Tom Selleck's Favorite Blue Bloods Episode Is One Of The Show's Most Emotional

Police procedurals can have a light-hearted edge every now and then — but most of the time, audiences are immersed in haunting, stirring, and often heartbreaking stories that shine a light on the world around us and the cruelties it can hide. When it comes to one of TV's classic procedurals, "Blue Bloods," star Tom Selleck's favorite episode of the series is actually one of the show's most emotional.

"The one that will always be my favorite is 'The Job,' in which you found out that [my character] Frank was in the World Trade Center's North Tower on 9/11," the actor told TV Insider in a March 2022 interview. The episode in question was the twelfth episode of season 2, which aired in February 2012.

"It was quite stirring because 9/11 was still fresh in people's minds. It was hard for me to be strong as an actor, not to break down because Frank is tougher than that," Selleck explained. "My friend F. Murray Abraham played a [psychologist, Leon Goodwin] but Frank doesn't like psychologists. The episode winds up dealing with the people who got sick from being there at the time."

In the episode, audiences are brought deeper into NYC police commissioner Frank Reagan's personal life when he grapples with the death of his friend and former partner, who saved many New Yorkers at Ground Zero — but ultimately perished as a result of a chronic illness he contracted through the dangers of the wreckage. 

"We were the first show allowed to show the Trade Center Memorial, right after it was finished," Selleck told the outlet before adding, "It was written by Brian Burns, who just wrote the 250th [episode]."

Burns is a major part of why this episode is remembered for its impact. His writing was so effective that he was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for this episode. The Humanitas Prize is a film and television award that "honors and empowers film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way." The Prize was founded over 50 years ago, and has since become a very prestigious piece of recognition for writers.

Selleck stuck with the show from the very beginning to the very end, closing out the show as Frank with season 14. CBS announced they were canceling "Blue Bloods" after 14 seasons in May 2024 (and we dug into why) despite the fact that the cast fought to keep their show going. The final season — in which original cast members Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynihan, Will Estes, and Len Cariou also saw the series to the end alongside Selleck — aired from February to May 2024 and then came back for a second batch of episodes from October to December 2024.

Selleck's final scene for the series was, too, an emotional one. The show ended with a final Reagan family dinner, one of its mainstay comforts. "Nobody wanted it to end," he told Entertainment Weekly at the time. "It was all pretty emotional. ... It was a blessing for 15 years. I mean, we had two families. We had the Reagan family that we portrayed, and quite quickly we had this family of actors who all actually liked each other, which never happens in television."