September 23, 2003: “NCIS” Premieres

Standing, L to R: Pauley Perrette, Sean Murray

Cote de Pablo and Rocky Carroll.

Seated, L to R: Michael Weatherly, Mark Harmon,

Brian Dietzen and David McCallum.

September 23, 2003: NCIS premieres on CBS, with the episode "Yankee White." This is real-life code for the highest security clearance that the federal government gives.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, based at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., investigates crimes committed by or against, or on the bases of, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps (which is a part of the U.S. Department of Defense's Department of the Navy). The equivalent unit for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force is the CID, the Criminal Investigation Division.

The series NCIS tells of a fictionalized version of the real thing, in a world with slight differences from ours: While George W. Bush was still President at the time of the show's premiere (stock footage shows the real thing, but an actor plays him on the Air Force One stage set), and a portrait of Osama bin Laden is hung on the NCIS office wall as part of their most wanted fugitives (with a red banner across him after his real-life 2011 Navy SEAL-induced death), no other real-life politicians are mentioned.

The NCIS Director, and his or her superiors, the Secretary of the Navy, a.k.a. "SecNav," and the Secretary of Defense, a.k.a. "SecDef," are fictional characters. And plenty of fictional Senators and Congressmen have been portrayed. And, since they couldn't get the rights to use footage from CNN, the news network shown on TV screens in their office "bullpen" is named ZNN. There are also fictionalized versions of magazines, and it is later established that the show takes place in the same "universe" as CBS' rebooted versions of Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum, P.I.

It also takes place in the same universe as the established CBS military drama JAG, and an episode in that show's 2002-03 season served as a "backdoor pilot." It introduced the characters of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon), leader of the Service's Major Case Response Team; his second-in-command, Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly); Dr. Donald "Ducky," Mallard (David McCallum), their Scottish medical examiner; and Dr. Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette), their "Goth Girl" forensic specialist.

The NCIS pilot introduces Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander), then a Secret Service Agent that Gibbs hires after she’s fired at the end of the episode; and FBI Agent Tobias Fornell (Joe Spano, who becomes a recurring character rather than a series regular).

The pilot also introduces the 1st 3 of what came to be known as "Gibbs’ Rules":

1. Never let suspects stay together.

2. Always wear gloves at a crime scene.

3. Don't believe what you're told: Double-check.

The number of Rules varies, depending on who's telling. Gibbs would later reveal there's another Rule #1 that supersedes all the others: "Never screw over your partner." DiNozzo would later reveal there's also a duplicate for #3: "Never be unreachable," a Rule that Gibbs himself violated a few times.

The most oft-quoted Rules are #9, "Never go anywhere without a knife"; #10, "Never get personally involved in a case," which becomes the one Rule that Gibbs gets rid of; and #12, "Never date a co-worker." This is emphasized by DiNozzo constantly hitting on Kate and, after she is killed in the Season 2 finale, her replacement, Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), formerly an agent with Israel's national security agency, the Mossad. Tony and Ziva finally become a couple after she leaves NCIS.

In a Season 2 episode, DiNozzo cites Rule #13: "Never, ever involve a lawyer." He says, "Gibbs has 7 Rules about lawyers, none of them pretty. In the Season 7 finale, having just narrowly avoided prison for a crime most people would say he was justified in committing -- the former Marine sniper had killed the drug lord who ordered the deaths of his wife and his 8-year-old daughter while he was serving in the Persian Gulf War -- Gibbs looked through the box where he kept the slips of paper on which he'd written the Rules, and found Rule #13. He turned it over, and, on the other side, he wrote: "#51 SOMETIMES YOU'RE WRONG."

The show has changed a lot, but it is still on the air after 20 years. It has also inspired spinoff series, set in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Hawai'i.

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September 23, 2003 was a Tuesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. José Contreras allowed 4 hits over 8 innings, and Mariano Rivera completed the 5-hit shutout, outpitching Mark Buehrle. Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera and Jason Giambi hit home runs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at Shea Stadium. Al Leiter allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Timo Pérez grounded out in the bottom of the 4th inning, allowing Mike Piazza to score the game's only run.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz and his steroids hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, after Todd Walker (and his steroids?) hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Montreal Expos, 2-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. The Braves needed 3 pitchers to shut the Expos out: Shane Reynolds allowed 7 hits over the 1st 7 innings, Jaret Wright pitched a hitless 8th and became the winning pitcher, and John Smoltz struck out the side in the 9th to get the save.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 8-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Kerry Wood took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, striking out 12 and walking 2. But he walked Russell Branyan and then gave up a single to Wily Mo Peña, and walked Ray Olmedo, before working out of it. Kyle Farnsworth pitched a perfect 8th, and Mike Remlinger allowed a leadoff single to Sean Casey in the 9th, but completed the shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 15-6 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 10-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Barry Bonds went 1-for-3.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 20-9 at Coors Field in Denver. Yes, that's baseball, not football. The Rockies scored 6 runs in the 1st inning, 4 in the 5th, 2 in the 6th, 5 in the 7th and 3 in the 8th.

The ball was flying out of Coors Field. The Rox got home runs from Larry Walker, Ronnie Belliard and Todd Helton; while the D-backs got them from Raúl Mondesí, Shea Hillenbrand and Chad Moeller.

* The team then known as the Anaheim Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Tim Salmon won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. The Padres played 5 more games at the facility known as San Diego Stadium from 1967 to 1980, and Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997, before moving into Petco Park the next season.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum). Adam Melhuse singled Eurbiel Durazo home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.