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On the set of ‘NCIS’, Photos by Genaro Molina

‘NCIS’ rides a wave of popularity – By Maria Elena Fernandez

Robi Boscarino sits at the desk of his favorite “NCIS” character played by Michael Weatherly, left, as his mother Kim and sister Boscarino-Hunter look on. Boscarino’s visit to the set was made possible by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Earlier this month, the Perth resident visited the hit crime procedural’s sound stages in Valencia and caught his favorite character, DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), in action.

“Back home, everybody likes him,” said Boscarino, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma and whose big dream to visit the set was made possible by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. “He’s one of the most popular TV actors, for sure. This is more than I expected, to be honest. I didn’t expect him to be like he is in the character. He’s very funny

Michael talks about NCIS success:

“There are psychics all over town going, ‘Didn’t see that coming! Hard to call,’ ” Weatherly joked in his trailer, while eating a slice of cold pizza. “But it’s a great feeling. It’s like those movies about the racehorse that’s not supposed to be — we weren’t bred in some Kentucky barn of some billionaire who has Arabian stallions. We’re just a plow horse. But we run fast! It’s one of those stories.”

“We’re a very strange little show,” agrees Weatherly, referring to its blend of mystery, romance, action and humor. “There’s a real ’80s and even ’70s throwback feeling. You get a kind of ‘Barney Miller’ feel with it. It’s not quite so grim and static and monotone and dour as a lot of crime shows.”

Weatherly has a lot to do with that — he likes to improvise. The actor and “NCIS” co-creator Don Bellisario (who was forced out after the fourth season) battled for much of the first season over Weatherly’s penchant for ad libbing until Bellisario found himself admitting that it worked for the character.

Source: Los Angeles Times (1; 2)

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Michael Weatherly Sings! by Chris Willman

The second NCIS soundtrack (available Nov. 3) is mostly made up of exclusive cuts featured in the current seventh season, including Bob Dylan’s “California,” an outtake from the mid-’60s Bringing It All Back Home sessions that was widely bootlegged but never officially released until now, along with tracks by Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp, Norah Jones, Joss Stone and others.

But Michael Weatherly’s “Bitter and Blue” may be the main attraction for serious NCIS-aholics. The artist also known as Tony DiNozzo first picked up the guitar at 15 and started writing songs to expunge his feelings while his parents were getting divorced, then realized that—hey!—“girls like music,” he says. “But they didn’t so much like the music I liked. Watching someone badly sing Elvis Costello, it’s painful for them.” His “very long, tragic attempt at pop stardom” picked up when he started busking on NYC subway platforms, making $100–$150 a day. Eventually he recorded over 50 songs in a studio and put together a band that played clubs like Manhattan’s Limelight while seeking a deal.

When he found work as an actor in the ’90s, Weatherly abandoned his rock-star dreams, but he kept writing songs. “Bitter and Blue” was penned at a rare low ebb. He had just broken up with his fiancée, Dark Angel costar Jessica Alba, and was traveling to New York on weekends to see his son (from his marriage to ex–Loving costar Amelia Heinle) while working on the not-so-wildly-popular first season of NCIS in Los Angeles.

For more than two hours, Weatherly serenaded TV Guide Magazine with original songs as well as the Squeeze/Crowded House/Nick Lowe chestnuts that influenced him. He coulda been a contender. But “sometimes you’re very glad certain things didn’t materialize,” he says. “Somebody might’ve thought, ‘He’s not very good, but maybe he’s marketable in some Backstreet Boys way.’ If some marketing dude had cottoned onto me when I was in my early twenties, holy s–t, that would’ve been a disaster.”

But there’s an alternate universe where the road not taken was driven down after all. “There’s a certain delusional part of me that very much believes I have six albums out,” Weatherly admits. “I’m almost surprised when I go into [L.A.’s] Amoeba Records and it’s, ‘Oh, they don’t have my album. That’s odd! Well, sold out, I guess.’”

To hear an excerpt of Michael Weatherly’s “Bitter and Blue,” click here. And to read more about the NCIS soundtrack, pick up the new issue of TV Guide Magazine, on newsstands October 22!

What do you think of Weatherly’s musical debut?