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Gil Grissom (William Petersen)

Gender: Male
Occupation: CSI, Night Shift Supervisor
* First appeared on October 06, 2000 in the episode Pilot.

Creation and Development

Anthony E. Zuiker, who created the show, loosely based Grissom on real life Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department criminalist Daniel Holstein. Zuiker was "fascinated" by Holstein, who, like Grissom, kept maggots and pig's blood in his refrigerator. Holstein works as a consultant for the show. Zuiker originally named the character Gil Sheinbaum, but after he was cast, William Petersen requested the name to be changed, Petersen and Zuiker decided to rename the character "Grissom", after astronaut Gus Grissom, of whom Petersen was a great admirer. The name Gil came from one of the actor's hobbies, fishing.

In 2000, CBS had bought the pilot script from Zuiker, Nina Tassler, CBS' head of drama development, passed it on to 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". However, he was impressed with the complexity of Grissom's character, and he decided to audition. It was the second time Petersen portrayed a forensic scientist, having portrayed Will Graham in the 1986 film Manhunter.

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.

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.

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. He does play an important role in most episodes, although he is not always the center, for example, both "Grave Danger" episodes center around Nick, and "The Execution of Catherine Willows", "Weeping Willows" and "Built To Kill, Part 2" which center around Catherine.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

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". 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 and can lip read. He inherited his mother's otosclerosis, a disease which nearly led to the loss of his hearing. But he underwent corrective surgery and his hearing problems have never resurfaced.

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. When he was in college, Grissom financed his first body farm with his winnings from a high stakes poker game. 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, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago

Career

Grissom once mentioned losing a body while in Minneapolis, implying he spent time there before taking a job in Las Vegas. 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.

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.

In season seven, Grissom took a sabbatical to teach a class at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts for four weeks. 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." After the resignation of Sara Sidle, his fiancee, from the lab, and the murder of Warrick Brown, 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.

Grissom announced his retirement just as evidence comes to light that The Dick and Jane Killer, a serial killer from the 1990s currently serving two life sentences, did not act alone, and that his accomplice has begun killing again. Rather than leave in the middle of a case, Grissom stays on to help solve it, and ultimately proves instrumental in saving the life of a woman who would have been the killer's latest victim. The case closed, Grissom, having already had a series of one-on-one farewells with his co-workers, silently left the crime lab and departed for Costa Rica for a reunion with fiancee Sara Sidle, an allusion perhaps to his comments in a season one episode that when he left, people wouldn't throw a party for him, because he wasn't the sort of person who people would get deeply involved with. He also says to Warrick in season two ("Ellie") that when he left there wouldn't be a cake in the break room-he would just pick up and leave.

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.

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. After his surgery, he lightened up a bit, but he has never gone back to the whimsical science nerd he once was.

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 it is hinted that, in fact, he has Asperger's syndrome. Another character on CSI who shares these kind of traits is his subordinate (and current fiancée), Sara Sidle. She once insinuated that Grissom was a misanthrope when he quoted her Thoreau's Walden.

Although he is very dedicated to his job and sometimes goes to extremes in his investigations, his unwillingness to dabble in office politics often alienates his superiors, and sometimes his subordinates. He gets a lot of help in these areas from right-hand woman Catherine Willows, who is always trying to make him "look up from the microscope".

Grissom claims to have never hired a prostitute for sex, stating that sex is intended to create a human emotional connection. He has also expressed distaste for carrying a firearm when in the field, a tendency that has brought several scoldings from co-worker Jim Brass. Despite this, he has proven to have an exceptional accuracy at the firing range.

He once listed his hobbies to Lady Heather: "I have outlets. I read. I study bugs. I sometimes even ride roller coasters". Indeed, he has proven to be a very cultured man on many occasions, having a wide knowledge of history, literature and art. He often offers quotes from a variety of literary sources, including Shakespeare and Keats. Later in this same season, he reveals himself to be a baseball fan. Sara notes that this is typical of Grissom, saying that he would like "all those stats". However Grissom is not too familiar with popular culture. In "Two And a Half Deaths" Jim Brass was talking about a TV program which he thought had already "jumped the shark" but Grissom didn't know the term "jumping the shark". While trying to explain, Brass says, "Remember the Fonz?", which Grissom didn't know either.

Being an entomologist, he has a wide and varied knowledge of insects, which he applies to his investigations. This has led to his nickname, "The Bug Man". In the beginning of the show, he was referred as "Gruesome Grissom" for his sometimes morbid fascination with the more bizarre aspects of man and nature. Grissom keeps a variety of specimens in his office, including a radiated fetal pig, a tarantula, and a two headed scorpion. He also has a bulletin board that looks like a fish on which unsolved cases go: "the ones that got away". Occasionally, he keeps evidence from closed cases (such as the models created by "The Miniature Killer"). In season seven, CSI newcomer Michael Keppler takes a look around Grissom's office and observes that he must be quite a freak. In The Grave Shift, even after his office has been cleared out (and later reclaimed by a somewhat-reluctant Nick Stokes after Catherine Willows passed on the offer), the fetal pig in a jar was placed back in there by Hodges, who felt that it belonged there.

