4.22出刊的TV Guide “MEN OF NCIS”（杂志照+访问对话）

TV GUIDE: Fans would probably be hard pressed to agree on whether it’s essentially a comedy or drama or what the truest nature of the show is.
McCALLUM: It’s realistic corn, beautifully served.
DIETZEN:: And I think we do a little bit of everything.
McCALLUM: Yeah. It’s in the execution, more than being specific about what it is. And the execution changes every time we come on the set. Every scene we do, there’s always a creative thing that happens there that changes the printed word into what it is each one of these people do. Each director brings his own particular style to what we do as well. I’ve worked with three of them in the last 10 days, so it’s fascinating to make the comparison.
TV GUIDE: I try to watch for different writers and directors to see if I can figure out who brings more of a different tone. There are so many different balls of “tone” being put in the air. Each episode juggles them pretty well, but I’m sure different writers and directors emphasize different things.
HARMON: I think it’s matching up the script with the director. That’s the luck of the draw. You’ll get some scripts that are more defined or more emotional or more stand-alone, and you’ll get some that are connected to a storyline that may go back three years. The constant is us; we’re there, and the crew is there. But the first AD is different and the writer is different and the director is different and sometimes the script supervisor is different. Those variables all add to what we do, which is all kinds of different shows.
TV GUIDE: Some fans latch onto specific characters or actors, and they’re sitting there, maybe much like your agents, saying “My favorite didn’t get enough time this week.”
DIETZEN: It’s neat when you have a Tony-centric show or a McGee-centric show, and you really get to explore that character basically through the other characters and get to see who they are. But if you end up having to many of those shows—I think Mark has said this before—you get away from what the show is at its core, which is about the whole group. But I really like watching the shows that are kind of centered around one character. I love seeing each character kind of get their shot here and see their home life. Rocky had a great one this year as well. Those are some of my favorite shows.
WEATHERLY: You ran down a perp with your car! It wasn’t this year, but…
DIETZEN: I did.
McCALLUM: They played it again the other day and I watched it, because I had to see you run him down.
MURRAY: Was that the one where you did the scream?
DIETZEN: It was terrifying! I had to drive a car, and the camera’s right in my face, and they don’t want me to hit anybody, but I can’t see where I’m driving. I think it was [a crew member] who said, “Just make sure you don’t get over 35.” I’m like, I hope I don’t, because…
MURRAY: If you hit anyone below that, they’ll be okay.
DIETZEN: Exactly. Under 35, they’ll probably be able to walk someday.


McCALLUM: How important do you think it is for this show to remain current with current events and terrorism in the Middle East and everything else? How close to documentary, when fiction starts to move into the documentary—do you think it’s a good idea for this show to do that? I’m just thinking about what’s going on at the moment. I mean right now in the script that I’m reading, it’s all about Mexico being a complete mess because of the complete lack of control of their citizens by the police forces. There are other places in the world where NCIS is involved where that happens, too. In the beginning, we didn’t do it. We didn’t touch current events. And now we’ve gotten more and more, and I wondered what you thought in terms of what percentage… how much should we go there?
WEATHERLY: I think the show does have a kind of timeless… it’s not timeless, but it’s difficult to pin down exactly what year it is. Certainly by the monitors on our desks, you can tell that it’s maybe the mid-‘90s… (Laughter)
MURRAY: The 1987 CRT monitors?
WEATHERLY: But I think that’s a good thing, too, because it doesn’t nail you to… I mean, with the exception of those plasma screens in the squad room and autopsy and Abby’s lab—which have been around for a decade… Because they were in the pilot, those things. Weren’t they, those big plasma screens?
MCCALLUM: The autopsy room is way behind the times. But they want to keep it that way, because it looks good.
CARROLL: It does look good.
WEATHERLY: I think it’s nice not to be nailed to the current events and to the ripped-from–the-headlines thing.
DIETZEN: You can watch 10 episodes on USA Network and they’re all relevant today.
HARMON: I think historically the show has done episodes and all of a sudden the show will air and it’ll be something that is right in the news at the moment. That’s happened many, many times.


HARMON: I think one of the great strengths of this show is we’ve been able to keep this writing team together. There’s some writing members on this staff who have written 20, 25 episodes, in year 7. So there’s a real continuity between them and how they do their work… And we all have favorite shows. But it’s the mix of that that makes it work. You couldn’t do all one writer’s shows because it wouldn’t work. It’s the mix of all that. It’s like a fraternity house. They all have ideas, they all know each other. And that’s the way we work, too. It’s not unusual for me to turn to Michael or Sean or Brian or Rocky or David and say, how can we make this better? What are we doing here? That comes from the writing team too. And I don’t know that there’s many shows—certainly in year 7—that have kept their writers together as long as we have. And I think it needs to stay that way! (Laughs)
WEATHERLY: There were a bumpy few years in the beginning.
HARMON: Oh yeah, yeah.
WEATHERLY: George (Schenck) and Frank (Cardea) have been there from the beginning.
HARMON: They’ve been there since year 1. And then they left, and then they came back… They’re all flexible to notes. It’s not arbitrary. It’s not like they’re just gonna change ‘em because Rocky goes up and says, “Hey look, Vance would say this.” They’ll battle you. But everybody cares so much about this show. People read scripts. Grips on this show read scripts, and they have notes! “What are they doing to DiNozzo?”
McCALLUM: It’s interesting that everything everybody’s talking about is, how do we make this show better? I mean, that’s all everybody is talking about. And that’s what goes on…
HARMON: I think there’s no real secrets here. I don’t think there’s ever been. I think from the very beginning, we’ve gotten together, we’ve talked, to try to make everybody know everything; there’s none of this going on behind people’s backs. If Michael’s got a problem with me, he’ll come up and say, “Hey, I’ve got a problem.” Sean, same thing. We share it all. This is again where David is so important, because he’s a very clear thinker. He’s done all of this before. All the highs, all the lows, all of it. And we have great guidance. So we’re kind of all on the same page here, and it’s working. The game now is to keep it working, and you can’t forget what got you here, which is…
WEATHERLY: Work. (laughs) Not a lot of coasting going on.