{"id":989,"date":"2024-12-13T17:30:05","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T17:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=989"},"modified":"2024-12-13T17:30:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T17:30:05","slug":"are-you-kidding-ncis-writer-reflects-on-being-told-to-kill-off-one-of-the-shows-biggest-recurring-characters-before-leaving-the-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=989","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Are You Kidding?\u2019: NCIS Writer Reflects On Being Told To Kill Off One Of The Show\u2019s Biggest Recurring Characters Before Leaving The Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

With\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0now airing its 22nd season in 2024, the long-running CBS series has seen many key characters, both main and recurring, come and go. Among the notable figures from the latter category is Mike Franks, portrayed by Muse Watson. Franks, Leroy Jethro Gibbs\u2019 mentor, appeared in 20 episodes spanning from Season 3 to Season 15. However, in his later appearances, Franks showed up as a ghost, having met his demise in the penultimate episode of Season 8. Jesse Stern, the writer who penned Franks\u2019 death, recently reflected on the experience and how the decision to kill off the character came just before his own departure from the show.<\/p>\n

Stern, who worked on\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0from 2004 to 2011, wrote 33 episodes and served in various producer roles during his tenure. He shared his perspective during an episode of\u00a0Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch<\/em>, hosted by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, who played Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David in the series. When Weatherly brought up Stern\u2019s reputation for writing episodes that killed off major characters, specifically mentioning Mike Franks, Stern recounted:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God, that was one of those ones. Gary Glasberg, rest in peace, handed me that assignment. He said, \u2018We\u2019re going to kill Mike Franks.\u2019 And Franks hadn\u2019t been in an episode that season. I was just like, \u2018Are you kidding? We\u2019re going to bring the guy in just to kill him off?\u2019 Everyone\u2019s going to see it coming. It\u2019s not the way to do it. So I tried to talk him out of that decision, but he was determined. I was like, \u2018OK, if I\u2019m going to do it\u2026\u2019 That was my last script. I decided I\u2019d write it as a swan song, in a way you don\u2019t see coming, and in a way that allows the actor to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franks made his return in the Season 8 episode \u201cSwan Song,\u201d where he met his end. In the scene, Franks stepped outside Gibbs\u2019 house on a rainy night and encountered Jonas Cobb, the Port-to-Port Killer. Attempting to apprehend Cobb, Franks was fatally stabbed. His character received a full military funeral in the Season 8 finale, where it was also revealed that he had been battling cancer\u2014an explanation for why Gibbs was building him a coffin. This finale marked Stern\u2019s last episode with the show.<\/p>\n

Despite initial hesitation, Stern made the most of the assignment, crafting what many fans consider one of the most memorable death scenes in\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0history. Fortunately, this wasn\u2019t the last we saw of Muse Watson as Mike Franks; the character occasionally appeared as a ghostly figure, guiding Gibbs in moments of reflection. Watson\u2019s final appearance as Franks came in the Season 15 episode \u201cVoices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the older Mike Franks\u2019 story has ended, the character lives on in\u00a0NCIS: Origins<\/em>, where Kyle Schmid portrays a younger version of Gibbs\u2019 mentor.\u00a0NCIS: Origins<\/em>\u00a0airs Mondays at 10 PM ET on CBS, following new episodes of\u00a0NCIS<\/em>. Both shows, along with the rest of the\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0franchise, are available to stream on Paramount+.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With\u00a0NCIS\u00a0now airing its 22nd season in 2024, the long-running CBS series has seen many key characters, both main and recurring, come and go. Among the notable figures… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}