Michael Weatherly has likened NCIS to an unforgettable cartoon, with former co-star Sasha Alexander labelling his observation as “totally true”.
Weatherly, along with fellow NCIS veteran Cote de Pablo, will reprise their roles as Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David later this year in the Paramount+ spin-off NCIS: Tony and Ziva.
Ahead of the series’ release, the pair teamed up to host Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch, a podcast where they delve into the making of the police procedural.
In one of their initial episodes, Weatherly and de Pablo invited Alexander, who played Caitlin Todd, to discuss the show’s early seasons.
Their conversation touched upon how the main agents at the time, including Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon), DiNozzo, and Todd, would frequently appear together in almost every scene.
Weatherly shared his thoughts on this apparent plot hole: “In the beginning of the beginning, because the scripts were not done, and so you and me [Alexander] would follow Gibbs in the first act.
“We would be in the squad room, grab our gear then go and talk to some admiral and you and I would sit and talk to the admiral.
“Then we go into the parking lot and go like ‘what do you think of the admiral?’ and suddenly the AD [assistant director] would be like ‘OK this is the next scene you’re shooting.’
“Then the three of us would go and talk to someone. Is this what they would do? Because wouldn’t they break up?
“It was like Scooby-Doo, it’s like why always the three of us-”
Alexander chimed in during Weatherly’s comments, adding: “Scooby-Doo, you always used to say that and it’s totally true.”
He explained further: “Because in reality, we would split up. You would investigate what you were doing and then we would get together and go ‘Here’s what I’ve found. Let’s collate this information and see what we can synthesise’.
“No. We all went, we all sat and looked, all three of us at the suspect: ‘We think you’re the bad guy. Let’s get more information from that guy. What about you?'”
While there’s no official launch date for NCIS Tony and Ziva just yet, buzz is that the highly anticipated spin-off will make its debut later this year.
The stars have kept tight-lipped on whether or not they will be joined by any other NCIS alumni but hopes are flying high among the faithful that some well-known faces could pop in.
Regrettably, Alexander can’t reunite with Weatherly and de Pablo; her character Agent Todd met her demise by the hand of Ziva’s half-sibling Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin) in the dramatic closure of season two.
