Spoilers lie ahead for the Blue Bloods series finale, "End of Tour."
Blue Bloods finally ended after 14 seasons amid the 2024 TV schedule, and the finale featured one last Reagan family dinner. Those scenes were highlights during the show’s run, and secrets of the dinner scenes have been surfacing over the years (including the reason why the cast ditched real silverware). On that note, I just learned that there was actually a competition going on while those beloved scenes were filmed.
The Reagan family dinner scenes are perhaps the best part of each episode, and Tom Selleck even commemorated the final one with a heartfelt poem. Many of the clan's dinners can be funny, while some involve tension between the characters. Now, it would seem that there was a different kind of tension going behind the scenes. Blue Bloods writer Jack Ciapciak gave up more family dinner secrets while speaking with Us Weekly. A interesting tidbit is the fact that directors would have competitions to see who could cut down their filming time the most since working on them used to take around six hours:
It did lessen, time-wise, by the end, I think the fastest one came in under three hours, which was remarkable … Most of our crew was with the show since day one and they figured out the way to shoot those scenes economically. And thankfully, they did. The time it took did go down over the years, and it became a competition amongst the visiting directors.
It's surreal knowing that a scene that lasts only a few minutes can take so much time to film though, of course, productions do need time to film the necessary coverage. All in all, it sounds like the cast and crew got into a good rhythm and managed to learn the ropes for the dinners. The fact that the directors were able to find a fun way to cut down their shoot times is also cool. And, based on the comments Jack Ciapciak shared, those changes were necessary:
Getting those scenes right was always the trickiest. Just how do you make that scene natural and entertaining and real? That was by far the trickiest.
Between the food preparation, the cast, the need to film different angles and likely other elements, the family dinners are certainly tricky production-wise. Yet, considering how long the show was on air, it's understandable that the crew would be able to eventually figure out how to trim down filming and get into a groove. It's weird to think that fans won't see anymore of those dinners, but the final one was certainly an all-timer.
The final Reagan family dinner included special guests such as Erin’s daughter, Nicky (Sami Gayle), Danny’s eldest son, Jack (Tony Terraciano), Joe Regan's son, Joe Hill (Will Hochman), and Erin's ex-husband/soon-to-be husband again Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann). On top of those appearances, there was a special announcement. Jamie and Eddie revealed that they are indeed expecting a little Reagan and, of course, everyone was so excited over the much-needed happy news.
Despite the directors' methods of reducing the shoot time, what's been said about the final dinner would suggest that everyone wanted to stay in the moment. I am curious to know how long it took to film the final dinner, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a somewhat longer shoot.
There may be no more Reagan family dinners, but people can relive them by streaming episodes of Blue Bloods using a Paramount+ subscription. In the meantime, I'm hopeful that some more BTS facts regarding the communal meals will come out and provide fans with more cool insight into the production process.
