‘Blue Bloods’ Star Tom Selleck Was Fired From an Iconic ’70s TV Show

Tom Selleck has plenty of crazy Hollywood stories he’s collected in his 50 years in the industry, from not getting cast as Indiana Jones to fighting with a parrot. During a stop on The Drew Barrymore Show last week, the Blue Bloods star, 76, revealed he was fired from Charlie’s Angels and this had surprising repercussions on the Blue Bloods set years later. Selleck also confirmed that, yes, he was not actually born with a mustache.

In the interview with Selleck, host Drew Barrymore reminded the actor that they both have a connection to the Charlie’s Angels franchise. Barrymore’s connection was more than a trivia footnote though, as she starred in the 2000 Charlie’s Angels movie and its sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Selleck’s link to the franchise was playing Dr. Alan Samuelson in the 1976 episode “Target: Angels.”

Selleck said he was cast when the show was trying out boyfriends for the lead stars. His character was a boyfriend for Jaclyn Smith’s Kelly Garrett. Samuelson was never brought back after his first episode though. “They fired me after the first episode,” Selleck said. “My boss on Blue Bloods actually fired me from Charlie’s Angels. I like to kid Leonard about that.”

The “Leonard” Selleck is referring to is Leonard Goldberg, who was the co-executive producer on the original Charlie’s Angels with Aaron Spelling. Decades later, Goldberg was the executive producer on Blue Bloods and would be Selleck’s boss again. Goldberg died in December 2019 at 85, after sustaining injuries from a fall. He was a television legend, having worked on dozens of iconic TV shows, including SWAT, Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, and many more. He was also the president of 20th Century Fox from 1987 to 1989, when the studio released hits like Wall Street, Big, and Die Hard.

After they talked about Selleck’s brief experience with Charlie’s Angels, Barrymore shared a photo of Selleck without a mustache. “Yes, that’s possible. I was born without it,” Selleck joked. “It’s hard to believe because I don’t feel like I know you without it,” Barrymore said. Selleck later joked that he has no idea “what’s going on under there” because he hasn’t shaved it off in 11 years. He’s never appeared on Blue Bloods without it.

Although they did not bring it up, Selleck has an even more obscure connection to Charlie’s Angels. In 1972, he co-starred in a Dubonnet commercial with future Charlie’s Angels Season 1 star Farrah Fawcett. Selleck starred in several commercials throughout the 1970s, including a Safeguard soap commercial with Teri Garr and Penny Marshall, notes TVInsider. Thankfully, Selleck does not need to be in commercials today to be seen on TV every day. Blue Bloods airs on CBS Fridays at 10 p.m. ET, and past seasons can be streamed on Paramount+. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.