NCIS is approaching its 1000th episode and some familiar faces from 21 years of Navy CIS history will be returning. Among them is Joe Spano
If crime fans have their way, the crime rate in the US Navy and among the Marines should never fall. After all, Navy CIS has been running for 21 years now and the new episodes and spin-offs just won’t stop. The crime series is already approaching its 1000th episode, which is being celebrated as an event. Because the milestone is to be something very special, a few familiar faces are also returning. One of them is Joe Spano, star of the first hour of NCIS.
For the 1000th NCIS episode, Gibbs’ old friend returns
Joe Spano starred in the very first Navy CIS episode. As Tobias Fornell, he was the FBI counterpart to Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon) for a long time and was also good friends with him. Since then, Spano has been part of the series’ extended ensemble and has appeared around two to three times per season. His character has since left the FBI and works as a private detective.
(Joe Spano and Mark Harmon)
The last time we saw Gibbs’ old friend Tobias Fornell was in the first episode of season 20, a good two years ago.
Instagram post shows group picture from the NCIS set
We know that he is returning for the 1000th episode thanks in part to an Instagram post by actress Shelby Flannery. A week ago, she posted a group picture with some familiar NCIS faces, namely Mark Harmon’s successor Gary Cole, Wilmer Valderrama, Katrina Law, Sean Murray and the aforementioned Joe Spano.
In the same post, the actress reveals that she will play a villain in the episode
By the way,
Spano’s NCIS connection goes back even further: he already played in the parent series J.A.G. – Im Auftrag der Ehre in 1998, but played a different character back then. Navy CIS is known to be a spin-off of J.A.G.
