The cast of NCIS Season 22 in a poster for the series
Many faces have come and gone throughout the 23 years NCIS has been on the air, but one that has stuck since the very first season is fan-favorite Timothy McGee . We've watched him evolve from an awkward, lovable probie to the capable senior agent he is today, even as the cast members around him began dropping like flies.
Funnily enough, McGee wasn't supposed to stay further than one episode, let alone become the last man standing. During an exclusive interview with Collider, Murray recalls the early days of his NCIS career and how McGee went from a funny subplot to an essential mainstay. And as NCIS fans, we cannot be more thankful for it. Sean Murray's Agent McGee Was Only Supposed To Appear in One 'NCIS' Episode McGee first appeared in Season 1, Episode 7, and almost immediately, we saw Tony's eyes light up at a chance for mischief. Poor McGee had a huge red target on his back as his awkward, fumbling demeanor simply screamed"newbie" and Tony was more than happy to take advantage of it. And thus began the ultimate bromance, where Murray's and Weatherly's chemistry is too fun to resist. Murray recounts these early episodes during the interview: "When NCIS was happening, the character of McGee was a one-shot guest star that was written by Frank Cardea and George Schenck. A couple of episodes later, they were three minutes short on an edit, so they had to come up with some material to make up a C story, and someone said, 'Let's bring back McGee, and we'll put him with Tony. They were fun together.' From that point on, McGee was just slowly a part of the thing." Even though McGee's character was only written for one episode, he would be pulled back into the series occasionally for the rest of the season, slowly garnering the fans' favor. But the turning point for the character was during Episode 19,"Dead Man Talking," where McGee, Tony, and Kate are on a stakeout. Murray describes this episode as one that"informed a lot of the beats and tone of the show," where the characters became"a little less one-dimensional," and they could feel"something coming together." During the episode, McGee and Tony's relationship really shined, as the probie went from naively fetching coffees to advising the class-clown agent not to pull pranks. What was supposed to be a one-and-done character would gradually turn into someone truly special. 'NCIS' Would Not Be the Same Without Agent McGee As the seasons progressed, McGee proved that he was not only a fun pairing with Tony, but an invaluable part of the team. In Murray's words, McGee was"the original probie," which put him in a unique position on the show. He is one of the few characters we have seen grow from the very early stages of his career in the bureau, one who hadn't quite been battered down by the gruesome nature of their job. Gibbs quickly became a mentor figure to the new recruit, kicking off the primary theme of McGee's role in the show: learning. Murray describes it best: "I haven't gotten bored for two decades playing this character. And part of the reason, I think, is the characters always been changing and evolving... I didn't want McGee to be like 'baby McGee' and then just revert to the same age every week. Growing was going to be part of the fun of that character." Of all the cast members, it truly feels as if we grew up alongside McGee. Gibbs may have been the honorary main character of NCIS, but McGee was evolving, and he was the lens through which we viewed Gibbs throughout his cold leadership roles or his rampages for revenge. Like McGee, we diligently noted down all of Gibbs' rules and were wide-eyed whenever there was a twist in the case. But most importantly, McGee is one of the major reasons why Gibbs' last episode was so painful, leaving teary eyes everywhere as it almost felt like our mentor had left us. Related 3 Years Later, the NCIS Spin-Off Everyone Completely Forgot About Becomes an Unexpected Hit And Gibbs is nowhere to be found! Posts 1 By Rachel LaBonte From an academic and tech-driven but socially inept probie, to a cool-headed, intelligent agent with a successful writing career, McGee is woven into the fabric of NCIS. He may have only been written into one episode initially, but the fact that the show couldn't quite let him go is a testament to how vital he would be to its future.
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