Few have experienced the overnight success that Anthony E. Zuiker has encountered in Hollywood. Just seven years ago, as an aspiring writer, he worked as a tram driver at Las Vegas’ Mirage Hotel!

Zuiker, creator of the hit television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, now enjoys the distinction of having what is arguably the most successful television franchise in history. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, Zuiker serves as Executive Producer of CSI and writes numerous episodes each season. He also executive produces CSI: Miami and serves as the show runner and Executive Producer for CSI: New York.

Although he could easily be spoiled by his tremendous success in Hollywood, Anthony Zuiker maintains a humbleness that is grounded in values instilled in him from childhood, a deep love of wife and family, and a pure passion for his work. He is extremely confident, but not arrogant, deferential but not a pushover and happy to be a player, but not defined by that. Equally important and admirable is the fact that in a town where creative acknowledgment tends to be an issue, he gives credit where it is due.

ITL/SL: With your success in television, would you say that you have realized or surpassed your dreams?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I’ve definitely surpassed my dreams. I mean, the dream has always been, from my perspective to be able to one day walk into a store and see a product that I created, or see my name in a film or have my name on a book…something that I actually accomplished that was for sale on the marketplace, where I could walk up, purchase and enjoy it as if I were a customer. That has always been sort of my dream. For me right now, with three shows in the top 15 and the biggest show in the world, I’m able to see not only my name every week for credits, but really be involved in all the things I’ve loved as a young boy, which is music and writing and film and television. Those are the things that I really, really love and they’ve come true.

ITL/SL: What kind of music do you like?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I like hip-hop. I like R&B. My favorite artist right now is Regina Spektor. Once I listened to Regina Spektor, I pretty much threw away all of my rap music.

ITL/SL: Really? I haven’t heard of her. Is she a rap artist?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: She’s a Russian artist who plays piano. I first heard of her when I was watching MTV on this thing called You Heard it First. The singer Pink was talking about this being her favorite new young artist. From that point, I requested ten copies of her latest album and was so mesmerized by her music that I literally threw the rest of my music in the garbage. I put her in the show last year and a song called Samson from her new album also debuted on the April 26 show. It is a beautiful ballad.

ITL/SL: So she must be thrilled about that.

ANTHONY ZUIKER: She is. She’s definitely thrilled.

ITL/SL: Apart from the financial shift, what has changed about your life?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: As much as my life has changed, it’s still the same in some respects. I think what has changed is the label of 'The CSI Guy.' I never got used to that label. Of course the finances are much different, but at the end of the day I think that dealing with success at a fast rate, exposure at a fast rate, financial gain at a fast rate and being a semi-celebrity in terms of the industry has definitely been a challenge, because the people who were in your life before your success see you differently now and you’re seeing yourself a bit differently now. You’re trying to hang on always to who you are. So, it becomes very challenging in all respects. It becomes challenging on myself, my family, my wife, my parents...I encourage them not to talk a lot about CSI in the public, nor to their friends – keep our privacy – and it’s a difficult task.

ITL/SL: At the Hollywood Breakfast you said some pretty powerful things about your mom – she raised you to be the man you are proud to be today. What are some of the values she instilled in you that still govern your life and work ethic?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I was fortunate enough to have a single mother who raised me the right way and it sounds like a cliché, but it’s valid – the importance of being honest, the importance of being forthright, the importance of working hard, the importance of saying two things everyday, which I do everyday – is “thank you” and “I’m sorry” or “I’m sorry” and “thank you” – always apologizing, although it’s not my fault sometimes (laughs). But I’m overly thanking people for all of their work and those are things I seem to be doing a lot. I believe that my ego is at a minimum, but my mother’s always taught me really about getting more bees with honey -- about how you treat people. I believe you’ll get more from situations being nice to people – and you’ll get that back. She’s been absolutely right. Honesty and integrity and hard work are still valued values in this business.

