‘Blue Bloods’ Pays Tribute To EP Leonard Goldberg With End-Of-Show Card

Bruce Haring

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Blue Bloods executive producer Leonard Goldberg was saluted tonight with an end card tribute at the conclusion of the show.

The card came up following the cast’s traditional dinner table scene, with this particular version sporting a “Merry Christmas” theme all around. The happy moment then faded to black and the Goldberg end card: “In loving memory of our founder and mentor Leonard Goldberg.” It was followed by the episode’s end credits, the first of which was for Goldberg as the series’ executive producer.

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Goldberg was a main driver behind Blue Bloods. He came up with the general idea for the cop drama, he suggested Tom Selleck for the lead, and he is credited with making the family dinner an end-of-episode staple.

Goldberg, a former president of 20th Century Fox and head of programming at ABC, died Wednesday at 85.from injuries resulting from a fall, his publicist told Deadline.

Besides Blue Bloods, Goldberg’s partnership with Aaron Spelling was behind a string of hit TV series, including Charlie’s Angels, Hart to Hart, The Rookies, Starsky & Hutch, Fantasy Island, Family and S.W.A.T. He also won the NAACP Image Award for Television Producer of the Year for LAPD drama The Rookies.

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