It’s hard to imagine Tom Selleck without his iconic mustache; however, he almost ditched his signature look when he signed on to play Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods.
The secret was revealed during Blue Bloods: Celebrating a Family Legacy on November 29 on CBS.
“Back in 2010, Tom was handpicked for the role of Police Commissioner Frank Reagan by EP Leonard Goldberg … Tom almost shaved off his iconic mustache for the role, but network execs wanted to keep it,” host Nischelle Turner said during the special episode.
Tom, 79, previously revealed why he was going to shave it off to play Frank in the first place.
“At the time, they had him as the New York City police chief,” the Magnum, P.I. star told People in an interview published on April 20. “That’s not the boss in New York, the way it’s structured.”
“And I said, ‘Well, I don’t think they can have mustaches, so I’ll shave off my mustache,’” Tom said. “And Leonard said, ‘Let me check with CBS.’ And they said no.”
Tom explained that it wasn’t uncommon for producers to have conversations about whether or not he should keep his mustache throughout his career.
“I just got used to it and used to have to shave it off for those early jobs. And then it was kind of OK,” he told the outlet.
In Blue Bloods: Celebrating a Family Legacy, it was also revealed that Tom was asked to speak in a New York accent to portray Frank.
“The night before we were supposed to shoot, the director said, ‘I think you should try a New York accent,’” he recalled. “Well, I didn’t have a New York accent in my bag of tricks; that’s something you have to work on for weeks.”
In the end, everything turned out the way that it was supposed to, as Tom and his costars were able to propel Blue Bloods to the top spot in the ratings in CBS’ Friday night lineup for 14 years.
“A lot of people thought, ‘God, they put them on at 10:00 Friday night, that’s a death spot,’ and it turned out that if we built it, they came, and that was a big surprise for everybody and that was a very big surprise when people not only came and watched it but it dominated. It dominated Friday nights for 14 years,” Tom said during the special episode.
As the final two episodes of Blue Bloods near, viewers have been wondering what will happen to Tom’s character. But showrunner Kevin Wade addressed speculation that Frank would potentially retire at the end of season 14.
“I’m pretty sure that Frank would stay in his job until the series ended,” he told TV Insider on May 17. “We didn’t really pursue that avenue because the show is built on him being the police commissioner of New York City. So to take a detour during the last mile, if this is the last mile, I don’t know what he would be doing down at the hardware store or having coffee with old buddies during the day. I always have to look at stuff that generates stories. Police Commissioner of New York generates stories. He’s the CEO of 35,000 cops.”