‘NCIS’ season 11 finale: Mark Harmon reflects on Ralph Waite before tribute airs

In the matter of a couple of weeks, “NCIS” is prepared to say goodbye officially to one of their favorite guest stars in Ralph Waite, and also one of the most important people in Gibbs’ life in his father Jackson. Anytime you pay tribute to someone who recently died, it’s a difficult thing on a television show. You have to make sure that it fits within the story, and that you hit on all of the right notes that you want to make sure you touch on beforehand.

The finale for this season was co-written by showrunner Gary Glasberg and Gina Lucita Montreal, who penned Waite’s last appearance on the show in “Better Angels.” These are two people who knew this character well, and in reflecting on his last episode with him, Mark Harmon had the following to say to TV Guide:

“Ralph loved Gina. He certainly had an eye for the ladies and beauty, but he also recognized her writing right off, and during ‘Better Angels,’ he talked about her to me. I said, ‘She’s a playwright.’ And he knew that, from the words. I’ll always remember the two of them sitting on the porch on location, just having a gay old time talking. He loved being here, and we loved having him … [sometimes] you’d see little crinkles, little skips, little different things — nothing too bad. But when someone said, ‘Action,’ and the camera got turned on, you’d better be bolted to the floor, because he was going to take you into the next county.”

This is going to be an emotional episode to behold, mostly because we get the sense of some of the heart that is going into this. While everyone in the cast clearly is paid generously for their work, a family atmosphere still inevitably comes out of a situation where you have so much time that you constantly spend with other people.

We’ll be back late Tuesday with a full review of the new episode “Shooter,” and you can see more about that over at the link here. Also, be sure to sign up to receive some further updates from us via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: CBS