For its tribute to the late David McCallum and his character, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, NCIS pulled off fairly the shock: the return of Michael Weatherly as Tony DiNozzo.
It was stored below wraps, apart from those that wanted to know, and the scene allowed for the present to honor Ducky and reunite Tony with shut buddies Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Dr. Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen, who co-wrote the episode). It, in fact, included a brand new nickname for McGee (McHurry).
When TV Insider caught up with Murray — numerous enjoyable stuff to return from this chat, however right here’s the beginning! —we requested him about filming that in addition to the upcoming Tony and Ziva spinoff with Weatherly and Cote de Pablo.
Michael Weatherly simply returned for that improbable tribute to Ducky and David McCallum, and that episode made me cry. It was so good.
Sean Murray: That was a extremely good one. And Dietzen helped pen that one. He was one of many writers on that, which completely, if anybody ought to be doing that, it ought to be him.
Speak about filming that tribute episode as an entire after which additionally working with Michael once more as a result of I cherished that little bit on the finish.
That was enjoyable, wasn’t it? Yeah, Michael and I and Brian knew we have been doing that and clearly another folks, however that was one we stored below wraps for some time. We needed that to be a superb shock, and hopefully, I believe that was. It was a extremely well-done episode, however it was a tough episode to get by, simply having labored with David for 20 years, and it was type of a mix of claiming goodbye in actual life and saying goodbye on digital camera. It was a troublesome factor. However I hope we paid a superb tribute to the Ducky character, and I do know David would’ve been proud of it, I actually suppose, particularly with Brian having penned a lot of it. And through the episode, we bought to see numerous nice scenes that David did, and I believe it was good.
And I believe that ending second was simply the proper correct quantity of old style NCIS levity that you just wanted. There was only a contact of it. It was a extremely particular factor with Tony coming in and passing the bow tie off to Palmer. I all the time cherished the connection that Tony and Jimmy have, too, which is humorous. He all the time calls him Post-mortem Gremlin, which, anytime Tony nicknames you, it’s a time period of endearment so far as he goes.
Sonja Flemming/CBS
However that was numerous enjoyable to do, and we truly did numerous totally different variations of that final scene. The principle components we had down, however so far as as soon as Michael and I’d begin doing our factor in direction of the top and go into the elevator, each time we did it, we have been speaking about one thing totally different. They’d simply allow us to advert lib—often with Michael and I, it’s type of an outdated enjoyable factor that we do, and so they allow us to try this. Michael is so terrific about that stuff. I do know him so effectively. We’ve bought a shorthand, and it’s enjoyable to do. So it was type of two-headed factor for me. It was a tough episode to get by, it was a particular episode to get by, after which having that second with Weatherly on the finish type of was just a bit cherry on high.
I all the time cherished the Tony and McGee relationship all through the years, beginning off the place they have been after which seeing how that relationship grew.
Completely. And that was one thing that Michael and I have been conscious of and we actually labored on. We have been paired up early once I was in Season 1, however I bear in mind us performing some stuff and him going utterly off e book and principally doing this wild Invoice Murray impression from Caddyshack and the entire thing that he was doing. They printed this shot and stated, okay, transferring on. I simply bear in mind going and sitting within the forged chairs with Michael, and Michael turning to me and he goes, “I believe I’ll get fired. I believe I’ll get fired for what I simply did.” [Laughs] As a result of none of it was within the precise script. After which we bought phrase again that they actually preferred it and to do extra of it. In order that was type of a enjoyable factor. And I don’t wish to make it sound like every thing Michael and I did was not within the script. In fact that’s not the case, however we type of added and extrapolated onto that stuff and had numerous enjoyable, and numerous that made the present in that first decade.
So having Michael again, I imply, Michael is a lifelong pal. I discuss to him on a regular basis. Truly, the general public which have come by the present I’m very, very shut with. However Michael is the man I’ve been extraordinarily shut with and I’ve stayed in contact. We discuss not less than each month or two. And simply realizing that this was going to occur was actually cool. And we had talked about simply, it’s wild as a result of he hadn’t been right here in 10 years, and as quickly as he stepped on the stage as Tony doing his factor, it was prefer it warped me proper again to the outdated Tony-McGee stuff. It simply jogged my memory how a lot enjoyable it was.
And now there’s the upcoming Tony and Ziva spinoff.
What do they name it? Tiva!
Do you suppose there’s an opportunity of you popping up on there or them displaying up on NCIS in connection to that? To see Tony, McGee, and Ziva collectively once more could be nice.
Yeah, it’s very attainable, I’ll say that. Particularly within our franchise, as I’m certain you could possibly guess. And yeah, we prefer to have enjoyable with a few of that stuff, and it’s all within the household, so we’ll see what occurs.
