"Blue Bloods" star Tom Selleck discusses CBS drama's milestone 250th episode
NEW YORK -- The hit CBS drama "Blue Bloods" will hit a television milestone Friday night with its 250th episode.
CBS2's Mary Calvi spoke with the show's star, Tom Selleck, about the primetime accomplishment and the significance of the episode.
"It's a big deal. It's still kind of sinking in because it seems like yesterday we were doing the first one, and I was talking to [co-star] Donnie [Wahlberg] about it today, and it's just gone so fast. I think 'cause we like our jobs and we like our show," Selleck said.
One of the set pieces of the show is its family dinner scenes, and Selleck says it's not only the characters gathering as a family, but the cast, too.
"We have this actors' family, and it's a great big family, and we all kind of love each other. Don't tell them, but we do," he said.
Selleck says the first day of work on the show's pilot episode was the family dinner scene.
"I was scared ... And they all looked like they weren't scared, and then they've all confessed that they were scared and I didn't look like I was scared, so we got through it," he said.
On the show, Selleck plays NYPD commissioner Frank Reagan, who he says "has the weight of the world on his shoulders."
"A person in command can't show weakness, can't show worry, can't show anxiety because he's gotta inspire the troops, so to speak, so somehow I gotta show that to the audience but don't show everybody in the scene, unless I have what I'd call a private moment as the character where I can really show the weight," Selleck said.
While the show tackles controversial topics, Selleck says it's not a ripped-from-the-headlines "issue show."
"If you write an episode for episodic television, an hour episodic television, it's been hanging around for about four months ... And we deal with some real issues, but we're not trying to mimic the headlines. And when that comes up, it's been remarkable the coincidence that the issue just happens to be in the press even though we were thinking of it four months ago," Selleck said. "The other thing we try very hard to do is have worthy adversaries and not just tell one point of view, and I think that's really important because I don't think television should hit people over a sledgehammer. It should make them think and maybe decide for themselves."
You can watch the 250th episode of "Blue Bloods" Friday at 10 p.m. on CBS2.