“Put on your red dress, mama…” are lyrics that have been sung by over 1000 recording artists including Elvis Presley, The Beatles , The Stones, Stevie Wonder, The Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin. It is a song with many great stories to tell.
Also with a great story to tell is tonight’s NCIS: NEW ORLEANS when it shares one of its city’s rich traditions, the “Red Dress Run.”
Tonight, the Crescent City celebrates the tradition of “hashing,” first believed to have appeared in 1938 in what is now Malaysia.
What exactly is “hashing?” Decades ago, British colonial officers and expats began meeting on Monday evenings to run off any residual “excesses” of the weekend. (Sound more interesting now?)
The objectives of these self-named Hash House Harriers were:
- To promote physical fitness among members
- To get rid of weekend hangovers
- To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer (within reason)
- To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel
While those objectives speak for themselves, the Big Easy has adopted some of the goals of the HHH and incorporated them for charity. Now known as NOH3, the group calls itself a “drinking club with a running problem.”
Each year, The NOH3 puts on the fabulous New Orleans Red Dress Run, which raises money for Breast Cancer Research and other charities.
Tonight, the cast of NCIS: NEW ORLEANS shows its commitment to the Big Easy by donning red dresses and running in the event, despite the heat and humidity of New Orleans in August (and foregoing of the humility of grown men willing to don a red dress and run through that humidity for charity).
The team’s participation is cut short in tonight’s episode, however, when a Petty Officer overdoses in the French Quarter. A new designer drug has hit town. The death rate for one week is rising with the influx of the new drug, and the NCIS: NEW ORLEANS team commits to slowing down the death count.
The NCIS: NOLA team shows no lack of commitment when it comes to sporting the red frocks, however, and even guest star, Steven Weber as Councilman Douglas Hamilton, wears a tony red number that shows off his junk-in-the-trunk (while accessorized with a lovely set of June Cleaver pearls).
Kudos to the Crescent City for its rich traditions and promoting the fun as a way to help others less fortunate. Check out the flood of red at the city’s Armstrong Park.
NCIS: NEW ORLEANS stars Scott Bakula, Lucas Black, Zoe McLellan, Rob Kerkovich, Shalita Grant, Daryl ‘Chill’ Mitchell and CCH Pounder.
Other guest stars in this week’s episode, “Insane in the Membrane,” are Lawrence Adimora, Nelson Lee, Sunil Malhotra, Camille Balsamo, Caroline Hebert, Tim J. Smith, Dustan Costine, Dawntavia Bullard, Dawn C. Hamil, Chris Marroy, Chima Chekwa and Brandon Cunningham. “Insane in the Membrane” was written by David Appelbaum and directed by Leslie Libman.
NCIS: NEW ORLEANS airs on October 27 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
