CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

NCIS (TV series)

American television series (2003–present)

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 26, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

NCIS is an American military police procedural television series and the first installment within the NCIS media franchise. With production helmed by showrunner, Steven D. Binder, the series portrays a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The concept and characters were initially introduced with two episodes of the CBS series JAG ; as a spin-off from JAG, the series premiered on September 23, 2003, on CBS. Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill are co-creators and executive producers of the premiere member of the NCIS franchise. As of 2025, NCIS was the third-longest-running scripted, live-action American prime-time TV series currently airing, surpassed only by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present) and Law & Order ; it is the fifth-longest-running scripted American prime-time TV series overall.

Editorial summary

“NCIS (TV series)” enters the record as american television series (2003–present). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what NCIS, series and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003, 2025, 1999—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around NCIS, series and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“NCIS (TV series)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, NCIS, series and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2025 and 1999.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “NCIS (TV series)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow NCIS (TV series) primary sources, NCIS (TV series) archive and NCIS research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “NCIS (TV series)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “NCIS (TV series)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.