An Injection of Hard Science Boosts TV Shows’ Prognosis

Posted on December 6, 2008 
Filed Under Uncategorized

Photo: Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston play characters steeped in scientific fact.

Emmy winner Bryan Cranston and three-time nominee Hugh Laurie bring unquestioned acting chops to their roles as quirky men of science in em>Breaking Bad and House

So do Emmy-nominated Michael Hall, who plays a police blood-splatter expert (and serial killer) on Dexter; ditto for CSI's rubber-gloved forensics geek Bill Petersen and for Simon Baker, who portrays a quack-debunking champion of observable fact in this fall's most popular new TV series, The Mentalist.

But these prime-time A-listers might be neither rich nor famous were it not for the role played by nasal granuloma, Heller's Syndrome, the Riemann hypothesis, directional analysis and scores of other esoteric methods drawn from the annals of weird science.

Science Faction on Prime Time:

Csi70

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
9 p.m. EST Thursdays on CBS
Since its 2000 debut, the granddaddy of crime-scene dramas has spawned a morgue full of direct spinoffs and imitators.

 

  Big Bang Theory
Big_bang_glasses709 p.m. EST. Mondays on CBS
The babe/geek dynamic drives this college-kid sitcom, but between the punch lines, the string theory references are 100 percent correct. David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, checks scripts for accuracy.

 

Numb3rs70Numb3rs
10 p.m. EST Fridays on CBS
Gary Lorden, chairman of the math department at the California Institute of Technology, serves as technical adviser for this drama about a crime-solving math whiz.

 

Dexterhand70 Dexter
9 p.m. EST Sundays on Showtime
Crime-scene investigator Kimberlee Heale, who studied forensic technology at Cal State Fullerton before going to work for the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Southern California, advises Dexter producers to ensure authenticity in the details. For example, paper, not plastic, is the material of choice for storing evidence, she told the Los Angeles Times. "Plastic is a no-no," she says. "It traps air inside and the DNA will eventually degrade."

Breakingbad70 Breaking Bad
10 p.m. EST. Sundays on AMC
Actor Bryan Cranston immersed himself in chemistry to make his portrayal of a meth-dealing former science teacher more accurate.

 

Eleventhhour70 Eleventh Hour
10 p.m. EST Thursdays on CBS
A Princeton prof and a former NASA researcher help give this show its scientific heft.

House70 House
9 p.m. EST Thursdays on Fox
Woven into this hospital drama's character conflicts is a weekly demonstration of the scientific method, as Dr. House and his compatriots sift through evidence before figuring out how to treat patients' bizarre symptoms.

Mentalist70 The Mentalist
9 p.m. EST Tuesdays on CBS
Contrary to TV's supernatural Medium and Ghost Whisperer, the so-called mentalist (Simon Baker) is a former charlatan who relies on meticulous observation rather than psychic powers to solve crimes.

Er70 ER
10 p.m. EST Thursdays on NBC
"Stat!" became a household term after viewers embraced esoteric medical references in this ground-breaking series. "ER was clearly a watershed," says House writer David Foster.

Fringe70_2 Fringe
10 p.m. EST Tuesdays on Fox
The show's outlandish story twists include loads of real science, with clues in a recent episode tied to the Fibonacci sequence of numbers.

 

It's no fiction: Scientific fact has usurped science fiction as TV's favorite inspiration for prime-time story lines. And to keep everything on the up and up, show writers and producers are hiring scores of researchers and technical consultants to get the science straight.

"We try to make sure that all the science is real, that it's researched and that everything in the show could actually happen," says Cyrus Voris, an executive producer for CBS' crime-fighting biophysicist drama Eleventh Hour (pictured, right). "In some ways, it's much easier to make shit up. When you have to make it real, you're holding yourself to a much higher standard."

Why is real science so hot on prime time? Some of the credit goes to the late Michael Crichton.  Ever since he introduced clinically correct doctor-speak to the airwaves with medical drama ER, story lines on science-heavy television shows have been bumping up references to astrophysics, neurobiology, quantum mechanics and other topics ripped from the headlines of obscure scholarly publications.

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