CBS’ procedural drama Blue Blood followed the lives of a tight-knit family all working in law enforcement, led by Frank Reagen (Tom Selleck). The actor opened up about the all-important dinners, the characters have each episode and shared behind the scene secrets.
Since Blue Bloods first premiered in 2010, fans continue to look forward to the weekly Reagen family dinner. As it is also one of the few times the main cast is seen altogether, the conversations can quickly turn into heated debates.
With each family member working in a different position in law enforcement, they often catch up on their professional lives and share advice. The family also rarely have guests join them for the Sunday dinner but when they do it’s usually for a special reason.
Fans will recall in season eight when Jamie Reagen (Will Estes) told the family he was engaged to Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray) by bringing her to dinner. During the milestone 250th episode titled ‘Guilt’ there was a family secret revealed about Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan).
This came after Sean (Andrew Terraciano) handed out four-leaf clovers to mark St. Patrick’s Day. This led Eddie to ask why there was no one named Patrick in the Reagan family: “I thought that all Irish families had at least one Patrick.”
When Henry stated: “It just wasn’t on the cards,” Frank clarified it would’ve been Erin’s name if she was born a boy. However, as a female, Henry shared her name was a reference to “Erin go bragh,” which translated to: “Ireland till the end of time,” in Irish.
Actor Tom Selleck was a recent guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show where they discussed the family dinners. The 77-year-old went on to reveal some behind the scenes secrets which revealed the not so glamour truth about filming with food.
When asked if the cast gets together for dinners, Selleck responded: “We do real dinners for about eight hours, food gets a little cold.”
He explained: “In film work, you repeat what you do as the camera moves around, so whatever you choose to eat at the beginning, you’re just going to have to re-eat it and re-eat it and re-eat it.
“But that’s fine, I love our cast, we have a family of actors as well as a family of characters…about every eight days we see each other and we have a good time.”
Elsewhere, Selleck also revealed the show ditched real silverware for the dinners as the sounds were too loud in the mics. Although they attempted to have real cutlery, dishes and glasses to give the dinners an authentic feel, as time went on they soon swapped them out.
The actor also joked he once broke a knife trying to cut a piece of chicken. The show’s prop master Jim Lilis told Country Living the food the characters get was inspired by his childhood: “It’s usually a pot roast, maybe meat loaf, roast chicken with some version of potatoes, green vegetables, always dinner rolls.
“That basically is my mother’s menu, the one I grew up with because I’m also Irish-Catholic.”
However, he revealed they “avoid salmon” because “the shoot may take hours and fish is fragile”.