TV Fanatic: In general, how do you feel this time of the year moving into another season finale? Does it get easier since you've been at this place before?
Gary Glasberg: It never gets easier because in the nature of 24 episodes a season it’s exhausting. But I’ll tell you what we’ve done this year, which is a little different: we made the decision not to do a cliffhanger and we did that intentionally because this year has been challenging.
NCIS Season 11 was challenging with Ziva’s departure, the arrival of Bishop and then we did the New Orleans episodes... so there’s been a lot going on. We decided to not go the route to leave everyone hanging because enough has happened this year already so we wanted to focus on our team and the strength of our team. This was a unique situation that came up and we decided to focus on the passing of Ralph Waite.
TVF: Let’s talk about that and how that affected where you’re going with the last episodes of the season.
GG: It was significant enough for us to step back and say that we wanted to say goodbye to him properly. So we put our heads together and decided we wanted to do a story about Leroy Jethro Gibb and Harmon’s character. We do some flashbacks, we get to see him as a child and we get to see him with a young Ralph Waite, who we’re in the middle of casting right now.
I think it will mean a lot to the audience and it’s definitely meant a lot to us from a storytelling standpoint. It’s a nice episode, it’s an emotional episode, it’s an informative episode and it gives people some closure.
TVF: Will we see a different side of Gibbs that we don’t typically see? He’s usually such a rock for everyone else.
GG: Well, It’s definitely new territory for him and, honestly, I’m really anxious to see how Harmon plays it. We’re prepping it right now and we start shooting in a few days and I’m really excited about it.
Gary Glasberg: It never gets easier because in the nature of 24 episodes a season it’s exhausting. But I’ll tell you what we’ve done this year, which is a little different: we made the decision not to do a cliffhanger and we did that intentionally because this year has been challenging.
NCIS Season 11 was challenging with Ziva’s departure, the arrival of Bishop and then we did the New Orleans episodes... so there’s been a lot going on. We decided to not go the route to leave everyone hanging because enough has happened this year already so we wanted to focus on our team and the strength of our team. This was a unique situation that came up and we decided to focus on the passing of Ralph Waite.
TVF: Let’s talk about that and how that affected where you’re going with the last episodes of the season.
GG: It was significant enough for us to step back and say that we wanted to say goodbye to him properly. So we put our heads together and decided we wanted to do a story about Leroy Jethro Gibb and Harmon’s character. We do some flashbacks, we get to see him as a child and we get to see him with a young Ralph Waite, who we’re in the middle of casting right now.
I think it will mean a lot to the audience and it’s definitely meant a lot to us from a storytelling standpoint. It’s a nice episode, it’s an emotional episode, it’s an informative episode and it gives people some closure.
TVF: Will we see a different side of Gibbs that we don’t typically see? He’s usually such a rock for everyone else.
GG: Well, It’s definitely new territory for him and, honestly, I’m really anxious to see how Harmon plays it. We’re prepping it right now and we start shooting in a few days and I’m really excited about it.
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On one hand I am sad they are not doing a cliffhanger, or a finale arc at all. Most of the time, NCIS is at its best with season ending and opening arcs like the ones from previous seasons, even after the seasons itself are mediocore (e.g. season 9). I would think that, even with the tribute to Jackson Gibbs, there is enough room for a finale arc.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, it's a welcome change. I'll probably have enough cliffhangers from other shows already. As long as they can make the finale work and have it be a good episode, I am fine without a cliffhanger for once.
maybe there won't be a traditional cliffhanger that left you wanting more...half way through the episode there could be some question left unanswered until season 12
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