When asked why he is a CSI, he responds, "Because the dead can't speak for themselves." This is one of his favorite quotes and he uses it frequently.

Relationships with other characters

In the sixth season episode "Bang-Bang" Grissom tells Doc Robbins (concerning a woman shot in the mouth) "This was someone who was emotionally close to her." Doc Robbins asks him if he's ever even been close to getting married. Grissom tells him about "Nicole Daley", who like him was interested in bugs. He goes on a bit about her, then says, "Second grade."

Grissom may not ask to take on the role of mentor, but it seems to happen naturally, going all the way back to Sara Sidle when they first met in San Francisco, then Nick Stokes and Greg Sanders in Vegas. Although he can be annoyed with his protegés at times, he is visibly proud when they succeed, as Greg did by passing his field test and becoming a CSI.

He also shares a good friendship with Dr. Al Robbins, and in the season six finale, it was revealed that Jim Brass's living will gave Grissom power of attorney, showing that Grissom was the one person Brass trusted with his life. He has also been shown to be something of an inadvertent mentor-figure to David Hodges, who looks up to him and often seeks his advice or approval, despite not always receiving it. Upon learning of Grissom's plans to quit CSI, Hodges becomes visibly upset.

His relationship with Warrick Brown had aspects of a mentor/student bond, but out of all the CSIs (Catherine included), Grissom seemed to view Warrick as his successor, the one who would lead when he was gone.

Some fans have always expected to see a relationship between Grissom and Catherine Willows, in whom he is shown confiding many times, once even likening her to being his "wife". The two were never more than very good friends, as the show's producers see them as more of brother and sister than lovers. Catherine has many times encouraged Grissom to be more open and less self-absorbed, and to pursue something with Sara Sidle.

Grissom has been allegedly involved with forensic anthropologist Teri Miller and with S&M parlor operator Lady Heather, whose "safeword" he knows.

Sara Sidle

Since CSI's first season there were hints that both Sara Sidle and Grissom were interested in each other romantically. In fact creators made Sara Sidle while thinking of a future love interest for Grissom, but during the show's first three seasons Grissom flirted with all the female characters, and when Sara asked him out to dinner he rejected her, claiming that he does not know what to do about what is going on between them.

In season four Grissom's true feelings are revealed in "Butterflied", an episode that centers entirely around him discovering his sentiments for Sara. It was then that he admitted not being able to risk his career to be with her. In this season Sara apparently develops a drinking problem, which Grissom acknowledges on the season finale; after this they would hardly see each other, and Grissom becomes interested in detective Sofia Curtis.

In mid-season five, Sara is suspended for insubordination and she reveals to Grissom her tormented childhood. He refuses to fire her and has her working in every case of the next two seasons with him.

It was not until the sixth season finale that it is revealed that Grissom and Sara have worked through whatever issues they had, and are, in fact, a couple, and have been for two years. This revelation caused mix reviews among critics, some of them see this relationship as CSI "jumping the shark", an attempt to include more drama and romance to the show, so as to be able to compete with the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, which airs in the US at the same time. By killing off the sexual tension between the two characters and making them an item, the production crew were seen to be adding more personal drama to the show, increasing the appeal to some of Grey's Anatomy's younger audience. This has been denied by the writers, Carol Mendelsohn even said that she has never been able to see Grissom with someone else other than Sara and that this episode was seen by the writers as the right time to reveal the relationship, Jorja Fox and William Petersen have also admitted that the relationship is not new.

Throughout season seven the audience sees Grissom and Sara as a couple, but the relationship is kept secret from the others in the lab until Sara's abduction by The Miniature Killer in the season finale. During the 2007-2008 season, season eight, they have become engaged. In CSIs eighth season, when Jorja Fox decided to leave the show, both she and the writers decided not to kill the character, so as to leave the doors open for a possible comeback. Consequently, Sara Sidle is submerged into depression after her kidnap in the season seven finale, and, even though she accepts Grissom's marriage proposal on the season's fourth episode, she shows signs of burnout during the subsequent episodes, breaking down on the season's seventh episode, leaving Las Vegas and the CSI's with only a goodbye letter for Grissom and a good luck note for Ronnie Lake. In the letter she claims that ever since her father's death she has been dealing with "ghosts" and that she now needs to go away and deal with them before self-destructing.

After Grissom leaves CSI, he goes to Costa Rica, in hopes of finding Sara. Once they see each other, they embrace in a passionate kiss.