JAG (TV series)


JAG is an American legal drama television series with a U.S. Navy theme, created by Donald P. Bellisario, and produced by Belisarius Productions in association with Paramount Network Television. The series originally aired on NBC for one season from September 23, 1995, to May 22, 1996, and then on CBS for an additional nine seasons from January 3, 1997, to April 29, 2005. The first season was co-produced with NBC Productions and was originally perceived as a Top Gun meets A Few Good Men hybrid series.
In the spring of 1996, NBC announced that the series had been canceled after finishing 79th in the ratings, leaving one episode unaired. In December 1996, the rival network CBS announced it had picked up the series as a mid-season replacement and aired 15 new episodes as its second season. For several seasons, JAG climbed in the ratings and ultimately ran for nine additional seasons. JAG furthermore spawned the hit series NCIS, which in turn led to spin-offs ' and '.
In total, 227 episodes were produced over 10 seasons. At the time of the original airing of its fifth season in the United States, JAG was seen in over 90 countries worldwide. JAG entered syndication in early 1999.

Premise

The series follows the exploits of the Washington metropolitan area–based "judge advocates" in the Department of the Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General, who in the line of duty can prosecute and defend criminal cases under the jurisdiction of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, conduct informal and formal investigations, and advise on military operational law.
Akin to Law & Order, the plots from many episodes were often "ripped from the headlines" with portions of the plot either resembling or referencing recognizable aspects of actual cases or incidents, such as the USS Cole bombing, the rescue of downed pilot Scott O'Grady, the Cavalese cable car disaster, the USS Iowa turret explosion, and the Kelly Flinn incident.
While not part of the mission of its real-world counterpart, some of the main characters are at times also involved, directly and indirectly, in various CIA intelligence operations, often revolving around the recurring character CIA officer Clayton Webb.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main

Background and development

The creator of JAG, Donald P. Bellisario, served for four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and after having worked his way up through advertising jobs, he landed his first network television job as a story editor for the World War II-era series Baa Baa Black Sheep, where he got a habit of promoting a consistent promilitary stance in a business where he got the perception that "antiwar" and "antisoldier" mentality were the commonplace. The stereotype in the post-Vietnam war era of "crazed Vietnam veterans" was notably subverted, by not just one, but three of the main characters, in Magnum P.I., of which Bellisario was the co-creator.
Following the cancellation of his series Quantum Leap, Bellisario began working on a one-shot screenplay of a murder mystery aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, where the victim was a female aviator, inspired by the Tailhook scandal.
While doing research on which organizational entities would partake in investigative efforts of crimes committed aboard Naval vessels, Bellisario found the special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service filled the police role, and the uniformed lawyers, in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, could alternate between the role of defense attorney, prosecutor, and field investigator. Bellisario chose to go ahead with the lawyers and remarked season six about the unique advantages it brought from a story-telling point of view: "Unlike most law shows, I've got a detective, a prosecutor, and a defender."

Collaboration with the military

Initially, the producers of JAG did not receive any co-operation from the Department of the Navy, due to sensitivity in light of all the accumulative negative publicity that had been generated from the Tailhook scandal and its aftermath. However, the lack of co-operation from the military was not a show-stopper, as the JAG production team, by virtue of being a Paramount Pictures production, had access to the stock footage of the motion pictures owned by the studio, which included many films with military content, such as Top Gun, The Final Countdown, and The Hunt for Red October.
In 1997, though, the naval services had begun to change their minds, and began to render support to the production team on a script-by-script basis. A primetime network series about Navy lawyers bringing out controversial subjects in a very public arena was apparently no longer an issue in itself, but as noted by Commander Bob Anderson of the Navy's entertainment media liaison office in Los Angeles in a TV Guide'' interview: "We're fine with that as long as the bad guys are caught and punished, and the institution of the Navy is not the bad guy".

