NCIS - Season 1
The first season of the American police procedural drama NCIS was originally broadcast between September 23, 2003, and May 25, 2004, on CBS. The first season dealt with introducing the characters and their strengths, skills, and weaknesses. Three recurring characters are also introduced: the main foe for the first two seasons, Ari Haswari; Special Agent Timothy McGee and Jimmy Palmer who replaces Gerald Jackson, Ducky's assistant, after he was shot. The season also introduces Sasha Alexander as Special Agent Caitlin Todd who serves as Special Agent Vivian Blackadder's (Robyn Lively) replacement, who was a member of Gibbs' team during the two-part JAG backdoor pilot.
NCIS - Season 1
The result was that the pilot was condensed from two one hour episodes down into a single hour long episode entitled NCIS: The Beginning (episode), which aired on October 21st 2003 as the fifth episode of the first season.
The ratings juggernaut that is NCIS has been on the air for an impressive 17 seasons now. Ever since 2003, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) has been leading a team of highly skilled investigators who solve violent crimes involving Naval and Marine officers.
NCIS: Hawai'i built up to a high-stakes, two-part event to finish its freshman season. The series had found more balance in its storytelling, but the finale went back to some of the same creative patterns it followed earlier in the season. At least it wrapped up several ongoing storylines and gave closure to some of the show's important relationships.
In one season, NCIS: Hawai'i gave its characters plenty of grief. With Tennant finding out that her friend Maggie Shaw was a spy and all the relationship and family drama, the heroes had earned a break -- and they got one at the end of the episode. After they solved the case, everyone went over to Tennant's house for a party and enjoyed each other's company. That included Milius, who came to visit Tennant and discussed the future of their relationship. They agreed to pretend for the night, while the show's other prominent couple made it official at the party.
Ernie questioned his calling earlier this season, but if being an NCIS agent doesn't work out, he has a backup job as Cupid. He's spent the past few episodes consoling Lucy and telling her to move on from Whistler... but in "Ohana," he let the cat out of the bag and told Whistler that Lucy had broken up with Skyler. He advised Whistler that she needed to make a grand gesture if she was going to win Lucy back. Whistler took his advice a bit too literally and started to serenade Lucy as the episode ended. At first, Lucy looked appalled, but the gesture worked and the duo shared a kiss.
Fans will have to wait until Season 2 to see if Whistler and Lucy are able to make a relationship actually work this time, after much of Season 1 was taken up with the "Kacy" back and forth. Likewise, Tennant might want to make some decisions about her future, and her team seems to have come together. If the series can stay out of its narrative pitfalls, "Ohana" set the show up for a very interesting second season.
Take a moment and think back to the year 2003. SARS was the pandemic du jour, the Concord made its last ever flight, and NCIS premiered on CBS. It has been 17 years (and a lot of great episodes) since the show's first season aired, and since then we've seen the NCIS squad deal with everything from navigating tricky interpersonal relationships to surviving harrowing kidnappings by terrorist cells. There have been so many storylines and characters over the years that it's impossible to remember them all. Important plot points from the early seasons of the show turn into nothing but faraway memories nearly two decades on.
In fact, it can be a bit jarring to go back to NCIS' very first season and suddenly remember all the forgotten details that seemed so important at the time. The first season of the show is full of moments and arcs that even some hardcore fans might have relegated to the memory recycling bin.
Vivian "Viv" Blackadder (Robyn Lively) was a former FBI agent, with an incredible name, who was working for NCIS before the events of the first season. In the two backdoor pilot episodes, Viv was shown to be a determined, but clumsy, agent. She joined the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after her brother, a Navy Officer, was killed during the terrorist attack on the USS Cole, and her desire to get revenge on the people responsible clouded her judgment. In the JAG episode "Meltdown," she and Gibbs are closing in on a high profile suspect when Viv blows their cover due to her inability to be inconspicuous. The mission is still salvaged, but she has clearly earned the ire of Gibbs.
