or


[03/01/10 - 07:00 PM]
Live at the Paley Festival: CBS's "Ncis"
By Brian Ford Sullivan (TFC)

Please note: As a courtesy, please do not reproduce these comments to newsgroups, forums or other online places. Links only please.

7:04 PM - Tonight's archival clip features David McCallum in a 1966 episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." I'm not sure if these are making me feel young or old.

7:11 PM - Paley Center guru Craig Hitchcock welcomes us to night three and proceeds to rave about meeting David backstage. He in turn brings out "NCIS" co-executive producer Gary Glasberg, who informs us they've brought with them tomorrow night's episode "Mother's Day."

7:57 PM - After the screening, "Entertainment Tonight's" Kevin Frazier takes the podium to introduce tonight's panel: Mark Horowitz! Chas. Floyd Johnson! Gary Glasberg! Rocky Carroll! Brian Dietzen! David McCallum! Mark Harmon! Michael Weatherly! Cote de Pablo! Sean Murray! Kevin proceeds to mock Michael's shall we say "interesting" sweater that he's wearing, a gift from his wife. "Watch it, she's Serbian," Michael fires back. "What is she doing with you?" Kevin teases again.

8:01 PM - Kevin announces that Pauley Perrette couldn't make it tonight as she's overseas doing a photo shoot in Paris. The audience is not happy.

8:05 PM - Michael on the early days of the show: "[People] would say, 'What do you do?' I would say, 'NCIS.' And they would go, 'You worked at a radio station?'"

8:09 PM - Michael trying to describe Mark: "Mark is I think... definitely the rudder... is it okay if I use boating [terms]?" Cut to Mark giving Michael an actual head slap. Funny stuff.

8:11 PM - David on his enduring success: "I'm probably the luckiest person in this whole room. I truly mean that." The audience both "awwwws" and applauds.

8:14 PM - Rocky on if Vance is good or evil, which may not make sense until you see the episode: "We could hear your reaction to [tonight's episode] and at the end, when Vance and Gibbs basically acknowledge that we both know what this is about, and I could hear the applause from several members of the audience. I think that kind of answers the question, I think people kind of know [that] their methods may be different but both these men - Vance, Gibbs, the team - they're all on the same side, they're all patriots."

8:18 PM - Sean says he hopes the novelist part of McGee comes back. When pressed for what his next book should be about, Sean quips, "I don't know. I got nothing for ya."

8:20 PM - Mark on his son guest starring on the show: "He came in and he read for it, and then he got the part and I'm more proud of that than anything. He's very fortunate that his first job is with this group of people."

8:22 PM - Mark on the show's guest stars: "They want to do [this show]. It's not like you're lucky to get them, they want to do it." In the case of Gena Rowlands, who was featured in the screened episode, she apparently watches the show every day on USA.

8:24 PM - Michael reveals they have a running gag with Cote in which they give her a city and she struggles to name a sports team in it. Michael: "Baltimore." Cote: "Bats?" Michael: "Seattle." Cote: "Sox?" Michael: "The New Mexico..." Cote: "Nuggets?" She eventually gets the Miami Dolphins. Off her excitement, Michael quips, "Which tells you she's actually trying."

8:26 PM - Said exchange prompts Charles to reveal an "NCIS" board game is due in the late summer in which you can solve cases just like on the show!

8:28 PM - Kevin asks Sean if McGee will ever lose the "Probie" tag. The audience answers for him, "No!"

8:29 PM - Mark on how the boat got out of his basement: "I don't know."

8:30 PM - Rocky on the future of the show: "My running joke with Harmon is, let's run longer than 'Gunsmoke!'"

8:35 PM - The cast goes down the line and recounts their favorite episodes: Sean ("Probie"), Cote ("Hiatus"), Michael ("Every show when it finishes I just think, that's my favorite show! I'm such a sucker."), Mark ("Call of Silence"), David ("Heartland"), Brian ("I'm not in every show so...," he jokes. His pick: "Requiem") and Rocky ("Faith").

8:44 PM - Rocky adds that, "['Faith'] is an episode where if somebody didn't know what 'NCIS' was about... I would say watch this episode." Gary, who's seated next to him, notes he wrote that episode. "Well played Rocky," Michael teases.

8:37 PM - Cote, trying to be serious, "Just so you guys know, we really are like a family. And sometimes we..." Cut to Michael, "Shut up!"

8:38 PM - Gary gives a shout out to the writing staff, who are in the audience.

8:48 PM - Kevin opens the floor to Q&A.

8:49 PM - What's the deal with CafPow? "I think it came out a conversation with Don [Bellisario]," Adam notes. "He wanted her to drink something that had a lot of caffeine. And [the name] came out of one of those bullshit sessions."

8:53 PM - Gary on planning the show's story arcs: "We try to enter the year with an idea of where we're headed. And it's always nice to leave a year with a lot to pick up on when you start [back up]. One of the fantastic things about this show is there are an enormous number of layered characters that exist and you can go back and pull stuff, like a library. And [you can] grab something that worked well and bring it back to the surface again and it works phenomenally well. And what's amazing about sort of what's coming up, the remainder of this season, is that things sort of manage to come together... and I hope you're all surprised to see [it]."

8:54 PM - Adam follows up that, "I would say our first few years, I would say sometimes none of us really knew. Sometimes, even in a particular episode, there was a surprise at the end. So sometimes you don't you know."

8:55 PM - "It's not brain surgery... as my wife likes to remind me," Michael says about acting.

8:58 PM - Is Mark Harmon more comfortable with computers than Gibbs? "I can do e-mail. I think I'm a little better," Mark says.

9:01 PM - "It's tough stuff to go into," Cote says about her current arc. "And if they want to take me on that journey, well, I'll allow myself, we'll all obviously go."

9:02 PM - Michael on the Gibbs/DiNozzo relationship: "It is the central relationship of my adult life... next to my wife. Boy I'm in trouble... Mark's a tremendous leader, which we appreciate... It's not an easy show to do - a lot of hours. And Harmon is right there. Gibbs is not as nice as Mark Harmon." Mark adds, "We all like each other a lot but it's all earned, I keep saying that word... I really think for Gibbs it's all about passing it on. It was passed onto him and his job is to pass it to the next one. And the next one is certainly DiNozzo. Now that doesn't mean he's not going to be as hard on him as anyone. Gibbs is perhaps rougher... on himself. I'm not quite sure what he does when he goes home. But I know it's not real comfortable. And I know this year he sleeps on the couch." David chimes in, "You cook steaks in your fireplace!"

9:04 PM - David on his grand wish: "I have a funny dream, and that is when I die and go to heaven, every single character that I've ever played is waiting for me."

9:05 PM - And that's all folks. Jim will be back on Wednesday with "Community."





  [march 2010]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
 


· NCIS (CBS)
· PALEY CENTER (TFC)





most recent interviews | view all posts