History NCIS / TropesAToM

*** In Season Eleven's "[[Recap/NCISS12E15 Bulletproof]]", while Tony and Delilah are discussing cool film and TV characters in wheelchairs: Delilah mentions Logan Cale.

** Tony once says "I've got a better chance of hooking up with Jessica Alba than these guys do of infiltrating Sea Lift." Creator/MichaelWeatherly was engaged to Creator/JessicaAlba for a time. He also starred with her in ''Series/DarkAngel'', where they kept trying to hook up.
*** In the third season episode "Light Sleeper" while on stakeout, Tony is reading an entertainment magazine:

'''Toony''': Shutting up, Boss.
*** This is just after Michael Weatherly and Creator/JessicaAlba broke up.
*** In the episode ''Obsession'' (7x21), Tony obsesses over a journalist who embodies all what he finds attractive in a woman, and who is missing. When calling her at her cell phone, he says: "It would seem strange, but I feel like I know you". It's not so strange, though: the journalist is played by Creator/AshleyScott, who also played underground operative and potential secondary love interest Asha Barlow in ''Series/DarkAngel''.
*** In Season Eleven's "[[Recap/NCISS12E15 Bulletproof]]", Tony and Delilah discuss cool characters in wheelchairs: Delilah mentions Logan Cale, Weatherly's character in ''Dark Angel''.

** A combination of ActorAllusion and ShoutOut: Tony (Mike Weatherly)'s father is played by Creator/RobertWagner. Weatherly met ''NCIS'' producer Donald Bellisario while Weatherly was filming ''The Mystery of Creator/NatalieWood'', in which he played Wood's husband... Robert Wagner.
** A retroactive one: Early in Season 7, a Metro detective who annoys Gibbs is described as having "tugged on [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths Superman's]] cape".

** In Season Five's "Recoil", Creator/NickChinlund guest-starred as a detective hunting a SerialKiller who murdered women and cut off their fingers. Sixteen years earlier, he played Donnie Pfaster on ''Series/TheXFiles'' - as a serial killer who murdered women and kept their fingers.

*** Later, in the PoorlyDisguisedPilot for Series/NCISNewOrleans, the New Orleans ME asks Gibbs if he knows anything about [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball college football]]. He says no.

** In Season 11's "[[Recap/NCISS11E11 Homesick]]", Creator/BenVereen guest-stars as the estranged father of Vance's late wife, [[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir who has come back trying to make amends for abandoning her and her mother when she was young.]]

** A Season 13 episode is titled "Reasonable Doubts", the name of an early 90's TV show Mark Harmon starred in. Furthermore, Gibbs knows sign language, as did his character on the other show.
** Fornell briefly mistakes Marcie Warren as "Mindy". Marcie is played by Pam Dawber, Mark Harmon's wife, who played "Mindy" on [[Series/MorkAndMindy Mork and Mindy]].
** In Season 19's "Docked", Alden Parker tells [=McGee=] that "I come from a big family, like [[Series/TheBradyBunch Brady Bunch]] big." Alden Parker is played by Gary Cole, who also played Mike Brady in [[Film/TheBradyBunchMovie The Brady Bunch Movie]].
** In Season 19's "Starting Over", Alden Parker says "What I'd give to never have to fill out another TPS report again," and then is corrected that it's a TBS report. TPS reports were central to Film/OfficeSpace, in which Gary Cole played Bill Lumburgh.

** Used [[spoiler:and subverted]] in the same episode. Former Presidential-detail Secret Service agent Kate jumps in front of a bullet for Gibbs... who was ''also'' wearing a vest at the time. [[spoiler:Moments later when the team is joking about it, Ari snipes her in the head.]]

---> '''Tony:''' Like I said, it's always the maid.
---> '''Ziva:''' No, you have said that it's always the janitor, or the butler, or anyone assigned to work in Abby's lab.

-->'''Kate''': Gibbs is driving.
-->'''Abby''': I'm saying a prayer in many languages.

* ImplausibleSynchrony: The Cyber Vid Character gives the time of his victims' deaths and then broadcasts the murder over the internet. One example especially strains plausibility. He lists the time of death as five minutes to midnight. Two clocks were shown when the victim died, and they both showed the precise time, despite the fact that the poison that killed him was administered hours ago. The in-episode explanation makes it sound plausible.

* MistakenForFlatulence: Abby has a plush hippo that makes a fart noise when squeezed. It surprises people the first time they hear it.
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: “Kill Screen” starts out with a pickpocket lifting a purse from a customer at a hotdog stand. A few seconds later, he’s intercepted by a police officer who witnessed the act. The officer confiscates the bag and discovers the fingertips and teeth of a corporal inside, getting the NCIS team called into the scene. Over the course of the episode the case spirals from a pickpocket accidentally stealing the I.D. evidence of a gruesome murder to [[spoiler: a game developer’s plot to wipe out every military computer on the Pentagon’s grid using his new video game and a computer mainframe to generate enough power to break through the firewalls]].

