Until 1995 most Americans hadn't the foggiest notion what JAG meant. The Navy Judge Advocate's General (shortened to JAG http://www.jag.navy.mil/html/headquarters.htm) Corps is the focus of this successful TV Drama created and produced by the talented Donald P. Bellisario. Bellisario is a veteran television writer-producer whose past series include "Quantum Leap," "Airwolf" and "Magnum, P.I." "JAG" is beginning its seventh season on CBS after having started out on NBC in 1995-96. Discharged after one year, "JAG" switched networks, began anew in midseason and eventually climbed to rank as one of prime time's top-gun series. The "JAG" company films all over Southern California, in the air and on the sea aboard aircraft carriers. Interior scenes are shot in Valencia, CA. The special 100th episode was filmed in Australia. Donald Bellisario said, "I started to write about aircraft carriers and pilots, and during an investigation I found out about JAG officers. I discovered that they investigate, prosecute and defend. "I thought that was perfect: a legal show with flying." He wrote a script in six weeks. NBC bought it and presented a two-hour episode on September 23, 1995. It attracted a rousing 11.0 rating and 21 share. Unfortuately, this didn't last. After a full season, minus one episode, NBC canceled. "We came out of the gate good with the pilot, and then NBC shifted the show around, changed nights, didn't really advertise it, never got behind it," said David James Elliott, who plays Lt. Cmdr Harmon Rabb, Jr. in the series. "NBC wanted an action show," explained Bellisario. "I tried to give them some of that, but I never was able to do the show I wanted." What the ex-marine saw was a series in which courage, honor and duty would be the watchwords, and relationships between people would be more important than those between pilots and their jets. Beyond that, what he envisioned is difficult to describe in a few words. He took "JAG" to CBS and outlined his plans, including cast changes, and got a quick go-ahead. The series was in limbo for about a day. Bellisario and his staff scan the headlines for story lines to use for the show. They have dealt with many issues facing the military today including the Gulf War, the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts, the fate of Vietnam and Korean POW's, and discrimination against Navy women and homosexuals. Despite the controversial topics, the Navy cooperates with "JAG," recognizing the show as a splendid recruitment poster. During Season Six, RADM Don Guter, JAGC, USN, participated in filming a segment of the show. During a site visit to San Diego, he made a stop at Paramount Television Studios in Valencia, California, to complete the filming of "Liberty". "I entered the series in the last episode of the first season," says Catherine Bell, who plays the conscientious and sometimes daring Lt. Col. Sarah (Mac) MacKenzie, "My character was killed off, so I figured I was finished with 'JAG.' "But when I heard they were changing the lead actress, I decided to go after it. Fortunately, Don remembered me."We had some tough times, but I always had faith in the show. In the first year I said we were going to be in the top 30 (rated series), and we were. The next year I said we'd be in the top 20, and we were.." John M. Jackson, who portrays Adm. A. J. Chegwidden, a former Navy SEAL, commands the JAG unit. "I came in for three or four episodes at the very end of the first year," said the slick-haired actor. "When NBC dropped the show, I was working at the time, and I didn't know what to think of it. I don't know how networks work. I'm not sure I want to know." When the show transferred to CBS, Jackson was included as a regular. The show has been called a cross between "Top Gun" and "A Few Good Men." Watching it is also apt to remind older viewers of "Mission Impossible" or "Perry Mason," depending on the episode. For while the program strives for consistency of character and theme, the plots vary so much that there is a certain jagged quality from week to week - which is just fine with Mr. Bellisario. "I've put together a group of writers who will give me different stories, different tones," he said. One episode might be almost pure comedy, he said, while another might be driven by adrenaline. Mr. Bellisario doesn't mind the program's going on "side tracks," as he called them, as long as the overall direction "stays on the main track." If railroad metaphors seem old-fashioned, so, is Mr. Bellisario in some ways, and proudly so. Reflecting disdainfully on the bedroom romps and sex-related triple entendres that fill much of current television, he asked rhetorically, "Am I on the wrong side of the generation gap?" It bears repeating that this is an ex-leatherneck speaking, a man of vigorous middle age who is no prude. Whatever; he knows the answer to his own question, knows which side of the gap he belongs on. It is no accident, he said, that while "JAG" is peopled by attractive characters, they are neither consumed nor defined by sex. "People are hungry for shows you can watch with the whole family," said Ms. Bell, a London-born actress who insists she is not really like the character she plays. The soft-spoken Ms. Bell, who is fluent in Farsi, the tongue of her Persian ancestry on her mother's side, said she is "a little sillier" than the Marine Corps officer she portrays. "I'm not a superhero," she said. Maybe not. But let the record show that Ms. Bell kick-boxes to relax and stay in shape. If there is one off-camera person besides the writers and crew to whom Mr. Bellisario and the cast feel a debt it is Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television. "He believed in the show," Mr. Elliott said. ''You never know why a show works,'' says Leslie Moonves, CBS Television CEO. ''But we showed a lot of patience with it, spent a lot of time promoting it, and I think the quality of the show just won out. There are no instant hits anymore. Once people got exposed to JAG, they started liking it.'' Though many shows have switched networks and thrived Moonves crows that JAG is the first show to gain ratings in the process. Reruns have begun airing on USA Network, and Bellisario is discussing another project with CBS. A spinoff, perhaps? ''I've never thought about that,'' he says. Over the course of its life, JAG has aired on Saturdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Tuesdays, where it finally took off. ''To see a show that you had faith in, that you really believed in, finally get an audience . . . is just great,'' Bellisario says.