Blue Bloods remembered executive producer Leonard Goldberg with a special tribute following the legendary TV crime drama producer’s death.
Blue Bloods paid tribute to Leonard Goldberg this weekend, after the show’s executive producer passed away last week.
The CBS series placed a special title card at the end of Sunday’s episode “Bones to Pick” that read “In loving memory of our founder and mentor Leonard Goldberg.”
It was a more than fitting gesture considering Goldberg’s impact not only on Blue Bloods, but on the TV crime drama genre as a whole.
His influence on the series extended far beyond just being an executive producer—he came up with the premise for the show that’s now in its tenth season as a CBS staple, was the person who wanted to cast Tom Selleck as Frank Reagan, and is who fans can credit for coming up with the scenes around the Reagan family dinner table that set Blue Bloods apart from other shows.
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But Leonard Goldberg was a well-known name in TV for his work on other crime dramas that also became huge parts of the genre.
Before Blue Bloods, he was a frequent collaborator of Aaron Spelling; Goldberg was involved in several of Spelling’s genre hits, including the William Shatner-led T.J. Hooker, Hart to Hart, Starsky and Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, The Rookies (for which he won an NAACP Image Award for Television Producer of the Year) and its more well-known spinoff, the original SWAT.
As a producer, Goldberg was critically acclaimed. He produced the Peabody Award-winning TV-movie Brian’s Song in 1971, and as president of 20th Century Fox, produced the Oscar-nominated WarGames and Die Hard among others.
So when you look at the TV crime dramas that helped shape the genre, Leonard Goldberg’s name was on several of them. To say that Goldberg had a storied career is would simplistic. The landscape of television wouldn’t be the same without his gift for recognizing and creating great content.
Particularly for Blue Bloods fans, the show wouldn’t be in its tenth season without Goldberg. Even if you set aside that he helped come up with the general idea, Tom Selleck is the cornerstone of the show, and his name and presence definitely helped drive audiences to it in the first place. And to think of Blue Bloods without those dinner scenes is, well, unthinkable.
With all the TV crime drama history he helped create, he’s certainly earned his own place in the genre’s history, too.
Blue Bloods airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Do you have favorite memories of any of Leonard Goldberg’s shows? Let us know in the comments!