THE MAN WHO MADE GIBBS

NCIS's first technical adviser, Richard Warmack, helped Mark Harmon create TV's beloved agent. Here is the exclusive story of how Gibbs took shape.

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WHILE ASSIGNED TO the NCIS Los Angeles Field Office as the assistant agent in charge, I received a call from NCIS HQ, in early 2003, asking me to go see a producer named Donald P. Bellisario who wanted to do a show about us. I nervously asked HQ what I was supposed to do when we met, and they said make sure of two things: Get our name right, and we are never the bad guys. Seemed like a pretty simple mission, so off I went.

I met with Don at his studio and found him to be one of those larger-than-life figures. He said he had tried years before to coordinate with the Navy to get a show on the air about NCIS, but couldn't do so. He ended up doing JAG instead, obviously one of his huge success stories. I realized why there seemed to be overlap with his depiction of what JAG and NCIS agents do.

After I dutifully informed Don that the agency's priority was to ensure we were shown for who we were, a small but proud and extremely capable organization driven to get to the truth, he walked me into an adjacent conference room, where I was met by no less than 10 writers. For the next couple of hours, I was peppered with questions about the NCIS, what we did and how we did it. I told them some stories and gave them general insights into past cases I had worked that I thought best represented what the organization was about.