JAG (TV series)

• David James Elliott as Harmon Rabb, Jr., USN, Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander/Commander, JAG Corps; Acting Judge Advocate General; Carrier Commander; Captain/XO of USS Allegiance (NCIS: Los Angeles).
• Tracey Needham as Meg Austin, USN (season 1), Lieutenant JG
• Catherine Bell as Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie, USMC (seasons 2–10), Major/Lieutenant Colonel, JAG Corps; OJAG Chief of Staff; Acting Judge Advocate General; Head of Joint Legal Services Southwest (San Diego); Marine Liaison to the U.S. Secretary of State (NCIS: Los Angeles).
• Patrick Labyorteaux as Budrick "Bud" Roberts, Jr., USN (main: seasons 2–10; recurring: season 1); Ensign; Lieutenant JG/Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander, JAG Corps; JAG Captain (NCIS).
• John M. Jackson as Albert Jethro "A.J." Chegwidden, USN (main: seasons 2–9; recurring: season 1), Rear Admiral, JAG Corps; Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy; SEAL; lawyer (NCIS), later retired (NCIS: Los Angeles).
• Scott Lawrence as Sturgis Turner, USN (main: season 10; recurring: seasons 7–9), Commander, JAG Corps; Acting Judge Advocate General; submariner.
• Zoe McLellan as Petty Officer Jennifer Coates (main: season 10; recurring: seasons 7–9), USN. Legalman, personal aide to the Judge Advocate General.

• Andrea Parker as Lt. JG / Lieutenant / Commander Caitlin Pike, USN (Seasons 1, 6)
• Trevor Goddard as Lt. Commander Mic Brumby, RAN (Seasons 4–7)
• Karri Turner as Ensign / Lt. JG / Lieutenant Harriet Sims, USN (Seasons 2–10)
• Michael Bellisario as Seaman / Petty Officer Third Class / Midshipman Mike “Mikey” Roberts, USN (Seasons 3–10)
• Jeff MacKay as Master Chief Petty Officer Bud “Big Bud” Roberts, USN (Seasons 3–10)
• Nanci Chambers as Lieutenant Loren Singer, USN (Seasons 5–8)
• Randy Vasquez as Gunnery Sergeant Victor Galindez, USMC (Seasons 5–9)
• Chuck Carrington as Petty Officer Jason Tiner, USN (Seasons 2–9)
• Terry O'Quinn as Captain / Rear Admiral Thomas Boone, USN (Seasons 1, 2, 6–8)
• Steven Culp as CIA Officer Clayton Webb (Seasons 2–10)
• Andrea Thompson as Commander / Captain Alison Krennick, USN (Seasons 1, 9)
• Chris Beetem as Lieutenant Gregory Vukovic, USN (Season 10)
• Meta Golding as Lieutenant Tali Mayfield, USN (Season 10)
• Jordana Spiro as Lieutenant Catherine Graves, USN (Season 10)
• David Andrews as Major General Gordon Cresswell, USMC (Season 10)
• Rif Hutton as Lt. Commander Alan Mattoni, USN (Seasons 3–6)
• Sibel Galindez as Lieutenant Elizabeth Hawkes, "Skates", USN (Seasons 2, 4–7)
• Oliver North as Ollie

The creator of JAG, Donald P. Bellisario, served for four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and after having worked his way up through advertising jobs, he landed his first network television job as a story editor for the World War II-era series Baa Baa Black Sheep, where he got a habit of promoting a consistent promilitary stance in a business where he got the perception that "antiwar" and "antisoldier" mentality were the commonplace.[21] The stereotype in the post-Vietnam war era of "crazed Vietnam veterans" was notably subverted, by not just one, but three of the main characters, in Magnum P.I., of which Bellisario was the co-creator.[21] Following the cancellation of his series Quantum Leap, Bellisario began working on a one-shot screenplay of a murder mystery aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, where the victim was a female aviator,[21] inspired by the Tailhook scandal.

While doing research on which organizational entities would partake in investigative efforts of crimes committed aboard Naval vessels, Bellisario found the special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service filled the police role, and the uniformed lawyers, in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, could alternate between the role of defense attorney, prosecutor, and field investigator. Bellisario chose to go ahead with the lawyers and remarked season six about the unique advantages it brought from a story-telling point of view: "Unlike most law shows, I've got a detective, a prosecutor, and a defender."[21]

The then-Judge Advocate General of the Navy, Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter (second from left), visiting the set, meeting with the cast during the shooting of "Liberty" in 2001

Initially, the producers of JAG did not receive any co-operation from the Department of the Navy, due to sensitivity in light of all the accumulative negative publicity that had been generated from the Tailhook scandal and its aftermath.[22] However, the lack of co-operation from the military was not a show-stopper, as the JAG production team, by virtue of being a Paramount Pictures production, had access to the stock footage of the motion pictures owned by the studio, which included many films with military content, such as Top Gun, The Final Countdown, and The Hunt for Red October.[23]

In 1997, though, the naval services had begun to change their minds, and began to render support to the production team on a script-by-script basis. A primetime network series about Navy lawyers bringing out controversial subjects in a very public arena was apparently no longer an issue in itself, but as noted by Commander Bob Anderson of the Navy's entertainment media liaison office in Los Angeles in a TV Guide interview: "We're fine with that as long as the bad guys are caught and punished, and the institution of the Navy is not the bad guy".[22]

Almost all episodes of the series feature scenes filmed aboard real United States Navy ships. The ship most widely used was USS Forrestal, in commission as a training carrier at the time. Most of the Nimitz-class carriers also appear in one or several episodes. USS Saratoga, USS Enterprise, and USS John F. Kennedy were also used in the series.

USS Enterprise was used as the fictional USS Seahawk in many episodes. USS Forrestal and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower were also used as the fictional Seahawk, both in season four and for one episode each. For scenes filmed aboard Enterprise, the whole crew wore caps reading USS Seahawk – CVN 65 so they matched the ship's real hull number.

USS Forrestal was featured in many episodes, most prominently two in which she portrayed the fictional USS Reprisal. In these episodes, all crew members wore caps with the CV-35 pennant number. This number was intentionally out of sequence with the pennant numbers of active USN carriers at the time the series was filmed. CV-35 would have been the real pennant number of an Essex-class carrier actually called Reprisal, which was canceled during construction in 1945 when World War II ended, and broken up in 1949 after consideration had been given to completing her to a revised design roughly similar to that of USS Oriskany.

Only six USN ships featured in the series were called by their real names: USS Hornet, USS Coral Sea, USS Kitty Hawk, USS America, USS Theodore Roosevelt, and USS Belknap. Kitty Hawk is mentioned in one of the season-three episodes, but never seen on screen. America is the murder scene in a season-three episode, but shots supposedly depicting her are in fact shots of Forrestal. Real shots of Theodore Roosevelt in harbor are used in one episode of season one.

Crewmembers set up for a shot at NAS North Island (2005)

Season-three opener "Ghost Ship" was filmed entirely aboard Hornet while she was laid up at Alameda Naval Air Station before being preserved as a museum ship. Part of the storyline in "Ghost Ship" deals with the final fate of Hornet. It implies (though not explicitly stating it) she was eventually scrapped due to severe fire damage sustained during the course of the episode, contrary to her real-life fate as a national landmark. The subplot in "Ghost Ship" indicating that the ship's double hull had to be cut open from the inside to repair supposed damage to her bow during Vietnam was not at all correct with her service record.

Coral Sea is also featured in the season-three episode "Vanished" and season-four episodes "Angels 30" and "Shakedown". As she had already been scrapped at the time the episodes supposedly took place, archival footage of Coral Sea was used, with other footage shot aboard Forrestal. The majority of the exterior scenes from "Angels 30" were filmed aboard Forrestal and a few aboard Enterprise.

Belknap is mentioned in the season-four episode "Going after Francesca" as the Sixth Fleet flagship, a role she actually fulfilled in real life from 1986 until her decommissioning in 1994. Belknap had already been decommissioned and was laid up awaiting scrapping when the episode was filmed, allowing for actual exterior shots of the ship to be featured in the episode.

The series also includes appearances by Tarawa-class amphibious assault ships, Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (in particular USS Arleigh Burke itself during the opening credit montage), and Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates. In one of the episodes, the Spanish frigate Santa María is used to depict a fictional USN Oliver Hazard Perry-class ship (denoted by her NATO pennant number "F 81" painted under the bridge, instead of the U.S. practice of having a "number only" ID painted on the bow).

While most sea episodes are focused on aviation missions, several are based around submarine warfare: namely episodes 1:3, 2:6, 4:16, 5:22, 6:15, 7:14, 7:24, 8:7, 8:17, and 9:7.

Harm (David James Elliott) and Mac (Catherine Bell) use a challenge coin to determine who will resign his or her commission.

David James Elliott left the show at the end of the 10th season; the show was subsequently not renewed for an 11th season by the network.[24] The show also introduced new younger characters, including former As the World Turns star Chris Beetem, and Jordana Spiro from The Huntress.

The producers also considered relocating the fictional setting of the show, from Falls Church to Naval Base San Diego. An episode of the final season, "JAG: San Diego" had the main cast, excluding Harm, going to the San Diego naval base and working with the local JAG office there. Though it was reportedly considered as a pilot episode, as a reformat of the show aiming for a younger audience, CBS ultimately decided not to pursue a new series.

