Production
The episode is written by Donald P. Bellisario & Don McGill and directed by Donald P. Bellisario. According to Bellisario, the NCIS pilot episode was easy to sell to CBS because of its low costs compared to the JAG pilot. Together with Billy Webb (editor of Photography), Bellisario wanted to give NCIS a different look than other shows, starting with the first episode of the series. First find out "how would we normally shoot this, now lets figure another way to shoot it". Short clips in between scenes became a trademark. "We moved fast, we jump cut in the middle of scenes, and we jump cut dialogues". "What we ended up with was a completely different shooting style".
In the first pilot episodes (back-door pilot), as a part of JAG, Robyn Lively is seen in the role as NCIS agent Vivian Blackadder. Bellisario stated that "she was a little soft for this kind of role", and is replaced by a new and different character in this episode. Portrayed by Sasha Alexander, Secret Service agent Caitlin Todd is recruited by Gibbs at the end of the episode, filling Blackadder's place at Gibbs' team.
Together with Alexander's character, also two recurring characters were introduced. FBI agent Tobias C. Fornell (portrayed by Joe Spano), who still is a part of the series, and Medical assistant Gerald Jackson (Pancho Demmings). Jackson departed from the series later in season 1 before returning for one final time in the Season 3 opening episodes, "Kill Ari (Part I)" and "Kill Ari (Part II)".
Read more about this topic: Yankee White (NCIS)
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“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
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