Resource post: NCIS timeline
So, like, I was feeling asocial this weekend, so I sat at home and watched an incredible quantity of NCIS. And because I am 1) writing NCIS for au_bigbang (2626 words woo!) 2) a continuity nerd, I've made this here timeline, encompassing the first five and a half seasons of NCIS, as well as the bits of JAG and First Monday that are important to my purposes. Perhaps some of you will find it useful? It is, admittedly, a little McGee-heavy, as he's the main character in my Big Bang. Speculation (reasonable though it may be) is in italics; out of universe events are in bold.
1958 - Gibbs born
1969 - Ari born
1971? - DiNozzo born
1974? - Kate born
1975? - Abby born
1976 - Gibbs leaves Oklahoma, meets Shannon
1977 - McGee born, poss. in Alameda- father is Navy
1980 - Ducky is working in Afghanistan
1984 - Kelly Gibbs born
1989 - DiNozzo graduates college with a degree in physical education, plays in Final Four for OSU
1991 - Shannon and Kelly die, Gibbs is in a coma
1992 - Gibbs joins NIS, Ducky is prob. already working there; Tony breaks his leg
August 1992 - NIS renamed to NCIS
May 1993? - Abby graduates high school
Spring 1994 - Kate wins a wet t-shirt contest
Summer 1994 - McGee works at a port-a-potty cleaner
May 1995? - Kate graduates from USC?
Fall 1995 - McGee is a junior at MIT (continuity problem- should poss. be Johns Hopkins); Abby is a junior at LSU
September 1995 - JAG premieres
1996 - McGee (and Abby?) graduates from undergrad
1996? - Tony goes to work for Peoria PD
1996 - Mike Franks retires from NCIS
post-1996 - Brent Langer and Stan Burley work for Gibbs
1997? - Gibbs is investigating Kyle Boone; Wife 2 (Diane)? beats Gibbs with a 7-iron, they divorce
1997 - Alameda closes
1998 - Diane marries Fornell; Emily Fornell born
May 1998? - Abby? and McGee both earn their Masters degrees
Early 1999 - Gibbs goes on assignment in France with Ducky, meets Jenny; Gibbs and Ducky escape from France in a boat
Mid 1999 - Gibbs marries wife 3? and is living in Moscow
Late 1999 - Gibbs returns to Washington; wife 3? hits him over the head with a baseball bat, Ducky stitches him up, they divorce
2000 - Gibbs is tracking a child murderer, becomes estranged from wife 4?
Early 2001 - Gibbs is Agent Afloat in the Med, wife 4? cheats on him, they divorce
October 2001 - Gibbs is given a Washington-based team; Tony joins NCIS
2002 - First Monday airs, is canceled, Dean Stockwell moves to JAG; Julian Lodge clerks at the Supreme Court
November 2002 - Edward Sheffield becomes SecNav (JAG)
April 2003 - Gibbs, Tony, Ducky, Abby, and Vivian Blackadder appear on JAG
September 2003 - NCIS premieres; Kate joins NCIS; McGee is stationed at Norfolk; Gibbs is dating the Redheaded Woman
November 2003 - The team takes Edward Sheffield's? Gulfstream to Guantanamo
March 2004 - First appearance of Ari (no name); Gerald is injured
April 2004 - McGee and Abby are dating
May 2004 - Jimmy becomes Gerald's temporary replacement; Ducky receives the first portion of the Meat Puzzle; McGee learns Ari's name; Ari kidnaps Kate; Kate learns Ari is Mossad
mid-2004 - Probie transfers to DC office (goes to FLETC first?)
October 2004 - Last appearance of Edward Sheffield (JAG); a new SecNav is appointed? Named Jack?
February 2005 - Ducky and Jimmy solve the Meat Puzzle; Ducky is kidnapped
April 2005 - JAG ends; manuscript of Deep Six is apparently completed
mid-2005 - Kate is killed, Ari is killed, Jenny becomes director, Ziva joins NCIS as liason officer
September 2005 - Last appearance of Gerald; Jimmy becomes Gerald's permanent replacement; Paula Cassidy is detailed to Gibbs's team; Kyle Boone's accomplice kidnaps Paula Cassidy; Kyle Boone is executed
October 2005 - Last appearance of the Redheaded Woman; first appearance of Chip Sterling
November 2005 - Ziva and Tony go undercover as Sophie and Jean-Paul; Tony is framed for murder; Chip Sterling goes to jail
May 2006 - Gibbs quits NCIS, moves in with Mike Franks
September 2006 - Gibbs rejoins NCIS
November 2006 - Tony (DiNardo) is dating Jeanne, but hasn't slept with her yet (and Jenny tells him to go for it); Vol. 1 of the Gemcity stories is out; Sarah McGee is accused of murder; Gibbs meets Col. Mann
Early 2007 - Jimmy is sleeping with Michelle Lee
April 2007 - Paula Cassidy dies
May 2007 - La Grenouille dies; Tony's cover is blown; Tony and Jeanne break up
October 2007 - Gibbs and Mann break up
November 2007 - Mann retires to Hawaii
May 2008 - Jenny dies, Vance becomes director and breaks up the band
September 2008 - Jimmy has stopped seeing Michelle Lee; Tony returns from Agent Afloat position; Ziva returns from Israel; Probie returns from cybercrime
November 2008 - Michelle Lee dies
December 2008 - Ducky's mother has moved into a nursing home
Major events with missing placement:
-When Ducky and Gibbs met (but prob. in 1992 when Gibbs joined NIS)
-When Gibbs and Abby met
-When McGee joined NCIS
-When Gibbs and G. Callen met
-When and where Brent Langer and Stan Burley worked for Gibbs
-When Deep Six came out
-What happened to Vivian Blackadder?
