NCIS: Los Angeles paid tribute to David Bellisario on Sunday night.
The show returned for the Season 12 premiere and at the end of the episode, a title card ran in honor of the former show producer.
It was kind of the show to honor him during the season premiere, but not surprising at all, especially with how long he had been involved with the NCIS franchise.
Who was David Bellisario from NCIS?
David Bellisario was an associate producer for Magnum P.I. who then made the jump to coordinating producer for Quantum Leap. A huge coincidence from that project was that he got to work with star Scott Bakula, who would end up becoming the star of NCIS: New Orleans many years later.
From Quantum Leap, Bellisario then worked on a TV movie called Crowfoot as a co-producer and then on the pilot for a show called First Monday as a producer. It was after that when Bellisario found his next huge project.
Bellisario became a producer for JAG, which is the show that helped lay the groundwork for what would come along later.
After JAG, Bellisario went to NCIS where he stayed until 2009 as a producer. He then made the jump to NCIS: Los Angeles, where he worked as a producer for the first 10 years of the show.
His career arc as a producer ran concurrently with all of the NCIS shows and it must have been a huge treat for him when the stars of JAG (David James Elliott as Harmon Rabb and Catherine Bell as Sarah McKenzie) guest-starred on NCIS: Los Angeles.
David Bellisario passes away
Bellisario died this summer at the age of 63.
The Los Angeles Times released an obituary at the time that reads in part:
“Starting as a Production Assistant, he knuckled down and quickly rose to Associate Producer on Magnum P.I. Through 4 studios and 7 series – more than 600 episodes in all – he steadily gained more responsibility and became a full Producer on Quantum Leap, JAG, NCIS, and NCIS LA.
Loved and respected by his peers for his creative mind, killer work ethic, humor, and humility, he counted himself lucky indeed to have worked almost 40 years with such a group of talented and creative people.”
NCIS trio of shows return to CBS for fall
All three NCIS shows are back with new episodes.
NCIS: LA and NCIS: NOLA have returned on Sunday nights with new times this fall. The episodes have already begun airing.
The season premiere for NCIS comes a bit later in the month of November.
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.