How the Blue Bloods cast pretended to eat while filming Reagan family dinners: ‘We all have tricks’

Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg recall their pilot episode as Blue Bloods ends its 14-year run. The series would have gone the way of other procedurals if Selleck hadn’t held his ground.

Donnie Wahlberg confirmed Blue Bloods wasn’t conceived as a family-centered police drama. The show would have been a straightforward procedural but Tom Selleck insisted on his vision. “The show could have gone in multiple directions after it was picked up, and Tom was like, ‘Listen. It’s about family first,’” Wahlberg told Variety. “They had this big set design with a computer, and Tom was going to stand in front of the computer and overlord over New York. And he was like, ‘That’s ridiculous!’” Blue Bloods‘ recurring scene supposedly involved Selleck’s character Frank Reagan manning a command center, orchestrating the NYPD’s operations at every turn.

Selleck admitted his one fear after being cast to lead Blue Bloods‘ ensemble. “I was scared to death [at the start],” he recalled. “The director called me the night before, and he said, ‘I think you should do a New York accent.’ And I said, ‘I don’t have that in my bag of tricks. If you wanted it, you should have told me six months ago or six weeks ago!’ So that’s all I could think about. They all sound great. I sound stupid!“