Интервью с Гласбергом о жизни после Зивы, Парсе, спин-оффе и др.

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NCIS Showrunner Scoop: Moving on from Ziva, Wrapping Up Parsa & More

NCIS is off until February. But Gary Glasberg is here to give us an in-depth look ahead.

NCIS Season 11 has been one of change, new directions and new faces.

And it could’ve all crashed and burned like a conspirator’s bomb.

Instead, the show has recovered well from the departure of Cote de Pablo’s Ziva and the impact that development had on core relationship of Ziva and Tony.

The addition of Emily Wickersham as Ellie Bishop has been a positiv thing mostly because she’s not so much as a replacement for Ziva as she is a new, interesting character for the NCIS team and the series itself. Bravo!

At the Television Critics Association press tour yesterday, I sat down with showrunner Gary Glasberg to talk over where we’re at in this season and where we’re heading, including why he and Mark Harmon may soon be spending time in New Orleans.

TV Fanatic: You guys have gone over this big hurdle with Ziva gone and it seems to be working really well.

Gary Glasberg: It’s kind of great. I’m fascinated by…Season 11 should be like you come in and put it on auto-pilot and it’s been anything but that. So to be hit with what we started with, which was Ziva’s departure, and then all the effort that went into finding Emily and creating Bishop…

I think that overall the response has been fantastic. There’ll always be a group of people who continue to really hold on, and I appreciate how connected they are to Ziva but I don’t think I could have asked for this transition to work any better, honestly.

TVF: The fact that you’re still bringing up Ziva’s name, how do you navigate when to stop doing that or when you don’t need to do it as much? Is there a gauge for that at all?

GG: I feel like, internally, we all feel like it’s necessary to move on. We recognize in life that people might comment or look back or say, ‘Ziva would have done this,’ or ‘Ziva would have done that.’ Is there an opportunity to do that? Yeah, once in a while. But I also feel like it’s a little bit of a mine field in that every time you revisit a character like that, it brings your existing cast back, and they’re not allowed to grow, and so it’s important for all of them to move on in a lot of ways.

There’s an interesting dynamic, a brother-sister sort of dynamic that’s there between Tony and Bishop. You know, the connection between Bishop and Gibbs, I think, is different than anything that he had with Ziva. We’re pleased with it. And off-camera, too, the chemistry and the support that Harmon and Weatherly and Pauley and the rest of the team have offered to Emily has been fantastic. And we’ll experiment and find things and continue to figure out who she is.

TVF: Will we get more personal stories with her and get to know her life outside of work?

GG: No, it’ll get there. We know that she’s married. We know that she’s from Oklahoma. I’d love to meet her parents at some point, or a parent. We know that she’s got a large family, a bunch of brothers. I’d love to meet them. I know that the husband, who’s also at the NSA, is a big part of who she is, and we’ll certainly touch on that at some point, but the beauty of NCIS is sort of doling it out in little bits and pieces and touching on it and then walking away from it for a while and coming back, so we’ll get there.

TVF: In regards to this week’s episode, our review brought up whether Tony flirting with Martinez was too soon, not because of Ziva but because of McGee’s story. Thoughts?

GG: It’s such a tightrope, and everyone responds to Tony differently. At some point, we have to let Tony be Tony. And part of his defense mechanism is flirtation. And so wherever he is psychologically, to look at a woman or comment to a woman or spend time with a woman may not be what you’re interpreting on the surface. There’s usually something else going on with him, it’s just the nature of who he is.

TVF: Is there more of Martinez coming?

GG: Right now, we don’t have anything written, but I think the consensus was that she was fun. So if the opportunity comes up and we can make a connection through a case, then I’d be happy to have her come back.

TVF: The whole Parsa story, that arc, is that going to be with us for a while or is that just kind of a contained arc?

GG: After [NCIS Season 11 Episode 13], there’s one more, and then it wraps itself up in a really significant, cool way and I’m about to go into the editing room and start working on that. I’m pleased with it. It was a fun sort of villain to launch at the beginning of the season. It’s not going to carry all the way through to the end, but we’ll certainly tie it up in a way that I think people will be satisfied with.