* BigBlackout: "Power Down." Oh, the fun the writers must have had poking fun at the usual ''NCIS'' bells and whistles.

* ForWantOfANail: In the episode ''Better Angels'', Jackson Gibbs takes Gibbs to see Walter Beck, the [[spoiler: German]] pilot who saved him during WWII. Jackson, knowing Walter felt bad about the deaths they caused during the war, told Walter about his son's work in NCIS, making it clear that Walter indirectly helped a lot of people by keeping Jackson alive so Gibbs could be born.

* AwkwardFatherSonBondingActivity: S10 Ep11 starts out with a man and his teen son fishing in the cold. The cold boredom generates an awkward discussion. Son catches an ear and both kinda freak.
-->'''Son''' *''to father and Gibbs''*: This is the most awesome thing to ever happen to us!

* AssassinOutclassin: In the season 11 premiere, the team learns that Ziva (currently at a family estate in Israel) is in danger of assassination. A rescue team rushes there to rescue her only to find that it's too late -- [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome Ziva already killed all the assassins, and has moved to some other location]].

** in "Hiatus":
*** When Ziva and Abby are both upset about what happened to Gibbs, Ziva makes an insensitive comment and Abby slaps her. The two get into a full on slap fight.
*** Tony is trying to get the two of them to make up. He says they should shake hands (which they do) and then says [[GirlOnGirlIsHot they should start deep tongue kissing]]. The two girls respond by both punching him at the same time.
* AndIMustScream: In "Hiatus" [[spoiler: Gibbs is put in a coma by a head injury and effectively trapped in a never-ending nightmare about the death of his first wife and daughter (presumably the worst moments of his life)]] Surprisingly, he [[AngstWhatAngst doesn't seem any worse for wear once he recovers.]]
* AndZoidberg: When the team is broken after [[spoiler:Jenny's death]] at the end of Season 5, [=McGee=] is sent to the Code Decryption Unit in the basement. Gibbs goes to visit [=McGee=], who tells Gibbs he misses working with him and Ziva. When Gibbs mentions Tony, [=McGee=] replies "Yeah, him too."

* ArrestedForHeroism: In "Semper Fortis" a retired Navy Corpsman renders aid to three people who were in a car accident and finds herself arrested for practicing medicine without a license (due to a peculiarity of the law - at least in the show's universe - Army and Air Force medics are considered licensed [=EMTs=] but Navy Corpsmen are not). [[spoiler:In the end Gibbs, with the help of the families of the people involved in the accident, get her sentence reduced to community service.]] This would not happen in reality, as she neither pretended to be a doctor nor charged for her services. As such she has as much of a right to assist as any other bystander.
* ArtisticLicense: NCIS is depicted in the show as being headquartered in the Washington Navy Yard. While many USN functions are located there in real life, this does not include NCIS; it's actually located at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, some distance away from Washington DC.

* AskAStupidQuestion: In "SWAK", Gibbs gives Jimmy this order:
-->'''Gibbs:''' Requisition replacement cell phones and weapons for my team.\\
'''Jimmy:''' Pistols?\\
'''Gibbs:''' [[SarcasmMode Well, no, Palmer, crossbows, if you think that might work better.]]

* AltarTheSpeed: Tim and Delilah scrap their plans for a big summer wedding and instead have a private ceremony with the Director and the team the night after they learn that [[spoiler:she's pregnant]].

* AlternateTimeLine: In the 200th episode [[spoiler:Gibbs has a near-death experience and while in limbo he's shown glimpses of alternate time lines where he saw Ari in time (Kate and [=DiNozzo=] become a couple, get married and have kids, as do Abby and [=McGee=], but Ziva remains hostile and antisocial), didn't shoot the Reynosa siblings' dad (being unable to get revenge eventually turns him into a bitter alcoholic), and if his wife didn't testify against the drug dealers (she and their daughter live but Gibbs is killed shortly thereafter during a tour of duty)]].

* AirVentPassageway: S13 [=Ep5=] "Lockdown" sees Abby take a field trip to investigate the team's current case when there is an event at the pharmaceutical company she is visiting. She uses an air vent to move from the server room she is trapped in back to the lab / office she needs to get back to.

* ActionMom: [[spoiler:Dornaget's mother is a CIA officer. We get a hint of how action-y when she finds one of the people responsible for her son's death.]]
* ActionInsuranceGag: PlayedForDrama in one episode when Tony gets a car totaled by the ArcVillain. The next episode he's on the phone with his insurance agent, who informs him that, since this is the third car it's happened to, the company is considering dropping him as a client.

