‘NCIS’ season 11 spoilers: Boss on rewriting finale to tribute Ralph Waite
“NCIS” has grown accustomed to changing things up at various times during the season, and after coming up with a general idea for the season finale months ago, the writers were thrown a very unfortunate curveball earlier this year thanks to the death of longtime guest star Ralph Waite. He was important part of the cast family, and his character of Jackson Gibbs was obviously crucial to how Mark Harmon’s Gibbs saw the world. For many out there, were sure that it was only appropriate that the last episode to feature Waite had the word “angel” in the title.
So why was the decision made to write in Waite’s death this season, rather than wait to address it until season 12? It all simply revolved around finding a way to make the story work in a way that felt right, and speaking to Entertainment Weekly on this very subject, series boss Gary Glasberg makes it clear that they found a great way to tell the story:
“We’ve talked about [the episode] since Ralph’s passing, and I think we’ve come up with a really great crime story that will bookend into the passing of Jackson Gibbs. That’s going to be a really emotional storyline that Mark Harmon has been involved with since day 1. We’re working on that right now.”
This is one of many episodes that “NCIS” has coming up that is a little bit different than the mold. In addition to the second part of the “New Orleans” backdoor pilot coming up in the near future, the show also has a chance moving forward to touch on the return of Delilah to work, and also try an interesting new mission late in the season that sends Michael Weatherly’s Tony to France in order to work on a mission.
We’ll hopefully have a chance to get into more specifics soon. For now, just be sure to check back for more news, and click here if you want updates on all things we cover sent right to your email.
Photo: CBS
William Higginson
April 1, 2014 @ 5:22 am
You guys are blowing it way out of proportion to be honest, While I do think that the team itself should get more cast specific episodes, A LOT of people would not watch the show if the chemistry wasn’t there, if it was someone else instead of mark Harmon the show would be a shadow of its current status. A lot of us who have been watching since day one tuned in BECAUSE of Mark Harmon he is the star of the show and as the “star” he gets a majority of the story lines and I think Michael had plenty through the seasons, Cote has had more than tony infact and even Sasha had more than a couple and barely anyone liked her character.
The main problem is Micheals character is “mundane” while he does have certain areas he could open up he doesnt have that much back story because his character is mundane, Marks character on the other hand has huge gap that nobody on the show except for maybe pauley and david have this gap and because of this it allows for vastly gibbs focused arcs.
Its not about who deserves what its about whats good writing and what is terrible writing.
Okay sure Michaels character has a history with the Baltimore PD but so what? you’d like them to do a bunch of stories on the BPD ? do you want this to end up turning into something as ….bland as law and order? I don’t.
Lets face facts ralphs character was an important part of Gibbs character, if tonys farther dies im sure they’ll do an episode like that just like with any of the others. I Agree that Michaels character should get a few more Tony centric epsidoes but honestly, you guys are just complaining because you’re favorite characters don’t get what you want and ironically people started complaining when the “tiva” thing was over which again Ironically there was many tony-ziva centric episodes where it seemed more about them than the case they were working, theres a huge difference between writing because fans want it and writing to keep the core of the series intact.
rant over.
p.s deal with it.
CJ
April 1, 2014 @ 11:42 pm
You are certainly as entitled to your opinion as we are, you and I are probably never going to agree on this, and I can accept that.
I do have a question for you though, and I ask this in all seriousness – have you actually seen the entire series? The reason I ask this is from the impression you have that there isn’t anything in Tony’s backstory to be covered. Cause there are actually several things that have been alluded to through the years that haven’t really been covered. His mother and how she died – and those two or three very odd stories about her from the early seasons that make it sound like she may have had some sort of drug, alcohol, or mental issue. The years he spent shipped off to boarding school. The fact that he changed jobs every 2 years before coming to NCIS and the “extenuating circumstances” alluded to as to why he left, or “had” to leave, Philadelphia. There are two years he spent on the team working for Gibbs pre-series, and while we’ve been beat over the head with the Mike Franks years, we never get any history from that time period. He spent several months away as an Agent Afloat – we don’t have any Tony stories from that time period either, though we pretty much knew what Gibbs was doing during that whole time. This is all off the top of my head – I could probably come up with more.
