"The second year of the show really was interesting, because the universe expanded." "You got to go up in jets and go out on carriers, and be in a courtroom and have the drama." "I mean, you really have to adhere to a separate set of rules in the military which I think made for a great show." "For us, it was the second year of the show, but for us and everyone there, it felt like the first year, as far as the energy and the excitement." "We really busted our butts to find the show that it became." "The show was always a great show." "JAG, over the years, it used to tackle what was really going on in the Navy, we tried to deal with." "The show had just come off being on another network." "It'd been on NBC and it got cancelled." "So now you..." "How do you find ways to make it more interesting, so that you have some longevity." "After the first season ended, uh, that CBS wanted the show." "When CBS picked up JAG, it was- it was Season 2." "And I wanted to bring in a smart, attractive, dark-haired female lead." "They wanted a brunette, they wanted somebody strong, they wanted someone who could do action and who was 5' 9"" "because David is 6' 4"" "and I basically went after the role." "Catherine Bell called me and said, "It's me. "" "And I said, "It can't be you, Catherine," ""because at the end of year one," ""I killed you. "" "Lieutenant Diane Schonke." "Any witnesses?" "No." "I actually guest-starred in the last episode of the first season." "And my character was killed in the third or fourth scene I was in." "You were Harm's girlfriend, you were killed in the teaser of the show." "You were murdered." "I" " I can't..." "She says, "You can do it." "I know you can do it. "" "I wrote Don Bellisario a letter," "I told him how much I loved working with him, how much I loved the show, how perfect I thought I would be for Mac, and I just was bold a brave and went for it." "And I even suggested, I said," ""Wouldn't it be interesting if Harm's new partner" ""looked just like the deceased love of his life?"" "And that's what we did." "And the first time they met, we flashed back to that scene, of Catherine on the gangway of a ship, saying goodbye, and that became her farewell scene." "You two know each other?" "Yes, sir." "No sir." "Oh, I'm" " I'm sorry, Major." "Of course I don't know you." "I think every actress in town wanted to play Mac." "Because she's strong, she was intelligent, she's a..." "She's a lawyer, she's a marine, she's a gun expert, you know." "She's a..." "She's a pretty cool chick." "It works better with the safety off." "Here's this wonderful new character, and she can do this, and she can do this, and she's incredible attractive, and Harm's conflicted." "You know, he can't just be all good." "You know, Harm's got to have baggage about her." "And he doesn't know, and she reminds him of a lost love, and the whole thing." "So it's great." "It's complicated and it makes it more fun." "And, you know what?" "She also brought out in David, she brought out..." "David's a..." "People don't know this." "He truly is a very funny guy." "And he was, you know, he was discovered in a Seinfeld episode, his comic timing is great." "And I think his comic timing with Catherine..." "I mean, it was... they..." "They worked well together that way, so it did..." "I thought, I think the humor kind of came out... especially in these early seasons, was developing quite nicely." "Mac, you're taking this far too personally." "You're damn right, I am, Commander." "Well, Catherine Bell's character added a whole new level to-to Harm, because his prior associate was of a lower rank, and not at his level, and she, you know, was sort of written as the girl" "who would hold the horses, while Harm went off and did the dangerous stuff." "But that all went out the window with Catherine's character, and um..." "So Mac is strong, and she's giving him, you know, tit-for-tat." "She's right there with him." "And so it was great." "It was a whole new dynamic." "And really fun." "Why don't you just face it?" "Sooner or later you have to lose a case." "This just happens to be it." "Losing your first case is a rite of passage, Commander." "Her character and mine were of the same rank, and so they were more..." "It was more of a clashing point-of-views, and we were going head-to-head often." "But, you know, we definitely had a mutual respect for one another." "And it was an interesting relationship." "All you have is hearsay." "If "interjecting problems" jeopardizes their safety, then he's a bad officer." "It's as simple as that." "How do you train men for war, Mac?" "You can't have a war if your Marines are dead before the damn thing starts." "We were really, really thrilled about the chemistry of David and Catherine because the show had probably lacked that a little bit in its first year." "And so suddenly, we also had new characters, a new relationship, and they had chemistry." "Strange, isn't it?" "You say something's in the past, but it never really is." "I carry my dad with me wherever I go." "Well, that's okay, so long as he doesn't weigh too much." "Well!" "He doesn't." "Not anymore." "It's about time." "Jerk!" "Oh." "Never ever kiss Mac." "If you kiss Mac, you die." "That was the rule." "Except for Harm, everyone that she was married to, got involved with or anything else, somehow died." "Somehow came to this really horrible end." "So you joined JAG, Bud?" "Yes, sir." "I'm attending law school at night." "When he gets a night off," "I'm assigning him to your section, Commander." "My section, sir?" "You disagree?" "No, sir." "Mr. Roberts will make a fine aide, Admiral." "Where we find