The Lost alums aren't the only famous faces you'll spy in season one. Dean Norris from Breaking Bad also makes an appearance in "My Other Left Foot" as a Marine Corps sergeant. In the episode "Split Decision," Scandal star Bellamy Young plays an ATF agent who gets swept up in an NCIS investigation.
Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray) is one of the longest-running characters on NCIS, but he wasn't actually introduced until midway through the first season. According to TV Insider's oral history, the character wasn't supposed to last more than one episode. But he caught the eye of viewers and producers during the first season and eventually became a series regular. One of the McGee storylines that was most endearing was his budding relationship with Abby.
In later seasons, McGee and Abby are known for having a lovely friendship and great banter, but in season one, they were an item. The two hit it off almost as soon as McGee arrived on the scene, despite the fact that his straight-laced demeanor was at odds with Abby's out-there persona. Their relationship was pretty casual, but there were lots of McAbby moments sprinkled throughout the season that would have led viewers to think it was going somewhere ... that is, until it was put on ice. Starting in the second season, their relationship started to fizzle. There were a few hints that suggested the two were still hooking up occasionally, but their flirtatious banter eventually died out and become nothing more than a friendly rapport. Eventually, their previous romantic entanglement was mostly forgotten by the show.
Relationships statuses aren't the only things that have changed about the NCIS characters. When going all the way back to season one, you'll notice that several of the personalities of the show's long-running characters have evolved quite a bit. It's something that hasn't been lost on fans posting about the show on Reddit, either.
Fans have a few common examples of these changes. One is how Gibbs' gruff, but fun, personality became more serious and somber as the show went on. Another is how Abby's bubbly charms were turned up to the extreme in later seasons, versus the quirky, but cool, tone she set at the beginning of the show's run. Both of these could be considered examples of "Flandernization," a common television trend which TV Tropes defines as, "The act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character." Or it's just that the characters evolved. Up to you.
Tony is also a changed man. In the first few seasons, his personality was like that of a frat boy, or as dearly departed NCIS Agent Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander) once called him, "An X-Rated Peter Pan." While Tony is still a bit of a cad during later seasons, he matured quite a bit over the years and mostly left his penchant for inappropriate workplace jokes behind him.
Those are just some things that might surprise you during a rewatch of NCIS' early days. With the show's 18th season still waiting for a premiere date, there's no better time to go back and see where it all began.
At the core of NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) is Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (played by executive producer Mark Harmon), who leads a group of talented agents as they work to solve high-level crimes tied to the U.S. Armed Forces. The somewhat predictable, yet highly entertaining military-themed police procedural can both tickle your funny bone and make you grab a tissue, just hopefully not at the same time. So, before getting a head slap (à la Gibbs) for slacking off, let's dive into EW's list of NCIS seasons, ranked from worst to best. (Potential spoilers ahead)
Keeping things in the family, Harmon's actual wife, Pam Dawber, also joins the cast as journalist Marcie Warren, who helps Gibbs track a serial killer. However, with missteps like Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham) and Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) locking themselves in abandoned jail cells, this season may leave viewers less than impressed.
This season isn't the show's strongest as NCIS finds itself adjusting to life post-Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo Jr. (Michael Weatherly). His absence upended the group dynamics, and it took a few seasons of trying out new regulars before the core cast would click back into place in season 19.
A couple of highlights, however, are the episodes "Philly," in which agents Alexandra Quinn (Jennifer Esposito) and Ellie Bishop help MI6 Officer Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry) solve the murder of a petty officer, and "Keep Going," in which Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) risks his own life to literally talk someone off a ledge. And while there's a "NCIS Most Wanted" suspect to catch, an increasingly dangerous plot against a Congresswoman to stop, and international investigations to follow through on, season 14 is just too heavy on character development to really shine.
Another highlight is seeing Torres and Bishop get closer both professionally and personally when they go undercover as a couple in "High Tide," though they're nothing compared to "Tiva" in the eyes of most fans. It's also heartbreaking to lose a core character in "Two Steps Back" as the end of season 15 would mark the departure of Chief Forensic Scientist Abby Beethoven Sciuto (Pauley Perrette). 041b061a72