Brian Dietzen has been playing Jimmy Palmer on NCIS for nearly the entirety of its run, debuting in the Season 1 episode “Split Decision,” which was originally just going to be the start of a three-episode guest stint Now Jimmy is one of the most important characters on the CBS procedural, but that’s not to say Dietzen has always approved of the way his character has been handled. In one instance, he went to the NCIS showrunner to voice a problem he was having with Jimmy’s depiction.
This came up when I spoke with Brian Dietzen and Kasie Hines actress Diona Reasonover about their new podcast NCIS: Partners & Probies, which sees the two of them interviewing cast, crew, creatives and real-world experts about the NCIS franchise. During the first episode, which saw Dietzen and Reasonover interviewing each other, the former brought up how he finds “new discoveries” for Jimmy Palmer each week in order to keep the experience of playing him fresh. As such, I asked Dietzen if there were any times in the past where he went to the NCIS writers to express concerns about the direction was being taken, and he told me:
Yeah, there has been. There was one time where, after David [McCallum] started working much less on the show, and I was working much more, I remember there was a time where I felt like Jimmy at times was being written like an 83-year-old Scottish man.
Jimmy Palmer worked closely alongside Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard for many years as NCIS’s assistant medical examiner. Then in Season 15, Jimmy served as Acting Chief Medical Examiner while Ducky was away on a book tour and teaching, and by the latter half of Season 16, he permanently took over the position. Obviously this ranks as one of Jimmy’s biggest moments on the show, but eventually there came a point where Brian Dietzen realized that the kinds of lines he was being given too closely resembled what the late David McCallum would say. Dietzen continued:
And I was like, I don't know that this is working out as well. So I remember going to Steve Binder, our showrunner, and saying, ‘I have concerns about this just because I feel like Jimmy's voice might be getting lost a little bit.’ And that was actually the birthplace of how I started co-writing episodes on the show. He said, ‘Well, why don't you write some example scenes so I can get a feel for what it is you're talking about?’
Had this kind of writing continued for Jimmy Palmer, I worry he would have started calling Gibbs “Jethro” just like Ducky did. Kidding aside, it was generous of Steven Binder to not only listen to Brian Dietzen’s concerns, but also give him an opportunity to show off his own writing skills. Dietzen wrapped up this portion of our conversation by saying:
And so I did. And he said, ‘Oh, these are great. These are fun scenes, and I like it.’ This is not to say I know more than anyone about what Jimmy should or shouldn't do or should or shouldn't say, but it really speaks to how collaborative I think the set is in general. And if you go in, and hopefully it's a meritocracy, and if you got a better idea, let's hear it. So it was nice.
Brian Dietzen has co-written four NCIS episodes since 2019, including Season 21’s David McCallum tribute episode following his co-star’s passing in September 2023, and most recently Season 23’s “Stolen Moments,” where Jimmy was carrying out his normal ME duties while being shadowed by an AI chatbot. All that stemmed from Dietzen being willing to speak up and say that he didn’t agree with how Jimmy was being written too much like Ducky. Now his character’s in a more tonally appropriate place, and Dietzen gets to help draft the occasional episode. It all worked out!
New episodes of both NCIS and NCIS: Partners & Probies drop on Tuesdays, with the former airing on CBS at 8 p.m. ET. The entire NCIS library can also be easily streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, and the flagship series, Origins and Sydney have all been renewed for new seasons.
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