By Michaela Gordoni
BLUE BLOODS showrunner and executive producer Kevin Wade believes the show was a massive success on CBS because it “didn’t have an agenda.”
“I think that people appreciated the show didn’t have an agenda,” he told Deadline. “That’s the thing we worked hardest on, and it was something that could easily, in some hands, have slipped into preachiness. We didn’t take sides.”
The show ran for 14 seasons on CBS and inspired the current spinoff, BOSTON BLUE.
Wade explained, “We had a motto. The motto was, if you’re going to build a soap box for one side of an issue, build a soap box of equal dimensions for the other side so that the audience could not feel like they were being preached to.”
BLUE BLOODS star Donnie Wahlberg liked that aspect about the show.
“What’s great about our show is that we get to explore these issues from all sides …” Wahlberg said back when Season 6 aired, “because each family member has their own take on these different things.”
BLUE BLOODS patriarch Tom Selleck said its faith and family elements held the show up.
“That’s why it went to 14 seasons,” he shared. “The faith, family, and the traditions kept people going, and that’s why they were so upset when it left the air. I appreciate that Donnie and the other EPs, and then obviously our showrunners, the Brandons, knew that if we were going to continue this TV legacy, we have to keep faith, family and tradition at the heart of it.”
BLUE BLOODS’ Abigail Hawk agrees. The show depicts a busy law-enforcement family who still take time to make each other important.
“I think the Reagans truly making the time and carving it out to reconnect, to pause and just get their feet out of the fire for a second is really, really important and a lesson that all of us can understand,” said Hawk.
BOSTON BLUE’s Sonequa Martin-Green thinks it’s the characters that made BLUE BLOODS a success.
“I love that it is actually a family drama, and the backdrop is law enforcement. We get to see more than one area of law enforcement, from the crime scene to the DA’s office, but with any quality story, what’s really bringing people in are the characters,” she said. “That’s really what makes it memorable, and that’s what turns it into legacy, which is what we had with Blue Bloods.”
BLUE BLOODS days are over, but you can catch the next episode of BOSTON BLUE on Fridays at 10/9c on CBS.
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