Top 5 TV Crime Show Myths or Truths; TV Crime Show Secrets Revealed
HAMMER: Right now, on this special edition of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, "Secrets of TV Crime Shows." We`re counting down top five TV crime show myths or truths. Do the cops really use their guns as often as we see on TV, and just how fast does evidence really get analyzed? Also we are taking you behind the police tape and revealing the stunning secrets of TV`s biggest crime shows.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not a good idea to lie to people with this much gas around.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? You`ll kill both of us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I am, unless you answer my questions.</s>HAMMER: So what are the secrets to making the drama behind shows like "Burn Notice" look so real? "Burn Notice" star Jeffrey Donovan reveals all the secrets of the nail-biting CIA drama. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT continues right now. Welcome back. I`m A.J. Hammer. This is a special edition of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, the secrets of TV crime shows. Get ready for us to investigate the TV investigators. Sometimes our favorite crime dramas feature brave, dedicated good guys. Sometimes of course they feature murderous meth making bad guys. But how realistic are they? We have with us tonight two real life crime solvers who are the minds and inspiration behind two of the biggest crime shows on TV now. They`ll tell us what TV crime shows get right and what they get wrong. But first, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT is counting down the top five myths and truths about TV crime shows.</s>HAMMER: As we watch the gang from "NCIS" solve crimes, or Walter White from "Breaking Bad" commit them, it`s easy to wonder how much of what we see on TV crime shows is fact and how much is fiction. Crime show producers do try to get it right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Writers in this business are doing themselves a disservice if they don`t attempt to try to find out what the reality is.</s>HAMMER: Still, just like criminals on</s>CSI--  UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes we have to wait for a killer to make a mistake.</s>HAMMER: TV crime shows make some factual mistakes too. So, in our SHOWBIZ countdown, we`re investigating. TV crime shows, myths or truths. No. 5, cops using their guns often. Cops on TV crime shows tend to get in a lot of shootouts. Even the forensic investigators on CSI. On "Criminal Minds," the lawmen and women are able to follow up a tense shootout with humorous bickering.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you out of your mind? You blew out my eardrum.</s>HAMMER: And now at no. 4 on our countdown, TV crime shows myths or truths.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk about death by chocolate.</s>HAMMER: Cops making jokes at gruesome murder scenes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that red stuff is not raspberry sauce.</s>HAMMER: Castle is a writer, not a cop, so we`ll excuse his corny crime scene jokes, but what was Horatio Cain`s excuse on "</s>CSI: Miami."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is cold as ice.</s>HAMMER: Do real cops make crime scene jokes, and are they really followed by a song by the Who? And now at no. 3. on our countdown, TV crime shows myths or truths. Extremely prolific murderers. In "Breaking Bad`s" first few seasons, Walt White`s body count soared well into the double digits. And Dexter? We stopped counting at 30. Do Dexter and Walt even have police in their hometowns? No. 2 on our countdown, TV crime show myths or truth. Crime scene evidence is always found, collected and analyzed quickly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s something in here.</s>HAMMER: On CSI, technicians can locate crucial clues after only seconds at a crime scene.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you notice, for a female (inaudible) was missing an earring?</s>HAMMER: While back at the lab, fingerprint matches.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got prints?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Victim`s partner.</s>HAMMER: And complex lab analysis take about as long as it does to get a pizza delivered.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The results of the tissue reveal fluid loss from damaged blood vessels.</s>HAMMER: And speaking of CSI, here is No. 1. on our countdown, TV crime shows myths or truths. Forensic labs are modern and well equipped. The gleaming TV crime labs like the one we see on CSI are certainly very high-tech and sleek. But that`s one of the things we see on TV crime shows all the time. Are they myths or truths? Only the real cops know for sure.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t leave now. The verdict is in.</s>HAMMER: Fortunately, my guests tonight have worked to crack hundreds of real-life criminal cases. They are with us tonight to separate fact from fiction as we count down the top TV crime show myths and truths. With me tonight from Hollywood, Jim Clemente, who is a retired FBI agent, now a consultant for CBS`s "Criminal Minds." From Las Vegas, crime scene investigators Yolanda McClary, who solves real cold cases on TNT`s "Cold Justice." Yolanda also inspired Marge Helgenberger`s character on CSI. So great to have you both here. I want to get right to it with one of those classic shoot-em-up scenes, because it seems most TV crime shows, they just can`t do without a big gun battle. This one comes from "CSI Miami." Pretty typical on TV. We get the gun toting bad guy really risking it all to battle it out with the law. Yolanda, the first secret we want you to reveal is this. Is it a myth or the truth? Do the cops really use their guns as often as we see on these TV crime shows?</s>YOLANDA MCCLARY, CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR: I would say that`s a myth. They do not. They would age 20 years every day of their life if their days actually went like that all the time.