Lawrence Fishburne joins "CSI," and they're just basically making it up as they go along

There was a phone press conference Monday announcing, definitively, that Lawrence Fishburne would be joining the cast of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," just as series star (and executive producer) William Petersen would be exiting (they'll interact in episodes 9 and 10, tentatively set to air Dec. 11 and 18). Here's how on top of this seismic narrative shift the producers are: They haven't even figured out what Fishburne's character's name is yet. (They have, however, worked out a nickname for him: "The Professor.")

("The Professor's" big character trait is that he works the windblown, wrinkly look, only to discover that the windblown, wrinkly look works you. Oh, and that he's a potential serial killer.)

Other revelations - or, more precisely, not revelations at all - from Monday's phone press conference:

Fishburne admitted he hadn't even been a "CSI" fan before agreeing to star on the show:

"I am now," he laughed. "I felt a little stupid and embarrassed not having watched the show prior to meeting with the (producers)." But he did take the time and effort to watch episodes they had sent him, and found them "dark and moody," which led Fishburne to concede, "'Wow, this'll work.'"

Back at July's TV Press Tour, the only thing remotely resembling information during CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler's press conference was the particulars of the new "CSI" character. Tassler said then that Fishburne's character would share a similar genetic profile with serial killers.

So, of course, they backed away from that description on Monday.

Fishburne said, laughing, "I have no knowledge of such a biological profile nor would I be at liberty to speak about such a biological profile if in fact such a biological profile did exist. I don't know. I'm just really excited that I'm going to be able to join this team. We have a lot of stuff to flesh out."

We hope this clears a lot of things up for you, but then, we know it doesn't. At all.