Harm is introduced as a lieutenant in the United States Navy serving as a judge advocate, but it is revealed that he has a background as a naval aviator. The viewer follows his naval career and personal life from that point as the series progresses. With the longevity of JAG, plenty of information on his past life and previous military service is given at various points in the series. JAG ended its ten-year run on April 29, 2005.
When he was 16, Harm went to Laos to look for his father together with Colonel Francis Stryker.[3] Many years later, Harm was able to determine his father's fate: after he was shot down, Harmon Rabb, Sr. was taken to the Soviet Union, escaped from his captors, was involved with a Russian woman, and was killed protecting her from Soviet soldiers attempting to rape her in 1980.[8] Later on, Harm met his half-brother, Sergeant Sergei Zhukov (Jade Carter) a helicopter pilot in the Russian Army, who was accused of selling weapons to Chechen rebels. Sergei was later shot down and captured by Chechen rebels.
Nearly every Christmas Eve, Harm is shown visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. to pay tribute to his father. In one episode, he met Jenny Lake (played by Catherine Bell) who was present on the USS Ticonderoga when his father was shot down (and had been the fiancée of a Marine aviator who was KIA).[6] On another Christmas Eve, he invited one of his father's former squadron buddies Rear AdmiralThomas Boone (Terry O'Quinn) to the Wall. Another year, Harm was surprised by Clayton Webb (Steven Culp) bringing his half-brother Sergei to see him at the Wall, after Webb exchanged two boxcars of wheat for Sergei's freedom in Chechnya.
Service (on JAG)
The most unlikely hero of last night's highly successful naval air strike was Lieutenant Harmon Rabb, Jr., who saved Captain Thomas Boone's life when he safely landed this damaged Tomcat onto the deck of the Seahawk. What is so unusual is that Lieutenant Rabb isn't even an active pilot in the Navy. He's a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He's a lawyer.
Televised report of Chuck DePalma (Cliff DeYoung) in the pilot movie[3]
One of his most memorable moments was, in his zealous prosecution of a Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer, he fired an automatic weapon into the courtroom ceiling.[18] Other notable cases Rabb was involved in include going undercover as a Force ReconGunnery Sergeant,[19] and investigating whether the actions of Navy SEAL Lieutenant Curtis Rivers (Montel Williams) warrants the Medal of Honor.[20]
After a few years as a Judge Advocate, he had laser surgery to correct what was misdiagnosed as night blindness (actually blurred vision as a result of retinal scarring caused by service action[21]) and resumed his career as a naval aviator, flying F-14s off the USS Patrick Henry (CVN-74) as a member of VF-218 "Raptors".[22][23] However, because of the slim chance of career advancement as an aviator, Harm returned to JAG after six months of service aboard Patrick Henry. While in the aviation squadron, his call sign was "Pappy" because he was older than the other aviators. Later, the other pilots renamed him "Hammer", his father's former call sign, believing Rabb's father would have been impressed by his son's bravery.[24]
In 2002, Harm and Mac prosecutes a high-ranking Al-Qaeda member captured by US Forces in Afghanistan in a military tribunal.[25]
While serving at JAG, Rabb still kept his flight status current. At one point, after being denied leave by his commanding officer, Rear Admiral Chegwidden, to rescue Mac, Rabb resigned his commission from the Navy. He had a short stint working as an employee for the CIA. While flying for the CIA, Harm landed a C-130 Hercules aboard the aircraft carrierUSS Seahawk.[27] While working for the CIA, Rabb was certified in several different types of aircraft including the F/A-18 Hornet and the classified Aurora;[28] however he was fired from CIA because his landing of a C-130 on an aircraft carrier was filmed by a ZNN crew.[29] Rabb was subsequently reinstated into the Navy by SECNAV and once again served at JAG Headquarters.[29]
After being fired from the CIA and before being reinstated into the Navy, Harm worked as a crop-duster for Grace Aviation in Blacksburg, Virginia.[29] He became friends with and eventually took in Grace Avionics' owner, 14-year-old Mattie Grace Johnson (Hallee Hirsh). She lived with him for almost a year while her father, Tom Johnson, sobered up. In 2005, Harm was devastated when Mattie was critically injured in a plane crash.[30]
In the final episode, Harm and Mac decided to get married; also, each was offered a career promotion, but to different locations; Harm was offered the position of Force Judge Advocate at Naval Forces Europe and to be stationed in London, while Mac was to lead the Joint Legal Services Center Southwest out of Naval Base San Diego. They decided to leave to fate which one of them would retire from the service and had Bud flip a coin. The outcome was never shown,[31] and the career status of either remained unknown until 2019.[2]
Harm appears in the final two episodes of the tenth season of NCIS: Los Angeles as the executive officer (XO) of the aircraft carrier, USS Allegiance (CVN-84).[34]Mac also made a guest appearance in the season 10 finale of NCIS: Los Angeles.[35][36] While Harm left the Navy and followed Mac to San Diego after losing the coin flip, he ended up being drawn back into service sometime later, and they mutually ended their relationship. They had not seen each other for nine years until video conferencing with each other in their new roles.[2] Harm and Mac then met in person in the season 11 premiere, where they shared an embrace and later renewed discussion of their relationship, once again without reaching any conclusions.
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Meg Austin, USN (Tracey Needham) - Partnered with Harm for the remainder of the first season,[46] left after 1st season when JAG was first canceled by NBC.
Lieutenant Commander Tracy Manetti, USN (Tamlyn Tomita) - Harm's partner for seven episodes in season 8.
