We\u2019re used to seeing the intrepid team of naval special agents on CBS\u2019 crime procedural \u201cNCIS\u201d working together to solve the toughest cases and bring down the worst villains. But even they may be stumped when faced with the gargantuan challenge of coming up with a deserving story to encapsulate the unique feat of producing 500 episodes of television.<\/p>\n
But the team can rest easy since that job fell to \u201cNCIS\u201d showrunner and executive producer Steven D. Binder, who wrote Tuesday\u2019s episode, \u201cAll Good Things\u201d (with Jos\u00e9 Clemente Hernandez directing). He shares that ideas began popping up in his mind when the show\u2019s 22nd season was wrapping up last year. \u201cI started thinking \u2018What questions should I be asking?\u2019 I knew it had to be something big that resonates with the fans and should be worthy of the 500th,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
With its 500th episode, the show will rank among the longest-running scripted, live-action American prime-time series, behind \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d and \u201cLaw & Order.\u201d But how \u201cNCIS\u201d began its journey to this rare milestone is a worthwhile story in and of itself.<\/p>\n
A scene from the 500th episode of \u201cNCIS,\u201d from left: Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), Jessica Knight (Katrina Law), Parker and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray).<\/p>\n
(Michael Yarish \/ CBS Entertainment Inc.)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
In April 2003, CBS\u2019 popular navy procedural drama series \u201cJAG\u201d was used as a backdoor pilot to introduce a team of highly skilled special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, led by no-nonsense supervisory special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Working under Gibbs was snappy special agent Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), quirky forensics specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) and endearing chief medical examiner Dr. Donald \u201cDucky\u201d Mallard (David McCallum).<\/p>\n
\u201cNCIS\u201d premiered Sept. 23, 2003, with Gibbs, DiNozzo, Abby and Ducky, as well as special agent Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander) joining the Washington, D.C., team. However, the series didn\u2019t burst out of the gate as the juggernaut hit it would become. Instead, its freshman season ranked an unspectacular No. 26 among all 2003-04 prime-time broadcast programs, but it was enough to keep it on the air as the audience slowly started to grow. By Season 3, the series was regularly landing in the top 20. And by Season 6, it grew into a solid top five show, and finally, in Season 10, \u201cNCIS\u201d was the No. 1 broadcast series on television.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s become a huge international hit, licensed in over 200 territories around the world, subtitled in 35 languages, dubbed in 12 languages. \u201cNCIS\u201d is now the No. 1 TV franchise globally<\/a> in terms of total minutes viewed.<\/p>\n Additionally, the series has spawned numerous spinoffs, set in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Hawaii, as well as one focused on fan-favorite characters Tony and Ziva<\/a> David (Cote de Pablo). Currently airing is a prequel series, \u201cNCIS: Origins<\/a>,\u201d which follows a younger Gibbs (Austin Stowell, with Harmon narrating) in his early NCIS days, and the franchise\u2019s first international spinoff, \u201cNCIS: Sydney,\u201d streaming on Paramount+.<\/p>\n Clearly, \u201cNCIS\u201d has hit on a winning formula resulting in enduring success and one of the factors for that, according to David Stapf, president, CBS Television Studios, is comfort. \u201cYou know what you\u2019re going to get and it feels good and you love it so you get that weekly dose or, nowadays, a daily dose because it\u2019s everywhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In 2009, \u201cNCIS\u201d celebrated its 150th episode with a cake-cutting ceremony. From left, series regulars Rocky Carroll, David McCallum, Cote de Pablo, Mark Harmon, Sean Murray, Pauley Perrette, Michael Weatherly and guest star Robert Wagner.<\/p>\n (Sonia Flemming \/ CBS)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n And in an era when time slots aren\u2019t as do or die for a broadcast series\u2019 success, the fact that, except from 2021 to 2025, \u201cNCIS\u201d has consistently aired on CBS Tuesdays at 8 p.m., shouldn\u2019t be dismissed. \u201cI am a believer that time slots matter, but viewers will watch the show everywhere,\u201d says Amy Reisenbach, president, CBS Entertainment. \u201cThey watch it on linear and they watch it on Paramount+, where it\u2019s consistently been a top streaming performer.\u201d<\/p>\n Like any long-running series, cast members come and go, and those departures can sometimes alter a show\u2019s future. \u201cNCIS,\u201d however, has weathered a myriad of cast changes and the audience continues to come back. The best example is when Harmon decided to step down in 2021 \u2014 Gibbs decided a life fly fishing in Alaska was more his speed. But it was nearly impossible to conceive of \u201cNCIS\u201d without Gibbs or Harmon (who continues as an executive producer). What would the future hold for the show and franchise?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s honest to say that losing Mark Harmon was definitely a little nerve-racking,\u201d says Reisenbach. \u201cHe had been with the show since the beginning and had been so synonymous with the show but \u2026 the DNA has remained the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Adds Stapf, \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the writers as well but you\u2019re always nervous on a show that\u2019s working when you change one little aspect because it is that alchemy that makes this show work.\u201d He credits the writers for bringing in new, fleshed-out characters that do more than fill gaps on the team. For example, once the steely Gibbs was gone, Gary Cole\u2019s special agent Alden Parker was markedly different with his laid-back leader vibes and quirky hobbies such as talking true crime and mixing cocktails on his online show.<\/p>\n But Gibbs hasn\u2019t been relegated to the past and his name still comes up occasionally, including in the 500th episode case, though getting there for Binder was a journey. \u201cOn the case side of things, I wanted something that encompassed the totality of the show,\u201d he says. However, having revisited a case from the show\u2019s very first episode, \u201cYankee White,\u201d for a 2024 celebration of the franchise\u2019s 1,000 episodes, that idea was out. \u201cSo, I thought, \u2018Well, can we go back to episode number two?