You named your production company Dare to Pass. Does that have anything to do with ABC passing on ''CSI''?
It looks so cocky in writing, but I named it that to psych myself up. The idea was, if you pass on my idea, I may set it up somewhere else and come back to bite you. But after ABC rejected the show and we started beating ''Millionaire,'' the press said, ''See, that's what you meant!'' But that was just the way it worked out.
What's going on with the ''CSI'' spin-off?
It may not happen, but if it does, it would only be in a situation where we could first protect the integrity of ''CSI'' and make a spin-off as great as that show. I don't know anything else until the powers that be tell us what direction we should be going towards. Bless ''Law & Order,'' because they have three shows in the top 20 that just keep getting better and better, and we'd like to emulate that success. And the topic of forensics is still untapped, really. There's so much more to do.
Don't you have a movie in the works?
I'm in the middle of writing a Hell's Angels feature for Tony Scott [''Spy Game'']. It's the story of Sonny Barber, the leader of the Hell's Angels, and it takes place from 1957 to 1979. It's the best writing of my career. I can't even pitch some of the scenes I've written without crying.
So how does a tram operator at the Mirage Hotel in Vegas become the creator of ''CSI''?
I had actually moved up from being the tram operator, working the graveyard shift at $8 an hour, to working in the Mirage's advertising department. A friend of mine had asked me to write material for his audition monologue. His agent liked it and asked me to write a script. I had a supervisor who didn't like me and I figured, why not? I bought some books, wrote a script in six weeks, and that became ''The Runner'' [the 1999 movie starring Ron Eldard], and my career took off from there. But it's so ridiculous to me that I'm sitting in an office worrying about ratings. Sometimes I think, ''Shut up and go back to the tram!''
There were rumors that Bill Clinton would make a cameo on the show. What happened?
That was so preposterous I couldn't believe it. I guess it's cool the show got a little buzz from that, but that's not something we would ever do. The minute we distract people from the show's reality with a cameo like that, we lose.
Has working on the show affected you in any peculiar ways?
I don't think I can eat barbecue ribs, because my first autopsy was a burn victim. And I never watch crime shows anymore. I've become a guy who likes reading the tabloids and watching ''Scary Movie'' and ''Clueless.'' Go figure.
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