Mary/luvtiva · @lvjk
5th Jul 2016 from TwitLonger
Behind the Scenes info in regards to Mark and Michael from @SpecialAgntM #NCIS
The second part from Sam's sources.......
"So, why did it happen? What brought about the end of what was a fine working relationship and a fairly decent friendship?
"Creative differences" explains some of what happened. "Creative control" probably explains even more of it. Early on in the run of NCIS Mark Harmon wanted more of a say in the daily operations of the show, along with more control and more money. These were things that Donald P. Bellisario, the show's co-creator and Executive Producer simply wasn't willing to give. When Bellisario was forced out at the conclusion of the 4th season, Harmon began to acquire more of a say, more power, more control. For a time he worked well with Bellisario's successor, Shane Brennan. But once Brennan began working on developing a spinoff (NCIS: LA), Harmon soured on Brennan. Season 7 got off to a bumpy start, with Brennan splitting his time between the two shows, which increased Harmon's anger and frustration. The solution that was settled on was bringing somebody in to serve as Brennan's "second in command", someone who could make sure that the day to day operations continued to proceed smoothly, who would make sure that the "trains ran on time", so to speak. A writer who had been added to the staff at the start of the 7th season, who had some experience in this area, having helped with the day to day operations of "The Mentalist" during its first and highly successful season, was chosen for this job. His name? Gary Glasberg. Before long, Harmon felt quite comfortable with Glasberg, more than he ever had with either Bellisario or Brennan. A series of events led to Glasberg being named as Brennan's successor as EP right as the 8th season concluded. And with his ascension to that position, Harmon's power, clout and influence increased as well. He and Glasberg worked together to consolidate their control of every operational aspect of the show. Glasberg increased his control over the writers, and by doing so, he was able to begin to change the nature of the show, from that of an ensemble show with it revolving around Gibbs to being more and more and more mostly about Gibbs. Which was exactly the way Harmon wanted it.
Truthfully, if there was one person who probably didn't have much trouble -- initially -- with this development, it was Michael Weatherly; he knew his place on the show and he was okay with it. MH was the star, and he had no trouble with that. He liked how his character was being written, he liked how he had the opportunity to blend both comedic and dramatic elements. He played the part of Special Agent DiNozzo perfectly. He was good at it. Perhaps, in the end, too good.
It is interesting to note that going into Season 9, Weatherly's "Tony" was either the sole focus of the plot of the season finale, the partial focus, or a heavy player, starting with Season 4 and going through Season 8. By and large, Tony came across as a competent agent, who had a somewhat turbulent personal life. Tony began to be written differently right from the start in Season 9, being portrayed as more of a "Sad Sack" character, who had an extremely rough and tough (emotionally speaking) childhood, as well as young adulthood. Longtime viewers began to pickup on this and complain that he wasn't being presented as the competent agent he had been shown as in the past. There were those who blamed the character of Ziva, saying he was taking a back seat to her and that attempts at fostering romance between the two characters was forcing him to live in her shadow. The problem with that viewpoint is that the evidence shows that very little, at least in Season 9, was done regarding the potential romance between the two characters. While Season 10 was advertised as the "Season of Tiva", romantic moments between the two were few and far between. And after Cote de Pablo's departure from the show, Tony continued to be portrayed as a "Sad Sack" character, frequently depicted as a less than competent agent. Clearly "Tiva" wasn't as much the reason for what was happening. The writing was, and that was something that Glasberg was in charge of. And as time has shown, Glasberg takes his lead, his orders, his cues, from one man. And that man is Mark Harmon.
Beginning with Season 9, every single SP has revolved primarily around one man, and that man is Leroy Jethro Gibbs. One can say that by doing this they are getting back to their roots -- after all, the first three season finales centered around him, and the final story arc of Season 7 revolved heavily, almost completely, around him. But the rest of the cast had played a huge part in those other finales too. That wasn't nearly as much the case once Glasberg took over as EP. And one has to conclude that MH was fine with that -- that he wanted it that way.
All of this has to be laid out in order for one to understand how things unfolded. MW had his first run in with Glasberg over the editing he did on the first episode he directed, "One Last Score". He had another run in with him with the last second editing that he did on the "A.U." scene he had with CdP in the 200th episode, "Life Before His Eyes". He had additional run ins with him towards the end of Season 10. He continued to have run ins with him during Season 11. By this point MW had figured out that there was very little that Glasberg did that he didn't do without having run it by MH. Which meant that MH had signed off on the watering down of his character as a way of making Gibbs look better.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the response of the show to the departure of CdP. MW's own reaction was one of genuine regret. He expressed his hopes for her success in future endeavors and that the show would miss her and her contributions. He said this time and time again in public. He was the only one connected with the show who did so. Quite often it seemed as though everybody else with the show was either ignoring her altogether, or subtly putting her down or dismissing her past contributions to the show. This did not set well with MW and he went directly to MH to talk about it and voice his displeasure over it. From what little I have learned about the discussion, it would appear that it didn't go well, at least from where MW was coming from on the subject. From this point on, his relationship with MH would deteriorate, to the point that by the time Season 11 had ended, and work on Season 12 started, they no longer had personal relationship, and a professional relationship that was barely functioning. How it got there will be the focus of the next post."