Rabb received his first Distinguished Flying Cross at the start of the second season in a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden by President Bill Clinton for saving the injured CAG, Captain Thomas Boone (Terry O'Quinn), of the USS Seahawk after the modified F-14 Tomcat they were flying was damaged by flak during an ATARS run prior to an alpha strike in the pilot episode.[49] This incident also earned Rabb the respect of a former shipmate and prompted him to start wearing his wings again.[3]
He received his second Distinguished Flying Cross in the fifth season for pushing his wingman to safety by using his wingman's tailhook and his F-14's windscreen while flying over Kosovo.[24][note 5]
Harmon Rabb, Jr. lives in a small Washington, D.C. loft apartment north of Union Station that he renovated himself.[49] During the first few seasons of JAG, he smokes Cuban cigars occasionally but then later quit as he did not like being addicted to them. He owned a classic red 1969 Corvette, but it was stolen; he would later recover the car frame. He later "rebuilt" it (the steering wheel was all he had left from his original car) with help from his friend Commander Sturgis Turner, whom he met during their academy days, Harm once thought the car had been stolen, but Sturgis had taken it from his garage to get a new top placed onto it. Later, it suffered damage from a collision with an old woman attempting insurance fraud.[48]
Harm owns a vintage Boeing-Stearman Model 75 plane that he named "Sarah" after his paternal grandmother.[54] He likes to take friends up flying when he's not working.
Rabb likes olives, organicnoodles (he eats at Ho's Organic Noodles) and Thai food. Rabb does not own a television and plays guitar to relax at home.[55] Rabb has several girlfriends throughout the series, but by the end of the final season, he and Mac finally confront their feelings for one another.[31] It is later revealed in 2019 that they mutually ended their relationship, but that neither had moved on.
Conceptual history
Creator Donald P. Bellisario wanted an actor for the part of Harmon Rabb similar in the vein to that of Tom Selleck and Scott Bakula (which he had a hand in casting for Magnum, P.I. and Quantum Leap, respectively).[56] For the character's nickname, and shortened form of the first name, Bellisario got it from a famous quote written by 18th century US naval hero John Paul Jones, "Give me a fast ship for I intend to go into harm's way”, which Bellisario believed befitted the man of action his male lead would become.[57] For the surname he got the inspiration from Princeton Universityhistory professorTheodore Rabb, whom he had met on a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea while he wrote the pilot.[57]Paramount Television Group chairman Kerry McCluggage, who knew of David James Elliott from his earlier starring role on Paramount's The Untouchables (and a recent recurring role on Melrose Place and a guest role on Seinfeld), suggested him to Bellisario as a possible lead for JAG, and Bellisario (who was under contract to Paramount) made sure he was one of the actors he wanted to meet and ultimately became Elliott's champion for the part.[58]
In February 2005, during the tenth season series co-star David James Elliott announced his departure from the series,[59] with Bellisario noting that "his contract was up, and we never expected it to go on. We had to cut costs. [So] we started doing episodes with less of David, and it became obvious to him that we were not going to renegotiate."[60] Both Catherine Bell and Chris Beetem had signed on for a potential eleventh season.[60] "'It was always intended that Catherine would be [on] the show next season but [Elliott] would not,' says Bellisario."[60] In April 2005, despite CBS informing Donald P. Bellisario that the series "may get picked up," JAG was cancelled.[59] Bellisario stated that "the reason 'JAG' is not coming back is purely demographic. Nothing more,"[61] adding "it's wrong to say the show was canceled because [series co-star David James Elliott] said he was leaving."[61]
Reception
Variety noted in its review of the pilot episode in 1995 that "Elliott looks great in dress whites, but should display more personality if he's to be a sympathetic continuing lead" and that JAG "borrows from recent features Crimson Tide and Apollo 13 in being jargon-heavy to help generate atmosphere but as Rabb’s character is allowed to develop, JAG could become one of the season's highlights".[62] In its review at the start of the first season of JAG, Entertainment Weekly noted in its review that the male lead "radiates the sort of easy, low-key confidence that makes an actor watchable week after week" and "[w]ith his square jaw, flinty eyes, and fluffy hair, David James Elliott is so gosh-darn good-looking, it's a wonder he's not just another bland pretty-boy".[63]
The similarities in the relationship between Rabb and Mac and that of Mulder and Scully on The X-Files has been noted by many.[64][65][66]Entertainment Weekly elaborated further on it: in each case it is a "hunky loner", partnered with "attractive women with whom they have a charged yet ultimately platonic relationship", each working for the U.S. Government and based in the DC metropolitan area, with seemingly "unlimited travel budgets": with the key thematic difference being that in JAG with its "red-white-and-blue patriotism" the "U.S. military is seen as a force fighting for good around the world" while the other series displays "antiauthoritarian cynicism" towards ditto.[67]
Time described the character of Rabb in 2001 as a "buff-bodied flying ace who packed a gun, a straight-arrow defense lawyer without the moral ambiguity of his counterparts on The Practice".[65] Slate characterized David James Elliott's performance during the 7th season (2001–02) as being "erratic, evasive, and wooden."[66] Elliott won the TV Guide Award in 2000 for "Favorite Male Actor in a Drama" for playing Rabb on JAG.[68]
^In real life, a similar incident did occur on January 4, 1989, known as the 1989 air battle near Tobruk; but it is never made clear if, in the fictional universe of JAG, it replaces or is in addition to the real event.
^This plot device was based on an actual incident during the Vietnam War in which Captain Bob Pardo, USAF pushed his wingman's crippled F-4 Phantom 60 miles so the two aircrews could eject over friendly territory.[50]
^The list below contains all of Rabb's known awards and decorations from his appearances in JAG and NCIS: Los Angeles. The names are given in order of precedence, according to SECNAVINST 1650.1F and the U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations (NAVPERS 1566.5G).
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