Gary Glasberg

Gary Glasberg was a television writer, producer, and showrunner best known for his involvement with the "NCIS" franchise. Glasberg, however, got his start writing for children's and animated cartoon series in the 1990s. His first contribution was a script for "Rugrats" (Nickelodeon, 1991-2004) in 1992. He then wrote a series of four episodes for "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" (Fox, 1993-95) for its first season, and among many one-off scripts for various '90s shows, one for the Disney cult favorite "Recess" (ABC, 1997-2001), also during its first season. In 2001, Glasberg crossed over into the live action drama series territory he would come to be praised for when he began writing and producing the crime procedural "Crossing Jordan" (NBC, 2001-07). He left the show in 2004, and wrote and produced various dramas throughout the mid-2000s, including "Bones" (Fox, 2005-2017) and "Shark" (CBS, 2006-08), the latter of which he worked on with his wife, Mimi Schmir. Glasberg began writing and producing "NCIS" (CBS, 2003- ) in 2009, and took on showrunner duties in 2011. Under his direction, the show ended the 2015-16 season as the most watched drama for the seventh year in a row. He had spoken of the influence "MASH" (CBS, 1972-1983) had on his direction for "NCIS," including modeling a character after Hawkeye from "MASH" and the naming conventions of the episodes, which resembled letters to a loved one. Glasberg was also showrunning the spin-off he created, "NCIS: New Orleans" (CBS, 2014- ), when he died in his sleep at age 50 on September 28, 2016. He was survived by his wife Mimi, and his two sons Dash and Eli.