Blue Bloods is something of an all-encompassing version of a cop show. At its center is the Reagan family. Each of the members of the Reagan family that comprise its central cast work a different job in law enforcement. For example, Danny Reagan (portrayed by Donnie Wahlberg) is a detective, whereas Jamie Reagan (played by Will Estes) is a police sergeant.
Oftentimes the core members of the family are each sequestered in their own separate storylines pertaining to their individual jobs. However, the times in which the series’ different storylines most often coalesce are its regular family dinners. For the fictional Reagan family, eating together every Sunday is a sacred tradition. At the head of the table sits Tom Selleck’s Frank Reagan, merely another member of the central ensemble but a character that nevertheless benefits from Selleck’s star power.
Erin Reagan, a district attorney, is among the central cast of characters and thus is generally at every Sunday dinner. Bridget Moynahan, who portrays Erin, has occasionally been asked about the Reagan family dinners in interviews, given their centrality to the series. As it turns out, Moynahan has run into her share of issues when shooting some of the series’ many family dinner scenes.
Bridget Moynahan has reported not feeling good from eating in consecutive takes
Bridget Moynahan revealed her thoughts on filming Blue Bloods’ family dinner scenes in an interview with Pop Culture. Overall, Moynahan described the Reagan family dinners as among some of the best moments in the series. That said, she explained that the actual act of filming some of those scenes would occasionally leave her with a bad taste in her mouth — literally and figuratively.
The food, per Moynahan’s description, is not great. That sometimes becomes an issue due to the fact that all of the food featured at the Reagan family dinner scenes is real, and certain shots require eating it. Moynahan recounted one scene in particular in which she was asked to eat nothing more than green beans. Even those, she explained, left her feeling bad simply due to the quantity of them she ended up consuming over the course of the roughly four hours it took to shoot the scene.
Unfortunately for the cast of Blue Bloods, deliciousness or lack thereof can’t be conveyed on camera. Therefore it’s likely the food served during family dinner scenes is far from gourmet, simply due to the time and money saved by not procuring high-quality food. Those scenes nevertheless remain a staple of Blue Bloods, so plenty more mediocre meals are likely to be consumed as the series continues into its unusual 11th season.