Posted at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 18

Laurence Fishburne will joining "CSI" this fall. [AP photo]

“CSI” has a new fan in Laurence Fishburne.

“I am now,” the actor said Monday during a conference call to introduce him as the CBS crime series’ latest hire. “I felt a little stupid and embarrassed that I hadn’t watched the show before.”

Fishburne, famous for playing Morpheus in the “The Matrix” movies, will fill the gap when actor William Petersen leaves “CSI” during the show’s ninth season this fall. He will portray a college professor and former research pathologist who joins the team in an entry-level position—as a CSI-Level 1. The character will be introduced in Episode 9 of the new season, and he and Petersen’s Gil Grissom will work together over two episodes before Grissom leaves the team.

CBS doesn’t have firm air dates for the episodes. In fact, not a lot has been worked out about Fishburne's role.

"We have a lot of stuff to work out," he said. "... I think over the coming weeks we’ll get cracking and discover what the answers to those questions are."

Executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, also on Monday’s call, said that Fishburne will begin shooting in mid-September. He was their dream choice when they were looking for an actor to join the cast.

“Naren and I spoke to each and every member of our cast and I have rarely seen them as excited,” Mendelsohn said. “They just can’t wait until Mr. Fishburne gets on that set and they get to collaborate and act with him and be in the series with him.”

Fishburne said he is excited to join the show.

“I’m happy to say that the episodes they sent to me were really, really engaging and really wonderful and kind of dark and moody like the kind of work that I’ve been involved in,” he said. “And I thought ‘Wow that’s cool.’ Wow, this will work.’”

Details still need to be worked out for the character, who doesn’t even have a name yet.

I’d like to suggest Curtis, in honor of the last character Fishburne played as a TV series regular—Cowboy Curtis of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.”

Fishburne and the producers answered more questions, read the selected takes from the interview.

Q: Tell us about Mr. Fishburne’s character.

NS: His background is more than just being a college professor. The character that we’re creating has a background as a medical doctor, a research pathologist as a matter of fact. For a number of reasons the backstory will get revealed over the course of the season. We’ll learn that he’s been forced out of that career and has become a college lecturer. He’s teaching a course in criminalistics when he gets involved in an investigation with CSI.

Q: Have you worked in series TV before?

LF: Not since the mid-to-late ’80s with a wonderful CBS show called “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” where I played the psychedelic Cowboy Curtis.

Q: What about stepping away from your movie career?

LF: I wouldn’t say my going to weekly TV series in actually stepping away from anything. It’s another medium in which to work as an actor. Because I haven’t done series TV since “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” it’s a welcome change. It’s going to be challenging and it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be exciting.

Q: How did you land on Laurence and why he was dream casting for you?

CM: When you are casting for a show, the casting people at CBS give you a list of names which probably encompasses everyone that’s ever acted. You realize you have to take the soul and spirit of your show and say who is your dream, who do you want. So Naran and I actually sat down and said OK pull out all the stops, don’t even think about if it’s realistic. If we could have anyone in the world, who do we want?

We said Laurence Fishburne. Sometimes there’s just magic and sometimes things are meant to be and actually work out and that’s where we put our effort and here we are today.

NS: We’re a show that spends a lot of time thinking. We don’t blow stuff up; we’re not about chasing people down and shooting people. The quality that we were looking for was deep intelligence. And Mr. Fishburne, you look at his work, he’s always brought that sensibility to the work that he’s done. He was a perfect fit for “CSI.”

Q: How will the show change in terms of tone with Laurence in and Bill out?

CM: I think throughout the history of the show there have been episodes or events that have shifted tone of the show or set us in a slightly altered direction. We as writers and producers have always embraced those shifts and I think that the show has welcomed those shifts as well.

Yes, I think the show will continue to evolve now with the new make-up of our cast and for us that’s exciting. We don’t shy away from that; we don’t view that as something negative. We view that as an extremely positive thing that keeps us all excited about the show.

Everyone from cast and crew is just excited and you can feel that on our set. That’s what you want. We made the perfect choice and now we go forward together and we continue to make “CSI” a great show.

Q: Will you bring on additional cast members?

CM: What you have is a team made up of a supervisor, Capt. Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger); a CSI-3 ready to be a supervisor, Nick Stokes (George Eads); plus you have Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) and [new cast member] Lauren Lee Smith, who is joining the series in Episode 3 of the season. Catherine and Nick will ...

NS: They’re the natural people to lead the team, the people with the seniority. And as we said Mr. Fishburne’s character will join the team as a CSI Level 1. So that’s going to be the way the team is going to reconfigure.

Q: William Petersen is leaving the show but he’s not getting killed off, is he?

CM: We’re not going to tell you how he’s leaving.

Q: But will there be some overlap with Petersen and Fishburne?

NS: Yes they will. They will be involved in a case together in episodes 9 and 10.