Bud is, originally he was the PAO Officer on the Seahawk, and apparently he fell in love with Harm, and decided he wanted to transfer to JAG, and which he has done." "So now he is working in the JAG offices." "So they added myself, Catherine and John Jackson in the roles of Bud, um," "Mac and the Admiral." "But they wanted this whole new, kind of, group that they could, you know, pull stories from." "He brought a-a real sweetness and naivete to the show, that gave us plenty of room for him to grow." "That's how I play the character." "I like the idea that Bud really saw in Harm, as I think every viewer does, everything that they want to be." "Tall, good-looking, smart, athletic." "You know." "Just, this guy's got it all." "And, you know, to ride in his coolness wake." "Sorry, sir." "I got stuck in traffic." "No excuse, sir." "As I was saying, somebody's lying." "Sir, I'm sorry, but this call is very..." "Petty Officer Tiner, I said to hold my calls." "Aye, sir." "Can't even get my yeoman to follow orders." "I loved working with John Jackson." "He was just so fun, so funny, um..." "Uh, you know, he just played this gruff, serious Admiral." "Major, if you can't check your emotions at the door, then you should find another line of work." "He became the rock." "When there wasn't an episode where people didn't, you know, report to him and..." "In a very early part of act one, so he could send them off on their way," "And then at the same time he was also the caring father, grandfather to his..." "To his, you know, to his troops." "Who..." "I thought he was just tremendous." "He was- he was a good guy, he was just a real Texan." "You know?" "Real guy." "...you are one of the most miserable specimens" "I have ever seen!" "There is no way in hell I am gonna be able to square away what God has so badly screwed up!" "The military didn't really come on board the show that easily, even in the second year." "But they began to have interaction with us a little more." "It got better in the second year." "And then they realized that Don Bellisario had great respect for the military establishment." "At this time the military was just beginning to say," ""Whew." "Well, they're not gonna make us look bad. "" "You know?" "And then they started to say, "Well, you know," ""he's a pretty good-looking guy, this David James Elliot," ""and this Catherine Bell" ""is a pretty good-looking woman," ""and they're representing us." ""Maybe this isn't such a bad thing. "" "Well, about half way through the first season, the Navy realized that we really weren't going to be, uh, reaming to the Navy every season, every episode." "And the Marines had caught on to that a lot earlier." "And as a result, we've had a lot of assistance from the military." "Episode called Force Recon we were allowed to shoot at Camp Pendleton for about three days, in their Marine urban outdoor training facility, which is a concrete block village." "Showing Marine recon troops under assault, or going assaulting during training." "It was a different experience for us because they opened the doors wide." "We got a lot of help from the Marines that year." "And the Navy grabbed on to that and within another year after that, we were starting to shoot on Navy ships, down at San Diego, and ultimately, I think in the fourth season, the Navy invited us to shoot on a carrier at sea." "The military loves JAG." "They love to make fun of it a little bit, because it's obviously heightened reality, and they love to give you a little punch in the arm." "But at the same time they really appreciate that we portray the military in a really positive light." "The military were so great." "The people that I met and spoke with and got letters from just loved the show." "They loved the characters we played." "They really..." "You know, of course every once in a while someone would say," ""You know, your ribbons were a little... ", you know," ""And your skirt was a little too short or two tight. "" "You know, there were always some of those notes." "But for the most part, people really enjoyed how we represented them." "I think it was in a positive light." "In the second year of the show," "Crossing the Line is the show I absolutely love." "Who are you?" "Lieutenant Marilyn Isaacs, sir!" "Crossing the Line was one where there was a female aviator, and was she being using her sex to accuse someone of harassment, or was she just not a good pilot?" "The CAG doesn't approve of women in combat." "So, my failure would prove him right." "And you got the real issue, that I thought that JAG handled very well, of discrimination in the military." "Can a woman fly as well?" "And is there a problem with the fact that she is not treated as fairly?" "All of that was dealt with, I think, excellently, in the episode." "The main thing is, I don't want to do anything that'll hurt the Navy." "I just want the same chance as the others." "You know?" "'Cause it was real and it was relevant, and whether it was sexual harassment," "I mean, that was happening and we would definitely confront it head on." "Did you instruct Master Chief Sullivan to cause Lieutenant Isaacs to be groped, poked with a pitchfork, and-or verbally abused during the "Crossing the Line" ceremony?" "Now why the hell would I do that?" "That's what we're here to find out, sir." "Our writers and producers would always show" "I guess all sides, you know?" "It was, yes..." "Yes, maybe we would take a side, you know, but ultimately we were able to explore the different, you know, issues that were really going on and-and, uh, hopefully let the audience decide for themselves what they thought." "What