NCIS' Creator Threatened To Cancel The Show Over One Casting Decision

Casting for a television series is considerably different than casting for a film or a stage play in that it's about more than just finding the right ensemble for right now; creators need to consider each actor's capacity for maturing and/or evolving in their role, as well as their ability to work and play well with others. You might be able to get away with casting a bit of a malcontent on a movie (though most directors I've spoken to sternly discourage this line of thinking), but if someone's even just a tad contentious during the casting process, they could make everyone's life miserable over the long haul, and that's just not worth it.

Obviously, creators and casting directors try like hell to get it right the first time through (which doesn't always happen, as "Gilligan's Island" mastermind Sherwood Schwartz would've told you), but compromise is always necessary. Sometimes your first choice suddenly becomes unavailable, sometimes they want too much money and sometimes the network or studio flat-out doesn't like them and orders you to cast someone else (it's not television, but Jonathan Bennett briefly got bounced from "Mean Girls" because of studio interference).

And sometimes you say, "Screw compromise, I want this person, and if you won't let me have them, I won't let you have the show." That's a baller move, one that requires serious clout, but that is precisely what Donald P. Bellisario had in 2003 when he was putting together "NCIS."

When "NCIS" (initially titled "Navy: NCIS") was gearing up to spin off from Bellisario's "JAG," he had some very particular casting demands. One that shouldn't have been terribly controversial was his desire to cast David McCallum, a veteran actor and former fashion-plate portrayer of Illya Kuryakin on the original NBC iteration of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," as medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard.

Alas, network suits tend to be ignorant of their medium's history and downright ageist, so they pushed back hard against casting the then 70-year-old actor in such a prominent role. As James Whitmore Jr., who's directed many episodes of "NCIS," recalled during a 2023 retrospective in The Hollywood Reporter:

"When they cast David McCallum as Ducky, the studio said, 'No way, we're not casting this old character actor in the role.' And Don [Bellisario] said, 'If you don't, we're not doing the show.' He was that serious about it. The studio went with it, and of course, David McCallum is gold."

What did CBS have against McCallum? According to the network's head of casting, it was his Britishness. "The feeling was, 'Can you do that?," he remembered. "This was such an American show."

Per CBS Studios president David Stapf:

"I felt like the show was probably not going to do as well globally because it was about an American unit of the military. So why would other countries embrace it? But I do think [it goes] back to the universality of good versus evil, and caring about the people."

The studio relented, thus paving the way for McCallum's Ducky to become one of the series' most beloved characters until his death at the age of 90 in 2023. The lesson? Stick to your guns, especially when you've already made the meddlesome network a gazillion dollars via other hit series (in Bellisario's case, these would be the original Tom Selleck run of "Magnum P.I." and "JAG").