BREAKING BREAD WITH THE REAGANS

I ARRIVE AT Blue Bloods’ Brooklyn set, and the show’s lead, Tom Selleck, greets me with a macabre bit of news appropriate for today, October 31. “I have a scoop for you,” he says solemnly. “A couple of episodes from now, one of the Reagans chokes to death while eating Sunday dinner.” Before I can react, a “Gotcha!” smile spreads across his face—he’s clearly taken at least part of “trick or treat” to heart.

It was another holiday that famously inspired the CBS drama circa 2008. Norman Rockwell’s iconic illustration of a big family around the Thanksgiving table motivated veteran producer Leonard Goldberg to create (with writers Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green) a different kind of procedural about a clan of cops whose