JAG‘s David James Elliott Is Bringing ‘Harm’ to NCIS: Los Angeles
NCIS: Los Angeles is literally in Harm’s way, with David James Elliott set to reprise his JAG role on the high-octane CBS drama.
TVLine has learned that Elliott will appear in multiple episodes as Navy Captain Harmon Rabb Jr., starting on Sunday, May 12 at 10/9c (aka the episode before the season finale).
In Elliott’s first episode, “The Guardian,” the NCIS team uncovers ISIS sympathizers who are planning an attack on U.S. aircraft carriers. The terror threat will result in Callen (played by Chris O’Donnell) and Sam (LL Cool J) working directly with Rabb, now the XO Captain on the USS Intrepid.
“Bringing Harmon Rabb to work with [the Los Angeles NCIS team] makes for a formidable coalition,” NCIS: LA showrunner R. Scott Gemmill previews, “and both entities are going to need all the help they can get when confronted with the greatest challenge of their careers.”
The NCIS mothership of course was spun off of JAG, starting with a two-part, April 2003 “backdoor pilot” that introduced Gibbs, DiNozzo, Abby and Ducky (played by Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette and David McCallum). As recently as March 2018, JAG vet John M. Jackson reprised his role as Rear Admiral “A.J.” Chegwidden on NCIS: LA (in what has been a bit of a recurring gig). Jackson also appeared in a 2013 episode of NCIS, while Patrick Labyorteaux has popped up on NCIS three times as JAG‘s Captain Bud Roberts.
But until now — across 31 total seasons of NCISes (NCISeese?) — neither Elliott nor JAG leading lady Catherine Bell had slipped back into their uniforms.
“[In 2017] there was a point where Catherine and David were both available, and I was trying to make that work,” Gemmill previously told TVLine. “I forget what episode it was, but I had a little opening, so I had casting check and she was available, and David was available….” Though that “reunion” (albeit on an NCIS offshoot) did not come together, “That still is a goal of mine,” Gemmill said at the time. “I have such fun when John’s here, it’d be great to put them all together again. I think the fans would really dig that.”
In a new statement, Gemmill notes of Elliott’s awaited encore, “[As a writer and producer] I did the first four seasons of JAG with him, so to be able to work together again in and of itself is great. But to do so with the same character, on our show, this many years later… that’s pretty damn amazing.”
But will Harm be alone? That is the question. Former costar Bell shared a photo on Instagram that has NCIS-verse fans speculating, but nothing has been officially announced.
Is this the crossover mentioned in the Scorecard?
Sounds like it might be.
Would this actually be considered a crossover since Jag is no longer on air?
no
I agree with him . I am patiently watching reruns of JAG hoping for this reunion. Yea!
Damn!! I always wanted to see Harm, Gibbs and Tony together!
Kind of bummed to know the answer of the coin toss
I don’t know kinda cool to see how it played out ,who knows they might call her back to
They could dodge the issue by having both now retired and not mentioning which retired when.
It says he is the xo on the intrepid but it also says it’s before the jag finale so how that works I don’t know since he got the captain rank for his overseas billet
That is absolutely amazing!!! I was just watching JAG reruns on some random channel and man, I loved that show so much!
H&I FTW
Finally! Awesome that they are actually doing it. Hopefully he actually gets in on the action like in JAG. And I guess that means Mac won the coin toss. Now get Chegwiddon back and trifecta. Maybe even Webb if the CIA are involved.
I would love to see Webb on any of the NCIS shows. The franchise seriously needs a CIA character with an actual sense of ethics.
Yeah. Even though the actor played another character on ncis, but pffft. What would really be fun is if the ultimate big bad behind it all was Palmer. The guy who was always obsessed with Harm.
Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I was 14 and OBSESSED with JAG way back when. This makes my early 2000s heart so happy! I hope Mac is back too!
This news made my mother very happy.
Shouldn’t Harm be the actual Captain of a ship by now and not just the XO? Not to knock XO’s at all, but 13 or whatever years after the end of JAG, it seems like Harm would be higher up in rank. Admittedly, he *is* more the Riker type than the Picard type, but still, I don’t think that Harm would be as *dumb* as Riker and pass up multiple chances to run his own ship just to stay with Picard.
Harm graduated from USNA in 1985. He was promoted to Captain in 2005. He should be an Admiral by now. Possible even the head of JAG.
No way he’d be demoted to XO of an Aircraft Carrier.
Besides, after spending almost his entire career in legal, he has ZERO experience as a Surface Warfare Officer.
XOs on aircraft carriers are often aviators, not only surface warfare officers like on other ships. It’s possible they may answer why he’s not an Admiral or anything in the episode. Maybe he demoted so he could stay with Mac in San Diego.
I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t explain exactly why he is in the position he’s in, as he’s so well known in the NCIS universe. I’m just glad to see him back.
Both the CO and XO of a carrier are naval aviators, and both have the rank of captain (along with the CAG, the commander of the air wing, which is a separate entity from the carrier’s crew).
JAG made it clear that there was no real future for Harm in the aviation track, so I wonder how they’ll get around that – unless they expect us to have forgotten about it?
