Who Almost Played NCIS’ Gibbs? And Other Fun Facts From NCISverse: The First 1,000 Special
Ahead of the NCIS franchise’s actual 1,000th episode (airing next Monday at 9/8c), CBS this Monday night served up the Entertainment Tonight special NCISverse: The First 1,000.
Hosted by ET‘s Kevin Frazier, The First 1,000 featured some new/new-ish interviews with past and present franchise cast members, a few archival Q&As and clips galore from NCIS and its assorted offshoots.
Closing out the retrospective was acknowledgment of cast members who are no longer with us (including NCIS: Los Angeles‘ Miguel Ferrer and NCIS‘ David McCallum), plus some hype for the franchise’s two upcoming offshoots: NCIS: Origins (aka the Young Gibbs prequel series starring Austin Stowell) and the yet-to-be-titled, Europe-set Tony/Ziva series starring Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo.
The #Tiva NCIS Spinoff: Everything We Knoew
For hardcore NCIS megafans, brand-new reveals were probably hard to come by. But for the slightly more casual fan such as myself, there were fun facts to be found. Such as….
1. Spun off of a JAG two-parter, NCIS was at first envisioned as following the Law & Order format — half investigation, half courtroom — but viewer affinity for the agents’ clue-gathering and Mark Harmon’s character led to a change in the formula.
2. We’ve heard most of these before, but always fun to ponder: Other actors whose names were bandied about for the role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs included Harrison Ford, Kevin Bacon, Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy, Alec Baldwin and Patrick Swayze, while a post-Friends Jennifer Aniston was eyed to play the replacement for Tony’s original partner, Viv Blackadder (Robyn Lively),
3. Michael Weatherly recalled that when filming his first scenes as DiNozzo, NCIS co-creator Donald P. Bellisario came up to him on-set and grumbled, “What are you doing, modeling?” Weatherly then resolved to entertain at the very least himself with a more animated performance.
4. In the Season 2 episode “Twilight,” in which Caitlin Todd (played by Sasha Alexander) is shot dead by a sniper, Michael Weatherly can be seen wincing a half-second too soon, before the “blood” squib actually explodes. (See photo above.)
5. Actual NCIS agents had never worn stitched logo caps — until TV’s NCIS came along and sparked interest, and the real-life LEOs requested official ones.
6. Diona Reasonover, who plays Kasie, had no idea that Cote de Pablo was secretly returning as Ziva in the Season 16 finale — until she watched the episode that night!
7. Though not a series regular as McGee until Season 2, Sean Murray holds the record for appearing in the most NCIS episodes: 450 (out of 464). Fun fact within a fact: Murray was originally hired as a one-off guest star, but a subsequent episode came in three minutes short and it was decided to bring the McGee character back to fill time.
8. It would take almost 30 days to watch all 1,000 NCIS franchise episodes. Without bathroom breaks!
9. For its headquarters scenes, NCIS: Sydney shoots inside an actual, old restaurant space at the Walsh Bay Wharves along Sydney Harbour.
What did you enjoy most about the NCISverse: The First 1,000 TV special?
