‘NCIS’ Creator Was So ‘Volatile’ That the Director Initially Refused to Work With Him
NCIS has been on the air since 2003. In 2023, the directors, executive producers, and creators got together to discuss the long-lasting police procedural television series that fans know and love — and the truth about their personalities came out. One director said that co-creator Don Bellisario was so “volatile” that he almost didn’t work with him in NCIS.
Director James Whitmore said he initially refused to work with co-creator Don Bellisario on ‘NCIS’
NCIS executive producers and directors have a lot of opinions about co-creator Don Bellisario. Bellisario shaped the show into what it is today, and he was able to make tough decisions to create a riveting series with memorable characters. While the show couldn’t exist without Bellisario, he was known for being notoriously hard to work with. Director James Whitmore told The Hollywood Reporter that Bellisario’s “volatile” personality nearly made him not want to work on NCIS.
“Don’s a volatile character,” Whitmore said. “Like a lot of creative people, he’s a Vesuvius of a man. We had done a bunch of Quantum Leaps together, and then I had done a pilot with him that had not gone well. I just said, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ So, I stopped working with him. But he did JAG, which was very successful, and I did a couple of those.”
When Whitmore worked on 24, Bellisario asked him to work on NCIS. “He wanted me to come over [to NCIS]; against my better judgment, I said, ‘OK, I’ll work for Don again,'” he said. “I started with the eighth episode of season one. I got hooked immediately, and I kept coming back.”
Don Bellisario had issues with Leroy Jethro Gibbs actor Mark Harmon
NCIS creator Don Bellisario didn’t just have issues with director James Whitmore. He also reportedly had problems with Leroy Jethro Gibbs actor Mark Harmon. While Bellisario liked Harmon’s no-nonsense personality, Harmon also wasn’t afraid to express his opinion. Director James Whitmore said Harmon found it challenging to work under Bellisario.
“And so when we got to about year four, Harmon just felt like it was too hard,” Whitmore told The Hollywood Reporter. “He never said to anybody, ‘Get rid of Don.’ He just said, ‘This is too hard to work this way.’ Eventually, the network went to Bellisario and said, ‘Maybe you should work from a distance from it and not be quite as involved in terms of the way you work.’ And so, Bellisario, by the fifth year, was gone.”
In 2008, Bellisario spoke on his alleged feud with Harmon and his departure from the series. According to the LA Times, Bellisario called the feud a “full-blown PR campaign” about poor set working conditions created by Harmon. While Bellisario wished his time at NCIS ended differently, Harmon seemed happy with the change.
“If we’re working 14-hour days now instead of the 17- or 18-hour days that we were doing, it doesn’t mean we’re working any less hard,” Harmon said. “We’re just more organized. … This has become a very well-oiled machine. … I don’t wish to go head to head with Bellisario in the press. … He knows why he left.”
Will Mark Harmon return to ‘NCIS’ Season 21?
Mark Harmon left NCIS in 2021, and some of the show creators thought it marked the beginning of the end of the series. That said, NCIS is set to return in 2024 with season 21. And fans are still hopeful that Harmon could return.
So, does Harmon have any plans to return? Harmon hasn’t said one way or the other. But a source said that Harmon plans on returning in some capacity.
“Mark’s had a good long rest, but he’s a little bored doing the same thing day in and day out and would like to get back to the set in a part-time capacity at the very least,” the source shared, according to OK! Magazine.
We’ll have to wait until 2024 to see if the rumors are true.
For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.
