November 24 - 30, 2024
Emmy-winning chef Lidia Bastianich meets some of America’s biggest culinary influencers in “Lidia Celebrates America: Changemakers,” premiering Tuesday, Nov. 26, on PBS. Lidia Bastianich stars in “Lidia Celebrates America”
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BY JAY BOBBIN
Mark Harmon OF NCIS: ORIGINS ON CBS/PARAMOUNT+ Q: It was a pleasant surprise to see Mark Harmon in the premiere of “NCIS: Origins.” Is he expected to be in many episodes? A: Not as an on-camera presence. That’s the intention, anyway, since the CBS and Paramount+ show’s primary Leroy Jethro Gibbs is meant to be the younger incarnation played by Austin Stowell. Mark Harmon has said that he’s available for anything the producers — including his son, Sean, who played the younger Gibbs in flashbacks in the parent “NCIS” series — might need from him, but acting appearances by the elder Harmon generally aren’t intended to be part of the equation. However, he’s an executive producer of the show himself, as well as its narrator. As a veteran of series television, he certainly knows what a special event on a series can mean for its ratings; if it would help for an older Gibbs to pop up again on “NCIS: Origins,” then viewers shouldn’t rule out that possibly happening down the line. In terms of Gibbs having departed from the original “NCIS,” for which he also remains an executive producer, Harmon explained to TV critics in a press conference that “it wasn’t so much a decision to leave as it was, maybe, just the right timing to push away a little bit. I was thrilled with the storyline they came up with, and how they handled the character.