Many names were thrown out there to replace William Petersen on "CSI:".  John Malkovich and Kurt Russell among the top two.  But the new actor to join the cast will be Laurence Fishburne.

Now Peterson will not be officially "leaving" the show, since he will make appearances and serve as executive producer, but Fishburne will be still beoming the leader of the cast, somewhere around this season's 9th episode.  Fishburne's character is a former pathologist, now lecturing at colleges in criminalistics. The character is an expert on criminal behavior, driven by the fact that he has several key genetic markers that show he has a tendency toward acts of violence himself.

"CBS asked us, 'Who's at the top of your dream list?' say "CSI:" executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar in a statement. "Without hesitation, we said Laurence Fishburne. He is a powerful and intense actor, with an incredible range. We had the opportunity to see Mr. Fishburne in 'Thurgood' on Broadway a few weeks ago, and it was a truly profound experience. The actor disappeared and Thurgood Marshall was standing there on the stage. Mr. Fishburne is also a talented writer and director. If you distill CSI down to its essence, it's a collaboration--and we are so looking forward to collaborating with Mr. Fishburne. For all of us at CSI, this is truly a dream."

This will be Fishburne's second stint on CBS.  In the 80s, the was on the kid's show "Pee-Wee's Playhouse."

No I'm not kidding.  I didn't believe it until I looked it up.

He played Cowboy Curtis, dressed in a sparkly cowboy suit with a jehri curl mullet hairdo.  Remember now?  Yeah, that was the man that we would later get to know as Morpheus.  Scary what a hairdo can do to you.