NCIS is one of the longest running shows on CBS, and Mark Harmon has maintained his lead on the Navy crime solving series for the majority of the 18-season run. Fans of the show and its silver fox of a leading man were pleased when his real-life, long-time wife, Pam Dawber, made her debut on the series this past week. Dawber, who has her own Hollywood history and played opposite Robin Williams for years on Mork & Mindy, has spoken out about how she feels about finally joining her husband on screen.
Fans will be pleased to hear that, according to Pam Dawber, her husband Mark Harmon is a delight to work with. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dawber praised Harmon for being so supportive off camera, even though their on-screen relationship is a little odd. Here it is in her own words:
My husband is so supportive of me. He's just a giving, great guy. He just gives me attagirls, you know? It's fun because Gibbs grunts out a lot of lines. He doesn't give a lot. So they go toe-to-toe. He frustrates the hell out of Marcie. So they've got this oddball relationship where they're checking each other out. She doesn't understand whether is he a truth teller. Is this guy for real? And he's thinking sort of the same thing about her.
It’s a good thing Mark Harmon is so encouraging of his wife, because apparently it took quite a lot for Pam Dawber to take on a role on NCIS, and she actually felt some anxiety over it. In the same interview, Dawber spoke about her relationship with Hollywood at this point in her career and why she decided to take on the role in the CBS drama. In Dawber’s own words:
I just haven't been interested in, you know, chasing the business. At this age, that's what you do. You'd have to really want it. I just don't want to put myself out anymore. You know the old song, ‘I haven't got time for the pain.’ Then I guess they had created this character Marcie. Mark didn't tell me about it. Suddenly I have an email from my agent and I was like, ‘Oh, poor Harry, my poor agent, here we go again. I'm going to turn him down.’ And he goes, ‘Well, you might want to read this.’ I guess they were running names for who they could bring in for it and Mark said, ‘You should be talking to my wife about this character.’ The character is so good. I just fell in love with what they wrote. And then I had anxiety like, ‘Oh my God, am I going to do this?’
She’s doing it, alright! Pam Dawber’s character Marcie first appeared in the most recent episode of NCIS, but she still has 3 more episodes in her story arc. That means we’ve got three more weeks of some husband/wife on-screen chemistry and, now that we know Mark Harmon is so supportive behind the scenes, it’s even more endearing of a team-up.
