While playwrights once snubbed their noses at writing for the small screen, that is no longer the case as big names like Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet write for TV.

“There’s no indignity in working in television!” says CSI’s David Rambo. Rambo came into CSI in its fourth season. He didn’t land the coveted job writing for one of the highest rated shows on TV by pounding the pavement as so many others do. William Petersen, the show’s male lead, is a veteran of Chicago theater. Petersen wanted to get a playwright’s voice on the show, so the show contacted the Geffen Playhouse to see if they knew of anybody who might be a good fit. The Geffen had a good experience producing Rambo’s play “God’s Man in Texas.”

“It’s my first writing experience in television,” says Rambo. “It’s a great education. It’s not easy, but it’s very satisfying.” Rambo isn’t kidding when he refers to the education he is receiving writing for CSI. He keeps a sticky note with the number 1.5 prominently displayed on his bulletin board. “How many playwrights do you know who keep in front of them at all times, on the wall, that liver temperature drops 1.5 degrees per hour, postmortem?” he laughingly asks.

The art of collaboration is another skill television writers must develop. “You have to accept – and it was not easy for me to accept – that there will be times when your name is on work that you didn’t write, and there will be times that you write things that your name is not on, that you do your thinking out loud with a group of people,” says Rambo. CSI has nine writers on its staff.

To read more about the ways in which television writing is distinct from writing for stage or film, see Calendar Live.

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