Mark Harmon and the NCIS Gang Probe a Murder in Baghdad

http://www.tvguide.com/cover-story/sweeps-Ncis-harmon/080423-04



Wednesday, April 23, 2008
by Steve Pond

NCIS

"Want some popcorn?" On the Southern California set of NCIS, Mark Harmon has already offered to fetch water bottles for everybody in his vicinity, from costar Cote de Pablo to a network rep to a visiting journalist. But now he's moved on: Just back from the craft services table with a bag of freshly popped popcorn, the star of the show is doing his best to make sure that nobody around here goes hungry, either.

"Mark," says De Pablo with a laugh, "is always trying to feed us."

So it goes on this soundstage half an hour north of Los Angeles, home to what might be the friendliest, most accommodating set in the TV business. "We're late in the fifth season, going into the sixth," says Sean Murray, who plays tech whiz Timothy McGee. "I was saying to Harmon, 'You know, I've been on shows before where you're half a year in and you feel like you've been there 10 years already. But we're doing episode 112, or whatever it is, and this still feels fresh. It doesn't feel like we're sitting around doing the same old thing, getting bored with each other.'"

Before the writers' strike, NCIS also managed, during its first year under new show-runner Shane Brennan, to pull off a rarity, attracting its biggest audience ever for an episode in November. "I've never been on a show that gets ratings like this, and gets better ratings in its fifth season than in its first or second," says Harmon, the 56-year-old actor whose hefty TV résumé includes everything from Flamingo Road to St. Elsewhere to The West Wing.

Brennan charged himself with streamlining the show's then-chaotic production schedule and getting scripts in early enough that the cast is able to hold read-throughs before they shoot. Another goal, he says, was to "dip into more emotional storylines and give an audience answers to those lingering questions that had been set up the first four seasons."

For the rest of the season (including a two-hour finale), he promises revelations, shockers and new locations — including Baghdad, where agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and analyst Nikki Jardin (Susan Kelechi Watson) travel in this week's episode. "The trick was not to turn it into a war movie," Brennan says. "They're investigating a crime scene, which happens to be in Baghdad. It's not about the fighting in Iraq; it's about someone we know, Tony, and someone we don't know as well, Nikki, in an extreme situation."

The Baghdad scenes were filmed in a rural area not far from the Valencia soundstage where NCIS normally shoots, on a couple of days when swirling wind and bare ground made for rough conditions. "I'm still cleaning sand out of every crevice and orifice," cracks Watson, whose character provides an emotional kick at the end of the episode when it's revealed just why a germaphobic, normally desk-bound analyst would want to make the trip to Iraq.

With the rest of the squad working the investigation from back in Washington, D.C., jealousies and squabbles inevitably arise — par for the course on a series that blends quirky character humor with serious situations in a way that De Pablo says is "sort of like real life." She also notes that it's more like the oddball ensemble shows of yesteryear, such as The A-Team and Magnum, P.I.

It's a blend that the leading man is comfortable with after five seasons. But Harmon's equally comfortable with the idea that he — and we — might suddenly learn something entirely new about a character, even his own, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. "We've never known much about him, because he's pretty private about his life," says the actor. "Last season, we found out that he'd been married five times instead of four…. Or was it four times instead of three?" A shrug. "I don't even remember how many. That was new to me. But you just go with it."

There are lots of things to just go with in the remainder of this strike-shortened season. For example, a major cast member will be murdered before the finale. Fan speculation has centered on Lauren Holly's character, Jenny Shepard, who oversees the unit and has a romantic history with Gibbs that goes back to when they were stationed in Europe. In recent weeks, the behavior of medical examiner "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum) has also suggested that Shepard has a mysterious ailment, and he's helping cover it up.

Ask the cast what's going on, and De Pablo says she knows but isn't telling, while Murray swears he's in the dark. Harmon ponders the question the following day, over coffee at a modest diner near his home on Los Angeles' West Side. "I don't really know everything that happens the rest of the season," he says cautiously. "Is somebody leaving? I'm not sure." A pause. "What did Shane say about it?"