Once upon a time on the internet, a fan compiled one-liners from the opening of “CSI: Miami” and it became a viral smash.

Then, as it is with many things online, another fan was inspired by the meme and translated it into a four-panel web comic*, and users quickly began adding their own “Horatio-isms” to the speech bubbles, adding commentary on every subject known to mankind.

Users are still creating their own Horatio comics to this day on social news aggregators and websites like Reddit and Fark, often echoing the image of Horatio-dramatically-putting-on-his-shades as the ultimate in “Hell yes” iconography.

So how does the actor who inspired all these feel about the subject?

According to the red-haired “CSI: Miami” star David Caruso, who plays Horatio Caine on the series, he thinks being adopted by fans in this way is a “big deal.”

“It's the purest form of interactive television; right?  If people are saying, ‘We're going to now recut the footage and redesign the character or emphasize things about the character,’ that's interactivity.  And that part of it feels really great,” Caruso tells CTV.ca. “Because what you want to do is, you know, selfishly, as a performer, you want to be embraced.”

“But more important to me is the fact that they're adopting us as a part of their culture, and they're making us a part of their life… in a funny way, they're using, let's say, the Horatio character in this case as a tool for their own creativity.  And in American culture, you've arrived if you've become a verb, you know.”

Born in New York, Caruso first came into stardom with his role on “NYPD Blue,” and enjoyed a career resurgence with his role as Horatio on “CSI: Miami,” which first aired in 2002 and is now in its ninth season.

When it comes to Caruso himself, the actor is savvy when it comes to his own online presence, and regularly interacts with his fans through his Twitter account. Caruso says the micro-blogging service is interesting to him because “People are participating on a minute-by-minute basis in what you're doing.”

“And as I say, the big issue is interactivity.  This dialogue creates immediate feedback because there's minute-by-minute and sometimes live participation.  This format is not such a remote format. Television is not so remote anymore because it's really online.”

Speaking of television online, full episodes of “CSI: Miami” are now available for viewing in the CTV Video Player at Watch.CTV.ca.

As for fans speaking their minds online about “CSI: Miami,” Caruso also accepts that it won’t always be positive. Caruso says he’s reminded of the old show business adage, “If you're going to believe the good reviews, you've got to believe the bad reviews.”

“I think there's valuable information there, and I think it's more important -- as opposed to judge somebody's response or kind of try to judge what I'm doing -- is to see that people are participating.”

“Because if they're not talking about you then you have a problem in entertainment.  So in a way, the good stuff and the bad stuff have equal value because people are participating.  And I think that's kind of what we're hoping for.”

And as long as Caruso remains working in the industry, he’ll continue to see the importance of letting fans access shows the way they want across all forms of technology.

“People are watching network television, thank God, still.  But the reality is that they're organizing their own content through their own technology all the time.  And they're making it on-demand specific to their life.

“A result of that, we can't ignore the fact that it's changing.  What really enhances that and magnifies that are all the other forms of technology, because it's not as simple as airings.  It's not as simple as ‘I need a television to watch the show.’  So in a funny way entertainment is exploding because of all of the other capabilities and opportunities to absorb the content and develop the content and participate in the content.”

“So it's actually a very good time to do this and is developing really rapidly because there are so many ways to watch the show and participate in the show.”

“CSI: Miami” airs Sunday nights on CTV.

(* While it's been difficult to pin down, the original appeared here on the web comic "Bigger Than Cheeses")