New NCIS spawns a Gumbo Party rerun

From Saints games to “Treme” sessions, group TV viewing is always a party option in New Orleans. Living rooms are good, but bars generally are better. So where will you be on Tuesday when “NCIS: New Orleans” launches its new season?

The folks at Pizza Nola hope it will be their parking lot. The first episode of the New Orleans-set crime show will be projected on a large outdoor screen at the restaurant at 141 West Harrison. They’re calling it a Gumbo Party, an inside joke that refers to the series opener of Fox TV’s gone-and-pretty-much-forgotten “K-Ville” in 2007. In it, fictional NOPD officer Marlin Boulet (’cause, ya know, all of us here in New Orleans have French names) kept talking about gumbo parties. Which no one here had ever heard of.

That, of course, didn’t last long. Soon NOLA TV viewers everywhere were having Gumbo Parties to view the show.

So take a folding chair and a blanket to Lakeview and join the party. Before the show, at 7 p.m., Times-Picayune TV writer Dave Walker will talk about the new TV season, and there will be free gumbo while supplies last. The New Orleans-shot CBS drama airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The cast and crew of “NCIS: New Orleans” walked a red carpet at the World War II Museum for the series’ premiere last week. You can premiere it in a parking lot. (Photo: Skip Bolen, CBS)

Here’s the backstory.