The Reagans are one of our favorite fictional families for sure, but seeing how the show is set in the real world, haven’t you wondered if they had real-life prototypes?
Blue Bloods is entirely centered around the Reagan family, and for a good reason: these guys are a curious bunch. For several generations, the Reagans have been part of the New York law enforcement system, and the current generation is no different. The show follows them, and we follow the show; this is called love.
But aside from the fact that the Reagans are our favorite characters, have you ever mused whether there was an actual cop family like that somewhere in New York? Seeing how the show is set in modern real-life NY, this appears more than likely; after all, many popular characters have actual living prototypes out there.
With Blue Bloods, this question is a bit more complicated than with, say, Peaky Blinders, because there is no cop family of the same name in the city; however, if we take a look at the backstory of the show, we can dig up some answers.
While the series was created by Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green, it’s obvious that they were taking some inspiration from a 2004’s novel by Edward Conlon titled (you won’t believe it!) “Blue Blood.” Conlon’s novel was based on his own time in NYPD, but the author didn’t have a giant cop family to match the show’s description.
So we keep looking; luckily, we don’t need to go far at all.
Right after Blue Bloods came out on CBS, the network published a piece titled “Blue Bloods: Meet A Real-Life Family Of NYPD Officers” that told the story of the Baumeisters who’d been serving in NYPD for generations. The interview with the members of the family shows their striking similarity to the Reagans.
“Obviously, we’re not royalty – ‘Blue Bloods’ is our version of royalty. We’re all police officers, and we carry on that tradition like my grandfather, my father, and [my grandfather’s] father before him,” shared John Baumeister.
We believe this is as far as we can get without stating that the show was inspired by the Baumeisters (which we explicitly don’t state). However, it was interesting to learn about this cop family and read their interview; also, it’s quite heartwarming that the Baumeisters are big fans of Blue Bloods and watch the episodes as they come.