Ships

Almost all episodes of the series feature scenes filmed aboard real United States Navy ships. The ship most widely used was, in commission as a training carrier at the time. Most of the Nimitz-class carriers also appear in one or several episodes.,, and were also used in the series.
USS Enterprise was used as the fictional USS Seahawk in many episodes. USS Forrestal and were also used as the fictional Seahawk, both in season four and for one episode each. For scenes filmed aboard Enterprise, the whole crew wore caps reading USS Seahawk – CVN 65 so they matched the ship's real hull number.
USS Forrestal was featured in many episodes, most prominently two in which she portrayed the fictional USS Reprisal. In these episodes, all crew members wore caps with the CV-35 pennant number. This number was intentionally out of sequence with the pennant numbers of active USN carriers at the time the series was filmed. CV-35 would have been the real pennant number of an Essex-class carrier actually called Reprisal, which was canceled during construction in 1945 when World War II ended, and broken up in 1949 after consideration had been given to completing her to a revised design roughly similar to that of.
Only six USN ships featured in the series were called by their real names:,,,,, and. Kitty Hawk is mentioned in one of the season-three episodes, but never seen on screen. America is the murder scene in a season-three episode, but shots supposedly depicting her are in fact shots of Forrestal. Real shots of Theodore Roosevelt in harbor are used in one episode of season one.
Season-three opener "Ghost Ship" was filmed entirely aboard Hornet while she was laid up at Alameda Naval Air Station before being preserved as a museum ship. Part of the storyline in "Ghost Ship" deals with the final fate of Hornet. It implies she was eventually scrapped due to severe fire damage sustained during the course of the episode, contrary to her real-life fate as a national landmark. The subplot in "Ghost Ship" indicating that the ship's double hull had to be cut open from the inside to repair supposed damage to her bow during Vietnam was not at all correct with her service record.
Coral Sea is also featured in the season-three episode "Vanished" and season-four episodes "Angels 30" and "Shakedown". As she had already been scrapped at the time the episodes supposedly took place, archival footage of Coral Sea was used, with other footage shot aboard Forrestal. The majority of the exterior scenes from "Angels 30" were filmed aboard Forrestal and a few aboard Enterprise.
Belknap is mentioned in the season-four episode "Going after Francesca" as the Sixth Fleet flagship, a role she actually fulfilled in real life from 1986 until her decommissioning in 1994. Belknap had already been decommissioned and was laid up awaiting scrapping when the episode was filmed, allowing for actual exterior shots of the ship to be featured in the episode.
The series also includes appearances by s, s, s, and s. In one of the episodes, the Spanish frigate is used to depict a fictional USN Oliver Hazard Perry-class ship.
While most sea episodes are focused on aviation missions, several are based around submarine warfare: namely episodes 1:3, 2:6, 4:16, 5:22, 6:15, 7:14, 7:24, 8:7, 8:17, and 9:7.

Series end

In February 2005, David James Elliott announced he would leave the show at the end of the 10th season; the show was subsequently not renewed for an 11th season by the network. The show also introduced new younger characters, including former As the World Turns star Chris Beetem, and Jordana Spiro from The Huntress.
The producers also considered relocating the fictional setting of the show, from Falls Church to Naval Base San Diego. An episode of the final season, "JAG: San Diego" had the main cast, excluding Harm, going to the San Diego naval base and working with the local JAG office there. Though it was reportedly considered as a pilot episode, as a reformat of the show aiming for a younger audience, CBS ultimately decided not to pursue a new series.
Nevertheless, CBS announced the cancellation of the show on April 4, 2005, after 10 seasons. The final episode, "Fair Winds and Following Seas", aired on April 29, 2005, and in which Harm and Mac are assigned different stations: Harm in London, Mac in San Diego. They finally confront their feelings and decide to get married. The episode ends with Bud tossing a challenge coin to decide which one would give up his or her military career to be with the other. However, in keeping with JAG tradition, the outcome of the toss is never seen, as the screen fades to black, showing only the coin, which bears the inscription "1995 – 2005", the years the series spanned.
What happened is later revealed in the 2019 finale of the of , "False Flag", in which David James Elliott and Catherine Bell both appeared. Mac won the coin toss and Harm resigned his commission and moved with her to San Diego, but later they mutually ended their relationship and Harm rejoined the Navy and is currently serving as the XO of the aircraft carrier, USS Allegiance. Mac left the Marines to serve as Marine Liaison to the Secretary of State, a civilian position. Harm and Mac had not seen each other in 9 years until video conferencing with each other in their new roles. In the premiere, Harm and Mac reunite in person, share an embrace, and later renew a discussion of their relationship, once again without reaching a conclusion.

Reception

Nielsen ratings

Seasonal rankings of JAG on NBC and CBS.
SeasonSeason premiereSeason finaleTime slotTV seasonRankViewers
1September 23, 1995May 22, 1996Saturday at 8:00 pm

Wednesday at 8:00 pm
1995–19967911.56
2January 3, 1997April 18, 1997Friday at 9:00 pm
Friday at 8:00 pm 		1996–19976811.80
3September 23, 1997May 19, 1998Tuesday at 8:00 pm 1997–19983612.90
4September 22, 1998May 25, 1999Tuesday at 8:00 pm 1998–19991714.20
5September 21, 1999May 23, 2000Tuesday at 8:00 pm 1999–20002514.07
6October 3, 2000May 22, 2001Tuesday at 8:00 pm 2000–20012614.60
7September 25, 2001May 21, 2002Tuesday at 8:00 pm 2001–20021514.80
8September 24, 2002May 20, 2003Tuesday at 8:00 pm 2002–20032612.97
9September 26, 2003May 21, 2004Friday at 9:00 pm 2003–20043710.80
10September 24, 2004April 29, 2005Friday at 9:00 pm 2004–2005509.66

