Actor Michael Weatherly entertained Brendon Clark, Shorty Gorham, J. B. Mauney and several PBR staff members with humorous stories, while Mark Harmon, the driving force behind “NCIS,” quietly stood back and watched.

For about three hours Friday afternoon at the Valencia Studios, the glamorous illusion of Hollywood met the dangerous reality of professional bull riding, as PBR stars and staffers visited the set of the hit CBS show.

Weatherly joked that he doesn’t carry a real gun, while J.B. Mauney recalled suffering a partially collapsed lung at a Built Ford Tough Series event in Wichita, Kan.

In mid-sentence, a red light bulb flashed and a buzzer sounded. Within moments, Weatherly and Harmon took their spots on the sound stage, and just like that they became Tony Dinozzo and Leroy Gibbs, interrogating a suspect in scene 28 of an episode entitled “Dead Air.”

“It’s not the same,” Clark explained, “but it’s a little bit like us, in that we can be laughing and joking around – even right before you ride – with your buddies, but when you go to get on, you change that switch.”

No one will be killed on Stage 4. That’s one issue director Terrence O’Hara and various producers won’t have to worry about as they manage more than a dozen actors and 120 crew members.

There’s nothing real about prop list that includes a throat lozenge, ballistics report, evidence jar, Gibbs’ cell phone, handcuffs, hunting rifle, mass spec report, stacks of audio tapes and headphones.

At one point between takes, Harmon asked Clark and Mauney some pointed questions about the sport he regularly watches on Versus.

“He was asking a lot of different questions,” Clark said. “Things like whether the stock contractors talk to us or whether we tell each other about the bulls, and whether we get along as riders. He was legitimately interested in what it was really like, and was a really, really nice guy.”

The red light flashed again, and this time Harmon and Weatherly were joined by Sean Murray to shoot scene 35.

“It’s really fun to watch them, because they can be a normal person, and then all of a sudden a bell goes off and literally 30 seconds later they’re sitting in a seat and just knocking out lines like they were before,” Clark marveled. “I’d like to see a lot more of it, because it’s really interesting to me.”

Regarding Harmon, who has been known to purchase BFTS tickets for friends and family, Clark added, “It was nice of him to open up and give us a bit of insight into what it is he does.”

NCIS FACTS

The show is in its eighth season on CBS, and according to producers, last year was the first time the show reached No. 1 in the ratings.

The various shields and badges used by the actors aren’t allowed to be exact replicas. They must be altered by 30 percent. However, unless you happen to be law enforcement official from the Washington, D.C., area, you likely wouldn’t notice the difference.

Originally, the three primary sets cost about $1 million to construct, but that was eight years ago. Producers have now spent over $3 million in additional set designs.

The wardrobe department purchased two of everything for two reasons. One, the principle actor will be dressed, as can a stand-in or stunt double. Two, if something were to happen to one of the outfits, the principle actor still has another.

It typically takes eight days to shoot an episode of “NCIS,” but can occasionally take a ninth day. Shooting days are generally 12 hours long, and the entire process takes three weeks from the time the first scene is shot until the final edits are made and the episode is ready to be broadcast.

The season premier of “NCIS” is Tuesday, Sept. 21, on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.

(Pictured, left to right: Shorty Gorham, Brendon Clark, J.B. Mauney)

— by Keith Ryan Cartwright