Gibbs on the other hand – what haven’t we had covered for us already? We’ve seen where, how, and with whom he grew up, we know how his mother died and who knew about it, we’ve actually met both his parents, we’ve met people he served with and under in the military, we’ve met Shannon and Kelly, we’ve revisited their deaths and the aftermath several times, we know more about Mike Franks and Gibbs’ early years with NCIS than I care to recite, we know how Mike left and Gibbs was mad about it, yada, yada, yada, then how he was in Paris undercover with Jenny and what happened there (more info there than I really wanted too), how he met Director Vance, and then he got his own team. What gaps in Gibbs’ life could we be possibly still missing?
And that’s not to even mention all that we don’t get to see from the other characters. Abby has a brother mentioned a few times we’ve never met – and I don’t mean the adopted one. What happened with McGee’s dad who was very seriously ill? Did he die? Get better? Will we ever be given the opportunity to find out? What about Ducky? We barely know anything about his life before NCIS. What happened to his father? Did he ever come close to getting married? There is still a lot of personal stuff to be mined from the other characters. Honestly, I have no curiosity left regarding Gibbs. Everything they come up with now feels like it’s been done before.
William Higginson
April 5, 2014 @ 4:32 am
You complete missinterpreted what I said, I was talking specifically about tony and not the rest of the team, I even said that ducky and abby have the same time to cover that gibbs as had so there are many untold stories there.
By the way we have met Abigail’s brother A few episodes after she went to donate blood and their was someone with a 90+ % match with hers in the hospital and then tracks him down and then eventually she brings him to meet gibs towards the end of another episode episode which ive forgotten the name of, abby is adopted its her brother luca that isnt.
I’ve watched every episode more than 3 times over since the series started.
I find tonys character mundane because of the way he is as a character, hes funny but not interesting, I really do not want the show to constantly turn into what happened in the PD ages ago……..seriously that would drive me nuts its about the navy and the reason why it works with gibbs is because he was a marine which are part of the navy and again he is the “star” of the show, whats the point of having a lead character if people are just going to bitch and whine about their favorite characters not getting the part they want them to have? tony has had SO much screen time over the years because of ziva, many episodes were almost purely him and ziva starting from season 4 and has had multiple reoccuring tony-centric episodes. apart from Ziva and gibbs he has had the most screen time out of the rest of the team. IF anyone deserves more back story its ducky because of how long he’s worked at NIS/NCIS and before that but certainly not tony. I just can’t stand city local leo shows they drive me up the wall and I dont want to see episodes like that in NCIS. Even thoughthey already did one about his last partner. at least 30-40% of the episodes since season 4 have been either tony-centric or partially tony/ziva centric.
It is also implied that between Baltimore and NCIS his jobs weren’t that significant.
As for McGee there isn’t that much back story apart from his dad which we will likely see again in this season or the next & he already has more screen time now because of his girlfriend happening to be a reoccurring character.
Cj
April 5, 2014 @ 6:43 pm
There is obviously no point in us arguing this. We get completely different things from the show. But I must point out to you again that I was referring to Abby’s brother Luka, NOT the one she just recently met. And we’ve never met him as an adult though she’s referred to him several times
Arnie
March 31, 2014 @ 1:26 pm
Gibbs is NCIS….
