I'll soon be writing an actual story about the last CSI episode to feature central character Gil Grissom,  played by William Petersen, which airs at 9 p.m. Thursday on CBS.

But to gather material, I visited the CSI set today, where I got to hang with the show's coroner (Robert David Hall, left) and I found out how a question I asked new castmember Laurence Fishburne during a conference call prompted him to call CBS president Les Moonves and ask 'Is what I'm doing going to have an impact on bringing more black people to leading roles?"

I also heard CBS executives fretting about the president's request for airtime at 8 p.m. Thursday; what will the disruption do to their send-off for Grissom?

While leaving the set, I stumbled on the Mystery Machine -- the replica of Scooby-Doo's classic van used for the live-action movies. And I spent a little time hanging with Liz Vassey, a Florida native now on CSI who you may remember from too-cool-to-last cult fave shows such as The Tick and Maximum Bob.

Anyway, here's some more awful photos to tide you over until I can actually write the story.

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