Other Insider Info

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

Kip on the early days of the show

• on creating the show:
  NCIS was DPB's idea although he brought Don MacGill in on the project to help.

  Don't have time to say more than this is a concept DPB has wanted to execute for a couple of years, but never had the time. He is co-writing it with Don McGill and DPB will direct.

  DPB created ["NCIS"] with his JAG production team. He also directed and exec produced the pilot episode from a script he wrote with Don MacGill. The actors all have contracts should the pilot go to series. That is standard in the business.

  HARRIET: The first post I read concerned the "look" of the show. That was decided upon by Don Bellisario, who not only co-created the pilot (with Don McGill) but also directed it. The pace, the music, the lighting, the camera angles, the editing, the graphics, all intended to create a contemporary feel (I believe DPB described this in his interview with the L.A. Times, which was posted earlier.)

• On scripts:
  DPB has nixed sub-plots in NCIS and has told JAG writers to hold subplots to a B story only, if needed at all.

  [The writers]'ve already been there and are in contact with NCIS people.

  It's the ability to do character interactions and humor [which decides which writers are kept permanently]. NCIS is a character driven, not plot driver series. All of the writers who left...were unable to deliver.

  NCIS scripts are slightly longer than JAG because NCIS cuts faster. For example a JAG episode will have about 800 edits. An NCIS episode about 1200.
  Scripts are written to about 65 pages. Some run as high as 70. We usually estimate 45 seconds to a page. But this is only a general average. An old gaffer once told me long ago the most time consuming like in a script he ever worked on was "Sonia Henie skates". Three months later they finished filming that line.

• on the hokey "Navy NCIS" title Season 1:
  It is unfortunately true.
  DPB has always wanted NCIS.
  CBS wanted Navy CIS.
  DPB said it's not Navy Criminal Investigative Service...it's Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
  CBS didn't understand the difference, but changed it to NAVAL CIS to please DPB who wasn't pleased and continued to bug them.
  CBS said, "How about JAG-NCIS"? DPB said, "No!"
  CBS finally relented and said okay to NCIS.
  DPB cheered. He'd won! But, wait. Bruckheimer calls CBS and says people think he's putting on another version of CSI! (Guess there are more dyslexics out there than we thought.)
  CBS, not wanting to anger Bruckheimer or DPB, changes the name to Navy NCIS.

  If you're wondering about the logic behind this, so is DPB.

  It will only be NAVY NCIS for a short while and then the NAVY will be dropped. It will never be referred to in the episodes as anything but NCIS.

  By the way, at the last minute to confuse them further. DPB said, "Hey, let's call it BRAVO ZULU." CBS said, "Huh?"
   

  After discovering that the network insisted on titling the show "Naval CIS," fans and Kip had their fun pointing out that no one else has to talk about the "Federal BI" or the "Central IA". Unfortunately for CBS, separting ITS name turns it into..."Columbia BS." :-)

  Columbia BS sandbagged us on that [changing the title to "Navy NCIS" without letting TPTB know].

  DPB has convinced them to change it to NAVAL CIS. In the show it will be referred to as NCIS and when successful it will officially become NCIS.

  We believe the thinking at Columbia BS is that the word NAVY would attract JAG fans and CIS would attract dyslexic CSI fans.

  CBS does not want viewers to confuse NCIS as being another CSI type show. Neither does DPB.

  So they agree in principle. However, DPB does not want to call it Naval CIS or Navy CIS, the Columbia BS solution. He prefers to call it NCIS and to use a 'saga sell' as he did on QL and JAG to get audience up to speed.

  By the way, NCIS was not sold to CBS as a forensic CSI type show and DPB has no desire to make one. What network executives say during the selling seasons to advertisers is a short hand they think will work. It isn't always accurate.
   

  We'd love to drop [the "Navy" part of "Navy NCIS"], but CBS wants it for the first season.

  Oddly enough, every TV critic cracked a joke about the redundant title during the first season. What many did NOT get right was the fact that it was NOT Mr. Bellisario's idea. CBS obviously changed it going into Season 2.

