©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved (NEW YORK) — Like a certain rock band, the cast of CBS’ police procedural Criminal Minds has been at it a long time, and show no signs of slowing down.
“I equate it to, you know, like the Rolling Stones,” star Joe Mantegna tells ABC Radio. “Like when they first got together and started playing together as a band, if you told them they were still be playing 50 years later, who would…know that?”
Mantegna, who plays former FBI profiler David Rossi, explains, “I joined it in its third season, and for all I knew that was going to be their last season. For all I knew, who knows, you know?” He adds, “And then obviously, we resonate with enough people that we’re keeping on keeping on.”
Quipped Kirsten Vangsness, who plays computer specialist Penelope Garcia on the show: “Yeah, there was another band called The Rolling Moans and they were just as good. They didn’t make it.”
Timed to National Missing Children’s Day at the end of last month, We TV begun running 12-hour marathons of the acclaimed, long-running drama. Vangsness explains, “WE TV, on Saturdays and Mondays, they’re…sort of focusing a lot of the episodes …on child abduction and making…people aware of…protecting of the smaller humans of our community.”
Mantegna adds, “We really do feel there’s an educational aspect to our show, in the sense that these episodes that deal with that topic, you know, they go into areas where by watching it you can say to yourself, ‘OK I can see how that happened.’ These are some tips ingrained in there so that we can avoid this happening to our own children.”
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