Q: Do we have name for the new character yet?

CM: No we don’t but we’re open for suggestions.

NS: Our internal code name for this character is “The Professor.”

Q: A lot has been said about Mr. Fishburne’s character finding that he has the same genetic profile as serial killers. How prominent a part of the character is that going to be and how do you play it?

LF: I have no knowledge of such a biological profile nor would I be at liberty to speak about such a biological profile if in fact such a biological profile did exist. I don’t know.

I’m really excited that I’m going to be joining this team. We have a lot of stuff to work out. Our last question was ‘what is this character’s name.’ ... I think over the coming weeks we’ll get cracking and discover what the answers to those questions are.

Bringing new characters into such an established piece as ‘CSI’ requires a lot of thought and consideration. You have to consider not just the folks that work on the show but the audience and a number of things.

NS: I think it was misreported a little bit that this character has the genetic makeup of a serial killer because in reality there is no such thing. What we really wanted to play with in a dramatic sense is he’s a character who has been able to examine his own genetic profile to an extent and has been able to find certain complexes and certain clusters of biological facts that he has in common or that are associated with aggressive and criminal behavior. Obviously that’s a mouthful ... It’s just one of the things that’s going to lead this character to be interested in the world of violent criminals and criminalistics and forensics. It’s just sort of what draws him to it.

Q: How will your collaboration work?

LF: I think it’s going to work really well. When we met it was really clear that that’s sort of the spirit that we all like to work in. When Naran and Carol talked to me about working with William Petersen from the outset, [they said] they approached it with a theatrical style. It’s really going to be about throwing things into the pot and picking the best of everything.

Q: You’re a writer/director. Are you going into it thinking you’ll be wearing all the hats?

LF: Not at all. I’m going in as an actor who is being given an opportunity to play a character that I’ve never played before. It’s a very unusual set of circumstances that this character finds himself in.

Q: When will Mr. Fishburne start shooting?

CM: Around the middle of September—Sept. 17 or 18.

Q: Will we see by season’s end that the character will run the team?

CM: Our initial first-blush thought was we thought it was so interesting to have our new CSI come in as a CSI-1, someone who is so intelligent, established in their own right, knowledgeable, and come in to a crime scene with the eye and with the attitude of someone that hasn’t been to a lot of crime scenes.

NS: It takes a special personality to be willing to start sort of new, to come into an entirely different situation, a place where you’re not in charge of everything and start over. That’s a very interesting place dramatically for a character and an actor.

CM: One of the things that excites us is that the character will feel very at home in the bowels of the coroner’s office, a little more comfortable than what he feels in the hallways [of CSI].

Q: Will we get Gil’s take on this guy? What will be the dynamic during these characters’ overlap?

NS: We can tell you that Gil will definitely have an opinion on who this guy is. You’ll see them together. The idea is that in episodes 9 and 10 to see a lot of Billy and Laurence together.

Q: Is it freaking you out to go into this unchartered territory?

LF: No, I’m very excited about it.

NS: He may think differently after we take him to the morgue.

LF: Oh goodness.

NS: It’s sort of like a hazing that we all do. We’ve all gone to the autopsies ourselves, all of our writers do, all of our actors have gone. It’s a fascinating and incredibly intense process and I think Laurence is going to get a lot out of it.

Q: How do you feel about that Laurence?

LF: I’m ready. I’m game.

Q: Professor Morpheus has a certain ring to it.

Laughter

Q: There a certain demands to weekly shows. And this show has it’s own demands with dialogue and gore. Is doing weekly TV again something you are looking forward to doing? Are you ready for that speed?

LS: I’m actually looking forward to it. I just finished doing a one-man show on Broadway, which has been 145 performances in 5 months of 6 months. That’s good, good, good training for what I’m about to enter into with respect to the speed which you have to work when doing network television. It’s not unlike being in a rep company. So I think I’m very well-prepared to enter into this.

And again, because the character is so sort of different than anything I’ve ever done, I’m looking forward to it. That’s a challenge.

Q: How do you feel about joining a pretty tight-knit cast?

LF: I’ve had the good fortune of working with a number of people who are in the cast. So I’m looking forward to that. Listen, the most important thing for me to remember is not to mistake my presence for the event. The event is the show. The event is “CSI,” the show, and everyone has the responsibility to bring their unique talents and gifts to it. And that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to enter into this with the most positive attitude I can. I’m coming to work with people who are wonderful who’ve made great television for nine years. That’s a gift. All I can say is I’m excited and I’m ready to play.

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Here in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lawrence Fishburne is not doing the show any favors by repeatedly mispronouncing our state's name. That would not happen in real life without others around him correcting his error.

It is pronounced neh-VAD-uh ('a' as in dad).

Curt's reply: Maybe that's a decision about the character that he made. Who knows? Thanks bob

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