• on the music:
  Steve Bransom who has been doing JAG for 7 years or more will do the musicfor NCIS just as he did in spin-off ["JAG" episodes]. NCIS will not be full orchestra like JAG but rather synth-driven beats.

  (In addition, Numeriklab did the NCIS theme and has done some of the pieces used on "NCIS." They won two ASCAP awards for their work.)

• on connections to "NCIS"'s mother show, "JAG": Harriet: And for those thinking NCIS would be another "JAG," that's not what the biz is all about. During "Magnum, P.I.," I received a phone call: "My son looks just like Tom Selleck," a woman said excitedly. "That's too bad," I answered. "You see, there already is a Tom Selleck."
  Kip: NCIS will have a different look, filming and editing style...even writing style from JAG. As was evident in the spin-off episodes.

  DPB wants to get a new audience for NCIS. It is clear that many TV viewers who do not watch JAG or don't care for it (and that includes critics and award shows) believe that NCIS is just another JAG.

  This in no way diminishes DPB's love for JAG which he created, but he wants NCIS to stand on its own. To do cross-overs (which CBS wants along with some fans) would on perpetuate this 'another JAG' opinion in the minds of fans and critics who have never viewed NCIS.

  DPB doesn't [like the idea a fan suggested of having Gibbs and "JAG"'s Lt. Col. Sarah MacKenzie get involved romantically]. So you will never see it happen.

• Set and props:
  We set up our computers so that any keystroke or strokes will bring up whatever has been pre-programmed to be displayed on the screen. That way any actor, even if they can't type can look as if they can.

  We are duplicating the squadroom, lab,etc. on the stage [from the temp ones built for the "JAG" episodes]. Those were all in an actual building in the pilot.

  from LACoroner: There are three autopsy tables in the room. At one end, there are two rows of crypts for body storage. The room is basically a rectangle with miscellaneous lab equipment, a desk for Ducky and some storage cabinets. Pretty basic stuff.

Real Life

• The Real NCIS from Kip (Official Website):
  Most NCIS investigators are civilians who were former cops, FBI. MPs, SPs, etc. Four years ago the USMC CIS merged into NCIS and the Marines retain their military rank and stay in the Corps. They, however, do not wear uniforms and are not obligated to defer in any way to military officers while on an investigation.

  NCIS agents are for the most part former civilian cops. They have to attend the Federal Agents school which is somewhere down south (I forget where) and not to be confused with FBI school in Quantico. It's different.

• Some autopsy info:
  Hey, there is a reason I have never sat through an entire episode of any of the CSI's...and almost daily, I am asked about CSI as if it is some sort of benchmark...NOT! For technical effort, I will take NCIS, L&O or CJ any day.

  Read about Gerald and Jimmy's jobs.

  Depending on when the autopsy unit was built, [autopsy room body waste] could drain directly into the local sewer system. Most contemporary facilities have dedicated drainage and handling systems to make sure that the product of an autopsy are properly handled/treated before getting too far from the source. LA County's Forensic Science Center was dedicated in 1972 and the waster flows into a "clarifier" and then into a holding tank. The tank is pumped out on a regular basis. The effluent is processed as medical waste for disposal. As far as the solid waste is concerned, it is packaged and placed in biohazard waste cans for disposal where it is incinerated. Pretty much what you come into the autopsy with, you leave with, less whatever specimens the ME feels necessary to reach a conclusion as to manner and cause of death. A homicide victim might have more retained than most due to the need to exam wounds and artifacts more closely by toolmark/bitemark/ballistic experts.
   

  In Los Angeles County, we have a plastic bag lined stanless steel bucket adjacent to the autopsy table where the ME or autopsy technician will place organs and tissues at the conclusion of the examination. The plastic bag is then taken from the bucket and placed back into the now empty thoracic cavity and the torso is closed and sewn up.
   

  The blood typically goes down the drain. The one exception that I can speak to are autopsies that have to be done on certain segments of the Jewish faith. We are asked to place a plastic sheet under the body and not allow drainage so that all elements of the deceased are captured and delivered to the to the mortuary and the ceremony/procedure called, I believe "the tahara" (I may be off on the spelling) is performed where the deceased to placed into burial garb and everything associated with the body is placed with the body prior to burial.
   

