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‘Blue Bloods’: Where the family business is a badge of honor By Jacqueline Cutler © Zap2it “Blue Bloods” reminds us what families should be about. The CBS drama, finishing its freshman season as a hit Friday, May 13, features four generations of the close-knit Reagans. No matter what heinous crime is tearing apart New York — which this crime- fighting family will solve — on Sundays the clan gathers for an old-fashioned family meal. “Dinner is one of the few times families can get to- gether,” says Tom Selleck, who stars as Commissioner Frank Reagan. “The family dinner usually results in an argument,” Sell- eck says. “Somebody storms off. Don’t leave in the middle of a fight.” Though the family dinners are set in Staten Island, New York’s forgotten borough, these scenes are shot at a studio in an industrial corner of Brooklyn. The commissioner, very much in control at work and at home, presides at the head of the table. There he talks with his dad, Henry (Len Cariou), the retired police commissioner; sons Danny and Jamie (Donnie Wahlberg, Will Estes); daugh- ter Erin (Bridget Moynahan), an assistant district attorney; daughter-in-law Linda (Amy Carlson); and three grandchil- dren. Will Estes, Len Cariou, Tom Selleck, Bridget Moynahan and Donnie Wahlberg (from left) star in “Blue Bloods,” which concludes its fi rst season Friday on CBS. The dynamics between par- ent and child feel very real, as do the characters in general. These are cops, not saints. “I always felt that we are playing heroes, especially since 9/11,” Selleck says. Selleck is keenly aware of how large the attacks loom in the NYPD and asked for a photo of the World Trade Center for the commissioner’s office. He gives a lot of thought to his character, from his exterior — the commissioner’s con- servative look of a three-piece suit with a pin that former NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton gave him — to his interior. 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As a hard-charging ADA, Erin tries to convict the bad guys her brothers nabbed. “A lot of my work is figuring out my language, especially if it’s a difficult case,” Moynahan says. “And the pieces that surround it are different every time. “I love the show and love the family aspect,” she says. “It sets us apart from other cop shows. You get involved in the characters’ lives and are touched in some ways that are not fulfilled on other shows.” Those scenes, such as one in the living room where the grandfather teaches his rookie grandson Jamie how to twirl a nightstick, separate “Blue Bloods” from other procedur- als. Still, this is a cop show, and the crimes have a definite New York feel to them. In an early episode, retired Com- missioner Reagan meets one of his old sources, a mobster known as Happy Jack (guest star Dominic Chianese), in a market on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx. This gives the show an authenticity that can’t be found on a studio lot. “I’m the guy who insisted we shoot in New York,” Selleck says. The city is brought into the show, even at the Sunday dinners, when Henry serves cheesecake from Junior’s. And it can be felt in the swagger of the cops. Wahlberg instinctively gets this. He lives in an area in the city yet to be gentrified. Even when New Kids on the Block was the hottest band in the world, he was hanging out with pals in Co-Op City in the Bronx. “I remember walking down Seventh Avenue in the mid- ’80s,” Wahlberg says in his dressing room. “People were getting pickpocketed in the middle of the street. It was like watching ‘The French Con- nection.’ ” He’s done ride-alongs with cops and has played one before. Like Estes, who plays his younger brother, Wahlberg says he learns a lot from Selleck. “Tom will talk about how he thinks Frank would have raised the kids,” Wahlberg says. “He will just say the truth about his character. I try to take elements of what he’s saying and use it to inform my own choices.” “The best way to work as an actor is from what you do know,” Estes says as Wahl- berg’s French bulldog trots over for petting. “Tom, in par- ticular, comes so focused and ready and conveys so much fortitude and empathy at the S PECTRU M EYEWEAR GALLERY Can also be seen in Syracuse. To make an appointment call • GLASSES • CONTACTS • EYE EXAMS • SUNGLASSES David Britze, O.D. is no longer at the Vision Center in Goshen. Please call 574-970-7444 to schedule your appointment. 56028 Parkway Ave., Suite E Elkhart • 574-970-7444 574-457-4476 Allergies? Asthma? We Can Help! See us for help with: • Headaches • Sinus Pressure • Congestion • Cough • Shortness of Breath Yatin J. 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