The CSI Star Who Was One Appearance Short Of The 200 Episode Mark

The original "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" series dominated the police procedural TV genre for years, running for a whopping 15 seasons from 2000 all the way to 2015. Along the way, the show's main cast went through quite a few transformations. Familiar faces would eventually take their leave, new ones would come in to fill the vacuum, and so the cycle would repeat.

Considering the length and scope of "CSI" and its slew of spin-offs, it comes as no surprise that there are very few actors who can claim to have appeared in every episode of their respective show. Indeed, pretty much no one on the original "CSI" show can claim to have appeared in every single episode. Even George Eads, who was credited for every single episode, missed a few appearances in Season 14 due to some behind-the-scenes drama. 

However, there's another "CSI" cast member with the very amusing distinction of being the only actor on the show to be one single credit shy of 200 episodes.

The original face of "CSI" was William Petersen's starring character Gil Grissom, the enigmatic yet spirited night shift supervisor of the central team who used bizarre tactics to investigate crime scenes. Grissom carved out a special place in the hearts of many fans as their favorite character on the series, but even his time on the show was limited. 

Petersen left the series as a main cast member midway through Season 9, making a few sporadic appearances throughout the later seasons, and returning for the series finale. According to IMDb, when the series finally reached its conclusion, Petersen had exactly 199 credits to his name — just one short of the 200-episode mark. If the actor had stayed on as a main character for just one more episode in Season 9, or had made one more guest appearance after his initial departure, he would have crossed the threshold.

Of course, the end of the original series wasn't the last time fans saw Petersen in the "CSI" universe. The show's recent sequel series "CSI: Vegas" saw the actor return as Grissom for its first season. However, it's pretty clear that this new series is being treated as a separate entity from the original show. As it stands, Petersen's stint on the original "CSI" show will be forever marked as having been just one single episode away from the big 200 credit milestone.