  Semen is generally collected in a couple of ways...by swabbing and by irrigating. Unless there was menstrual blood or vaginal trauma, I usually don't see red specimen for collection. Maybe that was a SPFX idea to make it stand out for the camera?

• Acting and Contracts:

  All actors who make pilots are bound to the project. In addition, even if the project isn't immediately picked up the actor is bound for what we call a 'second bite" --a date, usually six months in the future during which the show can still be picked up, say for mid-season. In the meantime, the actor can work on another series, even as a regular, except that show would be in what is called "Second Position". Should the pilot the actor made (which is in "First Position:) be picked up at any time during that six months, the actor is obligated to give up the other work and do the series he made the pilot for.

  These obligations are structured into the pilot contract which usually pays double the actor's episodic fee for the right to hold an actor like this.

  It's standard throughout the television industry.
   

  We don't know how to weigh opinions on a website since it represents such a small number of viewers with no way to evaluate their statistical status. Do they represent most viewers? A small number? What are their ages? What is their economic status? Etc.

  This is usually done with control groups in research studies where we know all those factors.

  Also DPB is notorious for going with his gut. He makes what he likes and hopes there will be enough viewers who agree to watch the shows.

• On the cute "Go Navy" TV spot by Mark Harmon, Sasha Alexander, and Michael Weatherly aired during the Army-Navy game in 2003-2004: CBS came up with that one.

• From Harriet:
  Wrong target. Network execs sell time. There are just so many Prime Time hours networks can sell; that is, there is a finite amount of time they can sell at a premium. Ad agencies buy time. For their clients, the advertisers. There was a day, and I remember it well, when the amount of money a network charged was based on the total amount of people tuned in at a specific time. The more people you reached, the more money the network could charge per minute. (This is still being done for special events, like a minute costs more during a Super Bowl game because more people are watching). This formula was based on the figures provided by a rating company called Nielsen (which you're all familiar with).

  There came a time when ad agencies decided that the amount of people didn't matter as much as the ages of those watching. Nielsen obliged by breaking down their statistics into what is known as demographics (and you're all familiar with that).

  Ad agencies used the same actuary table as insurance companies; that is, your life insurance premium is less if you're younger, based on the premise that if you're older, the insurance would have to be paid sooner. (Yes, I know, young people don't have a lease on life, but we're talking odds here, like in Vegas).

  The ad agencies still buy time on programs that have older audiences, they just want to pay less per minute, based on the fact that the odds of a younger audience buying their products longer are more favorable.

  Since we're talking finite time, the networks, naturally, would prefer to charge more for each minute and thus are looking for programs that fit the demographics which will allow them to do this. And Don, being a supplier of programming, will have to adhere to this equation if, that is, he wants to succeed in the marketplace as it is defined by Nielsen, the networks and the ad agencies. He didn't create the world, folks. (Although he used to say to me, "I'm the creator!" and I'd tease back: "Small c, however.")

  I know (a) I've lost you and (b) I haven't changed anybody's mind and (c) I've just beaten this subject to death and (d) if you buy into any of the above, I have a small bridge in Broolyn for sale. Best, Harriet

• HARRIET:
  Perhaps it's also just a name that always passes the studio's Legal Clearances, which checks each script for a variety of reasons, one of them being to "clear" the use of fictitious names. They use various criteria to determine this; but if they decide "Did not clear," the writer has to come up with another name. Sometimes, just changing the first name will suffice, and they'll even suggest one.

  I do think that after Don received a number of these "Did not clear" messages, he began to come up with the names of friends and relatives which, it turns out, proved to be quite unusual. And they cleared. (And wasn't it fortuitous that "Harriet Sims" cleared??)

  There is another hurdle TV scripts undergo: the network's Standards and Practices. This division is concerned with the FCC rules and regulations for programming over the public airwaves. Although networks are not licensed, the stations they own are, as are their affiliates. If memory serves, this license is renewable every three years. (Of course, networks can be fined, as in the case of that infamous wardrobe malfunction.)

  You know the drill; just the tip of the iceberg.