'Blue Bloods' shoots at Republic Airport; Sets 'Magnum, P.I.' reunion
Larry Manetti, left, and Tom Selleck, co-stars on TV's original "Magnum, P.I." (1980-88), will reunite on an episode of Selleck's "Blue Bloods." Credit: Everett Collection
Tom Selleck and his 1980s "Magnum, P.I." co-star Larry Manetti are reuniting for an episode of Selleck's current series, "Blue Bloods," which separately has an upcoming episode shot at two Long Island locales.
"#MagnumMonday!" wrote Donnie Wahlberg, who plays NYPD detective Danny Reagan on the CBS police-family drama, on Instagram, posting a photo of the "Blue Bloods" cast posing with Manetti. "It’s a mini Magnum PI reunion, on the set of #BlueBloods this week, with guest star Larry Manetti & Tom Selleck — together again. Wishing the late greats Roger E Mosley & John Hillerman could be here, too," he added of fellow co-stars of Selleck's popular 1980-88 series about a private investigator in Hawaii.
"We're in the middle of shooting that now," "Blue Bloods" location manager Mike Fucci, 48, of Hicksville, told Newsday by phone Tuesday. "Larry and Tom were good friends back in the day." The episode, "Family Matters," from director Ralph Hemecker and the writing team of Jack Ciapciak and Peter D’Antonio, also sees Lyle Lovett reprise his role as Texas Ranger Waylon Gates from an episode each in 2020 and 2022.
Meanwhile, coming up on March 10 is "Close to Home," written by Ian Biederman and Yasmine Cadet and directed by Doug Aarniokoski, which shot in part at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale and at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and State Route 135/Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway on the Syosset/Woodbury border.
Republic Airport, which has been used for TV shows including “Billions," "The Blacklist" “Madam Secretary” and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and such movies as "8 mm" and "Two Weeks Notice," here stood in for "a private, clandestine airstrip, the kind of place government agents drop off a cartel guy, out of general public view," said Fucci, a veteran location manager for shows including "The Americans," "Royal Pains" and "Instinct." "We shot at Republic Jet Center," one of the airport's tenants, including "at a couple of hangars in the back."
After that morning shoot on Jan. 27, "We completely moved the company to Oheka Castle in Huntington, where we made base camp" for the episode's afternoon shoot. "From there we brought essential equipment to the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Route 135. North of that is a ramp that dead-ends. With the help of the police department, we brought our four equipment trucks down the ramp and then backed them up to the dead-end at the northern end of Route 135."
The drama series about second-generation NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan (Selleck), his two sons (Wahlberg, Will Estes) and a grandson (Will Hochman) on the force, his daughter (Bridget Moynahan) in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and his retired commissioner father, Henry (Len Cariou), is in its 13th season and shoots in New York.
