What will happen in the new season of Blue Bloods? In the beginning of a season, we’re consumed with how do we start off a show that is consistent and isn’t a stunt first episode? Like, “Oh, my God! They’re going to blow up the Reagan house and everybody’s going to die!” That won’t work. I’m very, very enthused about the first few scripts. I know young Sean [AndrewTerraciano] is leaving. He’s going to college. That presents issues for Danny [DonnieWahlberg]. The first two shows are very Frank-centric in that his dilemma is huge. The quality of life in his New York City, as well as New York City by all standards, has gone down. And he really gets sideways with the mayor, who has drifted to another point of view. I wouldn’t say a Bill de Blasio point of view, but a different point of view. He’s really at odds with Frank and that whole relationship is severely tested. You’re really dealing with a guy who can fire him. Frank serves at the pleasure of the mayor and Frank is always pushing the envelope. We get into a very real issue about quality-of-life crimes and police enforcement and the fact that his police force budget’s been cut. Those are all real issues, but the fictional world really helps us. I think we have a lot of credibility in these areas because of how the show is done. But at the same time, it frees us up to deal with things differently and if they ring a bell that’s great. Frank is also thinking more and more about the conflict if Erin [BridgetMoynahan] runs for district attorney, which would be a logical next step for her. Not only would they be at odds, but there’s the whole issue of how would the public react to a Reagan dynasty, even though they ethically are at odds many times—the district attorney and the police and who they choose to prosecute. I know it sounds pretty dry of an issue, but we don’t start with issues; we start with people. We’re character-driven. I think it’s pretty entertaining. I have very few doubts on [executive producer] KevinWade’s guidance for the show. I’m just really happy. I’m really happy with the next script I’m about to go to New York to do. The Reagan Sunday family dinners have become fan-favorite parts of the show, but this is not a family that always agrees. The complications of family are endless. In a family where so many are tied to the business, even Frank’s father has his own opinions. What is most important in family dinner is it’s not “Kumbaya”; it’s the disagreements. There have been hints at Frank dating in the past. Could that happen? Frank’s a little senior. He’s also still wearing his wedding ring. We’ve never gone into it. Maybe it’s too self-centered a story about the why of all that. He’s pretty much wrapped himself in his work. The hardest thing about it is, especially with someone who is obviously as vulnerable as Frank and probably scared of relationships, you can’t just bring somebody on the show and do an episode about it. It takes a lot of planning. He’s attracted to women all the time, but dating’s a different thing. I don’t know how you get to a date in one episode. They have to hire somebody who’s willing to, No. 1, make a leap of faith, like I did on Friends—there was no script—and have a significant arc. That’s the only way to do it. The world is a different place in the decade since Blue Bloods premiered. How big of an affect do you think things like Black Lives Matter and defund the police movements have had on the show? I think they have a big effect, but I also think we try very hard not to take on one ideology or another. What we decided, I think wisely, last season was we’re doing a fictional New York based on a certain reality. Our mayor is not Mayor de Blasio. In fact, he was originally pretty much a law-and-order guy. The first couple of episodes deal with real issues, but in a way that’s fictionalized and allows us to show multiple points of view of very real problems for the police, and, frankly, the city of New York. So, we’re dealing with it, but not in an issue-of-the-moment thing. There’s a climactic effect to law enforcement. No one would argue that, no matter what side they’re on. You mentioned young Sean is leaving, which leaves a hole to fill. In the season 11 finale, Danny and Jamie [Will Estes] helped save Joe’s [Will Hochman] life, so maybe Joe will be more a part of this season and take a seat at the table? Joe is part of the family in his own way. He’s got his own mind and has chosen a line of work [undercover] that doesn’t always put him at the table, let’s put it that way. And he’s ambivalent about stuff. He is not appreciative of fame, clearly. Will Hochman is a really good actor and has really delivered. He’s also an actor in demand. We don’t have him for every episode. I know the commute isn’t great—L.A. to New York—but will you stay with the show until the ratings go down and CBS doesn’t want it? Or is there a point where you might say enough? I’d never say there’s a point where I wouldn’t say enough. Mainly because that puts me in a very bad negotiation position with CBS. Do I love the show? Yes. Do I want to continue on the show? Yes. And while I think they’d be crazy to cancel the show that’s the No. 3 scripted show in all of broadcast television, you