XO isn’t a flight slot.
Making him the XO of a ship is…weird. I know he was a line officer as an aviator, but JAG Corps officers, which is what he became, cannot be XOs or COs of anything but JAG commands.
The INTRREPID ? That is not an active carrier, its a museum, isnt it ?
good point lets hope they address it ,maybe he lost the coin toss and has been called back later on in life
Cannot wait for Harm’s return.
Spose this means I’ll have to start watching NCIS: LA again. Gave up after last year, with the terrible new director character, then killing Hidoko who was actually quite interesting.
Good time to come back it with Hetty’s return, though the wedding episode might have been a better resumption point.
It’s about time! Please make us JAG fans happy who have waited 14 years for this and have Harm and Mac happily married. Interesting though that it is 14 years later and Harm is still a Captain while Bud has managed to rise from Lt CDR to Captain. I’m curious if that will be explained as I definitely expected Harm to be an Admiral at this point!
Long overdue… he should have been on NCIS.
Good news, but Harm should be an admiral by now. His supposed date of rank to captain would have been April 22, 2005 (nearly 14 years ago) if he had won the coin toss in the series finale of JAG.
I’m wondering if they’re going to have him have lost the coin-toss, left the Navy for a while, and just now be returning. It would explain why he’s lower in rank then he should be, and well, its not like it would be the first time Harm has quit, then returned to, the Navy.
Awesome can’t wait !!!
Yessss! Please bring back BOTH Mac and Harm! Miss them. Don’t care how much they’ve aged. JAG was the best.
Oh yes, I’d love some “Harm & Mac” influence in NCIS (any of them!). Now, besides the very rare appearance of Bud on NCIS, I’d like to see Bud and Harriet too. And what ever happened to Mick Brumby from the “land down under?” He disappeared after his “Waltziing Matilda” send-off so long ago. Lots of great talent in the old JAG crew.
I’d love to see Mac & Harriet, too, along with Harm & the return of Bud. As for Mick Brumby, the actor who played him died of a drug overdose in 2003.
Trevor Goddard who played Brumby died in 2003, reportedly of a drug overdose
I’m still waiting for a one NCIS crossover
Oh my…… can’t wait
.
Isn’t the USS Intrepid the museum carrier tied up in NYC? (Sorry – not an east coaster) If so, does this rate an active duty captain?
Yes, the USS Intrepid is a Museum and is now docked in New York City.
They always use fake carrier names.
For years, Harm, Mac and Bud used to visit the USS Seahawk.
Good to see DJE working. I saw him recently playing an ahole father on the series “Impulse.” Rather an odd role seeing him somewhat typecasted as a JAG officer for so many years.
Idk..having him guest starring doesn’t cut it for me at least. I prefer JAG over NCIS. Without the original band together at the same time is like getting crumbs from that half eaten pie.
Pass.
Loved Jag and both David James Elliot and Catherine Bell. Hope to see lots of them in the future on NCIS Los Angeles or the other NCIS shows.
You may see CB since she finished the shooting of the latest Good Witch season… She’s been very busy since Jag went off on TV with Army Wives and then Good Witch TV series which have been strong series on cable … D JE has been less busy… I remember one show he was on that didn’t last long but otherwise has been mostly doing Canada stuff.. That would be fun…
Guess that means he won the coin toss
Too bad this isn’t happening on the original NCIS. I love that show, but I don’t care for the L.A. version at all.
OMG so excited!! Huge JAG fan and NCIS LA fan! Awesome news!
Wasn’t Rabb going to be a JAG in London? I guess he didn’t like that?
Yes. When talk of a JAG reunion first came about with Bell and it was potentially being set within NCIS: LA, she would have had to have won the coin toss. It can explain away Rabb’s current role/status as well.
I wonder if anyone got Bellisario his thoughts on this…
What if Harm decided not to take the JAG appointment and found out their was that XO position available on the Intrepid choose that instead so Mac could do the post in San Diego. So Mac goes to the NCIS: LA HQ to tell them of the threat she learned about. Also mentions that her husband is the XO on the Intrepid. I also know their isn’t a current carrier named the Intrepid in service. They will probably do what I don’t like when the put different names on the current carriers in all the NCIS shows.
They’ve faked names of ships before. And we’ve had several aircraft carriers with the same name – there were two named Enterprise (the second, which was the first nuclear-powered carrier, was just decommissioned fairly recently), two named Hornet, two named Lexington, and two named Saratoga.
The timeline wouldn’t work. In 2005, he wouldn’t have been qualified for an XO billet on a carrier. He would have had to become a line officer again (as a JAG, he was a staff officer), and you just don’t jump from being a lawyer to the second-in-command of the largest capital ship in the US Navy. And he wouldn’t have stayed in that billet fir 14 years – Navy officers are moved around from station to station, from ship to ship.
And with his years of service, and 14 years in grade, they have to have a good reason why he hasn’t made admiral yet.
I doubt they consulted Bellisario. He was effectively kicked off of NCIS and then sued CBS cause they tried to cut him out of the rights for NCIS LA.
Great idea. I hope Catherine Bell will come back also.