Are you a fan of TV shows like NCIS, JAG and Quantum Leap? Thank television producer Donald P. Bellisario, as he created these popular series and many others from the 1980s to early 2000s. NCIS is even still going strong, as it’s about to enter its 23rd season on the 2025 TV schedule this fall. Various actors from these shows got together this past weekend to celebrate Bellisario’s 90th birthday, including Scott Bakula, who affectionately poked fun at the man while giving a speech at the party.
JAG actress Catherine Bell shared a snippet of the speech Bakula gave to the attendees on her Instagram Stories. The actor, who starred as Sam Beckett in the original Quantum Leap, amusingly busted Bellisario’s chops with these words:
We’re here tonight, because Donald Paul Bellisario is a fighter and a lover… But first and foremost, he’s a fighter. When you’re born in Cokeburg, Pennsylvania, a mining town outside of Pittsburg, in 1935, and your family forces you to wear knee socks and knickerbockers every day to school, you learn to fight to survive. They might as well have just pinned a ‘Kick Me’ sign on your back.
Look, having to overcome that kind of adversity as a child in the 1940s, it’s no wonder Donald Bellisario became a successful television producer! Seriously though, good-natured ribbing is to be expected at a celebration like this. Scott Bakula (also of Star Trek: Enterprise fame) and Bellisario go way back, so the former definitely has the leeway to tell a story like that about the latter, and everyone knows it’s coming from a friendly place.
Along with Scott Bakula and Catherine Bell (who played Sarah MacKenzie in all but the first of JAG’s seasons, as well as three episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles), other notable attendees at Donald Bellisario’s birthday party included NCIS actors Michael Weatherly, Cote de Pablo, Sean Murray, Brian Dietzen, Gary Cole and Diona Reasonover. Bell also reunited with JAG costars Patrick Labyorteaux, Karri Turner and Steven Culp, with Bell specifically mentioning in her Stories that she hadn’t seen the former two in about 20 years. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Bakula is also part of the NCIS franchise from his time as Dwayne Pride on NCIS: New Orleans, though Bellisario wasn’t involved in that spinoff’s creation.
Happy 90th birthday, Mr. Bellisario, and here’s to more celebrations in your future! If any of you reading now feel like revisiting the original Quantum Leap, it can be streamed for free on Roku. Otherwise, break out your Paramount+ subscription to check out JAG and all of the NCIS shows, which will include the platform-exclusive NCIS: Tony & Ziva in a few weeks.
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