ITL/SL: Who would you credit as giving you your first break and what was that?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I would credit a man by the name of Mike Marvin. Mike Marvin is a producer in town who produced a film called Hot Dog. He was really the first person in the business to read my first screenplay called The Runner and really began to assemble people to possibly make the movie -- and the movie was ultimately made. If you talk about the top three or five people who helped me launch my career, I would say Mike Marvin is probably the number one person.

ITL/SL: Are you guys still in touch?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: We haven’t spoken in a long time, but I always thank him and give him credit.

ITL/SL: When did you realize that you could write and possibly make a living doing it?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Well, I believe when I was offered $35,000 for my first screenplay called The Runner. To me, at that juncture in my life, $35,000 might as well have been $35 million. I couldn’t believe that someone would actually want to pay me that kind of money. Then when I pitched Columbia Pictures the Harlem Globetrotters story – the rewrite ideas for that story -- and they hired me, I really began to think “Wow! Maybe I do honestly have a chance to work in the business." It was really my first sale of my screenplay, The Runner, that really convinced me that I had a shot.

ITL/SL: Now, when you were in Vegas working as a tram driver, how did you keep your dream of writing alive?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Well, when I was on the tram, I wrote The Runner and it wasn’t until I got into Hollywood that I wrote the Globetrotters story -- my real studio job – CSI came afterwards. I wasn’t on the tram writing CSI. I was literally in the business for about a year or two. My first television attempt was CSI and [that was] my first television script.

ITL/SL: How did the idea come to you about CSI and how did you make it a reality?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: My wife was eight months pregnant with my first son. And when your wife is pregnant, she allows you to go outside and play, so to speak, for an hour a day, which my wife did. And I was at a place where I could walk out the front door to play basketball for an hour, which was my means of exercise, or sit next to her and watch this show on cable called The New Detectives. I decided to sit and watch the show New Detectives and from watching that episode, the idea for Crime Scene Investigation was born – to do a cop show with forensic twist and really, really do a procedural type show with that kind of forensic perspective. If I would have walked through that door and played basketball, I might not have ever re-engaged in that idea and there would be no such thing as Crime Scene Investigation.

ITL/SL: Does your wife take credit for that?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I give her credit all the time. Absolutely! Again, I think this is the ideal partnership for me – a very smart and savvy wife that’s married to a very creative man and in our partnership great things happen...and they continue to happen.

ITL/SL: That’s great. So, do you know all this forensic stuff – are you a forensic buff or do you have a team of experts?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I’m not. I’m actually not. I do find it very fascinating. As I began the show, I began to do a lot more reading on forensic science and looking for the latest technologies, but I had no preconceived knowledge of what forensic science really was. In fact, I was so ignorant, that up to the point before I wrote the pilot, I thought that the cops did all the finger printing and lab work. I had no idea there was crime scene clean up or people who go around with gloves and take hair follicles and take photographs. I never quite put that together as a human being, up to the age of almost thirty years old. I was pleasantly surprised that there was a whole team of people that do this -- that the cops were there to secure the crime scene while the crime scene investigation team came in to scrutinize and seal evidence.

ITL/SL: I guess you’re very involved in story development. Could you talk a bit about the creative process that you go through in taking a story from conception to the screen?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Sure. We have a writers’ room that has about seven, eight writers and a couple of tech advisors – a New York tech advisor and a forensic tech advisor. We’ll be in the room and we’ll have ideas from newspapers, we’ll have forensic technology ideas we either read from a book or saw on television. We may have a story arc from a character that one of us may have thought of say, in the shower, and then we begin to talk it out – do some research and we have a collaboration of minds that begins to write ideas on the board, and then begin to structure those ideas in terms of teaser, Act One, Act Two, Act Three and Act Four. And once we’re happy with the flow of that on the board, the writers will pitch me the story with fresh ears and then I will move things around and approve it. Then it will go to outline. From outline it will go to script. We get a plethora of notes, and then we’ll begin to shoot.