never know in this world. I’m always looking out there for what’s next. I can tell you this: I plan on staying an actor as long as I’m wanted. I want to stay with Blue Bloods. There’s a lot of careers involved, so everybody seems to want to stay with Blue Bloods and I’m just thrilled, put it that way. Everybody’s coming back. The landscape’s changing in broadcast television. I think the heart and soul of Blue Bloods remains the same and the audience seems really hooked on that and I love that. I love the challenges of a really difficult role. These things I’ve been talking to you about are kind of abstract. To make them come to life is not easy. I think we’re doing that and, quite honestly, I think I’m doing that. If I can’t do that anymore, that would be another story. When can we expect to see your memoir? It’s coming along. It’s very personal. I can tell you what it won’t be: It’s not going to be a score-settling thing. It’s not going to be a who-I-dated thing. There’s a certain level of privacy, but I’m being extremely intimate on the personal effect everything has had on me. How are you structuring the book? It’s difficult. I wouldn’t say I’m not a writer. I’ve done a lot of screenplays by now. The book is a little different. It’s a question of finding the parameters of the book. I can’t tell 50 years of stories. I don’t want to do this happened and then this happened. That’s just a résumé. I really want to share my 50 years of show business, or how many years the book deals with, what it was like to start in a business that I never anticipated being in. I never wanted to be an actor, I never did a play, I never did anything. I got lucky and got exposed to it under contract with 20th Century Fox. So that road—and I’m quite a ways in—that road is not what the audience thinks it is. There’s been a lot of glib articles written about this or that. They aren’t actually factual. By the time they go through another writer’s research and another writer’s research and they all put their own stamp on it, it’s kind of history. Whoever the audience thinks they know is really a lot more of a finished product than I started out as. From Magnum on, I was in a different ballpark. They don’t have any idea of the years before that, which were humiliating and informative and ultimately a blessing. I got my first regular job when I was 35 years old, and those early years I’m finding pretty interesting. It’s not all about success. It’s mostly about failures. I’ve been asked that question a lot, “What do you regret?” You Google something, which I try not to do, and it’s just crazy what’s out there. Once you get off on the road of some revision of a story that goes down a different path, and somebody Googles that and writes something, or they just condense a story that’s very complicated into some very simple things and suddenly it isn’t what it is. I’m not settling scores. I would hope to provide a book that if people want to know about my career, it will be the reference but not in an academic way. It’s, to me, a very emotional book and I’m sharing a lot of stuff I haven’t shared. I’m progressing. It’s taking a while. I’m going to write tonight, I promise. I’m working diligently on it. When it’s ready it’ll be ready. Your avocado trees died in the drought. How do you spend time on your ranch now? This will sound silly, but I’ve dug the holes myself for probably 1,000 California native oak trees. I have a whole family of oak trees—toddlers, teenagers and, after 20 years, adult trees. Watching them grow is not something you can do in five minutes in this crazy instant-gratification world, but it’s very gratifying. How good of an excuse is working on the ranch to avoid writing? You can say, “I need to go check on the oak trees.” I’m afraid it is a good excuse. It’s hard for me to sit down with a blank page. I fix scripts. I’ve been fixing them since Magnum, or some people say ruining them probably, where I’ve had to change the writer’s work. I’m a better fixer probably than I am a blank-page guy. The book is lending itself to a real voice, my voice. Or my voice that I’m willing to share. I’m just trying very hard to have a personal conversation with the reader. Little notes like that’s not the right grammar, or you don’t say to who there, you say to whom, I always argue and say nobody talks like that. I write dialogue for a living, I write screenplays. I want to invent my own grammar and put it the way I would talk. The people I’ve shown what I have seem to think it has a voice that sounds like me. How is the next Jesse Stone movie coming along? It’s coming along well. Hallmark is going in a different direction that we haven’t seen with Jesse Stone, but there’s a lot of outlets now. MichaelBrandman and I, who was responsible for Jesse, even the writing, we’re very enthused about it. It’s just taken a while. But I’m very, very enthused about doing another Jesse Stone. The Hallmark thing isn’t settled. They’re changing, from what I hear, all their mystery stuff. Also, Jesse’s not politically correct and I’m not interested in getting any more politically correct. It’s not political, it’s just desperately constraining. 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