‘NCIS’ Star Rocky Carroll on How the Franchise’s ‘Blue-Collar Approach’ Has Led to Success

NCIS star Rocky Carroll has spent 17 seasons playing NCIS Director Leon Vance on the CBS procedural and its spin offs, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans. But even as he approaches 360 episodes with the franchise—which just aired its 1,000th episode on April 15—Carroll isn’t looking to retire anytime soon. He spoke with People about how the show’s “blue-collar approach” has led to enduring success.

Carroll admitted that even the major accomplishment of lensing the 1,000th episode didn’t get in the way of the crew’s workmanlike approach. "We don't spend a lot of time relishing it or celebrating in the end zone because we got a work day to finish,” he told the outlet. "That's always been our blue collar approach to doing the episodes.”

Carrol attributed much of the success of NCIS to the fact that the show eschews the lavish indulgences typical of most industry productions. “Our sound stages are 30 miles north of Hollywood. We're not on a fancy studio lot,” Carroll said. “I think that's part of the reason why this show has been on for so long is because people come to work, and they're like, 'Hey, let's make another episode,' with the same energy that they had 15, 20 seasons ago."

But the NCIS franchise has also endured because of the special relationship its fans have with the characters. Carroll chalked this up to the show’s strong writing and dedicated team of producers, who have "allowed this show and allowed the characters to not be stuck in a certain year or a certain timeframe or at a certain age," he explained. "We evolved over these 20-something years. All the characters have gone through their own share of peaks and valleys, death, loss, separations, all these different things."

For Carroll, being a such an integral part of such an important franchise is one of his proudest accomplishments. "We know how rare the air that we're in right now, we know how rare it is,” Carroll said of the franchise’s success. “When we have guest stars, and people come from the outside, and they talk to us, and they go, 'Man, you guys have something really special here.'"

NCIS, currently in its 21st season, airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on CBS.