When actor David McCallum passed away the NCIS TV family lost a friend as well in the form of “Ducky” the long-time medical examiner on the show. An NCIS episode designed to celebrate both the man and the character was only right, but the special episode of NCIS was made even more special by the surprise return of Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo.
In the final minutes of the episode, DiNozzo returns to talk to Jimmy, the medical examiner played by Brian Dietzen who had been Ducky’s assistant before taking over for him upon the character’s retirement. Speaking with TVInsider, co-star Sean Murray said the moment, which was co-written by Dietzen, was “perfect” for the way it added just the right amount of humor to the otherwise somber moment. Murray explained…
And I think that ending moment was just the perfect right amount of old school NCIS levity that you needed. There was just a touch of it. It was a really special thing with Tony coming in and passing the bow tie off to Palmer. I always loved the relationship that Tony and Jimmy have, too, which is funny. He always calls him Autopsy Gremlin, which, anytime Tony nicknames you, it is a term of endearment as far as he goes.
Weatherly left NCIS nearly a decade ago. And while the character was regularly referenced, he hasn’t actually appeared on screen in years. This made the cameo in the Season 21 episode that much more of a surprise. Of course, the decision to bring Tony back now wasn’t a one-off, as we’ve recently learned a new NCIS spinoff starring Weathery and Cote Di Pablo’s Ziva, is in development.
While rumors of a possible Michael Weatherly return had certainly been around, the actual return was a surprise to most fans, and apparently to a lot of people on the show as well. Murray says that even within the show the cameo scene was “kept under wraps” so that only those that needed to know were aware it was happening. He continued…
That was fun, wasn’t it? Yeah, Michael and I and Brian knew we were doing that and obviously some other people, but that was one we kept under wraps for a while. We wanted that to be a good surprise, and hopefully, I think that was. It was a really well-done episode, but it was a hard episode to get through, just having worked with David for 20 years, and it was kind of a mixture of saying goodbye in real life and saying goodbye on camera. It was a tough thing. But I hope we paid a good tribute to the Ducky character, and I know David would’ve been happy with it, I really think, especially with Brian having penned so much of it. And during the episode, we got to see a lot of great scenes that David did, and I think it was good.
It certainly feels like the show was handled well, paying tribute to both the man and the character he played for so long. The episode also included a couple of easter egg references to his previous roles in The Great Escape and The Man From U..N.C.L.E. Ducky will surely never be too far from the thoughts of the cast of NCIS as well as the fans.