ITL/SL: Is that a typical day for you?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: My typical day as a showrunner is being on the phone dealing with the network and with the studio and handling all of the housekeeping, which is the day-to-day of hiring and firing and the creative vision of the show, problems on set, dealing with actors, publicity, ideas for sweeps, rewriting scripts, writing my own scripts…just really being the overseer of the day-to-day business of keeping a show running.

ITL/SL: So, which hat do you prefer to wear – writer, producer, showrunner?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I would say producer/writer. I love to produce my writing. Showrunning is a great responsibility, but – I have great pleasure in showrunning, in teaching and talking with the younger writers. But what I’m here to do is be creative, write great special shows and produce them to the best of my ability.

ITL/SL: So you don’t write every show anymore – you write maybe a few every season?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I’ve never written every show. At my highlight, I’ve written seven in one year. Now, I write a handful of shows – maybe three or four for New York, one for Miami, one for Las Vegas and just really be able to help out the franchise and just really focus on CSI: New York.

ITL/SL: Now, you said Vegas – I’m not aware of a Vegas CSI – is that coming up?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: CSI is CSI: Las Vegas.

ITL/SL: Ah, the main one – the granddaddy of it all?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Yes ma’am.

ITL/SL: So, Jerry Bruckheimer. What role does he play in all of this?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Jerry Bruckheimer is an executive producer. He reads the scripts. He watches the dailies. He watches the shows. He will assist us in the launch of the shows, in terms of providing us names for editors and making sure the look of the show feels what we call “Bruckheimeresque.” I coined the phrase in the press of true television, that makes mini Bruckheimer movies every week. That’s really the role that he has – somebody who’s been in the business for a long, long time and who has excellent taste and is able to convey that taste, look and style into my franchise.

ITL/SL: You have the original CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI: New York – do you plan on expanding the franchise?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I don’t think so. I think that three at this juncture is enough. I believe there may be a CSI movie sometime in the future, but for now, three is still respectable for the audience, and I believe there will not be a domestic fourth.

ITL/SL: There have been many “knock-offs” of CSI – where do you see that genre of television in the next few years?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I think eventually this crime wave will subside. I believe that the knock-offs of CSI reinforce the strength of our franchise, so I welcome knock-offs. I would rather have people sample other forensic shows and realize that there is only one 'Coca Cola' so to speak. Also, the other knock-off shows do get forensic science into the public consciousness -- of not only the television viewer, but to other magazine subscription programs and cable shows -- that reinforce this thing called forensics, which ultimately bring the viewer back to CSI. So it’s a win/win for all of us. The risk of a downside is that too much overexposure on forensic science may tend to chip away at the fascination of the viewing public because they are being saturated with material. We would rather take the exposure of forensics to strengthen CSI than to worry about erosion due to dilution.

ITL/SL: I like that. Is there a particular director or star you would like to work with whom you haven’t worked as yet?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: We have a lot of stars on all three shows. It’s a lot of fun. We have great director/producers on all three of our shows. I enjoy working with the directors that live here and enjoy working with the guest directors, because this is a little bit more of a challenging show. It’s definitely not an easy show to shoot. It’s storytelling, mystery, moments, character, and I enjoy all the directors that come through here.

ITL/SL: What do you like most and the least about producing?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: What I like most about producing is you have a dream in your head, you write it, they act it, they shoot it, you put it together and then when it’s on the air, you give millions of people the same experience that was inside your head. That is a wonderful, wonderful experience.

What I like least about producing is all of the interference we have, and so many opinions that we have to abide by. [There are] so many masters we have to serve that must make their mark on every show, sometimes that makes it a little complicated. The solution is not to rid ourselves of those masters, because oftentimes they have ideas that just make the show better. But sometimes you’ll be dealt a curveball that invariably will hurt the show, and sometimes you have to deal with that and the viewer sometimes may have to suffer. So, it’s really a cat and mouse game, but I say the good far outweigh the bad.

