Leroy Gibbs, a veteran agent on NCIS, left the CBS police procedural after nearly two decades.
The majority of NCIS’ original cast members have left the show in recent years, causing a major upheaval in the show’s main cast. The most recent was season 19, episode four, Great Wide Open, starring Mark Harmon as Agent Leroy Gibbs. Following his departure, co-star Sean Murray revealed what it was like to film the “emotional” farewell scene.
Agent Gibbs was fired from NCIS after he assaulted the owner of a heinous dog fighting ring.
When he wasn’t working on investigations, Gibbs was doing his own detective work in his spare time with journalist Marcie Warren (Pam Dawber).
They were looking for a serial k1ller who had fled to Alaska in order to avoid Gibbs.
But the veteran agent was not deterred, and with the assistance of Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), they were able to track him down and apprehend serial k1ller Paul LeMere (Jason Wiles) for good.
Gibbs realized he didn’t want to return to Washington just as he was about to leave.
He stated that he hadn’t felt at peace since the d3ath of his wife and daughter, so he decided to leave his old life behind and start over in Alaska.
McGee wished Gibbs a fond farewell in a fitting final scene, leaving fans in tears.
Murray spoke about what it was like to film that scene earlier this year.
“It’s something we’d been planning for a while, and we knew it was coming,” Murray explained on Culture Pop Podcast.
“If you saw the last episode with Gibbs, we were really in Alaska in a really remote area filming all of that.”
“Doing that episode was incredible; first and foremost, being in Alaska to say goodbye was incredible.”
“I worked on this show with Harmon for 18, 19 years straight, hand in hand, our characters are like father and son.”
“I worked with Mark [Harmon] on another show, Hearts of the West, when I was 15 years old, so I knew Mark ten years before I started [NCIS].”
“So when we started the show, it was like, ‘Hey man, good to see you again, because you made such an impression on me,’ and vice versa, so we felt we knew each other back then.”
“It was really something where I remember there was a small group of us in Alaska doing this and in that goodbye scene, it was real easy for me to do, to be honest,” Murray continued.
“And I was saying goodbye for the crew, for everyone, not necessarily because we won’t see Gibbs again, and I truly mean that.”
“I got to say goodbye for everyone, so it was really easy, and Mark and I really like each other.”
“I talked to him last weekend; we texted back and forth for an hour about nothing – I love the guy, he’s family.”
NCIS will return for new episodes later this year, but this time with Agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole) replacing Gibbs.
CBS approved a 20th series shortly after the conclusion of Season 19.
NCIS and its offshoots NCIS Hawaii will return for its next season on CBS on Monday, September 19.
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