Blue Bloods may have ended almost two years ago, but the show’s legacy lives on with the spinoff, Boston Blue, which recently returned on the 2026 TV schedule. Donnie Wahlberg is back leading the new series, though a lot of the focus is on a new law enforcement family with a different family dinner tradition. However, there is still a lot happening on and behind-the-scenes on the show that harkens back to Blue Bloods. This includes some Tom Selleck advice Wahlberg recently admitted he still follows.
Selleck was really the patriarch of the Blue Bloods family, and that was true both on and off screen. It was the way that Selleck handled himself in certain situations that really stood out on set before the show was cancelled. It's stuck in Wahlberg's mind in the time since.
Tom is not the type of guy to sit down and say, ‘Let me tell you how it’s done.’ Right? He’s a lead-by-example person. And he did. And I learned so much watching him. I now watch and remember what he did. And I think about it all the time. I say, ‘OK. Now I understand what Tom might have experienced in this situation. Now how are you going to manage it?’
The actor specifically remembers one piece of advice Selleck specifically gave that he exemplifies on his own set that I want to point out, because it is the kind of advise that would stand out. As he recalled to People:
I say it all the time. I quote him a lot on set. ‘Slow down to hurry up’ is my favorite, though, because a lot of times we try to hurry, we try to rush through the scene or we try to rush through the preparation or the stunt rehearsal or the dialog. And when you hurry in your acting, you end up slowing yourself down.
There’s a lot of prep that goes into making an episode of network television. If you put the work and don't rush into things early, it will pay off later. Wahlberg explained exactly what he feels the actor's mantra means, and it's solid advice for any set, and most jobs in general.
You stumble over the lines. The camera’s not in the right place. You’re not on your mark when you’re supposed to be. Whatever. And when you actually slow it all down, it speeds up the process. Everything is about slowing it down to speed it up.
The actor admitted he learned “so much” from his on-screen father, and he said there are also things he has discovered that he didn’t realize he absorbed watching Selleck. He'll find himself saying similar things and someone on set will remind him Tom Selleck used to say something similar.
Meanwhile, the discourse surrounding Selleck’s potential return for Boston Blue continues, and while I'm hopeful, there's still no telling if it will actually happen. The interest is definitely there, but it seems to boil down to cost, the story, and scheduling. It's worth pointing out Selleck is busy with post-Blue Bloods projects, but I think the fans would be happy to see Frank Reagan back, and we now certainly know now his influence is still being seen on the new show's set.
While we wait, new episodes of Boston Blue air on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