ITL/SL: What do you consider the greatest asset you bring to your work?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Personally?

ITL/SL: Yeah.

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I would say just a level of creative talent and treating people good and making them better by influencing them to be better. What my natural strength is is I’m a creator. Woody Allen, the famous director once said, ‘there’s nothing to it if you can do it.’ And I can do this kind of thing all day long. I never have story block or writer’s block. I never run out of ideas. I know enough to know that if a creative idea isn’t coming, it’s not because it hasn’t come to me yet. More than likely it’s not supposed to come in that fashion. It’s not set up the right way. So, I listen to those small little voices creatively, so it’s never a situation where you’re trying to think of what to name a teddy bear that’s fluorescent orange with a pink nose. The sort of way it comes to you, you just know that it’s not supposed to be named a certain way, and I believe that as a creator it’s my natural ability to do that and I never ever want to run out of ideas. So, what makes me the most excited right now is to go into new ventures – a new TV show, a new wireless area, the toy industry, video downloads, there are different areas of multimedia that I’m now getting into because it’s a phenomenal challenge creatively.

ITL/SL: Is there anything you are actually involved in right now in multimedia that you able to talk about right now?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I haven’t pitched my new show, but it will be adventurous.

ITL/SL: You’re not going to venture into comedy, huh?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Not at this juncture. It’s something that I’m definitely looking into in the future, but if I go into comedy, it’ll be for a specific reason. And that reason may be that I have a fantastic idea for a show, but again, I’m hoping to – I have a big responsibility to the CSI franchise. I am in no rush to put ten shows on the air. Every show on the air is difficult. What I want to do is help keep this franchise healthy.

ITL/SL: You seem to be very focused and very aware of what you want to do, when you want to do it and how you want to do it, which is admirable really. Now, you have said that women have played and are playing important roles in your life. Could you tell us a bit about that?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Sure. Carol Mendelsohn, who is the showrunner and executive producer of CSI: Las Vegas, Ann Donahue, executive producer and showrunner for CSI: Miami, and Nina Tassler, who is the president of CBS – those three women are solely responsible for my career. Nina Tassler was the one who gave me my first ‘yes’ for CSI to write that pilot. Ann Donahue and Carol Mendelsohn were the two executive producer/partners that taught me television and kept me involved in the show to teach me television until I had enough experience to attempt to run a show. So, I take my hat off to those three women who’ve been incredibly influential and have been, like I said, pretty much solely responsible for the success of Anthony Zuiker.

ITL/SL: You also have a female manager and publicist, right?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Right. My manager, Margaret Riley saw my writing at a very, very early stage. I’ve had her since I first got to town. So, between my mother, my grandmother, my wife, my publicist, my manager, Nina, Carol, Ann – these are very important women who have helped me to succeed. I brought my share of creative talent to the table, but nobody can do it alone and you need support – people behind you. And I’ve been fortunate enough to treat people respectfully to where they care to help push me up and I, in turn, work really hard to give them credit for that.

ITL/SL: That’s good. I like that. When you were starting out, what role did networking play in your life?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I’ve never been much for networking – at least not in the ‘getting into the business’ stage. It’s not really a setting that I excel in. I like to public speak. I’m not very good at cocktail parties or soirees or big dinners. I’m not very good at that. I tend to want to have the work speak for itself and then when approached, to really be able to dazzle you one-on-one with who I am. But I’ve never been a really big networker. I do recommend people getting into the business should make contact with producers and go to mixers and that kind of thing, because a lot of those people are in the same boat as you are and it’s a good thing to know. There’s nothing beneficial about coming into town and hiding in a house and writing something that nobody is going to see. I do recommend that for people getting into the business. For me, personally, as soon as I got into town, things began to take off. I never got into the mixers and the soirees and I still don’t do that today. I’m just too busy and I feel like I just do my talking in the scripts.

