By Brian Hartigan, TV Guide (Canada), October 19-25, 2002
Folks love the underdog. From the Super Bowl to the winner of Survivor, people love to see the good guy beat his bigger adversary and rise to the top. When it comes to TV, there are few shows more deserving of the underdog tag than JAG.Since its 1995 debut on NBC, its subsequent cancellation by NBC and its rebirth on CBS, JAG has survived to become a Tuesday night mainstay and must-see TV for more than 15 million viewers every week.
And those millions, according to star David James Elliott, are the very reason for the show's survival.
"The people who love this show love it," says Elliott, who is the only original cast member left. "It's everything to them. Even when NBC tried to kill the show [and CBS picked it up], the fans found it."
And they keep finding it, especially in light of recent world events, which has given JAG a new focus and more relevance. Yet co-star Catherine Bell was worried about what impact Sept. 11 would have on the show. "I was a bit reluctant [to deal with it] because it was so horrible," she says. "[But] we're a military show, so if the military is dealing with it and we're not, it's not very realistic."
The producers' solution, to deal with the war while not dwelling on it, earned critical kudos and even more fans. Now, as it heads into its eighth season, JAG shows no signs of slowing down. Elliott, for one, is more than happy for the show's slow climb to the top.
"That which burns brightest burns quickest," he says, paraphrasing the adage. And Bell is likewise just as happy not to have been an overnight success, attributing the show's success to four things: "action, legal intrigue, humour and complex relationships."
Sure, those are important, but Bell certainly left out one key ingredient: sex appeal. When reminded that the highly touted episode in which her character appeared in a bikini remains the show's highest rated, Bell visibly blushes. "It's great. It's so flattering," she says. "I've been very fortunate because the show has had that slow buildup. I didn't have overnight success, so I've gradually gotten used to it."
One thing she still has trouble getting used to, however, is the fans' fervent desire to see her character, Lt.-Col. Sarah MacKenzie, and Elliott's character, Cmdr. Harmon Rabb, get together. In fact, there is a devoted segment of online followers calling themselves Shippers - as in "relationshippers" - who often lobby the show's producers to set the characters' sparks aflame.
"There's an obvious chemistry between the two characters," says Cindy Howe, Web master of the JAG fan page jagextreme.com. "I think the writers are talented enough to pull off getting Harm and Mac together and not losing the audience. I don't expect it to happen overnight, but I do think - and hope - they head in that direction." Elliott, whose contract comes up for renewal this year, tends to agree. "They'd have to eventually get together," he says. "If you play at it long enough you've eventually gotta close the deal."
But executive producer Donald Bellisario isn't biting, even if it means alienating the hopeful Shippers. "The Shippers just want to know when they're going to get together [but[ I've gone seven years without doing a payoff," he says.
For his argument, Bellisario brings up Moonlighting, perhaps the pre-eminent example of how a show can tank when the "will-they-or-won't-they" question is answered. "The bottom line is: you put two people together like that and the sexual tension is gone. The fans can say: 'Ooh yes, but they're together. Isn't it interesting?' Not really. I don't know of any other series that has done that with their two lead characters and been successful. You can't do it. I won't do it. Does some of the audience get ticked off? Yes. Does some of the audience leave the show over it? I don't know."
Probably not, but in the meantime, Bellisario and the writers are focussing on the other characters, like Bud (Patrick Labyorteaux), who lost his leg to a landmine last season, and they will be placing Mac in Harm's way as the two officers begin to work more closely together this season. "We're going to dance around [the attraction]," says Bell.
Fans just shouldn't expect much more than the dance, that's all. "It doesn't mean they can't be close, it doesn't mean they can't be friends, but I will not remove the sexual tension," states Bellisario. "And those people who feel that's wrong? How many series have been around for eight years?"
No argument here.
Case dismissed.