How to Stream NCIS Parent Show JAG Just in Time for July 4th
By Movieguide® Contributor
NCIS’ predecessor, JAG, is coming to Amazon Prime.
“Prime Video will host all 10 seasons of JAG beginning Monday, July 1,” TV Line reported.
The outlet explained that Paramount+, the show’s current rights holder, only has a select number of episodes available to stream.
“Amazon has licensed the rights to every episode of the Navy drama — so, barring any operational delays, all 227 installments will be available to binge ahead of Independence Day,” TV Line continued.
JAG premiered on NBC in 1995 before moving to CBS, where it ran from 1997 to 2005. Two episodes of the show, “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown,” served as backdoor pilots for NCIS and introduced viewers to now-beloved characters like Jethro Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo.
“Because JAG was so successful and had gone nine seasons, the network and other people were saying, ‘…you should really spin it off into something else,'” JAG and NCIS executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Mark Horowitz, a director on JAG and NCIS executive producer, added, “[NCIS] was originally pitched as LAW & ORDER in the Navy. First, there’d be some crime, and the NCIS agents would investigate it — the cops of the Navy — and then the JAG people would come in and try the case. Don played with that idea for a little while, and then he just said, ‘We’re not going to do that. It’s going to be two completely separate shows.’”
Movieguide® previously reported on NCIS star Wilmer Valderrama’s thoughts on the connection between NCIS and JAG:
As the NCIS franchise reaches 1,000 episodes, actor Wilmer Valderrama reflected on how the show got to where it is today and why he believes it remains relevant.
“I mean, it’s crazy to be at the tail end of [1,000 episodes], not the tail end, the last half of that, right,” Valderrama told CBS News. “You gotta pay tribute to the original cast that started this thing, you know, all the way from Mark Harmon, starting in JAG, right.”
“JAG had two episodes at the end of JAG, those last two episodes served as kind of like a semi-pilot for NCIS,” he explained. “Then, you know, they come full circle. Mark Harmon leads this beautiful ship and creates something very different on television, an acronym where people are like, ‘What is NCIS?’ And then now it’s undeniabl[y] one of the most recognizable letters you could see. And, you know, a thousand episodes later and it’s not slowing down. It’s still the number one show.”
Since its beginning as a spin-off, NCIS itself has spawned plenty of spin-offs in the last few years, including the upcoming NCIS: TONY & ZIVA.
“What is known so far about the NCIS: TONY & ZIVA spin-off is that it will follow Tony (Weatherly) and Ziva (de Pablo) and their daughter Tali, in Europe, and that they are forced to go on the run while trying to work out who is after them,” Deadline reported.
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