'NCIS' team crossing over to New Orleans this fall
By James Hibberd on Jul 17, 2014 @james_hibberd
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/07/17/mark-harmon-ncis-new-orleans-crossover/
CBS has enlisted Mark Harmon and the rest of his NCIS team to help ensure that the military crime drama’s New Orleans-based spin-off completes its ratings mission. Harmon will make another appearance on NCIS: New Orleans, which launches this fall, and this time he’s bringing more of his crew. Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael Weatherly’s Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo, Pauley Perrette’s Abigail “Abby” Sciuto, and David McCallum’s Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard will all visit The Big Easy in an unspecified episode. The crossover will partner Harmon with fellow veteran prime-time star Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap), who leads the New Orleans team.
“I’m here to help,” Harmon told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour in Beverly Hills on Thursday. “I’ve learned a few things in 12 years that I’m happy to pass on – or not.”
There was previously a cross-over between the shows last season during two episodes that served as a backdoor pilot introduction to the new project, where Bakula plays Special Agent Dwayne Pride, the head of the NCIS New Orleans field office.
Bakula acknowledged he had “big shoes to fill” as the star of an NCIS spin-off. “This is kind of potentially a great partnership of a new show … the ball that’s being handed off is a perfect spiral,” he said of the new show, which will receive a lead-in from NCIS on Tuesday nights. “And there’s pressure that comes with that also. No question about it. Everyone’s talking about imagine what it will be like being on the air for 11 years. I said, ‘Hold on. They need to write the show, and then we need to do the show. We have to earn our place. It’s not a given,’ and I’m fortunate to have this great, very rich character that exists, that I can plumb for ideas and experiences.”
NCIS is the longest-running drama series currently on broadcast TV, and is also the most watched — averaging about 19 million viewers. But the veteran drama tends to lack the media attention enjoyed by more buzzy cable dramas. Harmon seemed to suggest that people tend to underestimate how much work goes into keeping the procedural at the top of its game. “We’ve been fortunate on this show that we’re doing,” said Harmon, who is also an executive producer on the series. “It looks really easy to do. It’s really hard to do, and [executive producer Jeffrey Lieber is] finding that out right now … we take great pride in what we try to put forward, and we hope that that same footprint rests onto this [new] show.”
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NCIS Season 12: A New Villain, A New Romance, A Trip to New Orleans
by Jim Halterman at July 18, 2014 9:21 am. Updated at July 18, 2014 9:21 am
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2014/07/ncis-season-12-a-new-villain-a-new-romance-a-trip-to-new-orleans/
During the NCIS: New Orleans panel discussion at the TCA Summer Press Tour yesterday, executive producers Gary Glasberg, Jeffrey Lieber and Mark Harmon held court and spilled information.
To wit: there are already plans crossover the world of "the mothership" with the upcoming Big Easy-based spinoff.
“We’re currently planning an episode that’s coming out where Gibbs will make an appearance. There will be crossover between the two shows,” Glasberg confirmed. “We have a storyline where Michael Weatherly is involved, where Pauley Perrette is involved, David McCallum. That’s the fun of what we have here is having that interaction.”
Later that day at a CBS party in West Hollywood, I asked Glasberg about specifics regarding new episodes of NCIS. Consider yourself SPOILER WARNED and scroll down for interview excerpts...
TV Fanatic: Where are we finding our gang at the start of the season?
Gary Glasberg: It’s really interesting. Last season was so tumultuous. To have Ziva exit, Bishop arrive, the introduction of the New Orleans episodes and then Ralph Waite’s passing, it was a lot. I couldn’t do a cliffhanger. It was just disrespectful. So I think by doing it the way we did, by sort of resetting over the hiatus and then coming out of the gate with a big story, which is what we’re doing, we’re exciting about it.
It’s really about focusing on the team and the family because I know that the fans really respond to that and then, of course, really peppering it with all kinds of great little tidbits along the way.
The first episode starts in Russia and brings Gibbs and McGee to Russia and then a crisis happens and we’re off and running. It sets up an adversary for them that will track through the whole season.
TVF: So we’ll have a big bad for the whole season?
GG: On and off a big bad! An actor named Alex Veadov. He’s a lovely man and he plays a Russian mercenary named Sergei Michnev. Very excited about that. He’s a terrific actor and excited about the potential of where he can go and the potential to cross over into the New Orleans show, as well.
TVF: That sounds great. What else is coming?
GG: Episode 3 is a Ducky origins story, which we‘re going to find a young David McCallum and I’m very excited about that. Steve Binder is writing that and we’re going to learn things like why the bow tie and all kinds of stuff. It will be a lot of fun.
TVF: Will it be a light, fun episode? Or will there still be a darker case along with it?
GG: There will be a case that goes along through it, but it brings Ducky and Bishop back to England. So we’re very excited about that.
TVF: Any old faces from the past either villains or other people we haven’t seen in awhile?
GG: We’re talking about different people. We’ll have to see who gets cast and who we ultimately bring in. But everything from trying to cast the elusive, unknown ex-wife, the one we haven’t met. We’ll also keep the Delilah story alive with McGee. And Tony, in episode 4, is going to meet a woman. So we’ll start to layer that in.
TVF: With both shows going, are you going to sleep ever again?
GG: I tend to stay up late so I go to bed around 2 and [exec producer Jeffrey Lieber] gets up around 4 so there’s only about 2 hours of time where we need to hire someone from 2-4 [am].
NCIS Season 12 premieres at 8/7c on Tuesday, September 23, with NCIS: New Orleans debuting immediately afterward.
Statistics: Posted by CerriMary — Fri Jul 18, 2014 3:03 pm