‘CSI’ creator Anthony Zuiker busy with other projects, but he’s still ‘just a kid from Vegas’

STUDIO CITY, Calif. -- There's no CSI Street at CBS Studio Center, where thoroughfares from Gunsmoke Avenue to Gilligan's Island Road stretch past the offices, warehouses and soundstages of the busy TV production lot.

But perhaps there should be a CSI Street, considering the show's status -- along with its two spinoffs-- as TV's most popular current franchise. The flagship CBS series, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," launches its 10th season on television tonight.

For now, however, the man who dreamed up the twisted world of "CSI" -- longtime Las Vegan Anthony E. Zuiker -- spends his workdays on Park Street, inside what appears to be a brown-shingled suburban house, complete with white porch pillars, known as Bungalow 9.

Behind Bungalow 9's placid walls, however, is the bustling headquarters of Zuiker's Dare to Pass Productions, where he and his staff juggle projects ranging from traditional TV to cutting-edge offerings that add digital media to the mix.

A wall-sized dry-erase calendar keeps track of the boss's peripatetic schedule.

There are trips to New York and the East Coast to promote his recently published novel "Level 26: Dark Origins," the first of a three-part series pitting haunted detective Steve Dark against a spectral serial killer dubbed Sqweegel.

Zuiker describes "Level 26" as a "digi-novel" because it combines a traditional literary thriller with an interactive Internet site -- and, every 20 pages, three-minute, digitally filmed "cyberbridges" (which Zuiker directed) link the book's chapters.

There's a trip to Las Vegas on the calendar too: to cut the ribbon at the recent grand opening of the MGM Grand's CSI: The Experience.

These days, a trip to Las Vegas is just that -- a visit.

Because Zuiker doesn't live in Vegas anymore.

"My wife and I have a running joke -- it's her turn to commute," Zuiker says.

For most of the past decade, Jennifer and their sons -- ages 9, 6 and 3 -- stayed in Southern Nevada while Zuiker commuted to Southern California to work on the Las Vegas-set "CSI" and its Miami- and New York-based spinoffs (which began their eighth and sixth seasons this week).

"Flying back and forth, living without my children," Zuiker cites the "personal and professional tolls" he paid while keeping "CSI's" make-believe world spinning. "Either you find a vice or you cathartically find a way to survive."

Zuiker did the latter, figuring he could "get more work done without the family being there," even if it meant a "persistent toll of stress that never left you."

Especially when "CSI" transformed him from former Mirage tram driver to TV titan.

"People wonder why you can't go for a beer on a Friday night -- but there is no beer," he says, clearing his throat as the emotion builds. "I'm writing in a small dingy office and just trying to get home to my kids."

Now that the entire Zuiker family's back together, in a prosperous Los Angeles residential area, Zuiker's home at 5:30 p.m. every day and able to share rituals -- from swimming pool games to bedtime tuck-ins -- with his boys.

And while he continues as an executive producer on all three "CSI" series, Zuiker's professional attentions are elsewhere, from his production company to his "digi-novels." (A co-author is writing the second "Level 26" installment while Zuiker works on the book's "cyberbridges.")

He also blogs three times a week on the "Level 26" Web site (www.level26.com), enabling him to interact directly with readers.

In short, Zuiker's doing what he's always done since "CSI" rocketed him to TV's top ranks: "Keep working and hang on."

When "CSI" made its network debut, in October 2000, "it was really awesome to have something on the air," Zuiker recalls -- even in a 9 o'clock Friday night slot on a network more excited about such can't-miss hits as a Bette Midler sitcom and a "Fugitive" revamp.

Somehow, viewers found, and embraced, "CSI" -- which took off, and took on NBC's powerhouse Thursday "Must-See TV" lineup.

For years now, "CSI" and its spinoffs have been must-see TV -- and Zuiker has "been very responsible not to get caught up in the enormity of the franchise."

Which doesn't mean he doesn't have a few reminders scattered around his Bungalow 9 office, notably a "CSI" pinball machine.

Still, it's "occasionally flattering to dwell on" the impact of a show that draws 75 million weekly viewers in the United States watching on network and cable TV. (To say nothing of millions more around the world -- and even more millions watching its spinoffs.)

After all, "it's the dream of every TV creator to cut a cake" celebrating 100 episodes, Zuiker notes. "I've cut four."

Each of the three "CSI" series has hit the 100-episode mark; the original has passed 200 episodes -- and "CSI: Miami" will reach that milestone soon.

After such international success, however, Zuiker's grateful to embrace a less "CSI"-centric life, personally and professionally -- and is eager to "spread my wings and do other things and exercise a different muscle."

Even though "I've never worked harder and I have less time," he says, "it's a different kind of work."

Heading up his own production company, "it all falls on me."

But that level of control means Zuiker can explore his ideas about the future of mass media, which began changing, "starting five years ago," when he began to detect that traditional TV shows, even such smash hits as "CSI," had competition from portable electronic devices, from the Internet to mobile telephones, that enabled audiences to start "experiencing TV in a snack-sized way," Zuiker observes.

"People can consume content on the go," in customized formats. And, as a result, "TV began to show its age a bit."

All of which prompted Zuiker to forge contacts with technology experts in the Silicon Valley, where he found "a lot of brilliant minds -- but no ability to tell a story."

That led him to explore "cross-platform storytelling," merging "TV, mobile, online and gaming." It's a model that's taken Zuiker from "CSI" to "Level 26" -- and beyond.

"I assume all the risk," Zuiker says, smiling. "It's a wonderful feeling -- one that I would love to replicate for the rest of my life."

Zuiker's professional focus may have changed since "CSI" changed his life.

But his personal goals remain the same: "To be as successful as possible -- to be as good a person as possible."

After all, he reasons, "To me, I'm still just a kid from Vegas trying to make it."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.