Nevertheless, CBS canceled the show on April 4, 2005, after 10 seasons. The final episode, "Fair Winds and Following Seas", aired on April 29, 2005, and in which Harm and Mac are assigned different stations: Harm in London, Mac in San Diego. They finally confront their feelings and decide to get married. The episode ends with Bud tossing a challenge coin to decide which one would give up his or her military career to be with the other. However, in keeping with JAG tradition, the outcome of the toss is never seen, as the screen fades to black, showing only the coin, which bears the inscription "1995 – 2005", the years the series spanned.

What happened is later revealed in the 2019 finale of the tenth season of NCIS: Los Angeles, "False Flag", in which David James Elliott and Catherine Bell both appeared. Mac won the coin toss and Harm resigned his commission and moved with her to San Diego, but later they mutually ended their relationship and Harm rejoined the Navy and is currently serving as the XO of the (fictional) aircraft carrier, USS Allegiance. Mac left the Marines to serve as Marine Liaison to the Secretary of State, a civilian position. Harm and Mac had not seen each other in 9 years until video conferencing with each other in their new roles. In the eleventh season premiere, Harm and Mac reunite in person, share an embrace, and later renew a discussion of their relationship, once again without reaching any conclusions.

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of JAG on NBC (first season) and CBS (other seasons).

Note: U.S. network television seasons generally start in late September and end in late May, which coincides with the completion of the May sweeps.

Source:[32]

In January 2003, Donald P. Bellisario was developing a JAG spin-off, around the work of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.[33] It was aired in April 2003 in a two-part backdoor pilot in which Commander Rabb is arrested, but later vindicated as innocent, for the murder of Lieutenant Singer. The two episodes, titled "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown", focused on the NCIS team, with most of the JAG regulars as supporting characters. Whereas the episodes of JAG are primarily oriented on a mixture of courtroom drama and military activities in the field, NCIS episodes are more focused, as the meaning of the acronym suggests, on criminal investigations. NCIS also follows a different storytelling format from JAG, emphasizing character humor to a larger extent than its parent program. NCIS later produced its own spin-offs, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans, which shows a further departure from the styles and themes of JAG.

The two episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" were edited down to a one-hour pilot film, which was then used to sell the idea of NCIS as a new series to CBS; the pilot used the title, "NCIS – The Beginning". It was later also used to introduce the show to CBS affiliates and advertisers. It was only broadcast once and is not available on home video.

Excluding the backdoor pilot, few major characters from JAG have appeared in the NCIS series. Patrick Labyorteaux appeared briefly as Lieutenant Bud Roberts in the NCIS first-season episode "Hung Out to Dry", and again – now with the rank of captain – in the season fourteen episode "Rogue," advising the NCIS team on a legal issue. John M. Jackson returned in May 2013 as retired Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden, now a civilian attorney in the private sector hired by Director Vance to provide legal representation for Special Agent Gibbs, in the season ten NCIS finale, "Damned If You Do".[34] Jackson has recurred as A.J. Chegwidden since the eighth season of NCIS: Los Angeles. Chegwidden is a Vietnam-era compatriot of series regulars Hetty Lange (Linda Hunt) and Owen Granger (Miguel Ferrer). David James Elliot and Catherine Bell returned to their roles as Harmon Rabb and Sarah MacKenzie for the first time since JAG ended in the last two episodes of the tenth season of NCIS: Los Angeles.[35]

While several other actors who played major roles on JAG have also appeared on NCIS, such as Scott Lawrence (Sturgis Turner on JAG),[36] Steven Culp (Clayton Webb on JAG),[37] Randy Vazquez (Victor Galindez on JAG),[38] and Michael Bellisario (Mikey Roberts on JAG);[39] they played completely different characters when appearing on NCIS. Similarly, after Sean Murray (Donald Bellisario's stepson) played a one-off Ensign character in JAG season 4, and the recurring character of Danny Walden in season 6, he joined the core cast of NCIS during the first season as Tim McGee, and is still on the show as of 2019.

First introduced in the NCIS back-door pilot, Alicia Coppola appeared as Navy judge advocate Lieutenant Commander Faith Coleman in several episodes of NCIS.[40] Adam Baldwin played the same guest role, Navy SEAL Commander Michael Rainer, in one episode of each show.[41]

First Monday was a short-lived series co-created by Bellisario and Paul Levine about fictional U.S. Supreme Court justices and their clerks, which aired in 2002 and starred James Garner and Joe Mantegna. The character of U.S. Senator Edward Sheffield (Dean Stockwell), who appeared in three episodes of that show, later became a recurring character on JAG as the new Secretary of the Navy, starting in season eight.

The sitcom Yes, Dear did an episode called "Let's Get Jaggy With It" where Greg's father Tom (Tim Conway) wins a walk-on role on JAG. Catherine Bell guest-starred as herself while David James Elliott, Patrick Labyorteaux, and Scott Lawrence guest-starred as their respective JAG characters.