When taking on his role on “Blue Bloods,” star Tom Selleck had two “missions” he wanted to accomplish. One was a pretty humorous goal. The other was to capture something much more serious.
Selleck, who plays New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan on the hit CBS show, talked about these goals during a 2017 interview at the 92nd Street Y.
“I had like two missions – beyond the obligation to entertain people,” the popular actor said during the interview. “One was to portray a patriarch who is smarter than Homer Simpson.”
Unsurprisingly, this news about the first “mission” Selleck wanted to accomplish drew a big laugh from the audience. The “Blue Bloods” star then said, “Because a lot of dads are pretty dumb on TV.”
Tom Selleck Discussed How ‘Blue Bloods’ Demonstrates the ‘Weight’ Frank Reagan Carries as NYPD Commissioner
Tom Selleck’s second “mission” on “Blue Bloods,” however, really got to the heart of who his character Frank Reagan is and how his job impacts his life.
“The other was to convince CBS and our audience that this world that Frank’s in isn’t just him going off the reservation because he used to be a detective,” Selleck said in 2017. “But, it is about the sheer weight and the debris that he witnesses from his responsibility.”
That responsibility is one that is difficult to imagine for most people. That vast majority of us don’t make decisions that will impact the lives of tens of thousands of law enforcement professionals.
“Those of you who watch the show regularly probably have a hint by now Frank would love an excuse to be fired,” Tom Selleck said. “That kind of weight on his shoulders – the safety of 35,000 men and women – on a man who ordered his son into harm’s way and he didn’t come home is something, I think, we’ve made real.”
You can watch Tom Selleck talk about his “missions” on “Blue Bloods” below. His comments on this topic begin around the 35-minute mark of the video.
Tom Selleck Gave Credit to Showrunner for Successful Capturing Frank’s Character
One reason “Blue Bloods” has been successful in capturing Frank’s character and how his job as police commissioner weighs on him is due to the work of someone working behind the scenes of the show, according to Tom Selleck.
“That has a lot to do with Mr. (Kevin) Wade,” Selleck also said.
Wade, who is the showrunner and an executive producer on “Blue Bloods,” was also present during the 2017 interview – as was most of the show’s cast. Wade was given a chance to talk about how the show had evolved since its first season in 2010 until that time.
“I think the big difference to myself and to the writers is that we no longer are just trying to find stories where there’s a bad guy, a couple of obstacles to catching the bad guy, and then we get the bad guy,” Wade said.
Instead, “Blue Bloods” became a show where one of the main characters in an episode finds something in the “bad guy” they can relate to. “And so, it ends up costing (the character) something to carry out justice,” Wade also said.
