Oh, how the ugly rumors abound.
As it turns out, some of the people who work on the show have their own Facebook pages, and, come late Friday night after they've been hitting the bottle for a few hours, it's just amazing what they blurt out — only to be hurriedly deleted two minutes later after they've sobered up enough to re-read the inside scoop they just blabbed to the world. But for those of us with our screen capture programs running, there's no escaping the truth.
For example, Ducky is actually a hermaphrodite. You read it here first. And those ugly, possibly-true rumors that Tony's had three facelifts and is actually 52 are completely unfounded. Gibbs? He's entirely computer-generated, compliments of Industrial Light & Magic, the 'Star Wars' folks. Hey, if they can generate a Jabba The Hut, they can certainly generate a Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
And then there are the ladies. Decorum prohibits me from specifying the horrid, lurid tales that ooze off the Facebook pages regarding these two wanton harlots. A full exposé (of Abby's cleavage) is below the fold.
I must warn you, though, that you'll learn things here that you might wish you hadn't. Any pedestal you had your heroes on will soon be shattered. The sordid behind-the-scenes videos I've collected from the darkest recesses of the Web will put on display a particularly ugly aspect of life that you might very well wish didn't even exist:
Reality.
Okay, that was dark recesses of the Web or the DVDs — whichever came first. In this case, the DVDs happen to be on hand and I've got a great selection of behind-the-scenes vids for your enjoyment. They're about five to ten minutes long.
One thing that can be appreciated about these clips is that they don't 'spoil' the show, unlike a "making of" movie special where you find out King Kong is actually a 4" mechanized doll. Somehow it's different with TV, and especially gritty shows like crime dramas, when it's not much a surprise to find out the bodies on Ducky's autopsy tables aren't actually real, live corpses. So to speak.
Our first clip is how Don developed the original concept and the characters of the show. It also answers some fun trivia questions:
1. Which actor has developed his show character to the point where he's now used as the on-site expert on the subject?
2. Which actor had zero acting experience before 'NCIS'?
3. Which actor never auditioned for the part?
4. The mass spectrometer is made out of:
A. Plastic
B. Cardboard
C. Styrofoam
D. Mass spectrometer5. At the time she was hired, Pauley Perrette was studying to be:
A. An actress
B. An environmental consultant
C. A nuclear physicist
D. A forensic scientist
Take it away, Don!
But all of that was only one big part of what it took to make this show both unique and enjoyable enough that we're talking about it now. This intriguing next clip looks at filming and editing techniques and the plan they mapped out from the very beginning.
At one point, it mentions 'jump cuts' and 'crossing the line'. 'Jump cuts' are those quick transitions they use, compressing time and space by jumping ahead a few seconds, and 'crossing the line' means overlapping scenes with the audio track. It's a delicate art in that, while you might want to start the audio from the next scene a second early to lead the viewer into it, if it's done incorrectly the viewer will think it's part of the first scene and be confused.
What I've found while snipping out these clips is that, more often than not, they'll delay the audio track, merging it into the next scene.
It also appears to settle an interesting question; whether or not the people of the real NCIS like the show's popularity. At the outset, you'd think sure, it's good exposure, people now recognize the name, you're given more respect by other agencies. Hell, they probably even got a budget increase out of it.
On the other hand, it might get a little tiring, always ringing door bells and…
"Good morning, ma'am, NCIS."
"Oh, I just LOVE your show!"
Not to mention high expectations:
"Great news, Director! We solved the crime in a week!"
"Hell, they solved it in two days on 'NCIS'!"
At home:
"Not tonight, honey. I'm bushed."
"Gibbs is never too tired."
And then there's simply the general lack of respect around town:
"Freeze! NCIS! You're under arrest for murder, armed robbery, treason and kidnapping!"
"Oh, I just LOVE your show!"
Maybe it'll just take some getting used to.
Okay, audience participation time. Of the one million frames in the above clip that I could have used for the preview pic, why did I choose that one?
Because few split-seconds of the almost 160 episodes could exemplify better why we like the show.
Because one of the almost-unique things the show does is take a cold, fresh, objective look at the sexes. Simply put, a bad guy is a bad guy — whether or not he's actually a guy. I think it's a given that if the above scene took place on almost any other crime show and you stopped it at the above moment and asked the audience whether or not he was going to pull the trigger, 99% of them would respond, "Why, of course not! She's beautiful!"
POW!
Right between the eyes from an inch away.
One more bad guy down.
That scene took guts on everybody's part.
Okay, time for some frolicsome, frisky, fantastical (not to mention fantasmagorical) fun.
Behold: The Transmogrification of Pauley Perrette!
Gosh, that Pauley Perrette sure is a sweet, innocent young thang, ain't she?
Well, okay, make that mostly sweet and innocent.
This next clip, a tour of Abby's lab, has its own accompanying trivia question:
1. Which character on the show is put under lock & key each night?
Well, duh!
And the last of our clips is from season 5, where the crew and cast (except for Cote) have 100 episodes under their belt, the confidence that goes along with it, and the ability to see the show from afar. Except for Abby (whose looks appear to be timeless), you can see how the cast has aged over five years and taken on subtle characteristics of the roles they play. You might recall how un-Gibbs-like Harmon looked in the 1st-year interviews (without the makeup), whereas he looks like he's become Gibbs here — albeit with a more charming personality.
Take it away, team!
As for tonight's main attraction:
I mentioned last week that it's too bad they don't scoot out to real Navy vessels like they did during the first few seasons, but when you listen to enough special features and director's tracks, it's quite apparent that time is the most precious commodity when putting these things together, so it's understandable that they don't want to invest the enormous amount of time it must take to assemble a full crew aboard a ship and do the shoots.
In keeping with the theme, since we were aboard a sub last week, I thought it only fitting we do one from its arch nemesis, a destroyer.
Presenting: The Immortals