After 293 episodes, is the Reagan family really saying goodbye? Well, not if the cast of “Blue Bloods” could help it.
Ever since the news broke that Season 14 of the police drama would be its last, Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg and more members of the cast have been vocal about wanting to continue.
But before we get to the end, let’s start at the beginning.
In 2010, CBS almost passed on the police drama. “They did 10 pilots that year and it was the last one they picked up, but also the highest testing one they did,” Selleck recalls, sitting across from Wahlberg for our interview. A large reason he believes it was greenlit — legendary producer Leonard Goldberg.
“Tom and Leonard were two titans in television. Sorry to embarrass you, Dad,” Wahlberg adds, looking at Selleck, who has played his father Commissioner Frank Reagan on all 14 seasons. “I think their reputations, talent and commitment to excellence got the show a chance.”
“I was told on Friday before the upfronts it wasn’t going to go on the air. And then by Sunday, I got a call,” Wahlberg remembers, noting he was on the road with New Kids on the Block at the time. “I was with my band on our cruise with 3,000 fans, and they were trying to get me at sea, saying, ‘You need to be in New York at the upfronts tomorrow.’”
Selleck remembers it like it was yesterday. And remembers that getting the 10 p.m. Friday night slot wasn’t exactly a hot ticket. “Imagine if you told CBS when we started in 2010, ‘Here’s a show you can program on your worst time slot. You don’t have to promote it, and it’ll win the night for 15 years.’ That’s pretty neat!”
Selleck met Wahlberg once before filming the pilot episode in Toronto. The day filming began, he met Bridget Moynahan (Erin Reagan) and Will Estes (Jamie Reagan), and they were all set to be a family. It wasn’t easy — but one thing was clear: The Reagans belonged in New York City. So, it was time for everyone to relocate.
Selleck had made a commitment to his family in Los Angeles but agreed to travel back and forth. “It was worth commuting for 15 years every two weeks,” he says. The Reagan dinner scenes, in which every member would join together at the table, were extremely important to him; it’s a scene featured in every episode.
When Selleck first read the pilot, he warned Goldberg about the dinner scenes, telling him, “The network’s gonna ruin it, they’re going to cut the hell out of it.” Goldberg promised they wouldn’t. And he kept his word.
“I was scared to death [at the start],” Selleck admits. “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!”
But Frank never sounded stupid. And Selleck, “from day one, fought for the integrity of the show,” says Wahlberg.
“The show could have gone in multiple directions after it was picked up, and Tom was like, ‘Listen. It’s about family first.’ 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!’”
Selleck explains that originally, Frank was to be in front of a green screen each week, running operations. But the veteran actor knew that’s not what the role of a commissioner looked like — and not what the show should entail.
It’s been five months since filming has wrapped, with a two-episode finale set for Dec. 13., but it hasn’t sunk in for either of them that the show is over. Wahlberg chokes back tears throughout the interview, as Selleck admits he’s not sure what’s next.
When CBS alerted them that Season 14 would be the end, it was originally set for 10 episodes to air last spring. “It really looked like the handwriting was on the wall,” Selleck says, so he went to CBS and found a way to convince them they’d actually save money if they did eight more episodes. After some convincing, they cut the final season into two parts — 10 hours aired last spring and eight, this fall. “The show deserved a legacy we’re proud of.”
I bring up rumors and reports of a possible spinoff, but Selleck is still baffled about CBS pulling the plug.
“I can’t figure out why they didn’t start streaming it, do 10 episodes a year. But I’m not the boss. Everybody wanted to come back. And I think with this cast, it would have been a gift for the audience,” he says. “I don’t make those decisions. I’m prepared to celebrate and commemorate this show, but I’m still getting used to it.”
They’re all still getting used to it. Filming the finale didn’t even feel real. The last scene filmed, ironically, was a funeral. But it was the second to last scene — the family gathering around the dinner table one last time — that had everyone in tears.
“Throughout the 14 years, at critical times — not just in the show’s existence, but in the state of our country — Tom had a knack for showing up to work and delivering a message, and oftentimes, not even in his own words. He would quote different things to leave us with something to think about and focus us on what’s important. It was a magical thing,” recalls Wahlberg, welling up. “When they said, ‘That’s a wrap,’ we all waited.”
