Emmy-winning actor Tom Selleck may be known to many as Frank Reagan from the long-running CBS police procedural Blue Bloods,but to a generation of fans, he will always be known as Thomas Magnum. New episodes of Selleck’s Magnum, P.I. have not been made since 1988, yet the series, which ran for 158 episodes from 1980 to 1988, is now being appreciated by new audiences on streaming.
According to FlixPatrol, Magnum, P.I. is currently the No. 18 show on iTunes. As of Aug. 9, it’s dominating shows like The Day of the Jackal, Billy Bob Thornton’s Landman, and The Outer Limits, which are in the No. 19, 20, and 21 spots, respectively.
After 45 years, Magnum, P.I. still boasts an impressive 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The series, created by Donald P. Bellissario and Glen A. Larson, starred Selleck as the titular Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living in Oahu, Hawaii. Selleck won an Emmy for the role in 1984. In addition to Selleck, Magnum, P.I. featured John Hillerman as Jonathan Quayle Higgins, Roger E. Mosley as Theodore “T.C.” Calvin, and Larry Manetti as Orville “Rick” Wright.
Magnum, P.I. was so beloved that it even received a reboot of the same name, which aired on CBS from 2018 to 2024. The revival series starred Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, Perdita Weeks as Juliet Higgins, Zachary Knighton as Rick, and Stephen Hill as T.C.
Tom Selleck Reveals the One Thing He Did Not Like About the Show
It’s no secret that Magnum, P.I. was a massive hit in the 1980s and is considered to be Selleck’s big break. The actor, in his memoir, did say that there was one thing he didn’t like about the show: its title. In 2024, per TVLine, Selleck wrote in his memoir, You Never Know, that he disliked the show’s title for one particular reason.
Selleck said in his book that the show was originally titled simply Magnum, and that his character’s name was Harry Magnum, not Thomas. The titular character ended up with the name Thomas after it was decided that Harry was too similar a name to Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry in Magnum Force.
CBS and co-creator Bellisario opted to rename the show Magnum, P.I. to convey that Selleck’s character was a private investigator. But, the actor disclosed in his book that he thought Magnum, P.I. “was a sh***y title” because after spending time in Hawaii, he knew that “P.I. was a “less than flattering abbreviation for Philippine Islander.”
Later on, the Magnum title was used when the show transitioned to syndication in 1986 to help fans distinguish between reruns and first-run episodes.
A couple of decades following Magnum, P.I., Selleck stepped into the role of NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods. The series was canceled by CBS earlier this year after 14 seasons and nearly 300 episodes. Selleck starred as the patriarch of the Reagan family, which had a history of working as law enforcement officers. Blue Bloods had a cast that included Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes, and Len Cariou.
Wahlberg is set to star in a Blue Bloods spinoff titled Boston Blue, in which he will reprise his role as Danny Reagan. Joining Wahlberg in the cast of the spinoff are Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green and Ghostbusters alum Ernie Hudson. Boston Blue is set for an Oct. 17 premiere on CBS and will air in Blue Bloods’ former time slot on Fridays at 10 p.m.
