“Blue Bloods” has plenty of cop action for viewers to enjoy. But the show is also a family drama at heart and frequently features the Reagans around a dinner table. Over the past 11 seasons, the Reagans have ate a number of different meals.
But you shouldn’t expect fish to be at the dinner table in Season 12. Prop master Jim Lillis revealed in a 2015 interview with The Virginian Pilot that fish is off the menu. “Blue Bloods” had salmon for an episode, early in the series. And the prop master said it didn’t go well.
Given the nature of a shoot, “Blue Bloods” often spends hours filming its dinner scenes. Fish just doesn’t keep as long as other food. So what’s on the menu then?
“It’s usually a pot roast, maybe meatloaf, roast chicken with some version of potatoes. Green vegetables. Always dinner rolls. That basically is my mother’s menu, the one I grew up with because I’m also Irish-Catholic,” Lillis said.
Additionally, the show sometimes branches out. For instance, “Blue Bloods” has gone Italian with their food before. They had lasagna, spaghetti, and meatballs. Production had to make 480 meatballs to properly film the dinner scene for that episode.
Donnie Wahlberg on ‘Blue Bloods’ Dinner
Each member of the cast has had their own challenges involving the Reagan dinner. For instance, “Blue Bloods” star Sami Gayle has worried about getting food in her braces. It was tricky for her filming her scenes early in the series because of this. Meanwhile, Will Estes often avoids turkey at the dinners. He said it makes him feel sleepy and affects his acting.
But Donnie Wahlberg probably takes the cake. Well, not literally that is. The actor revealed on an episode of “Live with Kelly and Ryan” in 2016 that he normally eats vegetables. But the vegetables also don’t agree with his stomach.
“I do eat in every single dinner scene, usually vegetables, which seems like a good idea because, you know, if you’re eating a lot of steak or whatever – which we have like pot roast and things like that – that could be problematic,” he said while on the show.
As a result of eating the vegetables, Wahlberg often gets gas. He’s probably not the best person to sit at a dinner table with.
“But, if you eat a lot of broccoli or green beans, that could be a bigger problem,” Donnie Wahlberg said. “I learned that it’s, yeah, a lot of gas is created.”
Like a real family, dinner isn’t perfect. But the scenes lead to plenty of stories among the cast and crew.