Behind a Quiet Little Hit, a Reliable Hit Maker - 重返犯罪現場

October 25, 2005
By BILL CARTER

The most-watched show on Tuesday night is one that few in television would
ever
think of when compiling a list of the most popular shows on television.
CBS's
three-year-old crime drama "NCIS" has emerged as the hit nobody really knows
about.

"It's the quiet little hit that is succeeding totally under the radar," said
Leslie Moonves, the CBS chief executive. Not under CBS's radar, of course.
The
network is thrilled with the performance of "NCIS."

Indeed, for the last two weeks in a row, the series has posted its best
ratings
ever. It wins its time period, 8 p.m. Tuesday, every week - and not just
among
total viewers, where it amassed an impressive 17.7 million people last week.
"NCIS" has steadily built its audience among viewers ages 18 to 49, one of
the
chief benchmarks of network success.

In that category, "NCIS" has also been scoring its best numbers ever, and
this
season it ranks second only to CBS's far more celebrated hit, "Survivor,"
among
shows that lead off nights for networks.

And as Mr. Moonves pointed out, "NCIS" has another invaluable quality: it has
proved itself to be the one show on television seemingly impervious to the
wave
of ratings numbers that crashes on Tuesday night in the winter when the Fox
network adds "American Idol." "We never have to worry like the other
networks do
when 'Idol' comes in for Fox," Mr. Moonves said.

That this happened with a show so unheralded is remarkable and unexpected,
though perhaps it shouldn't be. "NCIS," after all, is the latest series from
one
of television's most reliable hit makers, the writer-producer Donald P.
Bellisario. Though his name has never become a household word along with
some of
television's other multihit program creators, like Steven Bochco or David E.
Kelley, Mr. Bellisario's record is striking for the consistency of its
success.

Mr. Bellisario has had a successful prime-time show on network television
steadily for the last 25 years. First it was "Magnum P.I." on CBS; then
"Quantum
Leap" on NBC; "JAG" on CBS; and now "NCIS." That doesn't even count some
other
shows Mr. Bellisario created, like "Airwolf" in 1984 and "Tales of the Gold
Monkey" in 1982.

"He doesn't win a lot of awards," Mr. Moonves said of Mr. Bellisario. "All he
does is put on big commercial hits."

In some ways "NCIS" is Mr. Bellisario's greatest triumph, because it has so
defied all expectations - even those of CBS. Mr. Bellisario said in a
telephone
interview that he had to battle his own network to steer his new show away
from
being stigmatized as a spinoff of "JAG."

The knock on "JAG" was always that it was a show almost exclusively for older
viewers, those with a fondness for military yarns. And "NCIS" did start as a
spinoff episode of "JAG." Mr. Bellisario said CBS so wanted to recreate what
it
had with "JAG" that the network insisted, against his strenuous objections,
in
calling the new series "Navy NCIS" in its first year. (The initials stand for
Naval Criminal Investigation Service.)

"I fought that idea all the way," Mr. Bellisario said. "I did not want the
show
to be just a stopgap for CBS. I foresaw CBS saying this is good for now and
always looking for something better."

So he rejected CBS's initial promotional efforts, which he felt made the show
look like another military based drama - or else too much like CBS's big hit,
"CSI." Mr. Bellisario wanted to include real humor as well as some murky back
stories for his characters.

And he wanted to play down the military angle. He pointed out that he chose
the
naval branch of criminal investigations because it did not report directly to
naval superiors and used civilian investigative agents. The stories simply
have
to involve military personnel.

Most of all, Mr. Bellisario was convinced he could start to pull in younger
viewers, and he tailored his cast for that purpose. Beyond the lead actor,
Mark
Harmon, and the comeback to television of David McCallum, the cast of "NCIS"
is
largely made up of young actors. One, Pauley Perrette, even plays
television's
only regular goth personality.

Mr. Moonves said Mr. Bellisario was constantly pressing the network to
emphasize
his young, good-looking cast in promotions.

In many ways "NCIS" follows what has become a hugely successful formula for
CBS.
It's a crime show with a prominent male star in the lead, surrounded by a
cast
of quirky but loyal subordinates. The difference is Mr. Bellisario, who not
only
writes many of the episodes but also adds unusual stylistic touches.

He decided, for example, to shoot the show with multiple cameras, so that the
actors in a scene never know when they are out of the shot. He uses
overlapping
dialogue whenever he can. Recently he added flashback sequences shot in
grainy
16-millimeter black and white.

Then there was the stunning elimination last spring of a chief character:
Kate,
a young agent on the team. Mr. Bellisario said the actress, Sasha Alexander,
came to him last year and said the pace was wearing her out; she wanted to
leave
the series.

Mr. Bellisario said: "I told her, 'All right, then I'm going to kill you.'
She
was taken aback."

He managed to incorporate the killing into an ongoing storyline about a
terrorist named Ari who is the nemesis of the Mark Harmon character, Gibbs.

This season Mr. Bellisario added Lauren Holly to the cast as a new supervisor
who happens to have had a steamy romantic past with Gibbs. He also wanted to
bring in an exotic female character, so he introduced an Israeli agent with
the
arresting name of Ziva David, and hired an attractive young Chilean actress
named Cote de Pablo to play her. "Les took one look at her and said, Wow!,"
Mr.
Bellisario said.

The constant invention is part of a strategy to turn "NCIS" into an even
bigger
hit. And it all springs from the mind of the indefatigable Mr. Bellisario,
who
just recently celebrated his 70th birthday. A former Marine staff sergeant,
who
spent years as a journalist and then in advertising, Mr. Bellisario built his
career in television mainly on sheer pluck.

He came to Hollywood in the 1970's determined to write feature films. But he
told his agent at the time that he had only six weeks worth of cash. The
agent
suggested he try television. Mr. Bellisario hasn't stopped working since.

From NY Time

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