PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • MAY 13 - 19, 2021
Pam Dawber is now
Mark Harmon’s leading
lady on and off ‘NCIS’
BY JAY BOBBIN
It’s taken a very long time, but Pam
Dawber finally is working with her husband.
He happens to be the star and an
executive producer of one of the world’s
most popular television series: Mark
Harmon, who welcomes his “Mork &
Mindy”-alum spouse to her third of four
scheduled guest appearances on CBS’
“NCIS” Tuesday, May 18. She continues
to play Marcie Warren, an investigative
reporter whose professional determination
both intrigues and frustrates current Naval
Criminal Investigative Service exile Leroy
Jethro Gibbs (Harmon). In the newest
episode, they’re led by Marcie’s friend’s
murder to a serial killer.
“I blew my own mind,” the ever-friendly
Dawber laughs about deciding to take the
“NCIS” part. “I certainly was not shopping
to go back on television, and Mark didn’t
even tell me this was going to come my way
until I suddenly got a call from my agent.
I’m usually like, ‘Harry, leave me alone! I
don’t want to do this anymore!’ Then, Mark
told me they’d created this character, and
they were naming all these actresses they
could go to. And he said, ‘What you’re
looking for is my wife.’ ”
Dawber notes that she had turned down
previous “NCIS” offers “for just various
reasons,” but this one was clinched by a
call from “NCIS” co-star Rocky Carroll,
Mark Harmon stars
in “NCIS” Tuesday
on CBS.
who would direct the first of her episodes.
“He said, ‘You know everybody here. We
love you. It’ll be safe. It’ll be fun.’ I ended
up going upstairs and putting on my
meditation tape, and I breathed and I cried.
And I decided to do it.”
Even then, Dawber admits, she had her
doubts about proceeding. “I thought, ‘What
if I can’t remember my lines? What if I look
like everybody’s grandma?’ And then, this
was my twisted internal dialogue: ‘What
will make you feel worse, chickening out, or
going forward and being scared but agreeing
to do it?’ Chickening out really would have
made me unhappy with myself, so I did it,
and we just had a blast.”
Though they’ve been married for 34 years
and have two sons, Dawber allows that
she was “a little nervous” about working
with Harmon. “I love to hear about his
day, not be in his day, and he likes to come
home and separate himself from the studio.
He’s so supportive of me, and he was just
wonderful. We had a really good time doing
this.”
Dawber also appears in the May 25
“NCIS” season finale, and while the show
has been renewed for its 19th year, there’s
no guarantee she’ll return for that – and she
maintains she’s perfectly fine either way that
goes. “You know,” she concludes, “I’m just
not going down that road at all.”
Guide to the TV grids
TV Ratings:
‘G’: General audience
‘Y’: Young children
‘7’: Children over 7
‘14’: Children over 14
‘PG’: Parental guidance
‘M’: Mature audience only
PA: Parental advisory
DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
Common symbols :
HD scheduling, please
note:
’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
iTV: Interactive TV program
N: Program is new
Schedules are based on standard-
definition (SD) channels. High-
definition (HD) channels may vary
by three hours when a West Coast
programming feed is not available to
your TV provider. Please refer to your
provider’s interactive TV guide for
detailed HD channel schedules.
For a list of cable and over-the-air
channels by zip code, as well
up-to-the-minute TV programming,
please visit www.bendbulletin.
com/tv. For questions or feedback
please call The Bulletin Circulation
Department at 541-385-5800.