It should come as no surprise that such a far-reaching franchise would have to endure a few behind-the-scenes flare-ups. Diehard fans surely noticed occasions when the writers went through contortions to justify a character's absence while an actor dealt with real-life drama—such as George Eads' leave of absence, which was sparked by a creative disagreement with one of the show's writers that turned ugly. At one point, Eads and co-star Jorja Fox were actually both fired from the flagship show, and Gary Dourdan, who played Warrick Brown, left after eight years under cloudy, "mutually agreed" circumstances. Eads and Fox got their jobs back in short order, but Dourdan wasn't as lucky, and the loss of his CSI gig started a long streak of legal troubles and bankruptcy. Which is particularly unfortunate, when you consider how the rest of the cast tended to turn out...