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The second season of JAG premiered on CBS on January 3, 1997, and concluded on April 18, 1997. The season, starring David James Elliott and Catherine Bell, was produced by Belisarius Productions in association with Paramount Television . The first season of JAG aired on NBC and JAG began its second season on CBS as a mid-season replacement for ...
- Premise
- Cast and Characters
- Production
- Reception
- Connections with Other Shows
- Home Media
- Soundtrack
- See Also
The series follows the exploits of the "judge advocates" (i.e. uniformed lawyers) in the Department of the Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General, based in the Washington metropolitan area. In the line of duty judge advocates can prosecute and defend criminal cases under the jurisdiction of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (arising from th...
Main
1. David James Elliott as Harmon Rabb, Jr., USN, Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander/Commander/Captain, JAG Corps; Acting Judge Advocate General; Captain; Executive Officer of USS Allegiance (NCIS: Los Angeles). 2. Tracey Needham as Meg Austin, USN (season 1), Lieutenant JG 3. Catherine Bell as Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie, USMC (seasons 2–10), Major/Lieutenant Colonel, JAG Corps; OJAG Chief of Staff; Acting Judge Advocate General; Head of Joint Legal Services Southwest (San Diego); Marine Liaison to th...
Recurring
1. Andrea Parker as Lt. JG / Lieutenant / Commander Caitlin Pike, USN (Seasons 1, 6) 2. Trevor Goddardas Lt. Commander Mic Brumby, RAN (Seasons 4–7) 3. Karri Turner as Ensign / Lt. JG / Lieutenant Harriet Sims, USN (Seasons 2–10) 4. Michael Bellisarioas Seaman / Petty Officer Third Class / Midshipman Mike “Mikey” Roberts, USN (Seasons 3–10) 5. Jeff MacKayas Master Chief Petty Officer Bud “Big Bud” Roberts, USN (Seasons 3–10) 6. Nanci Chambersas Lieutenant Loren Singer, USN (Seasons 5–8) 7. Ra...
Background and development
The creator of JAG, Donald P. Bellisario, served for four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and after having worked his way up through advertising jobs, he landed his first network television job as a story editor for the World War II–era series Baa Baa Black Sheep, where he got a habit of promoting a consistent promilitary stance in a business where he got the perception that "antiwar" and "antisoldier" mentality were the commonplace. The stereotype in the post–Vietnam war era of "crazed Vietn...
Production
With the cancellation on NBC and the immediate pick-up by CBS, showrunner Donald P. Bellisario was allowed greater creative freedom in terms in story and casting. While over on NBC, its West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer wanted more action rather than legal drama and imposed a new female lead, Tracey Needham, rather than continuing with Andrea Parker as in the pilot movie. The move over to CBS, with its older skewing audience and its president Les Moonves giving freer reins, this allowed Belli...
Collaboration with the military
Initially, the producers of JAG did not receive any co-operation from the U.S. Department of Defense entertainment media liaison offices, due to sensitivity in light of all the accumulative negative publicity that had been generated from the Tailhook scandal and its aftermath. However, the lack of co-operation from the military was not a show-stopper, as the JAG production team, by virtue of being a Paramount Pictures production, had access to the abundant stock footage from the studio's moti...
Critical reception
The pilot movie received a moderately positive review in Variety, which noted that it "borrows from recent features Crimson Tide and Apollo 13 in being jargon-heavy to help generate atmosphere but as Rabb's character is allowed to develop, JAG could become one of the season's highlights." Entertainment Weekly was less impressed by the first episodes of the first season and noted that there is, "...nothing new about JAG‘s plots; they’re the sort of good-guy-against-the-establishment stuff you’...
Nielsen ratings
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of JAGon NBC (first season) and CBS (other seasons). 1. Note: U.S. network television seasons generally start in late September and end in late May, which coincides with the completion of the May sweeps. It was noted in 1998 that the largest segment of the audience was those over the age of 55. JAG had its highest ever ratings in the fall of 2001 (season 7), beating episodes of The Practice airing on ABC in the same timeslot and i...
Awards and nominations
1. Source:
NCIS spin-off
In January 2003, Donald P. Bellisario was developing a JAG spin-off, around the work of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It was aired in April 2003 in a two-part backdoor pilot in which Commander Rabb is arrested, but later vindicated as innocent, for the murder of Lieutenant Singer. The two episodes, titled "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown", focused on the NCIS team, with most of the JAG regulars as supporting characters. Whereas the episodes of JAG are primarily oriented on a mixture of c...
First Monday cross-over
First Monday was a short-lived series co-created by Bellisario and Paul Levine about fictional U.S. Supreme Court justices and their clerks, which aired in 2002 and starred James Garner and Joe Mantegna. The character of U.S. Senator Edward Sheffield (Dean Stockwell), who appeared in three episodes of that show, later became a recurring character on JAG as the new Secretary of the Navy, starting in season eight.
Yes, Dear tribute
The sitcom Yes, Dear did an episode called "Let's Get Jaggy With It" where Greg's father Tom (Tim Conway) wins a walk-on role on JAG. Catherine Bell guest-starred as herself while David James Elliott, Patrick Labyorteaux, and Scott Lawrence guest-starred as their respective JAGcharacters.
On September 1, 1998, the pilot episode of JAG was released on VHS cassette in the U.S. by Paramount Home Entertainment. However, no other episodes of the series proper was released on any home entertainment media while show was still in production, allegedly due to syndication deals made with several broadcasters. Beginning in 2006, CBS Home Enter...
On April 26, 2010, Intrada released an album of music on compact disc from the series, featuring Bruce Broughton's theme and his pilot movie score (tracks 1–15) and weekly composer Steven Bramson's score from the second-season episode "Cowboys & Cossacks", including Broughton's format music (the main and end title theme and commercial bumper.)
- 10
- 227 (list of episodes)
- September 23, 1995 –, April 29, 2005
S2.E1 ∙ We the People. Fri, Jan 3, 1997. A band of rogue patriots hijack the Declaration of Independence during a transfer. Maj. Sarah MacKenzie and Ltjg. Bud Roberts join the JAG gang; they and Harm investigate. They find the thieves, make a deal, then defend the leader in court. 7.4/10 (220)
The second season of JAG premiered on CBS on January 3, 1997, and ended on April 18, 1997, after 15 episodes. It was produced by Belisarius Productions in association with CBS Productions/Paramount Television (now CBS Television Studios). By-the-book Marine Major Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie (Catherine Bell) and Lieutenant Commander Harmon "Harm" Rabb, Jr. (David James Elliott), a former naval ...
Sat, Sep 23, 1995. A woman radar-intercept officer (RIO) disappears at night from an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea. Two JAG lawyers, Lt. Harm Rabb and Lt. Caitlin Pike, investigate and solve. Harm, a former Naval aviator, unexpectedly becomes a hero. 7.8/10 (652)
JAG: Created by Donald P. Bellisario. With David James Elliott, Patrick Labyorteaux, Catherine Bell, John M. Jackson. The cases of Harmon Rabb, former Navy fighter pilot, and his fellow lawyers of the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General's office.
