In April 2003, the hit CBS navy procedural JAG aired a two-part episode that acted because the backdoor pilot for its successor NCIS. Nobody might have guessed an eventual behemoth ensemble drama would develop from that second that might go on to turn into a 20+ 12 months franchise first led by Mark Harmon, then different huge names. As Season 21 of the present closes out its place on the2024 TV schedule, reflection is the phrase of the second, and a longtime NCIS star has spoken out.
Beforehand, NCIS starRocky Carroll mentioned he thought he’d have two seasons earlier than the present’s cancellation. But the actor who’s performed the position of NCIS Director Leon Vance since Season 5 has now seen milestones just like the one hundredth, two hundredth, four-hundredth, and even a thousandth installments of the CBS mainstay come to go, however not with out loads of love and laborious work from the forged and crew.
It might have appeared that the newest milestone got here and handed with little fanfare, however Carroll spoke withFolks about hitting the massive 1-0-0-0 and why the shortage of “relishing” is without doubt one of the causes the present’s made it on the air for thus lengthy.
However we do not spend loads of time relishing it or celebrating ultimately zone as a result of we bought a piece day to complete. I believe that is a part of the rationale why this present has been on for thus lengthy is as a result of folks come to work, they usually’re like, ‘Hey, let’s make one other episode,’ with the identical power that they’d 15, 20 seasons in the past.
The actor famous he didn’t even understand he was filming the a thousandth episode till it had wrapped and that additional revelations says all of it. Certainly, when a present’s run is 21 seasons in, and it continues to develop new paths ahead just like the NCIS Origins prequel sequence or the Tony/Ziva spinoff that’ll hopefully please Paramount+ subscription holders, issues get type of busy.
So with a lot occurring surrounding the characters and their locales, how does a sequence like NCIS keep contemporary after over 20 years? Properly, a part of it’s venturing into new territories, even when the outcomes are solely a handful of seasons for one thing just like the just lately cancelled NCIS: Hawaii.
One other piece of the recipe comes from Rocky Carroll’s reverence for the powers that be. He really invoked a little bit of Mark Harmon knowledge to clarify NCIS‘ magical trajectory.
The producers and the writers allowed this present and allowed the characters to not be caught in a sure 12 months or a sure timeframe or at a sure age,” he explains. “We developed over these 20-something years. All of the characters have gone by means of their very own share of peaks and valleys, loss of life, loss, separations, all these various things. . . . [Mark Harmon always said] ‘The star of this present needs to be the company.’
With the entire shake ups in personnel which have occurred through the years, preserving NCIS itself because the “star of the present” would look like the massive secret that retains every thing else in examine. As one among its longest working cast-mates, Rocky Carroll’s echoing of Mark Harmon’s ideas simply reinforces that everybody concerned in CBS’s flagship drama has a good suggestion about what they’re doing.
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So, perhaps it’s not too early to start out interested by the place the 1500th episode might carry Gary Cole and his present crew of federal crime stoppers? Then once more, when and if that chapter arrives, we’ll most likely see the NCIS crew have a good time in the identical vogue as they did for the a thousandth episode: a particular lunch of commemoration, adopted by heading proper again into it.
NCIS Season 21 involves a detailed tonight with the episode entitled “Reef Insanity.” You’ll be able to catch it because it airs on CBS, tonight at 9 PM ET; or you may watch it the following day by means of Paramount+. Which is the right useful resource, ought to you end up eager to compensate for any naval legal investigations you might have missed.
