Premise

NCIS follows a fictional team of Naval Criminal Investigative Service Major Case Response Team (MCRT)[6] special agents headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. It is described by the actors and producers (on special features on DVD releases in the United States) as being distinguished by its comic elements, ensemble acting and character-driven plots.

NCIS is the primary law enforcement and counter-intelligence arm of the United States Department of the Navy, which includes the United States Marine Corps. NCIS investigates all major criminal offenses (felonies)—crimes punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justiceby confinement of more than one year—within the Department of the Navy. The MCRT is frequently assigned to high profile cases such as the death of the U.S. president’s military aide, a bomb situation on a U.S. Navy warship, the death of a celebrity on a reality show set on a USMC base, terrorist threats, and kidnappings.

The MCRT is led by Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Gibbs’s team is composed of Special Agent and Senior Field Agent Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), Special Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Probationary Special Agent (formerly Mossad liaison officer) Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), who replaced Caitlin “Kate” Todd(Sasha Alexander) when she was shot and killed by rogue Mossad agent Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin) at the end of season two. The team is assisted in their investigations by Chief Medical Examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum), his assistant Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), who replaced Gerald Jackson (Pancho Demmings), and Forensic Specialist Abigail “Abby” Sciuto (Pauley Perrette).

It has been revealed through flashbacks that the ‘original’ head of the MCRT was Special Agent Mike Franks, who led the unit when it was part of the Naval Investigative Service (NIS), the predecessor agency of the NCIS. He recruited Gibbs shortly after Gibbs’ retirement from the Marine Corps, eventually retiring himself some years later. After Franks’ departure, Gibbs recruited DiNozzo from the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Section. The two were briefly joined by Vivian Blackadder, whom Gibbs recruited from the FBI. In the second part of the NCIS pilot, Blackadder allowed her emotions to nearly derail an anti-terror operation in Spain. Gibbs is noticeably disappointed; Blackadder is not present in the series’ first regular episode, replaced by Caitlin Todd, a Secret Service agent who joins Gibbs’ team after resigning from the Secret Service. McGee first appears as a Field Agent assigned to the Norfolk Field Office. He uses his computer skills to aid the MCRT in subsequent investigations through the rest of the first season, until he is officially promoted with his own desk at the Navy Yard in the beginning of the second season.

NCIS is currently led by Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll). The first director seen in the series, Thomas Morrow (Alan Dale), left after being promoted to Deputy Director of DHS. Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) was appointed director after Morrow; after she was killed in a shootout at the end of the fifth season, Vance was promoted to take her place.