the show, you know, the show was trying to..." "We were trying to be topical and, uh..." "And..." "And we were." "Sir, the Skipper requests Commander Rabb and Major MacKenzie in the Ward Room, sir." "Very well." "Dismissed." "I remember Crossing the Line mainly for the introduction of Harriet and Bud's romance." "Uh, may I?" "May you what?" "Well, your insignia is..." "I don't know if that's a "red light"?" "Straightening my insignia?" "It's so hard to know what appropriate behavior is sometimes." "You know, "red light," "green light. "" "Just straighten the damn thing, sir." "Patrick and I ended up having a good time, and I think the camera sort of saw that." "Like, we sort of clicked together." "And because Bud and Harriet ended up being sort of the comedic quality to the show" "I think it just sort of worked a little bit." "Wow." "What JAG lawyers do is so exciting." "I'm not a lawyer yet." "I know." "But you're gonna be a great one." "Everybody wanted Bud and Harriet to end up together, and stay together." "And we were the family unit that managed to make it, you know." "And I used to laugh and say that Bud and Harriet are the only ones gettin' any." "Because we were the only ones having 45 babies, and Mac and Harm couldn't make it work, and so-and-so and so-and-so couldn't get together, and so-and-so broke up and so-and-so died, and..." "And Bud and Harriet just keep making babies." "And making babies." "But it was kind of a fine line, 'cause I don't think..." "It's like your parents." "You know they kissed, and you know that you're here because something else happened, but you don't really want to talk about it." "I think that's kind of Bud and Harriet's story." "Defending Western Civilization makes people horny." "I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry." "How embarrassing." "Two favorite episodes from the season." "One is Secrets, which I thought was a terrific performance by everyone involved." "Admiral, aren't you going to defend me?" "If you don't like my defense, get yourself another lawyer." "And it had a lot of tension in it because it's about a- a young man who is imprisoned wrongly in his mind and he forces his trial..." "Court-martial to be held over with Chegwidden and Mac and Harm conducting it at the point of a gun, of course in Chegwidden's office." "And I thought that was a very good episode." "Order!" "Order in the court, please!" "Order!" "All of the stuff that took place in that episode in the Admiral's office, most of it was shot past 2:00 in the morning." "You know, shooting this stuff, you know, and trying to look, you know, fresh faced and whatever." "And to do the comedy, you know, it was kind of hard because it was a tense episode." "Oh, my gosh!" "You like it?" "I love it!" "Your bird!" "What?" "You take her." "Her?" "Yeah, we did an episode called Full Engagement which was one of my favorites." "Got to be out of a uniform, out of the office and doing something different which is always fun just for variety." "Kent, get down!" "We run into some bad guys out there up in the mountains and Mac gets attacked by one of them." "Pretty-Pretty intense." "That was a very emotionally intense episode which I really enjoyed doing." "It's okay." "It's okay." "I'm fine." "I'm fine." "I'm fine." "I'm fine!" "In We The People, one of our very favorite shots, although if you look at it now it's very dated and it stands out as an effect, it was fun to do, was a scene where we had President Clinton pinning a medal onto Harm's chest." "Lieutenant Commander Rabb, you may single-handedly give lawyers a good name." "Congratulations." "Thank you, Mr. President." "It became a bit of a joke with the way we'd like to drop President Clinton into, into the show here and there, you know, where the guys would cut him into, uh, certain scenes." "That was fun." "I'd always hoped that he'd seen one." "I don't know if he did." "Dance?" "No." "But I'd sure like to try." "Washington Holliday I liked for just embarrassing reasons." "Bud's learning how to dance." "Because Patrick didn't know how to dance." "Patrick still doesn't know how to dance." "Just ask my wife." "I" " I love the episode only because everyone always talks about, as an actor you get to learn all these great things, well, they tried to teach me how to dance and I just didn't really take to it." "He wants to know how many centimeters you're dilated?" "Code Blue episode where David had a chance to really show his comedy when he was doing a scene with a woman giving birth in the hospital." "Oh, come on." "I've got nothing you haven't seen before." "He's trying to deal with a woman having a baby and a terrorist on the other side and I loved that episode." "I just loved the humor of it." "Well?" "Well, I can honestly say I have never seen that before." "You know, the second year was really a great growing experience and we were having fun expanding it." "And the audience was responding and that was really great." "When you have a series like JAG, it's especially really great to have excitement," "Yeah, you look up and nine years has gone by." "And everyone has babies now." "Everybody but me." "Who..." "I'm the only character on the show who was pregnant perpetually." "I always had a really good feeling about the show and I just knew that it was gonna go." "I" " I probably wouldn't have guessed it was gonna go nine more years." "But, I'm glad it did." "If you can keep the stories fresh, if you can keep changing, if you can keep adding characters, that approach keeps a show fresh." "It was just a great cast and a great crew." "It was exciting to be part of the show for ten years."