Next to Mark Harmon, Sean Murray is the actor I most associate with NCIS. He’s been playing Timothy McGee on the show for nearly the entirety of its run, and in 2024, he became the most-featured actor of all time in the NCIS franchise, surpassing the late David McCallum. However, you’ll notice I said “nearly the entirety.” There was a time when McGee wasn’t part of NCIS, and I’m shook to find out why Murray was added to the series in those early Season 1 days.
Former NCIS showrunner Frank Cardea and current showrunner Steven Binder visited Partners & Probies to talk with hosts Brian Dietzen and Diona Reasonover, who respectively play Jimmy Palmer and Kasie Hines on the series, about their experiences working on CBS’s popular procedural. One of the things Cardea talked about from his tenure was about the script issue he and his team ran into on Season 1’s “Sub Rosa” that prompted Timothy McGee’s creation. He started off saying:
