‘He can’t imagine not seeing them again’

Tom Selleck is still devastated by the cancellation of blue bloodbut he’s in touch with castmates 24/7 and is determined to hang on to his TV family as long as they take his calls, a source exclusively tells Closer to.

“Tom sees these people as extended family, he’s so close to them after almost 15 years of working together. It’s not like a normal eight-hour job, sometimes he was on set 15 hours a day, they shared so much. He can’t imagine just saying goodbye and never seeing them again, so he’s making a huge effort to stay in touch,” says the source.

The veteran actor, 79, has been open about his disappointment at his show’s cancellation. “(I hope what) audiences take away is that it’s a show worthy of an appointment,” Tom said at The Paley Center for Media during a panel discussion on the long-running series’ final season. “I have great faith and have had great faith in broadcast television. I think it suffered from being ranked second or third. And you know, I don’t think everybody in the world wants to spend an hour on their remote watching what they might want to watch that night. I’m proud to say (we became contract TV).”

The Magnum, PI the star struck up a particularly close friendship with Donnie Wahlbergwho plays his son in the program. According to the source, “He’s very close to Donnie, playing father and son became more than just playing for them.”

Which reflects their on-screen relationship: “Tom loves to give him advice,” and “They text back and forth all day long and they’re always checking in on each other,” notes the source.

In addition to his Blue Blood son, “Tom’s relation to Bridget (Moynahan) is also really special,” adds the insider. “He and Jilly (Mack) treat her like another daughter, they are both very protective and proud of her. They are very close to all the cast and are even talking about hosting a watch party for the final episode next month.”

Once per episode, the cast gathers for a family dinner, which became a basic, formal part of the show. Speaking about his despondency over the show’s cancellation, Tom lamented: “What I miss the most is my friends, my acting family. I had a team. You always say, like in high school, ‘See you,’ but it never works out that way .Everyone works, everyone goes this way and that way, and suddenly the opportunity we had, the gift that we could see everyone once every eight working days (at a family dinner), it doesn’t happen.

“The way our show was built, you could always look forward to it.”

The dissolution of Tom’s “acting family” makes him feel as if his real family is disintegrating. “Tom really doesn’t want to let these relationships go,” says the source. “He has a very hard time accepting that this is really over, and he hasn’t given up the fight to get some kind of spin-off. They would all love to work together again.”