In May 2002, Carol Mendelsohn, Ann Donahue, and Anthony Zuiker, the executive producers of CBS's "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation" visited Manhattan for a few days to announce a spinoff for the fall season: "C.S.I.: Miami" (starring David Caruso). With the morning free, they headed to Queens to visit the N.Y.P.D. Crime Lab:

"On our ride-along in Miami," Donahue said, "we saw a guy who'd been dead for three days, naked on his bed with porn playing on the TV, and he was swollen up like Gulliver. First thing the cop did was light a big Cuban cigar to cover the smell."

"The guy was so bloated," Zuiker later recalled, "they shouted, 'Stand back for the piercing!'"

["Then they stabbed his abdomen to release the gases. It was a rocking good time." ("I think they're saving money on catering with this," a CSI cast member once said, "cause no one wants to eat.")]