Tom Selleck Doesn’t Care About His Lines at Blue Bloods’ Famous Sunday Dinners

If there’s one thing that makes Blue Bloods feel so warm and homey, it’s the Sunday dinner scenes. Reminiscent of what goes on in many homes across the country, the show never fails to remind its viewers that the characters are people, just as real as the fans, with their own traditions and unbreakable customs.

No matter what happens on screen, viewers can always count on the Reagan family to come back to the table and remember the importance of family. One might think that these scenes are the most difficult for the actors to film because of the number of choreographed lines between all the family members.

But as Tom Selleck admits, the words are the last thing that bothers him.

Reagan Family Dinners Filming

To say that a lot goes into filming the Sunday dinner scene would be an understatement. The actors gathered around the table all know that each family member has their own place in the hierarchy and their own vibe that they bring to the scene. Keeping that in tact is a much more difficult task than keeping the lines straight.

The patriarch of the Reagan family, Frank Reagan, portrayed by Tom Selleck, has a place at the head of the table. But that doesn’t make his role any easier. As the actor admitted to People, dinner scenes can take a lot longer than expected and are generally difficult to shoot because of all the subtext in the dialogue.

“Dinner scenes are hard because your focus is not what you’re eating. It’s really not even your lines, it’s your subtext. Audiences don’t care about the words, they want to see the subtext. The family dinners are loaded with subtext, and the audience is in on it because they’ve seen what the characters are going through,” he said.

No matter how hard it is for the cast to make sure viewers see every single ounce of emotion in these scenes, both fans and the team behind the show will definitely miss these dinners once the series ends.

CBS’ most family-oriented procedural, which follows the lives of the Reagan family members, all of whom are involved in police work, is set to end its 14th season in December 2024. So far, no pleas or petitions have been able to change the network’s mind, but Selleck himself and many viewers aren’t giving up the fight.

The second part of the final 8-episode season is set to debut in the fall of 2024, so keep an eye out for more news and behind-the-scenes updates.