NCIS season 17: Should Mac and Harm from JAG appear?
As many of you out there surely know, NCIS spawned as a spin-off from the super popular show JAG. The military legal show ran for many years on CBS (it actually first aired on NBC — think about that as a sliding-doors moment), and NCIS actually ended up becoming an even bigger hit than it was. It’s crazy sometimes to think about it now; as a matter of fact, it’s crazy in general to think about the fact that NCIS was a spinoff of another show. Yet, these two worlds collided in order to kick off the Mark Harmon series, and they have collided here and there ever since. After all, we’ve seen the Bud Roberts character appear on NCIS proper in the past.
With that being said, there haven’t been that many crossovers with JAG and NCIS over the years in general. So, when NCIS: Los Angeles ended up being the show it to get appearances from David James Elliott and Catherine Bell earlier this year, it was a little bit of a surprise. Sure, behind the scenes it made a certain degree of sense, given R. Scott Gemmill’s history with some of those characters. Still, wouldn’t it be nice to see Mac and Harm on NCIS, the show that started it all for the franchise, in the future?
The case for this is really rather simple. If NCIS proper wants more attention and publicity for itself, why not do something nostalgic in this vein? Obviously, it doesn’t need to be something that’s done right away, especially since they have their own major story at the moment with the return of Ziva. Nonetheless, it seems like something that you can maybe do in February sweeps or another point where the network is eyeing your ratings and looking for big numbers. It would bring about some fun nostalgia, and also potentially set the stage for something more with JAG if they decide to make a proper revival or limited series in the future.
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Let’s get crazy here for a minute — we actually think it would be fun in general to see some JAG characters pop on off up on all three NCIS shows over the next several months. Why not New Orleans as well? The real benefit in doing this is that it allows for connectivity without any problems — for the NCIS franchise, it’s hard to do major crossovers because they all have their own casts and tight production windows. Because David James Elliott and Katharine Bell are not regulars on any of these shows, it may be a little bit easier to ship them from one installment to the next. It would also give all three shows something great to publicize. We already know that Mac and Harm are coming back to NCIS: LA early on in season 11, but everything else still remains a little bit unclear.
In the end, we don’t actually forsee something like this happening, mostly because Elliot and Bell certainly have other career responsibilities and trying to get them back for all three shows over the next year seems tough. Yet, it’s absolutely a fun thing to think about, and it would be a way to link all three shows and maybe build up the Mac/Harm love story that wasn’t there at the end of NCIS: Los Angeles, much to the disappointment of many.
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Then head over here to see what Maria Bello had to say about the idea of working with Cote de Pablo, and when she in the other cast members first learned about her appearance.
What do you think — would you be open to the idea of Mac and Harm showing up on NCIS proper during season 17? Be sure to share in the comments, and we’ll have more news soon. (Photo: CBS.)