8 Popular TV Characters Who Originated On A Different Show

4. Most Of The Team From NCIS

1st Appearance: JAG You remember JAG, don't you? It was your grandparents' favorite show right behind Matlock? (Or maybe they were more Murder, She Wrote types of people.) In any case, JAG was a legal drama that managed to run for 10 seasons simply because elderly people never turn their televisions off. What you may not know is that the legacy of JAG is still very much alive and well. In fact, there are a number of characters from that show that still show up on your TV screens today, but this time they've been branded with a different set of initials: NCIS. The wildly expansive NCIS was given its legs as a "back-door pilot" from JAG, meaning one of the regular ol' episodes of Grandpa's Primetime Routine doubled as the pilot episode of a new, exciting show about the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, David McCallum...basically any of the show's primary actors...were first introduced to viewers on JAG.