Blue Bloods honors Leonard Goldberg with title card after death

Earlier this week, the television world lost a producing legend in Leonard Goldberg. The man was behind a number of the most-successful shows of the past four decades, and Blue Bloods was one of the final ones that he had on his resume. TJ Hooker, Hart to Hart, Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, and Starsky and Hutch were just some of the series that he has on his resume.

Going into tonight’s new Blue Bloods episode, we certainly expected some sort of tribute to the man. After all, we are talking here about someone who was a huge believer in the show and responsible for helping to get it off the ground. Blue Bloods shined as a throwback series in a number of different ways, whether it be via the appearance of Tom Selleck to its themes of family and the traditional dinner scene that you get in every single episode. Much like many of Goldberg’s other shows, this one proved to be a hit. It’s lasted for a decade now and it will go down as one of the greats.

The tribute to Goldberg came in the closing seconds of the episode tonight, and it was poignant in its reference to everything that he did for this show.

You can already see from social media that the Blue Bloods family is in the process of mourning Goldberg’s loss. Donnie Wahlberg dedicated tonight to him on social media whereas Abigail Hawk (Baker), Gregory Jbara (Garrett), and others have shared messages to some degree on the subject. He was a part of the show family and helped to ensure that it got off the ground and stayed steady. It’s that stabiltiy that enabled Blue Bloods to build the incredible audience that it has Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, a timeslot that is often thought of by others as where TV shows go to die.

Tom Selleck earlier in the week put out a statement on Goldberg (per Deadline):

“Leonard Goldberg was quite simply irreplaceable. As a creative force, as a boss, as a friend, as a husband, and a father … His unwavering commitment to our show inspired all of us to take to heart his frequently asked question, ‘what can we do to make it better?’ Rest in peace my friend.”

Our thoughts go out to Goldberg’s family during what has to be a rather difficult time.