History Series / NCIS

* AreYouMyMummy: At the end of one Season 6 episode, a young Marine mentions that his mother took care of Gibbs when he was wounded on a mission in her country. [[spoiler:Gibbs tells the Marine that his mother was already pregnant when they met. Seconds later, in Vance's office, Vance asks Gibbs if Gibbs told the young man that his mission had been to kill his father.]]

** He explodes at Dinozzo in the episode where Ari briefly kidnapped Kate, at a point when the team's having no luck identifying Ari and doesn't know what's happened to Kate.

* {{Determinator}}: Gibbs becomes one toward finding Ari over the course of the second season. A repeated motif is the one monitor on his desk that's dedicated to running a facial recognition program on Ari. After Ari briefly kidnaps Kate, Gibbs starts displaying Ahab-ish tendencies, which Dinozzo lampshades.

* FrameUp: In the season 9 premiere "Nature of the Beast," Tony DiNozzo ended up framed for killing a fellow NCIS agent, Cade, whom he was also intending to bring into custody for stealing equipment from the watchers. Cade also implies in what ultimately turned out to be his last moments that he was actually framed for stealing the microchips and selling them onto the black market. [[spoiler:It was later revealed that a fake FBI agent as well as the Director of Special Operations were the ones who were actually doing this action.]]

** Similarly, the opening of "The Engagement Part 2" Had DiNozzo arriving at the church with the chaplain and her father asking what the result of the mission to rescue Flores is, and the scene then cutting to the interior of a Marine transport plane with Gibbs and the others inside looking at a marine burial coffin, leading the viewers to believe that they failed their mission and Flores was killed. However, the episode later reveals that they actually succeeded in their mission, and the marine burial coffin actually belonged to her commanding officer, who was killed in action by a gunshot to the neck.

** The entire Season 8 finale/Season 9 opener dealt with this: DiNozzo was assigned to track down someone leaking NCIS secrets (involving Watcher microchips), and the target is seemingly [[spoiler:Special Agent EJ Barret]]. It is later revealed to be [[spoiler:Special Agent Simon Gade]], but then not only did he reveal that he was actually framed, but the entire thing was actually staged as a trap to kill all of them, although only Gade actually bit the dust, as Barret, while wounded, went into hiding, and DiNozzo was hospitalized with amnesia that was presumably brought about from getting grazed in the head.

* ShirtlessScene: [=McGee=]'s gotten two or three, and DiNozzo's gotten several. Strangely, Gibbs is absent from this unless you count the very-soapy shower scene in "SWAK", which is one for the entire Kate-era team.

*** Arguably, the joke here is that Tony had forgotten the film-inspired origins of his idea and is actually convinced he thought it up himself. Look at his expression! (Unless Anthony DiNozzo is a better actor than, say, Michael Weatherly...) Of course, none of the rest of the team believe him for a moment.

* ShirtlessScene: McGee's gotten two or three, and DiNozzo's gotten several. Strangely, Gibbs is absent from this unless you count the very-soapy shower scene in "SWAK", which is one for the entire Kate-era team.

** [[CIAEvilFBIGood CIA agent]] [[SmugSnake Trent Kort]] got his eye gouged out by the Port-to-Port Killer

** Also shown in the S2 Ep12 episode "Doppelgänger", with the team working with civilian law enforcement, which are all extremely similar to the characters.

** Another literal one with McGee and Jethro (nee Butch), the German Shepherd he shot (in self-defense). McGee was wary of Jethro for the whole episode; at the end, when Jethro is vindicated and Abby's landlord has said "no dogs", Abby makes an impassioned speech to a reluctant Tim about how Jethro is the dog McGee has been wanting to get for a long time. A later episode shows that Abby did eventually succeed in this little campaign, and McGee has a very loving relationship with the dog.

** Beat the crap out of Ziva, she's okay with it. Shoot at her...fine. But don't, ''don't'' [[{{ptitledu41nxkg6try}} call her "Ma'am"]], and never ''ever'' [[UnresolvedSexualTension hurt Tony...]]

* Guisewillbeguise: Ducky impersonates the deceased arms dealer to try to capture La Grenouille.

Created by DonaldPBellisario and Don [=McGill=], ''NCIS'' is a spinoff of ''{{JAG}}'' that leaped on the ForensicDrama bandwagon started by ''{{CSI}}'', with some traditional [[CrimeAndPunishmentSeries Crime And Punishment]] and even a bit of SpyDrama thrown in for good measure. ''NCIS'' (''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Navy NCIS]]'' for its first season) depicts a team of investigators assigned to deal with criminal activity involving Navy personnel and Marines. That means that the entire gamut of crime -- from {{Serial Killer}}s to fraud to international espionage to Unauthorized Absences-- can turn up. This particular team is led by Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, and contains (surprise!) a rather colorful collection of detectives and lab workers. The series debuted in September, 2003 and is still ongoing.

** Also, the season 3 episode Frame Up where Tony was pointed out as the killer through the evidence collected, no matter what Abby did. [[spoiler: She did clear Tony in the end, it turned out to be her labpartner Chip, who wanted revenge on Tony for costing him his job.]]

* GradeSchoolCEO: A bit character from one early episode runs a nightclub while still in college.

* IPulledAWeirdAl: Tony, frequently.