Mark Harmon reveals shocking reason for joining NCIS

Mark Harmon will always be Leroy Jethro Gibbs to NCIS fans. While he may not have been the first choice for the role, he instantly made it his own, and helped to solidify the naval procedural as one of the most consistent shows on television. Consistency, it turns, out was part of the reason the actor was initially drawn to playing Gibbs.

While he is one of countless actors on strike, Harmon has been able to promote and discuss his new non-fiction book, Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, and in doing so, has revealed some interesting details about his time on NCIS.

How many kids does Mark Harmon have?

Harmon told People that the time put into NCIS were oftentimes overwhelming, and sometimes production would go beyond what was originally planned. “The first day on this show I worked 22 hours”, he explained. “And there were a lot of those days for a long time.” The difference maker, however, was that once the NCIS team found a groove with regards to production, the actor was able to make time for his family.

“It is interesting because initially the decision to do the show in the first place was because I was traveling a lot doing movies and other things and I was trying to stay home more with a young family”, Harmon revealed.

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The actor admits to having missed aspects of his kids’s lives when they were growing up due to work (he has two sons with actress and former Mork & Mindy star Pam Dawber), but there was one important thing that NCIS allowed him to do throughout their youth: make breakfast. “I was able to make breakfast on the weekend”, he explained. “I’m not about to complain about any of it.”

Clearly, both NCIS and Harmon benefited from the arrangement. NCIS is still one of the most loved procedurals on television, and Harmon was one of the highest-paid actors on the small screen for a decade, in addition to staying on as an executive producer. We kind of hope he doesn’t return for a pointless cameo in season 21, but you can read more about our reasoning on that topic here.

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