TV Guide Magazine: NCIS has a lot of terrorism plots, and the other spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, is all about undercover operations. But it doesn't appear that NCIS: New Orleans will involve as much secret-agent stuff.
Bakula: My character is definitely not undercover. He's got relationships with the politicians in town or the cop on the beat that he worked with 15 years ago, when he was with the New Orleans police department, before joining NCIS. Pride has a certain amount of notoriety in New Orleans, so when he walks into a bar, people turn and say, "Hey, Dwayne" or "Hey, King." That's part of his — no pun intended — pride, doing what he does for the city and caring about it.
TV Guide Magazine: Are you happy the decision was made this summer to shoot on location?
Bakula: I had issues with it at first. When I heard about the show, I thought, "Great. They shoot NCIS in Los Angeles [doubling for D.C.] and it looks fantastic. Gary Glasberg is running both shows, so we'll get a stage in Valencia next to theirs! And if we've got to shoot in New Orleans, ER used to hop on a plane and go to Chicago for a week here and there, so that'd be manageable." But the more I got into it, they said, "No, no, no. We're going to New Orleans!" I said, "OK, hang on, because this is not what I thought it was going to be in the beginning." My son is starting high school, and uprooting my family wasn't an option.
But being down here now, I see it's a no-brainer. We shot alongside the Mississippi two days ago, with the huge military ships and barges going past. Their determination that New Orleans should be a character in this show wouldn't work if we filmed exterior shots once every two months and cobbled those together for five different episodes. So I talked with my family, and they're all on board with the idea that I'm going to be gone a lot and home as much as I can.
Bakula: My character is definitely not undercover. He's got relationships with the politicians in town or the cop on the beat that he worked with 15 years ago, when he was with the New Orleans police department, before joining NCIS. Pride has a certain amount of notoriety in New Orleans, so when he walks into a bar, people turn and say, "Hey, Dwayne" or "Hey, King." That's part of his — no pun intended — pride, doing what he does for the city and caring about it.
TV Guide Magazine: Are you happy the decision was made this summer to shoot on location?
Bakula: I had issues with it at first. When I heard about the show, I thought, "Great. They shoot NCIS in Los Angeles [doubling for D.C.] and it looks fantastic. Gary Glasberg is running both shows, so we'll get a stage in Valencia next to theirs! And if we've got to shoot in New Orleans, ER used to hop on a plane and go to Chicago for a week here and there, so that'd be manageable." But the more I got into it, they said, "No, no, no. We're going to New Orleans!" I said, "OK, hang on, because this is not what I thought it was going to be in the beginning." My son is starting high school, and uprooting my family wasn't an option.
But being down here now, I see it's a no-brainer. We shot alongside the Mississippi two days ago, with the huge military ships and barges going past. Their determination that New Orleans should be a character in this show wouldn't work if we filmed exterior shots once every two months and cobbled those together for five different episodes. So I talked with my family, and they're all on board with the idea that I'm going to be gone a lot and home as much as I can.
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