After Tom Selleck landed his MAGNUM P.I. role, he learned an important lesson about TV family.
“Jack Lord had said I was in a position to make the crew a family. I was well aware of that, thanks to my friend and mentor James Garner. Each of them had made that point in his own way, but it was a reminder of my obligation as the guy to provide the leadership to help make that happen,” Selleck wrote in his memoir, “You Never Know.”
“There was no school for that, but I’d had Jim Garner as my teacher. I also remembered how many times I had worked on a set where I was walking on eggshells and how many times I had said to myself, ‘Boy if I ever have my own show, that is never going to happen,’” he said.
Selleck recalled MAGNUM’s wrap-up. They celebrated the show with a catamaran cruise, fireworks show and custom shirts for the crew and their families. They ended as a family, just like the BLUE BLOODS cast did.
“That’s what we’ve become on BLUE BLOODS, a family. Not just a bunch of actors playing family members, but a bunch of actors who have become a family themselves,” he said. “And time has graced us all with the opportunity to embrace that.”
Of the BLUE BLOODS departure, actor Donnie Wahlberg, who played Selleck’s son on the show, said, “I was listening to [Selleck’s] voice mesmerize this room and thinking about what a magical journey, and what a gift that this boy, who didn’t know where his next meal was going to come from half the time, in this scrappy family, who grew up watching this man on TV, is sitting next to him, sharing this magical moment of his wisdom and grace. I couldn’t turn off the tears for another probably two days!”
Selleck read the poem, “Love is Not All” at the wrap-up party. It’s about love’s worth and role in humanity.
“I’ve always loved it,” Selleck said.
On BLUE BLOODS, the cast didn’t always see each other frequently, but they were still close, thanks to every episode’s family dinner scene.
“On an ensemble like this, you could go three, four weeks and never see some of your fellow actors,” he shared. “It’s just work on different days and all on BLUE BLOODS every eight days, which is how long it took to do an episode, you were all going to get together at that family dinner table. And that’s what I think I’ll miss most.”
