CSI: NY [TV Series] (2004)

The third entry in executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer's "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation) franchise, CSI: NY was introduced as "MIA/NYC," the May 17, 2004, episode of CSI: Miami. Making its formal weekly CBS debut on September 22 of that same year, the new series starred Gary Sinise as Mac Taylor, head of the New York City crime lab, whose job it was to use the skimpiest of forensic evidence to track down murderers. A Chicago native, Mac had gotten his police job as the result of his bravery under fire as a U.S. Marine; and like most of major CSI characters, he harbored quite a few personal demons, most of them stemming from the death of his wife in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Taylor's team of forensic specialists included Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes), an outspoken female cop who'd pulled herself up from a murky background (she'd been an orphan raised by strangers) and was the most caustic and outspoken of the CSIers; Don Flack (Eddie Cahill), Yonkers-born scion of a family of cops, who effectively bridged the gap between traditional and modern police methods and wasn't above bending the rules; Mac's protégé Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo), who grew up in Staten Island as part of a suspected (and constantly under-surveillance) crime family, but who'd decided to operate on the right side of the law -- albeit on his own terms; Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper), a Harlem native who'd graduated from college at 18 and became a licensed surgeon at 24, but who felt out of place in the rarefied world of commercial medicine and opted for police work instead; and flirtatious, streetwise forensic analyst Aidan Burn (Vanessa Ferlito). The theme music for CSI: NY was that old favorite by The Who, "Baba O'Reilly." The series was created by Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahoue, and Carol Mendelsohn. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi