It’s always a good bit of nostalgia when a couple of co-stars from an old show get back together on a different project — but sometimes, it’s one of the actors who doesn’t want to invite their old pal over.
Co-stars reunions are beautiful and delightful both for the fans and for the actors themselves — especially, if they remained good friends after their previous project.
This was definitely the case with Tom Selleck and Larry Manetti who played together in the 80s hit series Magnum P.I.
Fans have been anticipating their reunion in Blue Bloods ever since Selleck landed the gig back in 2010, but years went on, and it just wasn’t happening.
This was reasonably confusing considering Tom Selleck’s importance in Blue Bloods and his character’s position.
His Frank Reagan is the Commissioner, and introducing another seasoned detective or civil servant for Larry Manetti to play together with his old friend for a couple of episodes would’ve been a piece of cake.
Recently, Manetti finally made an appearance in Blue Bloods — season 13, episode 18, to be precise. Upon shooting the episode, the actor revealed the true reason why it took so many years for him to hop onto the Blue Bloods train.
Apparently, it was Tom Selleck who’s been vetoing Larry’s appearance on the show!
“Tom did not want to put me on the show because he thought it would confuse the audience because of ‘Magnum,'” explained Manetti in his interview with TV Insider.
At some point, though, Selleck changed his mind after probably realizing that Blue Bloods was far too well-established to lose anything due to Manetti’s presence.
A year prior to his co-star’s long-anticipated appearance on the show, Tom Selleck told the producers to find a way to make their reunion finally happen.
Sure, after all these years, the Magnum P.I. co-stars reunited in Blue Bloods, but there was a big catch: Selleck and Manetti didn’t share a single scene in that episode.
This, once again, was due to Frank Reagan’s actor’s cautiousness: Manetti confirmed that the only reason his character wasn’t dealing with the Commissioner was to avoid such an obvious wink to the Magnum P.I.’s audience.
Despite Tom Selleck’s show-related concerns, it doesn’t affect his off-screen relationship with Larry Manetti in the slightest.
The two actors have been best friends for almost 45 years and feel more like brothers now, shared Manetti.
Off the set, the two of them went out together every night while filming the shared episode, so it’s safe to say their behind-the-scenes reunion was much warmer than the on-screen one.