Then Selleck read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All,” a poem that’s held an important place in his heart for decades, which felt fitting. It wasn’t planned, but it came to him in the moment.
“I’ve always loved it,” he says. In fact, he recalls once reading it to Tyne Daly after she made a guest appearance on “Magnum P.I.” in 1982.
This time, the room was crying before he could even finish it.
“I didn’t make it through; I was doomed,” Wahlberg laughs, wiping his eyes. “But when Tom started saying it, literally, my life passed before my eyes. I was listening to his voice mesmerize this room and thinking about what a magical journey, and what a gift that this boy, who didn’t know where his next meal was going to come from half the time, in this scrappy family, who grew up watching this man on TV, is sitting next to him, sharing this magical moment of his wisdom and grace. I couldn’t turn off the tears for another probably two days!”
Through the years, many big conversations have happened around that table, both during filming and outside of it. “Blue Bloods” has been on the air through three different U.S. presidencies and is a show about a family of cops; of course, there have been conversations about politics. And some of the Reagan family members have opposing views.
“They don’t all meld with each other just because they’re family. I think there was always a respect,” says Selleck, who also believes in keeping his personal stance on politics to himself. “I can only answer for me but blowing your own horn about your own personal issue… why do you want to piss off half the country? We’re actors.”
The show was also good at showing multiple points of view. “We dealt with a lot of issues on both sides, and we’re proud of that, but we didn’t rip them from the headlines, as some shows do,” he adds. “I honestly have to say that I’m not sure Frank Reagan and I vote the same way all the time, and that’s a good thing when you embrace those points of view.”
It’s hard to answer the question of what’s next. For Selleck, he has no plans to stop working.
“I’m not retiring. I‘ve got a mortgage; I got a ranch that I love and I love the work. Look, I’m not exactly a spring chicken in the business,” he says, aware that “the phone can stop ringing” at any time. For now, he’s looking ahead. “I’m still adjusting. I’d like to think that somebody will think of something different. A comedy would be nice.”
Wahlberg and Selleck agree they’ve learned a lot from their characters and hope to only continue that down the line. Plus, Wahlberg has been inspired by Danny’s commitment to his family.
“It’s not that I’m not committed to my family, but I live in a different state than my siblings. I think when you come from a big family, you can stay close but my career has taken me all over the world, and it still does,” he says. “My sister always calls and says, ‘Come on, Mom’s gone now, let’s all fly to Boston and do Thanksgiving.’ A lot of times I’m like, ‘It’s a long flight. I’ve been flying back and forth, filming and going on tour. I just want to sit at home and put on the fireplace and be with my wife and my dogs.’ Maybe I need to hop on a plane and do a little bit more of those occasions with the siblings and encourage Mark [Wahlberg] to get on a plane and do the same.”
He’s also staying busy work-wise, as New Kids on the Block just announced a Las Vegas residency for 2025. But what about the next acting gig?
“It feels like, I read a movie script, I’m negotiating to do a deal for the movie, and I’m walking to my agent’s office, and I keep looking back over my shoulder, hoping someone from ‘Blue Bloods’ is chasing me down the street saying, ‘Wait, we’re going to do one more season,’” he says. “A lot of times in television, 14 years in, people are running for the exit. We’re all trying to move forward now onto what’s next, but I think every one of us has that feeling of just turning back, hoping someone’s there to say, ‘Don’t sign that contract. Wait a minute!’”
I bring up the idea of a spinoff again before we wrap. One idea Selleck was pitched was Frank retiring, moving up north and running a small police force.
“I said, ‘That’s really good, but I’m going to do another ‘Jesse Stone’ movie. I’m going to write that,” he says of the character he played for nine movies, eight of which aired on CBS, the ninth on Hallmark.
Plus, would a spinoff really work, focusing on one or two characters and not the entire family — the heart of what “Blue Bloods” is about?
“It’s going to be a very delicate dance to keep that integrity. Where’s the family going to be? They can’t be in New York. I would probably drive to New York from Ohio, if I was Danny, to go to every dinner and back,” Wahlberg says of his character. “Until we know that there’s absolutely no way this show can be resurrected somehow, I think we’re all walking forward… but taking a peek back.”