Sneak Peek at the season finale of NCIS

NCIS wrapped up its twentieth season earlier this year but one of its stars has revealed that the show’s lead at the time, Mark Harmon, was partly responsible for him joining the cast.

Rocky Carroll joined the hit police procedural as Assistant Director Leon Vance in season five, and he would reunite with a former colleague when he did so.

Rocky revealed to TV Insider: “I tell people all the time I only knew one person connected to NCIS, but it was the right person to know, and that was Mark Harmon.”

The two actors had previously worked together on Chicago Hope earlier in their careers.

Mark played the lead role of Agent Leroy Gibbs for a total of nineteen seasons before stepping down in 2021.

When Rocky first met with the network and the executive producer for a part on the hit show, he realised: “I knew that no matter what they thought or felt about me, that if Harmon hadn’t said, “You know what, I know this guy. We worked together, we work well together, I give you the thumbs up,’ it would’ve never happened.”

Initially, Rocky was slated to appear in just four episodes of the hit CBS show, with him assuming that it would just be a temporary job.

He outlined: “It could have been brilliantly written, brilliantly performed, brilliantly shot, but if the audience didn’t respond to the character, it would’ve ended after four episodes.”

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He was the third actor to take up the role of Director, after Alan Dale and Lauren Holly.

However, Rocky had had a long relationship with the network, having appeared in everything from comedies and dramas to pilots and series that “didn’t last very long.”

He recalled: “It was sort of a real feather in my cap that the network said, ‘We know you, and we love you, and we trust you with this role on our signature show’, I was happy to be a part of it.”

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While Rocky knew he “was part of something really good,” he was happy not to be front and centre or have “to carry the ball every episode.”

However, over the years his character has also appeared in two of the spin-off shows, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans. And Rocky has even directed several episodes of the original series.

The actor concluded: “So, I go to my grave saying that I was Harmon-approved. That went a long way for me securing that role.”

NCIS is available to watch on CBS in the US and Disney+ in the UK.

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