Main

• Leroy Jethro Gibbs, portrayed by Mark Harmon (Seasons 1–present), is a Special Agent in charge of the Major Case Response Team. He was a Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps until 1991 when his first wife Shannon and daughter Kelly were killed by a Mexican drug dealer, after Shannon had witnessed a murder by the drug dealer.[7]After Gibbs had taken revenge on the drug dealer who killed his wife and daughter by shooting him, Gibbs joined NIS, later renamed NCIS, with Special Agent Mike Franks.[8] He has been married four times but is currently single, which is often referred to on the show. He also has a difficult relationship with his father.
• Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo, portrayed by Michael Weatherly (Seasons 1–present), is a Special Agent and Senior Field Agent of the Major Case Response Team and former Peoria, Philadelphia, and Baltimore police officer before joining NCIS in 2001.[9] Gibbs considers DiNozzo to be a younger version of himself, using his “gut” to solve cases (e.g., in the episode “Collateral Damage”).[10] Considered a notorious womanizer, his behavior is often quite sexist even on the job, which irritates the females he works with.
• Timothy McGee, portrayed by Sean Murray (Recurring season 1, main cast seasons 2–present), is a Special Agent and Junior Field Agent of the Major Case Response Team. He has a degree in computer forensicsfrom MIT and a degree in Biomedical Engineering fromJohns Hopkins, and, along with Abby Sciuto, acts as the team’s technology specialist. McGee was originally assigned to the Norfolk Naval Base but became a permanent team member at the end of the Season 2 opening episode, “See No Evil”.
• Ziva David, portrayed by Cote de Pablo (Recurring season 3, main cast seasons 3–present), is a Special Agent and Probationary Field Agent of the Major Case Response Team since season seven. For her first four years in the show, she was a part of the NCIS team as aMossad Liaison Officer. Before joining NCIS, David was in the Israeli Army for two years. She replaced Special Agent Kate Todd, who was shot and killed in the Season Two finale, “Twilight”. In the Season 7 opening episode, “Truth or Consequences”, she was rescued from North Africa by Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee where she had been held prisoner for several months after being captured on a mission she had been working on for Mossad, she eventually returned to the U.S and cut all ties with Mossad for good, becoming a probationary NCIS Special Agent and also a U.S citizen.
• Abigail “Abby” Sciuto, portrayed by Pauley Perrette (Seasons 1–present), is a forensics specialist assigned to the NCIS Major Case Response Team. She has an affinity for Gothic fashion and is addicted to the fictional brand “Caf-Pow”, a caffeinated beverage.
• Leon Vance, portrayed by Rocky Carroll (Recurring season 5, main cast seasons 6–present), who was formerly the NCIS Assistant Director and right hand to Jenny Shepard; he became the Director of NCIS following her death at the end of the fifth season.
• Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, portrayed by David McCallum (Seasons 1–present), is the Chief Medical Examiner assigned to NCIS; he spent some time as a Medical Examiner in Vietnam, Bosnia, and Afghanistan before working for NCIS. He was close friends with Jenny Shepard and is best friends with Gibbs.
• Jenny Shepard, portrayed by Lauren Holly (Recurring season 3, main cast seasons 3–5), was the second director of NCIS; she formerly worked under Gibbs in Europe and was his lover at the time. She was killed in “Judgment Day, Part 1″ after a former NCIS target, Natasha, hired assassins to kill her. Shepard managed to kill all of the assassins with the help of Mike Franks but died from her wounds.
• Caitlin “Kate” Todd, portrayed by Sasha Alexander (Main cast seasons 1–2, guest starred season 3 episodes 1 & 2), worked as a Secret Service Agent until the beginning of Season 1 and was tasked with the presidential protection detail. She almost failed at her job, only being bailed out by NCIS, so she resigned from the Secret Service and was offered a job at NCIS by Gibbs who became something of a mentor to her. Her two-year career came to a tragic and abrupt end when at the end of the Season 2 finale “Twilight”, she died after being shot in the head by double agent Ari Haswari. Her death hit the NCIS team hard, with Gibbs leaving flowers on the roof where she was shot and, following her death, not letting anybody touch her desk or locker at NCIS until she was replaced.

