Rocky Carroll Says NCIS’ ‘Blue Collar’ Approach Contributes to Enduring Success
By Movieguide® Contributor
Rocky Carroll, who plays Director Vance on NCIS, explained why the cast’s approach to the show has allowed it to endure and how the 1,000th episode exemplified their work ethic.
“We know how rare the air that we’re in right now, we know how rare it is. When we have guest stars, and people come from the outside, and they talk to us, and they go, ‘Man, you guys have something really special here,” Carroll told PEOPLE.
“But we don’t spend a lot of time relishing or celebrating in the end zone because we got a work day to finish,” he continued. “I think that’s part of the reason why this show has been on for so long is because people come to work, and they’re like, ‘Hey, let’s make another episode,’ with the same energy they had 15, 20 seasons ago.”
Carroll believes this approach to the work was clearly seen in the 1,000th episode, which, although celebrated with the public, received little fanfare during filming.
“[There] wasn’t that, ‘Let’s call everybody into the room and remind them this is a seminal episode,’” he said. “That’s really not how we operate. Our sound stages are 30 miles north of Hollywood. We’re not a fancy studio lot. We’re just outside of Magic Mountain. We work in our own little space.”
“It was like, ‘Okay, we got an episode to finish.’ That’s always been our blue collar approach to doing the episodes,” he added, noting that the only celebration was a luncheon thrown by CBS.
The 1,000th episode aired on April 15 and honored the show’s legacy, featuring Easter eggs and special guests like Joe Spano, NCIS: LA’s Daniela Ruah and NCIS: HAWAI’I’s Vanessa Lachey.
“I mean, it’s crazy to be at the tail end of that, you know, the last half of that, right? You got to kind of pay tribute to the original cast who started this thing,” said Wilmer Valderrama. “A thousand episodes later, and it’s not slowing down.”
While the cast’s energy has remained high for all 22 seasons, the characters themselves have evolved over the years, another aspect of the show that Carroll believes has contributed to its success.
“The producers and writers allowed this show and allowed the characters to not be stuck in a certain year or a certain timeframe or at a certain age,” Carroll said. “We have evolved over these 20-something years. All the characters have gone through their own share of peaks and valleys, death, loss, separation, all these different things.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
NCIS just aired its 1000th episode on April 15, and actor Brian Dietzen discussed his excitement for this milestone as well as the upcoming season finale.
In a discussion with Entertainment Weekly, the actor, who plays medical examiner Jimmy Palmer, shared, “I love these people that I work with, and our crew that’s been together with us for 21 years, a lot of them all the way through from the beginning to now. I think you can see that camaraderie and the comfort and familiarity. It comes through to viewers.”
EW asked Dietzen more about how the 1000th episode “honors the deepest of [the show’s] deep roots.”
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