Notes:
-There are more stories about how Gibbs left his ex-wives than there are ex-wives. So, it's not really surprising that the timelines on his marriages don't work out. At all. For starters, it's not clear how much time passed before he remarried. The ordering doesn't make sense, either; for example, he tells Kate in s1 that he's only been married 3 times, so when he tells a story about his second wife, does he really mean his second or third? I've tried to reconcile it, because I think some of the stories must be about the same woman, but it's anybody's guess as to what's a continuity error and what's just a complicated story.
-Tony's got more age than he's got history. There are about five and a third years accounted for, but twelve years passed between his graduation from college and his joining NCIS. I've set up the timeline assuming that he joined NCIS directly after leaving the force, and that there were no breaks in his time as a police officer. Knowing Tony, he probably spent the missing time working at the mall and hitting on college chicks.
--Also, Tony says he played in the Final Four for OSU, but this can't possibly be true. OSU didn't make the Final Four between 1968 and 1999.
ETA: There is a further discrepancy with Tony's college career. Doctor Brad Pitt (SWAK) intimates that he and Tony played basketball in 1992, but elsewhere, he refers to himself as Class of 1989. Unless he played pro ball, then IDK.
-Abby's age is based on pure supposition; based on various comments, I suspect that she's around 34, and have written the chart to reflect this. There's a piece of fanon going around that says she's the same age as Gibbs's daughter, but there is absolutely no freaking way. Gibbs's daughter would only have been 19 when the show started. Abby triple majored, has a Masters, AND had already been working at NCIS at the start of the show. Come the fuck on.
-There's a continuity error with Kelly's age. She was born in 1984 and died in 1991, but she was supposedly 8 when she died. The date of Kelly and Shannon's deaths also moves around some.
Last updated: 11 Feb 2010
1958 - Gibbs born
1969 - Ari born
1971? - DiNozzo born
1974? - Kate born
1975? - Abby born
1976 - Gibbs leaves Oklahoma, meets Shannon
1977 - McGee born, poss. in Alameda- father is Navy
1980 - Ducky is working in Afghanistan
1984 - Kelly Gibbs born
1989 - DiNozzo graduates college with a degree in physical education, plays in Final Four for OSU
1991 - Shannon and Kelly die, Gibbs is in a coma
1992 - Gibbs joins NIS, Ducky is prob. already working there; Tony breaks his leg
August 1992 - NIS renamed to NCIS
May 1993? - Abby graduates high school
Spring 1994 - Kate wins a wet t-shirt contest
Summer 1994 - McGee works at a port-a-potty cleaner
May 1995? - Kate graduates from USC?
Fall 1995 - McGee is a junior at MIT (continuity problem- should poss. be Johns Hopkins); Abby is a junior at LSU
September 1995 - JAG premieres
1996 - McGee (and Abby?) graduates from undergrad
1996? - Tony goes to work for Peoria PD
1996 - Mike Franks retires from NCIS
post-1996 - Brent Langer and Stan Burley work for Gibbs
1997? - Gibbs is investigating Kyle Boone; Wife 2 (Diane)? beats Gibbs with a 7-iron, they divorce
1997 - Alameda closes
1998 - Diane marries Fornell; Emily Fornell born
May 1998? - Abby? and McGee both earn their Masters degrees
Early 1999 - Gibbs goes on assignment in France with Ducky, meets Jenny; Gibbs and Ducky escape from France in a boat
Mid 1999 - Gibbs marries wife 3? and is living in Moscow
Late 1999 - Gibbs returns to Washington; wife 3? hits him over the head with a baseball bat, Ducky stitches him up, they divorce
2000 - Gibbs is tracking a child murderer, becomes estranged from wife 4?
