Mark Harmon once discussed a significant alteration that was made to “NCIS” that improved the show. When Mark Harmon was finally chosen for the wildly popular television show NCIS, it was a major success. During its years on air, NCIS saw substantial development and change, much like other long-running television programs. One of those adjustments was to begin drafting the show’s scripts while it was being produced.
Mark Harmon once explained how the actors worked on ‘NCIS’ without being given a script
Harmon has been a part of NCIS since its inception. His name was floated around with a list of other A-listers at the time like Harrison Ford and Kevin Bacon. But Harmon was the actor that NCIS made a serious effort in trying to recruit. After casting director Susan Bluestein suggested Harmon, however, others behind the show figured he’d pass on the series.
“Mark Harmon was a huge star, and everyone believed that we should make an offer to him and then look through the list of possible candidates if we weren’t successful in landing him. Don Bellisario and Mark got along well during their meeting, so Mark decided to go ahead and do it. The show became much more important to me all of a sudden, casting chief Peter Golden recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
The intended demographic for the show was said to be impacted by Harmon’s casting as Jethro Gibbs. However, the show was far from becoming the ratings sensation that its subsequent seasons would bring. The sitcom didn’t find its commercial footing until after its third season, according to producer Mark Horowitz.
Coincidentally, the modest results of the show’s first seasons coincided with a very unusual approach NCIS had with storytelling. According to an interview Harmon did with Larry King, NCIS didn’t have a script until later on in the series.
“We used to not have them on this show. For four years we did this show without script,” Harmon said.
Harmon clarified that the NCIS cast went off little information to do their jobs.
“You had sides, pages. You read maybe two acts of a show and you went to work. Then the scenes came in piecemeal, and you did them as you go on,” he said.
Mark Harmon once shared his ‘NCIS’ moments were both scripted and unscripted
Harmon asserted that the NCIS crew built up a lot of faith with each other over the years. The benefits meant that the actors didn’t always have to stick to the script.
Harmon remarked, “We’ve collaborated for a very long time.” “And having a general rehearsal with actors who have appeared in over 200 episodes is one of the show’s greatest treats.” You also have faith. You put your trust in those who are willing to take risks and try to mine things that might or might not work. And it’s how we operate over there. We’ve always operated there in that manner. In response, I would say that while some of those events were scripted, others weren’t. Nevertheless, some of them persisted while others did not.
Harmon believed this flexible way of performing helped the show continue to stand out among other procedural shows with similar formats.
“But it really brings the format to what makes this show different. I mean we all are open. We all speak our mind. We all team up to get this done. And I could take any episode and any direction and point to numerous points in the episode that came from wherever they came is not as important as that they were. So that’s how we work,” Harmon once told the TV Addict.
Mark Harmon’s ‘Gibbs Slap’ was completely unscripted
A famous recurring theme for both the character and the entire program is Harmon’s “Gibbs Slap.” To keep his coworkers in line and attentive, the actor’s character had a habit of slapping them on the head. However, the widely recognized peculiarity was first an instinctive, unplanned occurrence. And the first person to receive the smack was Michael Weatherly, Harmon’s former co-star.
“Michael is a hugely talented actor, as is every member of this cast. My memory of when that happened, we were doing a scene,” Harmon once told Premiere. “And he was on a Navy ship and he was talking to a female petty officer. I think this was in year one, early. And he was doing what he does, which is sometimes stay on script and sometimes not. I just reached over and smacked him. I tried to put him back on line. It was an instinct. It wasn’t thought, I didn’t think about it, I just did it.”