Ted Danson slips on latex gloves for CSI role

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This article was published 16/07/2011 (5543 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS Sam Malone, he was one of TV’s most famous ladies’ men on the classic sitcom Cheers. He was a cranky doctor in the ’90s sitcom Becker, long before Hugh Laurie made cranky TV doctors fashionable. He played a bad-tempered head-shrinker in the short-lived psychiatrist sitcom, Help Me Help You. He starred opposite Glenn Close in the acclaimed ’80s “issues” TV movie, Something About Amelia, then starred opposite Close again, 30 years later, as a corporate greed baron in the acclaimed, hard-hitting series, Damages. He plays himself, opposite Larry David, on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He plays a Vanity Fair-type magazine editor and one of TV’s great potheads opposite Zach Galifianakis — not an easy feat — in HBO’s Bored to Death.

And now he’s about to don duds as a crime-scene investigator in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, one of TV’s most-watched dramas and the granddaddy of today’s wave of forensic crime procedurals.

Edward Bridge (Ted) Danson, a baby boomer born in 1947 in San Diego, will join the cast of CSI as a series regular when the drama returns Sept. 21 in its new day and time, Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

Danson replaces Laurence Fishburne, who, in turn, replaced original lead actor William Petersen. Fishburne announced he was leaving CSI in June, after two seasons.

Danson will play the new supervisor of the CSI crime unit’s graveyard shift — a far cry from the happy days when he mixed cocktails and chatted up the ladies behind the bar in Cheers. The pay is good, though: CSI is one of prime-time TV’s most sought-after, well-remunerated roles.

“You can create a new character on the page, but until the perfect actor comes along and breathes life into it, it’s just words,” veteran CSI producer Carol Mendelsohn said in a prepared statement. “We’re very excited Ted Danson came along.”

CSI co-producer Don McGill added that Danson brings wit, warmth, depth of character, and emotion to the role. “And now he’ll have to bring latex gloves, too.”

Danson is best known for Cheers. As with so many TV actors, though, he was around long before he landed his breakthrough role. He started in TV as a contract player on the daytime soap Somerset, in 1975-’76. For a time, he was familiar to TV viewers as “the Aramis man,” in the skin-care and cosmetics commercials. He made a number of high-profile guest appearances in some of the ’70s’ and ’80s’ most familiar series, including Laverne & Shirley, Magnum, P.I. and Taxi. He also reprised his role of Sam Malone in an early episode of Frasier, and supplied his voice as Malone in an episode of The Simpsons.

CSI, TV’s most-watched program in 2002-’03 and second-most-watched in 2003-’04 and ’04-’05, has slipped in recent seasons. It ended the 2010-’11 season as TV’s 12th-most-watched program, with an estimated average weekly audience of 15 million viewers on CBS and CTV — respectable, but no longer groundbreaking.

This fall will mark CSI‘s 12th season.

Danson starring in CSI won’t prevent him from reappearing in Bored to Death. The HBO comedy is filmed out of season, during what would be CSI‘s hiatus.

Ironically, Bored to Death‘s new season is scheduled to premiere in September on HBO, the same month Danson will start his role on CSI. Bored to Death‘s season will have completed filming by then, though, even though the episodes won’t have aired.

— Postmedia News