CBS’ latest, New Orleans-based NCIS offshoot has filled its first role, and it goes to TV vet Scott Bakula.

TVLine has learned that the alum of such series as Men of a Certain Age, Star Trek: Enterprise and Quantum Leap is boarding the planted pilot in the role of NCIS Special Agent Pride.

Described as “embodying New Orleans,” Pride is “driven by the need to do what’s right … with warmth, passion, strength and humor. He’s a unique federal agent working in one of this country’s most unique cities.”

In the prospective series — which is being exec-produced by NCIS boss Gary Glabserg and star Mark Harmon, and will air its pilot as a springtime NCIS two-parter — the New Orleans NCIS office will handle cases from Pensacola through Mississippi and Louisiana to the Texas panhandle. Per the logline, “With its rich setting of music, fun and debauchery, New Orleans is a magnet for military personnel on-leave. And with fun comes trouble.”

Still to be cast for the pilot are the roles of Agent LaSalle (a “muscular,” “devilish” and “charming” 30something former Sheriff’s deputy, raised in Louisiana), Agent Brody (a 30something female wielding an Ivy League mind and “Grace Kelly-like class, pomp and circumstance”) and Dr. Wade (the “outspoken” and “eccentric” Ducky of the team). I previously offered my casting ideas here.

Bakula’s other TV credits include (but are never limited to!) HBO’s Behind the Candelabra (for which he earned an Emmy nomination), Chuck, Desperate Housewives and appearances on Looking and Two and a Half Men.

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What is going on with NCIS‘ Jimmy Palmer? It seems that the show has toned down his involvement this season. –Sherry
Show boss Gary Glasberg reminds, “We’ve had this [storyline] runner that we started, about his personal life and his wanting to adopt. That’ll continue through the season,” ultimately leading to “an emotional bit of closure.”

I’m curious, will we see Tony’s apartment again soon on NCIS? –Cheryl
As a matter of fact, yes – in Episode 17, Glasberg says.

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With the new team dynamic on NCIS, Tony really looks overqualified for his job. He’s been there forever. As part of his promised “growth” are we going to see him get a promotion? –Sandra
OK, so I brought to showrunner Gary Glasberg everyone’s concern about Tony’s “growth,” especially as Ziva’s exit grows farther and farther away. He avowed, “It’s really important to all of us — it’s important to me, it’s important to Michael Weatherly — that the character of Tony DiNozzo continues to grow.” But outgrowing Gibbs’ team likely will never be a part of that. “That’s something that we at one point or another talk about…. But at the end of the day, as I have learned from real agents that I’ve spoken to, once you find a team that you feel comfortable with, that’s just where you stay,” Glasberg explained. “You become a part of the family, and that’s just what it is.”

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Question: Any scoop on what’s next for Tony on NCIS? –Laura
Ausiello: If you’re among those concerned that DiNozzo will rush into a grand new romance, with Bishop’s pop culture-savvy NSA pal Sofia Martinez, you needn’t be. “I don’t think his next relationship is going to happen anytime soon,” show boss Gary Glasberg tells us. “Part of letting Tony be Tony and letting him be flirtatious and talk to women is that these women don’t really matter. They’re quick encounters that he’s having; it’s not Ziva. They’re not ones that count. Eventually, will there be another [great love]? Maybe.”

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LOS ANGELES – The death of a friend will bring NCIS special agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in contact with the head of the agency’s New Orleans office, providing the connection for a two-part episode that’s a tryout for another spinoff of TV’s top-rated series.

“The lead character that runs the New Orleans office is a friend of Gibbs from back in the days of” the Naval Investigative Service,” the law-enforcement agency’s earlier name, executive producer Gary Glasberg says. The victim, a friend of both men, was also an agent.

The two episodes, scheduled for March, could lead to a third NCIS series. NCIS: Los Angeles started as an episode of NCIS, which is set in Washington, D.C., and the two have become a Tuesday ratings powerhouse. NCIS: Los Angeles last year tried its own spinoff, NCIS: Red, but it was not picked up as a series. CBS will decide whether to go forward with this latest potential spinoff by mid-May.

