The NCIS: LA Episode That Featured The Mother(s) Of All Cameos
10 years. That's how long it's been since the stars of "NCIS: LA" invited their mothers to cameo on the show. Not just 10 years, either — closer to 10 and a half. Do you think that nice David Caruso boy from the "CSI: Miami" show made his mother wait 10 years for an acting gig? And he had a job in Florida, too, where it's not all arid like in Los Angeles. Still, they should be grateful that they got any offer to cameo in the first place. After all, they only carried the main actors on the series inside their bodies for nine months.
Yes, it was 2012, and "NCIS: LA" was still in the early days of its 4th season. Who knows why the showrunners made the decision to invite the stars' mothers to make an appearance? Maybe they were feeling cocky after getting picked up for a new season, or maybe they'd just watched the episode of "30 Rock" from two years earlier where this exact same thing happened. Maybe they just thought that motherhood is the hardest job in the world, made all the more difficult if you're raising Chris O'Donnell while knowing full well that he'll one day be the most difficult live-action Robin to watch in a field historically dominated by Burt Ward.
Whatever the case, for a few glorious seconds, the mothers of "NCIS: LA" crashed the show.
Mother's Day came late on NCIS: LA
The episode of "NCIS: LA" in question, "The Fifth Man," aired on October 9, 2012, and to hear those involved describe it, the process of making it happen was high-octane maternal feel-goodery.
For one thing, the mothers were treated to five-star accommodations, and were escorted onto the set to find high-end trailers and an astroturf patio, all for them to be moms in, on, and around. LL Cool J, who played Special Agent Sam Hanna on the series, compared the setup to Yankee Stadium, while his mother, Ondrea Smith, proclaimed, "I could get used to this."
The end result was brief: the mothers of LL Cool J, Chris O'Donnell, Eric Christian Olsen, and Daniela Ruah can be glimpsed in one scene, playing poker together at a casino. It's the sort of thing that you only get to do for your mom maybe one time in life, or at least that's probably what LL Cool J has to keep explaining when his mom asks him why she hasn't gotten an offer to appear in the next "Deep Blue Sea" sequel yet.