** In one episode, Gibbs is asked what Ducky looked like when he was younger. He responds, "Illya Kuryakin", who was Creator/DavidMcCallum's character in ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'' 40 years earlier. Later proven true in a Ducky flashback in season 12 where Adam Campbell as young Ducky is a dead ringer for [=McCallum=] during that era. Young Ducky even had Illya Kuryakin's turtleneck shirts!
*** In the penultimate episode of season 20, Ducky informs the team of an old Russian spy who defected to the US and changed his name. He retained his first name, but the surname he chose? Kuryakin.

*** Tony and Delilah discuss characters in wheelchairs in series 11: Delilah mentions Logan Cale, Weatherly's character in ''Dark Angel''.
** Harmon's turn as SerialKiller Ted Bundy (in the TV movie ''The Deliberate Stranger'') is referenced by Fornell in the episode "Smoked" (4x10).

** In the season eight double episode "Enemies Foreign/Domestic" (also the name of an episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'' in which Harmon appeared) Tony makes a reference to ''Series/TheWestWing'' by calling [=McGee=] [="McBartlet"=]. Both Mark Harmon and Michael O'Neill (who guest stars in these episodes) played secret service agents on the show.
** A combination of ActorAllusion and ShoutOut: Tony (Mike Weatherly)'s father is played by Robert Wagner. Weatherly met ''NCIS'' producer Donald Bellisario while Weatherly was filming ''The Mystery of Natalie Wood'', in which he played Wood's husband...Robert Wagner.

** In the Season 9 episode "Newborn King", Jimmy Palmer, when explaining that his future father-in-law, Ed Slater, is visiting the NCIS building, he mentions that the first time he learned that Palmer was marrying his daughter, "[Ed Slater] laughed, and then he cried from laughing too hard". Ed Slater is played by Larry Miller, who himself used the phrase "I laughed, I cried" during his first IsThisThingStillOn moment as Principal Jindrake in the movie ''Film/MaxKeeblesBigMove''.
** In season five's "Recoil", Creator/NickChinlund guest-starred as a detective hunting a serial killer who murdered women and cut off their fingers. Sixteen years earlier, he played Donnie Pfaster on ''Series/TheXFiles'' -- as a serial killer who murdered women and kept their fingers.

** Season 9 introduces Dr. Samantha Ryan (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) as a psychologist and love interest for Gibbs. This is a reference to ''Film/{{Freaky Friday|2003}}'' in which she played a psychologist, frustrated with the fact that her unruly teenage daughter refuses to accept her fiance--named Ryan, played by Mark Harmon.

** When SECNAV Jarvis is introduced in Season Eight's finale "Pyramid", it's quickly established that he and Vance are old friends. Matt Cravin and Rocky Carroll both played officers on the U.S.S. ''Alabama'' in ''Film/CrimsonTide''.
** In Season 11's "Homesick", Creator/BenVereen guest-stars as the estranged father of Vance's late wife, [[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir who has come back trying to make amends for abandoning her and her mother when she was young.]]

** When confronting a runaway perp with a knife, Jessica Knight breaks off a broom handle and employs skilled martial arts moves to take him down, spinning around the makeshift staff with ease and precision. Guess Katrina Law remembered all her lessons from her time with the [[Series/{{Arrow}} League of Assassins]].

* AccidentalInnuendo: InUniverse. At the start of Season 14, Bishop gets back from her vacation in Scotland and tells [=McGee=] how she met Clayton Reeves, and say that "His stamina is incredible, couldn't keep up" [=McGee=] grins at this, and she quickly adds [[NotWhatItLooksLike "Hiking, Tim, hiking."]]

** Played [[IncrediblyLamePun painfully]] straight in the 200th episode, where Gibbs is shot in the shoulder at the beginning. At the episode's end, set the very next day, he's perfectly fine.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Gibbs has a history of marrying red-heads, or having liaisons with them on undercover missions in Paris, or getting picked up by them on his way home from work...you get the idea.
** Whenever a character hears about a witness or suspect flirting with Gibbs, someone inevitably asks [[LampshadeHanging "Is she a redhead?"]]
** In "Life Before His Eyes" we see that Gibbs got this from his father, given that his mother is revealed to have been a redhead herself.
** Colonel Mann is the only exception to this rule so far for Gibbs. They did have a relationship, but then she realized that he'd never be able to forget his wife and daughter. She moved to Hawaii after breaking it off with him. (And even ''she's'' a suspiciously reddish shade of blonde!)
** [=McGee=] fell for a redhead in a coffee shop. [[spoiler:She turned out to be an assassin]].
** Ducky and Dr. Jordan Hampton.
** Abby's brother Luca and his "houseguest" Ava [[spoiler: who turns out to be a Russian spy]].

!!Series/NCIS contains examples of: