I agree with you about Glasberg. I found the ET video, you mentioned, where Michael Weatherly said that the fans knew that Tony DiNozzo died five years ago. He was joking and laughing at the time but I think that sometimes Michael is saying very serious things when he is joking. That interview was January 6, 2016.

Five years ago puts it in season 8. Although Shane Brennan was the showrunner of record, Gary Glasberg wrote the first and last episodes and his name appeared as Executive Producer through out the season in the opening credits. That is something that is usually done by the showrunner on this show and others. Meanwhile Shane Brennana’s name no longer appears in the opening credits as Executive Producer. His name appears as Executive Producer now in the closing credits right before Bellisario.

Brennan was up to his neck in NCIS-LA season 2. I think that Glasberg was the head writer at this point (doing what Brennan should be doing, acting as showrunner) and would become the showrunner in season 9. Glasberg has written the first and last episode for every season since season 8. I believe that after CdP left, Glasberg did not know what to do with Tony or maybe was punishing MW for that other incident I mentioned.

I agree with you about Tony. He is/was a very complex character. I didn’t like the character until they revealed his backstory. Mother died when he was 8. Dad all but abandoned him to boarding schools and summer camps. His father never kept in touch with him. He didn’t even tell Tony when he got divorced from a wife and now Tony had a new step mother. I could then understand why sometimes he was such a jerk. With a messed up father like that I could understand how sometimes Tony acted a bit immature

However, I don’t agree with you about Ziva. She also had a backstory. Her mother was also dead and her father had left the family for a younger woman. Her sister died in a terrorist attack. She knew that her father loved Israel more than her. Tony and Ziva were both two messed up puppies and they both had a hard time trusting people and forming relationships. Their fathers were the only family that they had and both were lousy fathers.

He will walk with a smile !!! And if Ziva was dead he will never smile like that !! I agree with your comment.

Well I’m disappointed although hardly surprised that rather than give us a hero Tony arc, we’re getting a one and done featuring a character who has been gone for three years who actually treated Tony like someone she considered disgusting and beneath her. Gary Glasberg never had a clue about a character as complex as DiNozzo and so he had him written as a loser buffoon infatuated with a self absorbed conceited psychopath. I guess now he can just focus on writing his Gary Stu character – Gibbs as the most tragic, most admired, hero to all.

Also, the first time you see DiNozzo is in JAG season 8 episodes 20 Ice Queen and 21 Meltdown. Those were the beginning of the show. When it started. There was no Kate, McGee or Ziva–only Gibbs, Ducky, DiNozzo and Abby. There was another actress but she didn’t make the cut to the series.

Season 8 episode 22, Baltimore shows how Tony came to join up with NCIS. It started in present time with Tony’s ex partner being murdered. Then they flash back to how Tony and Gibbs met up in Baltimore years ago. They first crossed paths when Tony and his partner caught Gibbs when Gibbs was working undercover. Gibbs let himself get caught to establish his “bona fides” as a criminal in Baltimore. Later Tony’s partner left Baltimore PD as a dirty cop. The main case in this episode was about the murder of Tony’s partner in present time. It turned out that their police captain was the murderer and an even dirtier cop..The last scene was in the past again. Tony tells Gibbs that he can’t return to Baltimore because of what happened with his partner. Gibbs just points at the HR door and Tony laughs. I know that it’s hard to follow, you really need to watch the episode.