ITL/SL: Now, I know you’re a family man. Now, how would you describe ‘Anthony the dad’?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: (Laughs). I’m a very fun loving humorous dad. I love my children very much. I’m best friends with my wife and make her laugh. I do what I can. The struggle I have is to turn my entire career off for the weekend and just be a husband and a father because I am hot-wired to be a workaholic. I’m hot-wired to think creatively in my sleep all the time. I’ve been known to toss and turn at hours at a time on a weekend because I just can’t figure something out and at some point I have to turn over and tell my body to let it go so I can get some sleep. I also have a hard time taking vacation time to really take that time to refuel. I am constantly reminded by my manager to refuel going into the Thanksgiving Season or the Christmas Season or the vacation season to really begin to refuel for a long season ahead. So I’ve taken that advice more and more as I’ve gone on, but it’s difficult, especially when you have a new idea that wants to come out of you. It’s hard to shut if off.

ITL/SL: Oh yeah! I go through that myself. So, what is a typical day for you at home then?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: At home, I’ll wake up early with the children. My wife and I usually do some kind of function with them. We may go to lunch together, take a nap in the day. Saturday night is usually what we call ‘date night’ where we’ll go to dinner and a movie. Then on Sunday the parents will take the kids and she and I will usually just hang out, watch TV or go swimming or something, pick the kids up about five or six, play with them, put them to bed by eight, then we’ll watch a bunch of Tivo programs on Sunday night, which is Surreal Life, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Big Loves, Sopranos. We’ll go through a list of five or six hours of television until midnight and go to bed. It’s been like this for the last seven years.

ITL/SL: Is that Surreal Life?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Yes, Surreal Life.

ITL/SL: I know you live in Vegas, but where were you born?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I was born in Blue Island, Illinois.

ITL/SL: What were you like as a child?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I am an only child, so I would say that I was pretty fun-loving class clown, but it didn’t take a lot to occupy me and keep me interested. I was one of those babies and young boys that can have a couple of marbles and some batteries or some army men and keep myself occupied for hours. I didn’t really need to have a lot of people entertain me. I think it’s a direct reflection of how I am today, which is, it doesn’t take a lot to entertain me. I have great passion in watching movies. I have great passion in playing pinball. I have great passion in sitting on my bed with a couple of legal pads and a couple of pencils thinking and working on ideas. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing my whole life.

ITL/SL: So, what’s next for you?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: What’s next is probably to be directing movies. I think that I’ll move on from television and write a fantastic movie and want to get behind the camera and work with the actors and director. I think I’m in a position where I need a little more control over my art to make sure it comes out exactly as envisioned and I believe that the public will never be disappointed if I can accomplish what’s inside my head.

ITL/SL: Being from Hollywood, what is the most surprising thing you learned about Hollywood while actually being a player in the game?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: I was surprised that the town was really filled with great people. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about sharks and that it was a bad place and how people try to rip you off and steal from you. But I was surprised at the level of just fantastic, good-natured people in the business. They have their share of sharks, obviously, but it’s nowhere near what was presented to me. I have dear, dear friends that have money or don’t have money, or are big people in the business or not big people, and I have a wonderful time with them without any snootiness or egos. I was also surprised at how young the business was…that there were these young people – 25, 28, 30, 34 that were running multimillion dollar companies and putting films together. I always thought it would be like people over 50 doing it, that have been in the business forever, but it’s a lot of young people. Those are the two things that surprised me.

ITL/SL: Okay, fill in the blanks – navigating Hollywood, your experience has been what?

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Surreal.

ITL/SL: Thank you very much. I really enjoyed talking with you.  I think you’re brilliant and I congratulate you on all your success.

ANTHONY ZUIKER: Thank you very much. It was my pleasure. Like I said, I would do this interview and I’m happy to do it. Any follow-up questions you know where I am. If you would be so kind to let me know when this runs I’d love to take a look at it.

ITL/SL: Most definitely.
 

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