CJ
March 31, 2014 @ 6:08 pm
If Glasberg continues to mistakenly assume this^ he is going to lose viewers. Gibbs is the “star” of NCIS, but he is NOT the whole show. They would do well to remember that they got where they are on the backs of the entire cast, and that there are viewers out here whose favorite character may not actually be Gibbs. The magic of NCIS has always been the combination and the chemistry between the different characters. All of them, sometimes viewed separately and sometimes together. An hour Gibbs grunting, making faces, occasionally yelling, and saying about 5 sentences is not going to carry this show alone.
sadtonyfan
March 31, 2014 @ 10:39 pm
I agree. The “magic” of this show is not constant angry/angst Gibbs episodes and arcs. There have been so many and they’re all starting to look pretty much alike. Every member of the cast has a fan base and I suspect that some characters fan bases are pretty close in number to Mark Harmon’s. I guess they just don’t wield any power over the creation of episodes so their fans are lucky if their favorite gets their yearly one and done.
sadtonyfan
March 29, 2014 @ 5:27 pm
I’m disappointed. Another Gibbs angst fest. Nothing against Ralph Waite or the character of Jackson Gibbs, but does every single finale have to center around Gibbs? I’m so sick of Gibbs angst/anger. I was really looking forward to Tony finally getting more than a one and done and be the feature player in the finale after 7 seasons of playing a supporting role to the multitude of Ziva or Gibbs centric finales. Why is it that MW’s character never gets any real consideration from the writers anymore? I have nothing against Mark Harmon but how many times do we have to spotlight his angst in the finale?
Derek tinkler
March 29, 2014 @ 7:27 pm
Don’t forget Harman is the star of the show, so basically he get’s the majority of of the story lines, Tony has not had a decent story line since season 10 episode Berlin.
Cj
March 29, 2014 @ 10:04 pm
That was even more Ziva’s story than Tony’s. It has been quite some time since Tony has been an important character in his own right. Now he is apparently nothing more than a vehicle to prop up first either Ziva or Gibbs and now pretty much just Gibbs. I once loved Gibbs. With the over abundance of attention to Gibbs angst I’ve almost come to actively resent the character.
Derek tinkler
March 30, 2014 @ 5:39 am
I’ve been felt like that towards Gibbs for a long time, makes me wonder why Michael Weatherly stays, because he is not getting many scene’s, or is it just about the pay cheque now for him.
sadtonyfan
March 30, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
I wonder why he stays too. TPTB have done everything in their power to ruin and demean Tony by writing him as a barely competent team joke ever since season 5. I guess MW is very loyal and the money is good.
Karen Janczy
March 30, 2014 @ 8:32 pm
He stays because he makes alot of money and enjoys his job.
Cas
March 31, 2014 @ 10:57 am
Enjoys the money? Yes. Enjoys his job? Maybe. It seems like he has been phoning it in all season and half of his promo appearances are now going to game shows rather than interviews where he must talk about the show. He did not even do promo for the 250th.
sadtonyfan
March 30, 2014 @ 2:16 pm
One of the things that originally drew me to the show when I started watching USA reruns a few years ago was that all of the characters were interesting, human, and funny (in the Kate days anyway. and for the most part early Ziva). And they ALL got featured as Gibbs took a turn in the back seat. Much more interesting than the Gibbs and Ziva angst fest wonder agent show it turned into somewhere around season 5 – 6, and now it seems to be heading toward the Gibbs and Bishop show. I miss seeing bad ass agent Tony, but it seems like they’re only allowed to let super Gibbs have those types of episodes now. I don’t trust anything tptb say when they spoil something about Tony. Neither Tony or his fans matter enough for them to bother actually come through.
Cas
March 29, 2014 @ 9:43 pm
It is all on Harmon and Glasberg. Even though last year we had a Ziva arc and what looked to be a Ziva finale suddenly they decided to change it and make it a Gibbs angst fest in the finale. Therefore Ziva has not had a finale since Season 6. Both Ziva and Tony have been shafted in favor of SuperAgent Gibbs with his great gut.
I have no idea why they could not do a tribute in the second to last episode. A finale is supposed to be something suspenseful that carries over into the next season. I am not criticizing the tribute but it is just that the timing is so wrong.