The square route of popular
How NCIS got to 300 episodes
For a prime- time, scripted U.S. television series to reach 300 episodes is a towering achievement. Fewer than 20 have done it. Yet attaining that milestone also practically guarantees a certain amount of disdain f rom the type of TV watcher who wants to project coolness. Lassie. Bonanza. Law & Order. My Three Sons. Square shows all, each in the 300 club.
On March 15, CBS’ NCIS joins them. It, too, is not trendy or a critical darling, but it is exceedingly popular. Some shows in the club were merely hanging around when they reached Episode 300, but not NCIS. For the past seven years, it has by most measures been TV’s most- watched drama, with an American audience of at least 20 million.
That’s a number t hat many of the most- talkedabout shows can only fantasize about, an anomaly in a landscape that is increasingly fractured and full of shows aimed at one relatively narrow demographic or another. “We’re one of the last broadcast television shows that get a broad audience,” said George Schenck, who with his writing partner, Frank Cardea, has written about 40 NCIS episodes. “Everything else is so niche.”
The two men have seen a lot of evolution in the industry — Schenck’s earliest TV credits are from the mid-1960s — and they, like most everyone else associated with the show, were surprised to find themselves riding a runaway hit.
“At the end of Season 1, they were passing out Tshirts, and George turned to me and said, ‘ This is kind of presumptuous,’” Cardea recalled. The shirts, white with black lettering, read, NCIS. Season 1. Scheck thought that presumed a Season 2. The series is now in Season 13, and CBS has renewed it for at least two more.
“George proudly wears that shirt on the first day of production every year,” Cardea said.
Early on, it was by no means clear that NCIS would blossom, though it had the advantage of being a spinoff from the moderately successful legal drama JAG, which brought it a carryover audience. The show centres on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a real- life law- enforcement agency few had heard of in 2003 but everyone knows now.
NCIS is a police procedural — virtually every episode opens with a crime that somehow involves the Navy, with the team, led by Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs, generally cracking the case by the end of the hour. That puts it in the same class as other dramas in the 300 club: It is grounded in a proven formula, whether cop show ( Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), medical drama ( ER), family melodrama ( Dallas, Knots Landing) or Western ( Gunsmoke, the reigning champion at 635 episodes).
In its early seasons, NCIS was a decent, if not spectacular, performer. But something odd began to happen.
“I’d say we were in Season maybe 3, maybe 4,” recalled David Stapf, president of CBS TV Studios, “and I got a call from the head of our international division, and he said, ‘ Hey, are you tracking what NCIS is doing overseas?’”
The show was catching on abroad, especially in France and Australia. Cast members noticed, too.
“In L. A., I’d say I was on ‘ NCIS,’ and people would say, ‘Is that a radio station?’,” said Michael Weatherly, who plays the wisecracking agent Tony DiNozzo. But on a trip to France and Monte Carlo to promote Season 4, he found himself being widely recognized. “I thought they thought I was somebody else,” he said.
NCIS detractors, most of whom have probably not watched many episodes, might think of the series as being the same week after week. But to say that NCIS is predictable or incapable of surprise is to mischaracterize it. Long before Jon Snow was left in a pool of blood on Game of Thrones, NCIS put a bullet through the head of Caitlyn Todd, played by Sasha Alexander.
It was in the final moments of Season 2 in May 2005. Alexander, who played one of the six core members of the NCIS team, was leaving the show, and in a shocking finish that fans still talk about, a terrorist killed Todd, with a rifle shot. Since then, it hasn’t been safe to work for this fictional NCIS or know someone who does. An NCIS director, one of Gibbs’ ex- wives, Gibbs’ beloved mentor: All of them and more have been killed over the years. Which brings us to another key to reaching 300 episodes: knowing how to capitalize on the inevitable cast turnover.
The show’s biggest challenge to date in that regard has been the departure of Cote de Pablo, whose character, Ziva David, essentially replaced Alexander’s and stayed into Season 11. Ziva was the most assertive female character the show has seen, and her simmering will- they- or- won’t- they relationship with Tony dominated chat boards. No sniper zeroed in on Ziva; she just faded away, which turned out to be a smart choice, because now Weatherly has announced that the current season will be his last. The tease of a possible reunion between Tony and Ziva has been driving NCIS chatter for weeks.
At the centre of it all, of course, is Harmon, who has been able to enjoy the rare sight of a television staff that isn’t living season to season, renewal to renewal.
“It’s been gratifying over the years that the majority of these people know they have a job to come back to after July,” he said. “You’re hearing people plan their vacation. You’re hearing about people buying the boat they always wanted. That part has been really special.”