Recurring

• Jimmy Palmer, portrayed by Brian Dietzen (recurring seasons 1–present), is the assistant Medical Examiner to Dr. Mallard since late season one. Although originally credited in a recurring role, Dietzen has been credited as “Also starring” since season six.
• Tobias Fornell, portrayed by Joe Spano (Seasons 1–present), is a senior FBI Special Agent. He and Gibbs share an ex-wife, who wiped out each of their bank accounts when she left. Gibbs and Fornell have a spiky camaraderie.
• Trent Kort, portrayed by David Dayan Fisher (Seasons 4–present), is an undercover CIA Special Agent who always seems to have his own devious goals to pursue. Gibbs regards him as potentially very dangerous and does not trust him. While trying to clean up the agency’s mess involving the “Port-to-Port Killer “, Lt. Jonas Cobb, he loses his left eye in a fight with Cobb, which Cobb later puts in a drink he secretly ordered for DiNozzo at a bar.
• Eli David, portrayed by Michael Nouri (Seasons 6–present), is the director of Mossad. He is also father of both NCIS (and ex-Mossad) Agent Ziva David and rogue Mossad agent Ari Haswari. Even though he does not support his daughter being at NCIS he still loves her.
• E. J. Barrett, portrayed by Sarah Jane Morris (Season 8–present), is an NCIS agent reassigned to Washington from Rota, Spain.
• Mike Franks, portrayed by Muse Watson (Seasons 3–8), is a retired Special Agent with NIS and long-time mentor to Gibbs. He is also close friends with DiNozzo and Jenny Shepard. He loses his trigger finger in “Rule Fifty-one”, but claims that he “can still pull the trigger with [his] thumb.” In the Season 8 episode “Swan Song,” he is murdered with a scalpel by Lt. Jonas Cobb, the “Port to Port Killer.”
• M. Allison Hart, portrayed by Rena Sofer (Season 7), is an attorney at law and potential love interest for Gibbs.
• Michelle Lee, portrayed by Liza Lapira (Seasons 4–6), is a Special Agent with NCIS who is assigned to Special Agent DiNozzo’s team at the start of season four even though she is foremost a lawyer, not a field agent. She is reassigned back to the Legal Department after Gibbs returns and has recurring appearances throughout the fourth season. She then returns to Gibbs’ team at the end of season five in “Judgment Day, Part 2″ after being suspected as a mole and is shot by Gibbs in “Dagger” (to hit her captor behind her) after it is revealed that her sister was captured and used to blackmail her into being a mole at NCIS.
• Hollis Mann, portrayed by Susanna Thompson (Seasons 4–5), is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army assigned to the CID. She later retires but remains a love interest of Gibbs throughout seasons four and five.
• Jeanne Benoit, portrayed by Scottie Thompson (Seasons 4–5), is a doctor at Monroe University Hospital and daughter of arms dealer René Benoit (also known as La Grenouille). She is used as part of an undercover operation and is the love interest of Special Agent DiNozzo in seasons four and five; her last appearance is in “Internal Affairs”.
• Paula Cassidy, portrayed by Jessica Steen (Seasons 1–4), is a Special Agent with NCIS and is temporarily assigned to Gibbs’ team following the death of Kate Todd, before getting her own team based in the Pentagon. She is killed by a suicide bomber in “Grace Period”.
• Thomas Morrow, portrayed by Alan Dale (Seasons 1–3), is the first Director of NCIS seen in the series. He resigns as Director of NCIS in “Kill Ari, Part 1″ after being offered a job at the Department of Homeland Security and is succeeded by Jenny Shepard.
• Gerald Jackson, portrayed by Pancho Demmings (Seasons 1 & 3), is the Assistant Medical Examiner to Dr. Mallard during the first season until he is shot by Ari Haswari in “Bête Noire”. He was Dr. Mallard’s assistant two years prior to this and went into rehab after the incident.

Production

The filming crew in 2009.

Name

Prior to the launch of the first season, advertisements on CBS identified the show as “Naval CIS”. By the time of the launch of the first episode, NCIS was airing under the name Navy NCIS, the name it held for the entire first season. Since the “N” in NCIS stands for “Naval”, the name Navy NCIS was technically redundant. The decision to use this name was reportedly made by CBS, over the objections of Bellisario, in order to:

• Attract new viewers (particularly those of JAG), who might not know the NCIS abbreviation.
• Disambiguate between NCIS and the similarly themed and similarly spelled CBS series CSIand its spinoffs. (The original title, for instance, was often misquoted and parodied as “Navy CSI”, something the show itself referenced in the first episode).^[11]

After its successful first season, the name of the series was shortened to NCIS.

Filming location

NCIS is set in the Washington, D.C., area but is filmed in Santa Clarita, California. The sound stages are in Santa Clarita. The series is shot throughout southern California.

Crew changes

It was reported in May 2007 that Donald Bellisario would be stepping down from the show. Due to a disagreement with series star Mark Harmon, Bellisario’s duties as show runner/head writer were to be tasked to long-time show collaborators, including co-executive producer Chas. Floyd Johnson and Shane Brennan, with Bellisario retaining his title as executive producer.^[14]

Episodes

Eight complete seasons of NCIS have been aired, with the eighth season ending on May 17, 2011. As of May 17, 2011, a total of 186 episodes have aired.