward to the second half.

Nick's moustache is cool and silly at the same time. :)
 

Joseph DeMartino

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
8,311
Location
Florida
Real Name
Joseph DeMartino
The Claudia Christian situation was completely different. She had a contract with Warner Bros. and PTEN that expired at the end of season 4. "Deconstruction" was shot as the first episode of the fifth season production run, under a new contract with WB and TNT that Claudia was not party to. It aired as part of season 4 (because the final episode of season 4 was moved to the end of season 5.) Claudia had already been paid for that episode, as part of her S4 contract, and she would receive the proper residuals for it. Her credit had to be removed from "Deconstruction" otherwise the studio would have been liable for a guest-star payment and residuals for what was contractually a fifth season episode in which she was not involved.

For an on-going series being in the credits if you are a regular character does not automatically mean you get paid for all the episodes. Several of the B5 actors had 22 episode contracts, others had had pay-for-play contracts. Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas, for instance, weren't even assured of appearing in (and being paid for) a minimum number of episodes until the 2nd or 3rd season - and then only because another actor had insisted on such an arrangement and the producers thought they should have the same deal. (In practice I believe they appeared in more than the minimum number of episodes each year in any case.) I'm sure O'Hare, Boxleitner, Mira Furlan and maybe Christian and Jerry Doyle all had 22 episode contracts from the start (and were paid for episodes even if their characters did not appear in them), but I know the others had various arrangements.

Regards,

Joe
 

TheLongshot

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 12, 2000
Messages
4,118
Real Name
Jason
Joe: If I remember correctly, Claudia's contract dispute was over this exact issue, the number of episodes she was going to be under contract doing. I don't remember the details, but it sounded like an issue of semantics more than anything.

As for the episode, that's probably one of the better episodes of CSI I've seen. Nice way to shake things up.

Jason
 

Nick Martin

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
2,690
So how are you guys finding this new season so far?

Especially with shows like "Shooting Stars" (the cult episode) and "Gum Drops" (where Nick devotes himself to finding the lone survivor of a murdered family)...I found those two specifically to be pretty powerful, particularly the latter episode.
 

Chris_Morris

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 4, 2002
Messages
1,887
A Bullet Runs Through It I&II has to be one of the greatest CSI episodes ever.

I agree with this author from USA Today (except for the part about Lost being better):
CSI article

There should be no doubt why CSI is the top rated show on TV.
 

Joseph DeMartino

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
8,311
Location
Florida
Real Name
Joseph DeMartino


Really OT for this thread, but the underlying issue may be of more general interest:

It was not a matter of semantics. Claudia was one of the folks with a 22 episode contract. When season five was being negotiated she was up for a feature film role (don't know if she even got it) that was going to overlap with the show's production dates. Joe Straczynski offered to write her out of however many episodes she needed. He'd done the same for other actors in past seasons. (Mira Furlan for a feature film, Stephen Furst of another series.) Claudia, or her agent, or the film's producers (depending on which version of Claudia's story you believe) insisted that her TV contract state that she'd only have to do 18 episodes so they'd be sure she would be available.

So WB said, "OK. We'll write you a contract for 18 episodes and pay you for 18."

Claudia said, "No, I want to get paid for the full 22 episode season, but I want assurance of the time off in writing"

WB: "Can't do it. If we pay you the same for 18 episodes as we would for 22 that is effectively a per episode raise and the would violate the 'most favored nation' clause in all the other actors' contracts and we'd have to pay them more money to - or even have to go back to square run and renegotiate everyone's contract - two weeks before shooting is scheduled to start. Not gonna happen."

Again, JMS offered her an informal verbal assurance that he'd write Ivanova out of however many episodes she needed and WB wouldn't be able to say "Boo!" because they couldn't force the show runner to use characters he didn't feel he needed in a script. (And he had left regular characters out of episodes for exactly that reason in the past, or dropped a character who ended up with only a single scene in an episode if it wasn't vital, on the theory that it was stupid to make an actor come in for half a day to shoot two pages.)

But she turned the offer down. She later admitted that she had wanted to quit the show for other reasons anyway, so the whole thing may just have been a ploy to get Warner Bros. to drop her without here having to officially quit and tick off her fellow actors.

Regards,

Joe
 

Joseph DeMartino

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
8,311
Location
Florida
Real Name
Joseph DeMartino
The studios used to be reluctant to do two-parters because syndicators would bitch about it being harder to trim them for added commercials what with the recaps and all. They hate two parters that start on one show and end on another even more (and these are sometimes dropped from syndication packages entirely.) Networks, on the other hand, love them as gimmicks to hype ratings or to carry the audience from an established show to a new one - especially during sweeps periods when the affiliates are fighting for every ratings point. Given the competing pressures, I suspect that the number of two parters we see with most current shows represents the point of equalibrium and will thus probably stay about the same.

Regards,

Joe
 

Paul McElligott

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2002
Messages
2,598
Real Name
Paul McElligott
I thought the way they handled the "recap" on this episode was clever. Instead of "Previously on CSI", we go straight into the story and have a briefing for the Sheriff that recaps part one.
 

Anthony Hom

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 24, 1999
Messages
890
Not a quirky episode, but a great dramatic one. Just when you wonder if they can pull off another season, they put in an episode (2 parter) like this one. One of the best endings they ever had. IMO, Grissom and Brass are the foundation of this show.
 

Corey_Smith

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
61
And people in Omaha, NE have to wait til after 3am to watch the new episode due to our local affiliate airing a Creighton Men's basketball game. I though local affiliates could not interrupt network programming unless there was breaking news or severe weather...

So I guess set those VCRS. Without A Trace should air *AFTER* the basketball game.
 

MikeyWeitz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 10, 2002
Messages
939
Looking forward to tonight (especially now that I have an Infocus 4805 and a 92" Screen.

best show on free TV by far.
8 Year old son is a CSI addict and watches all of the episodes with us (except a couple we deemed too innapropriate).
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,808
Messages
5,123,535
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top