Celebrity / TV

‘Blue Bloods’: Donnie Wahlberg Says These Are the Most Memorable Reagan Family Dinners

“Blue Bloods” is known for having excellent storylines, but it’s also known for the Reagan family dinners. Here’s what Donnie Wahlberg said were his most memorable dinners on the show so far. What happens to leftovers from family dinner on ‘Blue Bloods’? Rest assured, food from “Blue Bloods” family dinner is not thrown out. …

by Sheiresa Ngo

Published on December 11, 2019

3 min read

What happens to leftovers from family dinner on ‘Blue Bloods’?

Donnie Wahlberg on the set of ‘Blue Bloods.’ | John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images

Rest assured, food from “Blue Bloods” family dinner is not thrown out. Whatever isn’t eaten by the cast is given to the crew members to take home, reports “TV Insider.” Prop master Jim Lillis says all the food is cleared out. “Food that’s still good is shared with the crew to take home,” Lillis told the publication. Nothing goes to waste.”

Donnie Wahlberg’s most memorable Reagan family dinners

Blue Bloods cast | John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images

Wahlberg told “TV Insider” two Reagan family dinners stand out most for him. One memorable dinner is the first one. Wahlberg told the publication he felt intimidated because he had to sit down at the table for the first time and take over the dialogue. Performing for the first time in front of veteran actor Tom Selleck gave him a bit of the jitters. Here’s how Wahlberg described filming his first Reagan family dinner scene:

My character basically had to run roughshod over the table and to sit down with that cast and with Tom Selleck at the head of the table. My dad used to wear a mustache a lot, and he’s very intimidating, and he sat at the head of the table like that. It was sort of traumatizing for me to sit there and have to come in on my first day of shooting the series and just basically take over the dinner table.

Another family dinner Wahlberg remembers vividly is the first one he filmed without Amy Carlson (Linda Reagan. “The first dinner scene without Linda was really emotional, just genuine emotion. Nobody was acting that day. My tears were real, because even though in real life, Amy Carlson was still around, I was going to be moving forward on the show without her. I wouldn’t have a partner anymore to help me with these boys — on-screen and off, to be frank. It’s a big loss, and I’ll always remember the emotion of that day,” Wahlberg told “TV Insider.”

Donnie Wahlberg says his very first Reagan dinner reminded him of his childhood

Donnie Wahlberg as Danny Reagan on Blue Bloods | John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images

There’s another reason the first Reagan family dinner is memorable for Wahlberg. In an exclusive interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Wahlberg told writer Nicole Weaver that shooting the pilot dinner scene was special to him because it reminded him of his childhood. “Well, the family dinner scenes on Blue Bloods, the very first one that I ever read, obviously, was the pilot episode,” Wahlberg told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “When I read that scene, that was the moment I decided I wanted to be a part of the show.”

Wahlberg told Weaver he hadn’t been hired for the part of Danny Reagan yet, so he had to work hard to earn the role. “I hadn’t been offered the job yet, so I had to go in and earn it. But I read that scene, and it rang so true to my childhood and to my upbringing with all of us sitting around the table arguing and disagreeing and everyone [having] a different point of view.”