TVF: Will repercussions from the end of that arc, will we see that, moving forward? Does it have any kind of big impact?

GG: It absolutely affects Gibbs. It affects Bishop in a huge way. And of course, the repercussions of what happened between McGee and Delilah will continue further into the season.

TVF: What can you tell me about where we’re heading with Delilah and McGee and how her recovery will impact their relationship?

GG: Adding this to any relationship is a tremendous amount of weight on both of their shoulders. She has to figure out what her life is going to be like. He now has a relationship with someone who’s been through something tragic and is dealing with changes and who they are and how they’re going to move forward. I think it’s real and I think that they’ll come at issues and problems as they surface. I’m excited about it. I feel like it’s not something that you see on television very often. To have a disabled character will be unique for us, it will be a challenge but I think all the writers are willing to rise to the occasion and give it a shot.

TVF: I know she’s very busy, but Susanna Thompson, any more with her? She has such a nice chemistry with Mark.

GG: That worked out well, didn’t it? I’d love to have her come back. You know, it was funny. It had been so long. And we approached her, and I think she was a little hesitant, just wondering what it was that we were planning. And then when she saw the sсript and how we wanted to use her, she came and played and was excited, and it went great. She told us she had a fantastic time. So I think it would be fun to have her back again, but we’ll have to see when and where…I was very lucky in that because of the relationship between CBS and the CW, we were able to figure something out. But scheduling-wise, she would go shoot up there for a few days and then she’d come back to us. It was a little bit of a juggle.

TVF: I know over the years Gibbs has had different romantic things, whether it’s Jamie Lee Curtis or other people. Will Gibbs have any romance the rest of this season?

GG: This season, because of all of the change and the adjustment and the things that were being introduced, we didn’t feel like this was a season to sort of get him involved with someone, but it’s always a fun story arc, and Mark’s always game. It’ll happen again.

TVF: Where are you and Mark with the spin-off?

GG: I’ve written two episodes that will air sometime the end of March. Both scripts are written. I’m really excited about it. The characters are rich and fun and different, and it mixes the Washington with this New Orleans world in what I hope is a unique and different way. We haven’t cast yet. We’re just starting the process. There’s a lot of work to do. I’m going to go down there next week for a day or two. It’s all just beginning and ramping up, and people seem to be enthusiastic, and hopefully, we’ll come up with something good.

TVF: Can we expect all of our NCIS people to be in those episodes, or do you think you’ll give some of them a breather just because there will be new people coming in?

GG: The way that the scripts are structured, they don’t all go [to New Orleans], but they are all in the episodes. So there’s business going on in DC and then there’s business going on back there, and there’s a lot of inter-cutting that happens.

TVF: What does the rest of the season hold, including the 250th episode. Any guest stars to talk about?

GG: We’re in prep on the big DiNozzo senior 250th episode, so we’re excited about that. After that, I don’t think I have anybody really, guest-wise, lined up yet, but I know I’ve got some roles coming up that should be fun. And then also, the writing staff and I are about to sit down and start arcing out the final four episodes of the season.

So yeah, it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride from this point forward because I’ve got an episode that starts prepping Monday, and then right after that, we start prepping New Orleans. So there’s all the work that goes along with that. And then I come back from those two episodes, and then I think we have one or two episodes, and then we’ll launch right into our final arc. So it’s going to be an interesting run.

TVF: For the 250th, do you approach it as more of an homage to the 250 episodes or do you think of it as a way to kind of shift gears a little bit for whatever’s coming next?

GG: When we did Man Walks Into a Bar, that was really an homage and that was something we understood could be different and should be different. This is really just a really sort of a fun, traditional episode of the show. It’s a milestone. It’s a fantastic milestone. We’re happy with how things are going and want to keep it going. We figured bringing back Mr. Wagner was a fun nod to things, and he actually did the 150th. So yeah. So we figured, well, this is a good time to do it.

NCIS Season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Jim Halterman is the West Coast Editor of TV Fanatic and the owner of JimHalterman.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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