Mark Harmon Reveals That NCIS Could’ve Been Much Different

Published: April 23, 2025

By India McCarty

NCIS is one of the most popular procedural crime shows of all time, but Mark Harmon revealed that the show was supposed to look a little different.

“When I first joined the show, part of what they sold me on was that this was all going to be based on real cases,” Harmon said in a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “But pretty soon, it settles into murder-a-week because that’s television, right?”

Harmon played lead special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs for 19 seasons before bowing out of the show.

“I was sent the NCIS script, and I just know that I read the name ‘Leroy Jethro Gibbs,’ and the name stopped me,” the actor said of his initial impression of the role. “People say, ‘What attracted you to the story?’ I said, ‘The name.’ There’s more to it than that, obviously, but I didn’t expect to be taken in like I was. That’s also a credit to storytelling and thinking you have something to potentially offer that role.”

Harmon added that he is “thrilled the show has been as successful as it’s been.”

“There were a lot of changes in those first three or four years,” he continued. “People don’t realize that, but this show didn’t jump out. It wasn’t a hit from the minute we did it, at all.”

While Harmon left NCIS behind, he hasn’t completely exited the show’s universe. The actor serves as narrator and executive producer on prequel series NCIS: ORIGINS (video via YouTube).

“I couldn’t be more thrilled with [showrunners] Gina [Lucita Monreal] and David [J. North], who they represent and their history with this show,” he told Variety. “They were the best I ever worked with on that show, and I love what they’ve done and what they’ve worked very hard at and tried to push toward. My job is to try to protect that.”

Austin Stowell, who plays a young Jethro Gibbs, told Us Weekly that Harmon has been “a wonderful leader” for the cast of NCIS: ORIGINS.

“He gave [advice] to me right away in the room,” Stowell told the magazine. “He was vocal about — maybe not what to do — but certainly [he was] guiding me more in terms of posture and mindset, things that I’ve learned to inhabit all the more over time.”

The actor added, “He leads by example. He’s a guy who I’ve learned a lot more about being a human being than being Gibbs. He’s been so welcoming — not just to me and not just to the rest of the cast, but the whole crew. He’s really such a wonderful leader for us because he makes everybody feel so comfortable.”

NCIS might have originally looked a little different format-wise, but that doesn’t seem to have affected the franchise’s massive popularity.

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