EXCLUSIVE: ‘NCIS’ Star Pauley Perrette Opens Up About Leaving Gibbs & Co.

The Average American spends roughly four years at a single job. Take one look at NCIS’s Pauley Perrette and you can be pretty sure she’s not the average American. Not many women style their dyed raven hair in the pigtails and bangs she wears onscreen as forensic specialist Abby Sciuto (not to mention offscreen when the Los Angeles weather is hot and sticky).

Perrette’s 15 seasons on NCIS make Abby the longest-working forensic expert on TV and the third-longest-serving female law enforcer on primetime (behind the Law & Order franchise’s Mariska Hargitay and S. Epatha Merkerson). For nearly a decade, Perrette has scored the highest Q rating—a metric that measures a celebrity’s appeal—of any TV actress. In 2010, she ranked as high as Tom Hanks and Morgan Freeman. “We should all do a film together,” she joked at the time, “or at least get a beer.”

The point is, rather than jump ship (or, really, show) after a few seasons or a little bit of fame, Perrette stuck around. A lot of that had to do with her dedication to Abby, a character conceived by NCIS creator Donald Bellisario to A) demonstrate that women can excel at math, science and computers and handle themselves around dead bodies and B) challenge the stereotype that all tattooed goth girls dressed in black are bitchy, needle-marked perps. Abby is proper nice.

Since taking on the role, Perrette has received thousands of fan letters and Twitter messages from the young ladies she inspires. Which is one of the reasons, the actress says, it’s going to be hard to say goodbye—and why she’s already set up scholarship funds for women studying forensic science at Georgia’s Valdosta State University (her alma mater) and New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Also in this issue:

• The Pioneer Woman: Five things to know about Food Network’s Ree Drummond.
• The Handmaid’s Tale: June’s mysterious journey, and the revolt, continues in Season 2 of the Hulu series.
• Dancing With the Stars: Athletes: Former pro Louis Van Amstel picks his best ballroom-dancing bets for the condensed season.
• Chicago Fire: The mercury rises when Severide’s ex visits on the NBC drama.
• Plus: Antonio Banderas on bringing Pablo Picasso to life in Genius‘s second round, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Patrick Melrose, Michael Weatherly talks Bull and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

‘SEAL Team’: David Boreanaz and the Team Sign Up for a Second Tour

Meet Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz), head of an exclusive military team protecting the USA while raising families (and hell). On the hot, dusty L.A. set of CBS’s SEAL Team, a camo-clad Boreanaz shows us how it’s done: dodging bullets to escape a bombed-out building, then going back to make sure his guys get out alive.

Watching this scene, you might think you’ve tuned in to CNN. The sets, gear and guns are super-detailed, thanks to technical advisers who include veterans of Delta Force, Army Rangers and Tier One Navy SEALs (that’s “sea, air, land” for us civilians).

“The No. 1 thing I learned from them is that they have each other’s backs,” says Boreanaz, the square-jawed star of long-running TV hits Bones, Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “We never leave someone behind, have passion for what we do—and we really like to have a good time.”

Also in this issue:

• Suits: See Meghan Markle in white as wedding bells are a-ringin’ in the season finale.
• Roseanne: Sara Gilbert talks the moment that sparked the comedy revival with Roseanne Barr,
• Westworld: What’s next for Maeve and Dolores as the hosts strike back.
• Plus: Stephanie March’s Alex Cabot returns to Law & Order: SVU, Michael J. Fox shakes up the Oval Office on Designated Survivor and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE: The 65 Best Episodes of the 21st Century… And Where to Watch Each One

We gasped! We laughed! We cried! And we whittled down nearly two decades of TV into our Top 10 favorites plus 55 other remarkable installments that we just can’t stop thinking about. Which episode will be No. 1? Could it be Breaking Bad? Oz? This Is Us? Pick up this special 65th anniversary issue on newsstands now to find out!

Also in this issue:

• First Looks: A too-good war reenactor on Elementary and hospital drama Code Black gets musical.
• On the Road With Katie Couric: The Today vet examines divisive issues in her new docuseries, America Inside Out.
• Plus: Debra Messing talks Will & Grace’s season finale, behind-the-scenes moments from Howards End, Lennie James lands in Fear the Walking Dead and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

‘Roseanne’: Still Fearless and Still Very, Very Funny! Plus: Spring Preview!

It’s a sad truth that some reporters want the celebs they interview to like them. Others don’t give a rat’s rear. But all I care about on this December morning in Studio City, California, is that Roseanne Barr doesn’t yell at me.

Sure, she’s been perfectly civil to the press since ABC announced last spring it was reviving Roseanne, the classic “feminist working-class family sitcom” (her words) that made her famous. Still, the lady has a reputation. She’s crazy! She’s crabby! She’s crass! Even Barr admits that, over the show’s initial run (1988–97), she hired and fired at whim. She’s made people much more powerful than me (i.e., ABC execs) sweat spinal fluid. She rages on Twitter. Still, I love Roseanne. So getting shade from the star would sting.

Why am I being so personal? Because Roseanne is personal, and it got personal, at a time when few comedies did. It was honest about the drudgeries faced by blue-collar Illinois high school sweethearts Dan (John Goodman) and Roseanne Conner (Barr), their children—popular blonde Becky (Lecy Goranson), sullen tomboy Darlene (Sara Gilbert) and cherub-faced D.J. (Michael Fishman)—and Roseanne’s single younger sister, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf). It embraced TV taboos that even dramas feared.

Also in this issue:

• Spring Preview: Donald Sutherland stars in FX’s Trust, Zach Braff returns with Alex, Inc., Superman’s history is told in Krypton, inside Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Station 19 and Sandra Oh faces danger in Killing Eve. Plus: intel on Westworld, The Americans, Elementary, The Handmaid’s Tale, New Girl and so much more!
• Spring TV Calendar: a one-page rundown of all the new and returning series from the end of March through May.
• Burning Questions: Yikes! What really went down on that shocking finale of The Bachelor.
• Plus: Five can’t-miss true-crime specials and shows, Valerie Bertinelli dishes on her Food Network show, celebrating Dallas‘ 40th anniversary and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.