VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. – Tom Selleck isn’t ready to bid farewell to “Blue Bloods.”
On a cold, rainy January day at his 65-acre ranch about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, the TV icon, 79, won’t discuss departures or emotional endings, even after CBS announced in November that “Blue Bloods” was ending its run after its 14th season.
Selleck, an executive producer who stars as police commissioner Frank Reagan, the procedural’s patriarch, wants to continue the business of making TV episodes that have made “Blue Bloods” a Friday-night staple for its loyal older fan base. And if these fans speak out to improbably change CBS executives’ minds after “Blue Bloods” kicks off Season 14 on Friday (10 EST/PST), so be it.
“I see a lot of very upset people out there. We’ll see what happens,” Selleck says of the looming exit after a split season that resumes in the fall for eight final episodes. Even if “Blue Bloods” ends, it won’t be drawn out. “Whatever happens, it’s not going to be a whole season of endless soap operas winding down.”
Retirement, whether Reagan’s or his own, is the furthest thing from Selleck’s mind as he pulls up to his 1910 hunting lodge retreat in a Can-Am Defender off-road vehicle. There are no handlers, just Selleck stepping in from the rain wearing unzipped fleece and a denim shirt, smiling through his famous and still robustly dark mustache. He apologizes for being late to the interview (he’s actually early) due to a weather-related delay on his short commute from the property’s big house nearby, where Selleck lives with Jillie, his wife of 36 years.
Since “Blue Bloods” premiered in September 2010, Selleck has commuted to New York City to shoot his scenes with an ensemble cast that features Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Len Cariou and Will Estes as a multi-generational family of NYPD cops (with Moynahan playing the one legal outlier in the district attorney’s office).
“At the time, lasting 14 seasons wasn’t even conceivable,” says Selleck.
But the family-centered drama became a steady ratings magnet: Selleck found that rare second long-running hit after “Magnum, P.I.” ended on CBS in 1988 after an eight-year run.
“We really started catching on and found our groove in ‘Blue Bloods’ somewhere in the first season,” says Selleck. “I said to myself, ‘I can’t be this lucky twice.'”
He credits the contributions of producer Leonard Goldberg, who perfected the “Blue Bloods” formula of the intertwining family storylines, all coming together at the centerpiece Sunday Reagan family meal at widower Frank’s house. (Goldberg died in 2019.)
“That meal, at the end of the episode, and Leonard’s gift of casting are probably why we are still around,” says Selleck, who relishes playing the respected figure at the head of the table. “I love the role. And he’s not done. I’m not done. And I think there’s plenty of room for the show.”
