Other Insider Info

Here is everything which didn't fit into the episode pages - insiders' information on characters, the writing of the show, that ridiculously redundant "Navy" in the title during Season 1. Their posts have been grouped by category, not by date. Yes, they have given me permission to post their emails on this website.

You can find HarrietNCIS and LACoroner on the NCIS-CBS Yahoo! Group. Kip, because of his usual workload, no longer answers questions. I have honored his request and WILL NOT forward any questions to him, so you needn't try. Learn more about them.
 

Click on one of the links to jump to the spot you're looking for.

Creating "NCIS"   |   Cast & Characters (Seasons 1 & 2)   |   Specific Episodes   |   Real Life NCIS   |   Miscellaneous

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Two most often asked questions:

1. When are Kate and Tony or Kate and Gibbs going to get together? That is, what about Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST)?
   Kip: None planned, but I'm sure viewers will make up their own. (See also why the redhead was created.)

2. When will Mr. Bellisario release the DVDs?
   Harriet: Not up to DPB; NCIS...[is] owned by Paramount Studios. It's up to their Home Entertainment Division to make that decision, based, I guess, on contractual obligations (syndication) among other considerations. Log onto Paramount.com from time to time for updates.

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So who are Kip and Harriet and the other insiders?

Harriet is the audience liasion for "NCIS". (Yes, Belisarius Productions has hired a person to be in charge of us! Mr. Bellisario told Harriet, '"I'd like you to work on the show and take care of the fans."' Her title varies from Production Secretary or Producer's Assistant to Executive Coordinator.

She appears in "Forced Entry".

Straight from Ms. Harriet's mouth: she is not related to the "ER" actress Julianna Marguiles, although they share a last name and they have met before.

Kip is a fan favorite. Precious few fans (I suspect one or two do, but they aren't talking) know who he really is. He is as mysterious as Gibbs' redhead and the girl in McGee's apartment, and he likes it that way.

He also answered fans' questions on "NCIS"'s "mother" show, "JAG".

He has told us that he's a Jack Russell terrier; once, that of all the characters on "JAG" he would have wanted to play Mac (a female Marine; she appears in the "JAG" spinoff episodes); once, that maybe "Kip" wasn't just one person but a bunch of people with one person editing to keep consistency in his dry, semi-sarcastic, and funny style.

LACoroner is a coroner in LA (duh. :-) ) who also serves as one of two technical advisors (T/A) for the show. He is a coroner investigator, by his own description; an article refers to him as the chief investigator at the L.A. County Department of Coroner. The county office in the CourtTV show "North Mission Road" is where he works. He describes his role with "NCIS":

"I was first asked to assist with a JAG episode having never seen the show. Being ex-air force, I wasn't drawn into Navy issues, let alone lawyers. Once I met the players...the talent, the production crew, the executive team, I looked at the whole thing a tad differently. When I was asked to help with the transition episodes from JAG to NCIS, I was very excited knowing what these folks wanted to do with a show that featured forensics as a part of the show."

"I spend anywhere from 0 to 20 minutes a day on the phone with the writers or producers or the other technical adviser for NCIS, Leon Carroll. ... As far as on-set visits, that can be 0 to 3 times per month...depending on when they have autopsy scenes or if Ducky justs wants me around to spot him while he does the heavy lifting. Of course, my "real job" responsibilities take priority over the NCIS gig....the NCIS gig as far as I am concerned, is icing on the cake for me.

They have all been wonderful to me and I love being a part of something so creative. Fortunately, my boss shares my desire to properly portray forensic science in as many venues as we can so he supports our extracurricular activity. TV and film take greater pains to get it right than do newspapers and magazines...which has always been puzzling to me."

"A learned man [producer/writer] once told me, as I was "advising" him on the technical aspects of a scene, to remember one thing about that which we were engaged..."It is a TV show, not a documentary."

Caught off guard for a brief moment, I had but to smile and agree. Now, when I am asked, I give them both barrels and reload, and give them more. And from my ramblings, they pick through the debris and select what they like, what advances their story line or adds to a character's development. I might give them ideas they hadn't considered or plot twists they find exciting. On the important stuff, they tend to accept what is written on my tablets, on the rest, they are free to push the envelope and have fun with it."