Early 2001 - Gibbs is Agent Afloat in the Med, wife 4? cheats on him, they divorce
October 2001 - Gibbs is given a Washington-based team; Tony joins NCIS
2002 - First Monday airs, is canceled, Dean Stockwell moves to JAG; Julian Lodge clerks at the Supreme Court
November 2002 - Edward Sheffield becomes SecNav (JAG)
April 2003 - Gibbs, Tony, Ducky, Abby, and Vivian Blackadder appear on JAG
September 2003 - NCIS premieres; Kate joins NCIS; McGee is stationed at Norfolk; Gibbs is dating the Redheaded Woman
November 2003 - The team takes Edward Sheffield's? Gulfstream to Guantanamo
March 2004 - First appearance of Ari (no name); Gerald is injured
April 2004 - McGee and Abby are dating
May 2004 - Jimmy becomes Gerald's temporary replacement; Ducky receives the first portion of the Meat Puzzle; McGee learns Ari's name; Ari kidnaps Kate; Kate learns Ari is Mossad
mid-2004 - Probie transfers to DC office (goes to FLETC first?)
October 2004 - Last appearance of Edward Sheffield (JAG); a new SecNav is appointed? Named Jack?
February 2005 - Ducky and Jimmy solve the Meat Puzzle; Ducky is kidnapped
April 2005 - JAG ends; manuscript of Deep Six is apparently completed
mid-2005 - Kate is killed, Ari is killed, Jenny becomes director, Ziva joins NCIS as liason officer
September 2005 - Last appearance of Gerald; Jimmy becomes Gerald's permanent replacement; Paula Cassidy is detailed to Gibbs's team; Kyle Boone's accomplice kidnaps Paula Cassidy; Kyle Boone is executed
October 2005 - Last appearance of the Redheaded Woman; first appearance of Chip Sterling
November 2005 - Ziva and Tony go undercover as Sophie and Jean-Paul; Tony is framed for murder; Chip Sterling goes to jail
May 2006 - Gibbs quits NCIS, moves in with Mike Franks
September 2006 - Gibbs rejoins NCIS
November 2006 - Tony (DiNardo) is dating Jeanne, but hasn't slept with her yet (and Jenny tells him to go for it); Vol. 1 of the Gemcity stories is out; Sarah McGee is accused of murder; Gibbs meets Col. Mann
Early 2007 - Jimmy is sleeping with Michelle Lee
April 2007 - Paula Cassidy dies
May 2007 - La Grenouille dies; Tony's cover is blown; Tony and Jeanne break up
October 2007 - Gibbs and Mann break up
November 2007 - Mann retires to Hawaii
May 2008 - Jenny dies, Vance becomes director and breaks up the band
September 2008 - Jimmy has stopped seeing Michelle Lee; Tony returns from Agent Afloat position; Ziva returns from Israel; Probie returns from cybercrime
November 2008 - Michelle Lee dies
December 2008 - Ducky's mother has moved into a nursing home
Major events with missing placement:
-When Ducky and Gibbs met (but prob. in 1992 when Gibbs joined NIS)
-When Gibbs and Abby met
-When McGee joined NCIS
-When Gibbs and G. Callen met
-When and where Brent Langer and Stan Burley worked for Gibbs
-When Deep Six came out
-What happened to Vivian Blackadder?
Notes:
-There are more stories about how Gibbs left his ex-wives than there are ex-wives. So, it's not really surprising that the timelines on his marriages don't work out. At all. For starters, it's not clear how much time passed before he remarried. The ordering doesn't make sense, either; for example, he tells Kate in s1 that he's only been married 3 times, so when he tells a story about his second wife, does he really mean his second or third? I've tried to reconcile it, because I think some of the stories must be about the same woman, but it's anybody's guess as to what's a continuity error and what's just a complicated story.
-Tony's got more age than he's got history. There are about five and a third years accounted for, but twelve years passed between his graduation from college and his joining NCIS. I've set up the timeline assuming that he joined NCIS directly after leaving the force, and that there were no breaks in his time as a police officer. Knowing Tony, he probably spent the missing time working at the mall and hitting on college chicks.
--Also, Tony says he played in the Final Four for OSU, but this can't possibly be true. OSU didn't make the Final Four between 1968 and 1999.
ETA: There is a further discrepancy with Tony's college career. Doctor Brad Pitt (SWAK) intimates that he and Tony played basketball in 1992, but elsewhere, he refers to himself as Class of 1989. Unless he played pro ball, then IDK.
-Abby's age is based on pure supposition; based on various comments, I suspect that she's around 34, and have written the chart to reflect this. There's a piece of fanon going around that says she's the same age as Gibbs's daughter, but there is absolutely no freaking way. Gibbs's daughter would only have been 19 when the show started. Abby triple majored, has a Masters, AND had already been working at NCIS at the start of the show. Come the fuck on.
-There's a continuity error with Kelly's age. She was born in 1984 and died in 1991, but she was supposedly 8 when she died. The date of Kelly and Shannon's deaths also moves around some.
Last updated: 11 Feb 2010