Glasberg has finished writing the two scripts and is planning another trip to Louisiana to scout locations and do other preparatory work. Much of the filming will take place on the NCIS soundstages north of Los Angeles, but he expects to do four or five days of shooting in New Orleans.

“We’re going to try to highlight as much as we can, from the bayou all the way into the music clubs. The show is going to have a really significant music backbone. I really want to capture as much of the city as I can,” Glasberg said. “It’s such a rich backdrop that it almost becomes another character in the show.”

Harmon, who shares executive producing duties on the new project with Glasberg, will travel to New Orleans for filming, but Glasberg is not sure which other NCIS stars will go to the Crescent City for the spinoff episodes.

Casting has just started for the four main characters. Characters include Gibbs’ friend, an older, established agent with the last name of Pride who runs the New Orleans NCIS office. A casting description says he is “charismatic and full of life … but can be rock-solid and strong when needed.”

Glasberg says Pride “has two people under him, a woman from a different office in the Great Lakes who comes down temporarily, and a man working with him who’s from New Orleans, a former sheriff’s deputy turned NCIS agent,” and describes . their teasing relationship as similar to the one between the lead characters on Moonlighting.

The woman, whose last name is Brody, is “no-nonsense … a government-employee facade on an Ivy League mind (and) Grace Kelly-like in her class, pomp and circumstance,” while the man, whose last name is LaSalle, has “been through some rough times,” according to the casting description. The fourth character is an outspoken female medical examiner.

A retired NCIS agent who ran the New Orleans office for more than 20 years has been a great resource during preparation for the episodes, Glasberg says. “He has been very accessible to me and terrific to spend time with and it’s been great.” And besides having a unique character that makes it a desirable setting for a TV series, New Orleans makes sense in terms of its close connection to the military.

New Orleans “has its own sensibility, its own style, its own energy, and there’s a tremendous Navy and Marine presence there, all the way from Pensacola, (Fla.) around the Gulf (of Mexico) and into Texas.”

As for how much shooting would take place in Louisiana if the spinoff episodes led to a new series, Glasberg says, “That’s still kind of up in the air. But we would definitely do some significant filming there. It’s just a matter of how much.”

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Who’s ready to meet the “missing” Mrs. Gibbs?

Having just recently had some on-screen fun with the fact that NCIS has never identified, let alone cast, Jethro’s second ex-wife, the CBS drama has a plan to fill in that conspicuous blank.

Speaking with TVLine at CBS’ Television Critics Association winter press tour cocktail party, showrunner Gary Glasberg shared, “I can promise you that [the mystery wife] is probably going to get touched on in Season 12″ — which, yes, has not officially been ordered, but come on.

Introducing that ex promises to be “[storyline] gold,” Glasberg effused. “I have a little tiny space on my Dry Erase board for stories for next season, and that’s already up there.”

Gibbs was first married to Shannon (played by Scandal‘s Darby Stanchfield), who,NCIS Gibbs Wives with their daughter, tragically died. Next, he wed Diane (Mad Men‘s Melinda McGraw), who is also Agent Fornell’s ex. And following his marriage to the yet-to-be-revealed “Redhead,” Gibbs traded vows with Stephanie (The West Wing‘s Kathleen York).

Of course, nary a month goes by where one NCIS viewer doesn’t email TVLine to ask if series star Mark Harmon’s real-life wife, actress Pam Dawber, will ever guest-star on TV’s most watched drama — perhaps even as Gibbs’ mystery missus.

“That’d be fun,” Glasberg acknowledges. “Every year someone says, ‘Maybe Pam will [be on the show],’ and every year it doesn’t happen.

“I have a feeling that’s a tall order,” he offered, “but it’s worth a phone call.”

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A second goldfish is nice and all, sure, but why isn’t NCIS‘ Tony keeping Ziva in his life in a more literal way, either through Skyping (on an encrypted line, of course) or any other technology available to him?

“A lot of people have approached me about the idea of not shutting the door entirely on [their staying in touch], and I’m not opposed to it,” showrunner Gary Glasberg told TVLine at the Television Critics Association press tour on Wednesday, when we asked if the CBS drama might ever suggest that Tony (played by Michael Weatherly) is finding ways to communicate with his ex-colleague (former cast member Cote de Pablo). “But it has to be done in a way where it feels organic to the storytelling and we’re not just throwing in lines about Ziva here and there.”

For example, “If Tony’s in a personal relationship or there’s something significant happening for him and he wondered how she would respond, then maybe we can figure out a way to do it. It’s a valid issue to bring up.”

But anyone asking for “Tiva” to somehow live on, even off camera, and for Tony to grow as a person/agent, is in a way suggesting two mutually exclusive things.

“Every time we bring her up, for Michael [Weatherly] and for Tony, it pulls him back to being in that relationship again,” Glasberg explained. “So its a tricky balance.

“We’re as sensitive to him moving forward post-Ziva as the rest of the world is,” Glasberg also said, because doing so “gives him the opportunity to grow and try things and meet people and move on.”

Addressing NCIS‘ other hot topic, Glasberg said he is “really proud” of the decision to catch McGee’s new girlfriend Delilah (recurring player Margo Harshman) in a bomb blast, leaving her paralyzed.

“Sometimes I walk into the writers room and I say to them, ‘We’re going to do something,’ and they look at me like I have six heads, and one of those instances was I wanted this bomb to go off — similar to some of the tragic stories that I saw after the Boston marathon…. I remember seeing a piece about a bunch of [female victims] who had managed to start to pull their lives back together again, and I wanted to try to capture some of that on our show. “The intent is to show a really smart individual take control of her life and rise up after all she’s been through. We’re excited about the arc that character is going to face as someone in a wheelchair.”

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Tuesday night’s episode of NCIS introduced a storyline that’s going to see one of the characters — DOD employee Delilah Fielding — learning to live her life as a disabled person. On Wednesday, executive producer Gary Glasberg revealed that the arc was inspired by the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings.

“I remember seeing a piece on I think it was the Today show about a bunch of women who had really managed to start to pull their lives back together again,” Glasberg told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour. “I wanted to try to capture some of that on our show. So the intent was — and is — to show someone who comes from a government background involved in something tragic like this and manages to persevere.”

In the latest episode, which was the conclusion of a two-parter, it was revealed that McGee’s (Sean Murray) girlfriend Delilah (Margo Harshman), who had been severely injured in a bombing at a gala at the end of the previous episode, was now paralyzed. Subsequent episodes, said Glasberg, will show Delilah taking “control of her life and [rising] up after what she’s been through.”

“We’re very excited about the arc of what that character is going to face as someone in a wheelchair and how that’s going to be portrayed,” he said.

As for McGee, who was devastated by the news, “it’s a psychological challenge,” Glasberg said.

Back in April, three people were killed and more than 250 were injured after two bombs detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

NCIS is currently prepping to go into production on its 250th episode, which will air in late February. That month will also see the return of R.J. Wagner, who plays father to Michael Weatherly’s Anthony DiNozzo.

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Will Robert Vaughn ever make a guest appearance on NCIS, paired up with David McCullum? I’d love to see a Man from U.N.C.L.E. reunion. –Bill
As would many readers of/writers to my column. I asked show boss Gary Glabserg about such a reunion, and he said that while the idea has “never been formally presented,” it has “always been something that’s in the ether, but then never materializes. But it’s something worth talking about, that’s for sure.”

Absolutely loved NCIS “Kill Chain” and I’m so ready for the upcoming episode, “Double Back”. But is this going to be the token “McGee angst” episode for the season, or is this emotional fallout going to continue on? –Leilani
No, I am hearing that the “McGee angst” will not be 100 percent nipped in the bud in the very next episode.

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