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

Other awards and nominations

Connections with other shows

''NCIS'' spin-off

In January 2003, CBS announced that Donald P. Bellisario was developing a JAG spin-off, around the work of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It was aired in April 2003 in a two-part backdoor pilot in which Commander Rabb is arrested, but later vindicated as innocent, for the murder of Lieutenant Singer. The two episodes, titled "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown", focused on the NCIS team, with most of the JAG regulars as supporting characters. Whereas the episodes of JAG are primarily oriented on a mixture of courtroom drama and military activities in the field, NCIS episodes are more focused, as the meaning of the acronym suggests, on criminal investigations. NCIS also follows a different storytelling format from JAG, emphasizing character humor to a larger extent than its parent program. NCIS later produced its own spin-offs, ' and ', which shows a further departure from the styles and themes of JAG.
The two episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" were edited down to a one-hour pilot film, which was then used to sell the idea of NCIS as a new series to CBS; the pilot used the title, "NCIS – The Beginning". It was later also used to introduce the show to CBS affiliates and advertisers. It was only broadcast once and is not available on home video.
Excluding the backdoor pilot, few major characters from JAG have appeared in the NCIS series. Patrick Labyorteaux appeared briefly as Lieutenant Bud Roberts in the NCIS first-season episode "Hung Out to Dry", and again – now with the rank of captain – in the season fourteen episode "Rogue," advising the NCIS team on a legal issue. John M. Jackson returned in May 2013 as retired Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden, now a civilian attorney in the private sector hired by Director Vance to provide legal representation for Special Agent Gibbs, in the season ten NCIS finale, "Damned If You Do". Jackson has recurred as A.J. Chegwidden since the eighth season of . Chegwidden is a Vietnam-era compatriot of series regulars Hetty Lange and Owen Granger. David James Elliot and Catherine Bell returned to their roles as Harmon Rabb and Sarah MacKenzie for the first time since JAG ended in the last two episodes of.
While several other actors who played major roles on JAG have also appeared on NCIS, such as Scott Lawrence, Steven Culp, Randy Vazquez, and Michael Bellisario ; they played completely different characters when appearing on NCIS. Similarly, after Sean Murray played a one-off Ensign character in JAG season 4, and the recurring character of Danny Walden in season 6, he joined the core cast of NCIS during the first season as Tim McGee, and is still on the show as of 2019.
First introduced in the NCIS back-door pilot, Alicia Coppola appeared as Navy judge advocate Lieutenant Commander Faith Coleman in several episodes of NCIS. Adam Baldwin played the same guest role, Navy SEAL Commander Michael Rainer, in one episode of each show.

''First Monday'' cross-over

First Monday was a short-lived series co-created by Bellisario and Paul Levine about fictional U.S. Supreme Court justices and their clerks, which aired in 2002 and starred James Garner and Joe Mantegna. The character of U.S. Senator Edward Sheffield, who appeared in three episodes of that show, later became a recurring character on JAG as the new Secretary of the Navy, starting in season eight.

''Yes, Dear'' tribute

The sitcom Yes, Dear did an episode called "Let's Get Jaggy With It" where Greg's father Tom wins a walk-on role on JAG. Catherine Bell guest-starred as herself while David James Elliott, Patrick Labyorteaux, and Scott Lawrence guest-starred as their respective JAG characters.

Home media

On September 1, 1998, the pilot episode of JAG was released on VHS cassette in the U.S. by Paramount Home Entertainment. However, no further episodes of the series proper were released on any home entertainment media while the show was still in production, allegedly due to syndication deals made with several broadcasters.
Beginning in 2006, CBS Home Entertainment has released all 10 seasons on DVD in regions 1, 2 and 4. Seasons 1 to 4 are released with a 4:3 aspect ratio, while seasons 5 to 10 have a 16:9 aspect ratio. The region-2 and −4 editions do not have the bonus features included on the region-1 editions of seasons one and two.
On December 11, 2012, CBS released JAG: The Complete Series – Collector's Edition on DVD in region 1. This collection contains, other than all 227 episodes of the series and the bonus features of the previously released individual season packs, one disc with new bonus features and a booklet with production notes.
On April 14, 2015, CBS Home Entertainment released a repackaged version of the complete series set, at a lower price, in Region 1. It does not include the bonus disc that was part of the original complete series set.

Soundtrack

On April 26, 2010, Intrada released an album of music on compact disc from the series, featuring Bruce Broughton's theme and his pilot movie score and weekly composer Steven Bramson's score from the second-season episode "Cowboys & Cossacks", including Broughton's format music (the main and end title theme and commercial bumper.