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The answer was yes and this week\u2019s installment nods to that 2003 episode. The team meets up with a desperate young man named Billy Fuentes (Austin Marques), a Marine\u2019s son, who as a boy, Gibbs promised that NCIS would always be there for him if he ever needed them. \u201cWe even got the same actor, which was great,\u201d says Binder.<\/p>\n Though the case is connected to the past and some Easter eggs pop up, don\u2019t expect it to be a lighthearted greatest hits episode. \u201cThis is an event episode and one that\u2019s going to change the DNA of the show and how the show operates from here on out until we\u2019re done,\u201d says Brian Dietzen, who has played chief medical examiner Dr. Jimmy Palmer since the first season.<\/p>\n Part of the big event began at the end of last week\u2019s episode, when a stunned NCIS director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) tells Parker that NCIS is being shut down. Tuesday\u2019s episode picks up that thread with the future of the team in jeopardy and plays out differently from the \u201cNCIS\u201d norm. \u201cI thought it might be nice to play with the format a little bit, and that just gives the episode some energy,\u201d teases Binder. \u201cYou have to keep it fresh and keep it new, but you always have to keep it within the same vein so that the next episode won\u2019t be vastly different,\u201d says Dietzen. \u201cAs an actor, it\u2019s a challenge to do, but it\u2019s a challenge that\u2019s a really fun one to accept.\u201d<\/p>\n Rocky Carroll as Leon Vance in \u201cAll Good Things,\u201d Tuesday\u2019s episode that picks up on the news that the future of the team is in jeopardy.<\/p>\n (Robert Voets \/ CBS)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n A huge component of \u201cNCIS\u201d that has remained consistent from day one is that it\u2019s more than a case-of-the-week procedural. \u201cWe have a character-driven procedural which, when we started, this kind of a show was not really a thing,\u201d says Sean Murray, who has played special agent Timothy McGee since the first season. The actor cites how fans loved learning years ago that McGee was also moonlighting as a writer of the fictional \u201cDeep Six\u201d novels that feature heroic characters loosely based on the NCIS team (think Tibbs instead of Gibbs, for example).<\/p>\n Carroll, who has played Vance since the show\u2019s fifth season, admits he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d be in the character\u2019s shoes too long given most shows don\u2019t last as long as \u201cNCIS\u201d has. He signed onto the show partly to reunite with Harmon, whom he previously worked with on the CBS medical drama \u201cChicago Hope.\u201d \u201cI literally thought to myself, \u2018Well, I made it to the tail end of the series. If it goes seven or eight seasons, I\u2019ll get two or three seasons out of it,\u2019\u201d he says, adding with a grin. \u201cThat was 18 seasons ago.\u201d<\/p>\n And while the original main cast that started on \u201cJAG\u201d so many years ago is long gone (though they occasionally turn up for an episode or two), newer cast members have now become the vets. For example, Wilmer Valderrama joined in Season 14 as special agent Nick Torres, Diona Reasonover\u2019s forensics scientist Kasie Hines joined in Season 15 and at the end of Season 18, Katrina Law first appeared as special agent Jessica Knight.<\/p>\n For Valderrama, he had initial reservations about joining the series and questioned what he could bring to such an established show. \u201cIt was in that first meeting where I realized very quickly that what \u2018NCIS\u2019 does really well is that it evolves with the times and with its audience,\u201d the actor says. \u201cI realized there was an opportunity there to do something very unique, to light the screen with different colors that I hadn\u2019t painted with before.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilmer Valderrama, who plays Nick Torres on \u201cNCIS,\u201d joined the show in Season 14. (Robert Voets\/CBS) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Diona Reasonover joined the cast of \u201cNCIS\u201d in Season 15, playing forensics scientist Kasie Hines. (Michael Yarish\/CBS) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n Reasonover had the arduous task of replacing fan favorite Perrette, who left the show after 15 seasons in 2018. Like Carroll, a long-running gig was the last thing on her mind when she began playing the energetic, joyful Kasie. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if [the producers] just wanted to have a quick blip of somebody else [to fill Abby\u2019s forensics role] and then move on to someone different,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But that turned out not to be the case. And in another example of the show reflecting the times, Reasonover is proud of the fact that the \u201cNCIS\u201d universe has had several queer characters including Kasie. \u201cIt\u2019s so nice because it just feels like real life and I always think that that\u2019s what people relate to,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Thanks to his breakout role as Fez on \u201cThat 70\u2019s Show,\u201d Valderrama was already well-known before joining \u201cNCIS\u201d and he\u2019s noticed which role fans recognize him for has changed. \u201cAt the end of this season, I will have made 200 episodes of \u2018NCIS\u2019 and I did 200 of \u2018That 70\u2019s Show,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI would say it\u2019s like 57% Torres, but I still get Fez a lot since so many people grew up with that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Since neither the love from fans nor the ratings are diminishing for \u201cNCIS,\u201d which was renewed in January for a 24th season along with \u201cOrigins\u201d and \u201cSydney,\u201d is the universe done expanding or could we get more spinoffs?<\/p>\n \u201cThe door is always going to be open because we know how successful \u2018NCIS\u2019 is and that the fans have continued to enjoy new iterations,\u201d Reisenbach says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re used to seeing the intrepid team of naval special agents on CBS\u2019 crime procedural \u201cNCIS\u201d working together to solve the toughest cases and bring down the worst villains. 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