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NCIS is a CBS network television series about a team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service of the United States Navy. They investigate crimes involving Navy and Marine Corps personnel. The concept and characters were initially introduced in a two part episode of the CBS series JAG (episodes 8x20 and 8x21). The show premiered on September 23, 2003. Its executive producer is Donald Bellisario.

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Characters

Main Characters

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon)

A senior NCIS agent. An experienced former US Marine Gunnery Sergeant and sniper, Agent Gibbs is a highly skilled investigator and interrogator endowed with seemingly infallible intuition which he uses to his advantage while working on a case. While being a man who "gets the job done," it has been frequently shown that Gibbs has little patience with bureaucracy. As of early season three, there have been many references to his ex-wives, although none have appeared on screen.

Special Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly)

A streetwise homicide detective and chauvinist; often seen flirting with any attractive woman he talks to and has expensive tastes in clothing and automobiles. Tony has his moments of deep thought and investigative intuition, but the seriousness of these moments tend to be underscored by his raillery. Dr. Mallard has observed that Tony is much like Gibbs was a decade ago. Tony is also an avid cinemaphile and often refers to movies during the course of investigating a case and expresses dismay when others have not seen the movie. His tastes run the gamut from classics to modern trash. Dinozzo also stands to inherit a fortune when his parents die, his dad was a Swiss Knife importer, (as was Weatherly's father). The only reason Dinozzo got a job, was that his parents didn't trust him having money.

Special Agent Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander, Season 1 – Season 2)

A former Secret Service agent who often questions authority, Gibbs included. Kate was frequently an object of Dinozzo's interest, although no action was ever taken by either; Kate was usually disgusted by Tony's habits — which include his chauvinism, his interest in the trivial, and his eating habits. She was killed in the line of duty at the end of season two by Ari Haswari who was alleged to be on a personal mission to assassinate Gibbs.

Creator Donald Bellisario says that Alexander asked out of the physically demanding show, that she decided she didn't want to stay for what will likely be a run of many seasons (Fans react with anger at Sasha Alexander's NCIS death). Her replacement, Cote de Pablo (below), was integrated into the show with the same storyline in which Sasha Alexander was written out. She continued to play the character in the first two episodes of the following season as the other characters coped with her loss.

Officer Ziva David (Cote de Pablo, Season 3 – present)

A Mossad agent assigned to Gibbs' team by Director Shephard after she assisted NCIS in locating and terminating a rogue Mossad agent (Ari Haswari, her half-brother). David is a terrible driver and speaks five languages, which leads to malapropisms and mistaken cliché.

Probationary Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray)

McGee was originally a lab technician employed with NCIS and frequently assisted Gibbs and his team when they needed technical and computer-related expertise. Later requested by Gibbs as an addition to his team, McGee is a younger agent who makes DiNozzo feel nervous about his job. He attended M.I.T. and enjoys online gaming. DiNozzo refers to him as "Probie" in reference to this lower-eschelon position as a probationary agent (in the german version he´s called "Bambino").

Forensic specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette)

A technogeek in the mold of the Lone Gunmen, Abby is probably best known for her gothic style of dress (to include tattoos) and happy-go-lucky attitude. She grew up in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana as the hearing child of deaf parents and likes her music loud. Abby is seemingly fueled by 'Big Gulp' stylized caffeinated sodas which are perpetually provided to her by Gibbs. Abby is extremely well-versed in her field of study, rarely stumped by the evidentiary puzzles which Gibbs' team present to her; she has been shown to exhibit an almost religious zeal for the field of forensics.

Doctor Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum)

NCIS' British Chief Medical Examiner who assists the team, often accompanying them into the field. With a habit of talking to the corpses upon which he performs autopsies, as well as his penchant for excessive exposition on vaguely-related topics, Dr. Mallard proves very qualified to both assist and entertain the agents for whom he works. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Mallard also restored his antique car with his own hands.

Director Jenny Shephard (Lauren Holly, Season 3 – present)

The Director of NCIS after her predecessor, Thomas Morrow, takes a job at the Department of Homeland Security. She was once romantically involved with Agent Gibbs, but now will only act in the purview of being his superior officer.

Recurring Characters

Gerald Jackson (Pancho Demmings, Season 1)

Dr. Mallard's assistant until being incapacitated by Ari Haswari after being held hostage in the morgue. While recuperating, his position was filled by Jimmy Palmer. Approximately a year and a half later, he was again captured by Ari Haswari in an effort to secure Dr. Mallard's audience. Gerald cannot drive a manual transmission, much to the dismay of Ari and Ducky.

Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen, Season 1 – present)

After Gerald was incapacitated, Mr. Palmer became Dr. Mallard's medical assistant both in the field and in the morgue. Jimmy is frequently nervous, but very proficient in his field of study.

Paula Cassidy (Jessica Steen)

A criminal profiler for NCIS. An expert on Middle Eastern terrorists, she once worked as an interrogator at Guantanamo Bay. She and DiNozzo originally appeared to share a mutual attraction, but by season three she was significantly more antagonistic to his characteristic constant advances.

Special Agent Tobias Fornell (Joe Spano)

A senior FBI agent who is often involved in "inter-agency turf wars" with Gibbs' NCIS team. He was framed for revealing the identity of an undercover agent to the Mafia, but was cleared with help of Gibbs. He married one of Gibbs' ex-wives, despite warnings, and is now divorced from her too.

Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin)

The terrorist who wounded both Gibbs and Gerald Jackson when he infiltrated the NCIS morgue. While informed to NCIS as being an undercover Mossad agent; he was, in fact, rogue and working for Hamas. After his murder of Kate Todd, and several attacks on NCIS members (including Gibbs), he was killed by his half-sister, Mossad officer Ziva David.

Charles "Chip" Sterling (Michael Bellisario, Season 3)

Abby's unrequested lab assistant, whom she nicknamed Chip against his wishes. Chip is socially awkward, a condition exacerbated by Abby and Gibbs as a result of his unrequested status in the lab. Much like McGee was when he started, Chip too, is harrased by Tony as "the new guy." It was eventually discovered that Chip took the job at NCIS to implement revenge on DiNozzo by framing him for murder — he was found out and summarily incapacitated by Abby.

Naming the show

During its first season, NCIS aired under the name Navy NCIS. Since the "N" in NCIS stands for "Naval", the name Navy NCIS was technically redundant (an example of RAS syndrome). 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 acronym.
• Disambiguate between NCIS and the similarly-themed and similarly-spelled CBS series CSI and its spinoffs. (Initially, some had erroneously referred to the series as "Navy CSI".)

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

Trivia

• In an early episode, Gibbs tells Kate that Ducky looked like Illya Kuryakin when he was younger; this was the name of the character that David McCallum (who plays Ducky) played on the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
• Some of the producers are longtime fans of The X-Files. NCIS tips their hat to that series in season 1's "The Truth Is Out There", which featured a murder mystery involving sailors who were named for X-Files writers (as well as a bogus UFO scare).
• In the season 3 episode "Frame Up" Special Agent David L. Brant, soon to be the former Director of NCIS, had a cameo and joked with Gibbs about retiring.
• Michael Bellisario, who plays the recurring character of Charles "Chip" Sterling in several episodes in season 3, is the son of Donald P. Bellisario, the executive producer of the show.

Episodes

For an overview see List of NCIS Episodes.

External links

• CBS official site for NCIS
• NCIS at TVSODA.COM
• NCIS at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome show

• CBS network shows
• 2000s TV shows in the United States
• Military television series
• Crime television series