MacDonald: It Was Exciting

Start small and work your way up.

Allen MacDonald started working as a writers assistant for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation during the show's third season. "On CSI, that means you sit in the writers room with the writers as they pitch and develop story ideas and take notes," MacDonald explained to the Saunders Report. "So, it was very exciting to be hired and know that I was going to be a part of that process."

At the end of the fourth season, MacDonald approached Carol Mendelsohn about writing a freelance episode. "Well, nobody takes a writers assistant job that doesn't want to eventually become a writer themselves and 'go on staff'," MacDonald explained. Writing a freelance episode gave him a chance to join the writing staff. "It's an 'audition episode' to see if you can successfully capture the tone and characters," MacDonald said. "So Carol and Naren Shankar decided to assign me Episode 18 of Season 5 which was called, 'Spark of Life'." The audition went well, and MacDonald was added to the writing staff for the sixth season.

MacDonald co-wrote the story and teleplay for "Goodbye and Good Luck", Jorja Fox's (Sara Sidle) final CSI episode. "It made me sad," he said. "I had the good fortune to write a lot of episodes for her and I love the character, so saying goodbye was bittersweet. But at the same time, I was extremely excited by the prospect of bringing back Sara's nemesis from 'The Unusual Suspect', Hannah West [Juliette Goglia]." He went on to say, "[I]t felt like the right case and the right characters to revisit in order to make Sara realize that maybe she didn't have the stomach for CSI work anymore after nearly dying at the hands of Natalie [Jessica Collins], the miniature killer."

To read the full interview, head over to the Saunders Report. Thanks to Shane for sharing his interview with us.

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