</s>HAMMER: I was going to say, I had a feeling about that, because it seems like it`s such a dramatic and traumatic thing obviously when guns are pulled and gunfire is exchanged. That`s good to know. A myth. It allows us to move onto our next TV crime show secret. When have we not seen this scenario, playing out on a TV crime show. A serious crime is going on and somehow humor gets mixed in. This scene is coming from "Castle."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does it look?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like you waited too long. She was strangled but she went down with a fight. Prelim suggests a sign of a struggle. She took one to the face.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well dressed attractive woman in a seedy motel and a guy who flees the crime scene. This might have been a one night stand gone wrong.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are we talking about the victim or Castle?</s>HAMMER: OK, sometimes a serious situation does require a little levity, but Jim, I want you to take this one. We do see it all the time. Myth or truth, do real cops make crime scene jokes?</s>JIM CLEMENTE, RETIRED FBI AGENT: Absolutely. That`s not a myth at all. Actually, it`s a psychological mechanism they use to defend themselves from the horrors they have to live with every day. It`s very common to have a lot of dark humor in the middle of a crime scene. It`s actually refreshing to see some of that on TV, because a lot of shows won`t show that.</s>HAMMER: It does seem a little untoward, but of course you should expect that. OK, when there`s a serious situation like that, people do have defense mechanisms. Everybody also seems to love the TV serial killer. We see the likes of Showtime`s Dexter, we see "Breaking Bad`s" Walt White on AMC, just sort of going about their business, almost without a care. This myth or truth for you, Yolanda, do most murders go unsolved?</s>MCCLARY: Do most murders, no. I think the ratio to them being solved to unsolved is definitely higher than your cold cases. But people like Dexter are serial killers. And as we know from the past, we have serial killers that definitely got away with what they did for a while, but they eventually get caught. I don`t think they ever get to the numbers Dexter has or ever will.</s>HAMMER: Fortunately. But yes, it does seem if you watch and pay attention to only TV crimes, and not what goes on in the real world, you would think these guys get away with it all the time. Let me move to the next secret. It comes from another classic cop scene. They walk into the room, right away somebody knows exactly what happened just from looking around. Watch this from "Criminal Minds."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Position of the body suggests he was one of the last ones killed. He tried to escape and almost made it to the exit. Jane Bernie (ph) and Vinnie Adev (ph) were here. Jane tried to run and Vinnie didn`t.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you know?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is half under her desk, which means she tried to hide, and the unsub found her.</s>HAMMER: I realize they have to cram it all into a one-hour TV show. But Jim, let me go to you on this as a consultant on "Criminal Minds." Myth or truth. Are investigators really able to analyze the crime scene that quickly?</s>CLEMENTE: Well, in "Criminal Mind`s" case, they`re talking about crime scene behavior. This is a process called crime scene reconstruction. It`s not actually the forensic science. That takes days and weeks and sometimes months to do, but the behavior exhibitor at a crime scene, you can walk in there and you can see how they got in, how they got out, what the different movements were. It`s very easy for somebody who is very sophisticated and experienced at this actually to tell what`s going on. The behavior that occurred at a crime scene in a very short period of time. That`s actually not a myth.</s>HAMMER: Really cool to get your perspective on all of this. Both of you, Yolanda and Jim, thank you for separating fact from fiction. Thanks for being here.</s>MCCLARY: Thank you.</s>HAMMER: Now that we have busted the myths about TV`s hottest crime shows. I can`t wait to reveal the biggest secrets to you. Get ready, I`m taking you right behind the crime scene tape to reveal just how much real-life drama is actually represented in your favorite TV shows addictions, like the smoking hot "Burn Notice."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not a good idea to lie to people with this much gas around.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? You`re going to kill both of us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I am unless you answer my question.</s>HAMMER: What a great show, seven amazing seasons of crime fighting in that show. And tonight, I`m putting the star of "Burn Notice" in the SHOWBIZ hot seat. He`s got to reveal all of his behind the scenes secrets. This is a special edition of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, secrets of TV crime shows, and now the secrets of ABC`s "Castle."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m wondering if my character`s police buddies might have any resources.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if your hero`s fictional cop buddies are anything like your real cop buddies, then they`d have real work to get back to.</s>HAMMER: Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas play detectives on "Castle," and I asked them, how they make their performances seem so real.</s>JON HUERTAS, "CASTLE": First, the pilot episode we got to ride along with some homicide detectives from the NYPD, which was great, gave us great insight. But now we use kind of cops that are local, and homicide procedures I think across the board in most agencies are kind of very similar, and we stick to the procedures as much as we can.