Eric Christian Olsen remembers the moment he learned he'd graduated to "regular" status for the second season of NCIS: Los Angeles, after guesting on two episodes in Season 1. "I got the call while I was in Canada doing The Thing prequel," he says. "I was so excited they were picking up the option I was jumping around with a tentacle hanging off [my] back."
Pauley Perrette's lab rat Abby has been let loose in the NCIS squad room. In a scene she's shooting for a big two-part episode airing November 16 and 23, she's trying to play pin the tail on the bomber. Pointing to a video of a suspect playing on a computer screen, she blurts out to Sean Murray's McGee, "He just confessed he knew how to make the murder weapon! I mean, how many people know how to make a homemade Claymore mine?" "In this room?" asks McGee. A couple of visiting Israeli agents raise their hands. So does Cote de Pablo, as NCIS team member Ziva David. Then, sheepishly, so does Abby herself. "OK, fine," she mutters, reluctantly withdrawing her point. Want more NCIS scoop? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now! Perrette and de Pablo may be easy on the eyes, but they can be hard-asses, too. In a medium where many actresses are ...
HE PLAYS NCIS' handsomely bespectacled nerd Jimmy Palmer, who assists medical examiner Ducky (David McCallum). Dietzen came in to shoot a one-day guest appearance near the end of the first season — and has been on most of the episodes since, thanks to "his comic timing and the way he plays so well with McCallum," says exec producer Shane Brennan.
