'NCIS' does Hampton Roads ... for better or worse

By Will Harris, correspondent

"NCIS," the long-running CBS crime drama, has been pretending to visit Hampton Roads for seven years.

The show's success can't be denied; its accuracy in portraying this region and its Naval Criminal Investigative Service is a little less solid.

It's the No. 1 scripted series, averaging 20.2 million viewers a week in its spot at 8 p.m. Tuesdays. The series' viewership is up 11 percent this year, an unusual rise for a show this long into its run, and "NCIS" has even grown 16 percent this season among young adults.

Although the series is set in Washington and story lines regularly bring its characters to the Hampton Roads area, "NCIS" is shot throughout southern California. Sometimes it looks it, executive producer Shane Brennan concedes, but he says the show does rather well, all things considered.

"In this season's Christmas episode, a young couple was walking through a snowy forest, and that was filmed in Valencia in 92-degree weather," Brennan said. "The challenges are always there, but we've got a fantastic production crew, and these guys find Eastern USA architecture, they find little corners and streets that look like Virginia or Washington, D.C., and, yes, they tamper with the weather and make it snow when necessary. It's a credit to them that whenever the writers throw out a challenge, they rise to it."

What about the palm trees that seemed to pop up so often in the early seasons of "NCIS"?

"What we've managed to do, and we've gotten very good at it, is either just frame the palm trees out or, if there's one that slips in, we'll paint it out or CGI it out," he said. "Every so often you might see a little one, way in the background, and wonder, 'Why's that one there?' But we work very hard at it, and I've never heard a comment from anyone."

Although "NCIS" regularly finds Jethro Gibbs - played by Mark Harmon - and his Major Case Response Team traveling from Washington down to Hampton Roads, they're wasting their gas; in real life, there's already an NCIS field office in Norfolk.

It's headquartered at Norfolk Naval Station and led by Special Agent in Charge Mark Russ. It supports Navy and Marine Corps installations and Joint Forces Command in the region, working general crimes cases, counterintelligence and counterterrorism cases, and computer investigations and operations initiatives.

NCIS Special Agent Bill Martin, who's assigned to the Norfolk field office, appreciates what the television series has done to raise the organization's profile.

"I started my career in the Detroit office, in Michigan, and when you got away from the coasts, where the Navy is heavily populated, NCIS - it was NIS at the time - was not well known at all," said Martin. "I usually spent a good amount of my time explaining to people who we were and what we did. But I can tell you from personal experience that it's not generally the case anymore."

Martin is not a regular viewer, although he's caught it on a few occasions and describes it as "good entertainment."

"After 30 years in law enforcement, I don't watch a whole lot of cop shows of any kind," he said. "You tend to point out all the things that are inaccurate, saying, 'Oh, that could never happen.' Doctors probably do the same thing when they watch 'Grey's Anatomy.' But I do know that they strive for accuracy on 'NCIS' as much as they possibly can."

To aid in its authenticity, the series employs Leon Carroll Jr., a retired NCIS agent with 23 years' experience, as a technical consultant. In addition, the NCIS Southwest Field Office in San Diego has had considerable interaction with the cast and crew.

"NCIS" also goes out of its way to maintain accuracy on a local level.

"I was actually surprised when, in an episode where the Virginia Beach Police Department was represented, they had the correct patch on the uniform," Martin said.

"They try to make it accurate, even right down to the small details like that."

That's not to say, however, that some aspects of the real NCIS haven't been tweaked for television.

"There is no morgue in the basement of NCIS headquarters," said Martin, laughing, "and we don't have a lot of the really whiz-bang, high-tech equipment that they have on the show. That real James Bond-ish type of stuff is pure Hollywood.... When you actually work here and you see some of the technology they have on the show, like the retinal scans that you have to use to get through a door,... you definitely get a chuckle out of those things."

No character on "NCIS" completely matches up to any agent Martin knows, he said, but some characteristics are familiar.

"There are some agents who are every bit as intense as Jethro Gibbs."

Will Harris, nonstoppop@cox.net