Fans of the police procedural genre are no doubt familiar with the long-running TV series “Blue Bloods,” which focuses on the dramatic exploits of the Reagan family and their jobs as members of the New York Police Department.
Many longtime viewers of the show have become attached to the show’s main cast, including Donnie Wahlberg as the hotheaded Detective Danny Reagan and Tom Selleck as the fatherly Commissioner Frank Reagan.
Many people, including members of the show’s own cast, have expressed their desire to see their favorite “Blue Bloods” characters crossover with other procedural TV show dramas in the same space like “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
But while the show has had a notorious history of steering clear of these sort of official crossovers, there is one longtime cast member of the show who has made numerous appearances on the adjacent procedural drama juggernaut “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and even most fans won’t expect who it is.
Eagle-eyed fans of “Blue Bloods” may recognize the face of actor Frank Anello for his discrete run on the series as a recurring character. Introduced in Episode 20 of the eighth season of the show, titled “Your Six,” Anello plays an uncredited background role as an NYPD lieutenant.
His unnamed character returns as a credited role for nearly the entirety of the next two seasons, with Anello having recurred in nearly 40 episodes by the end of his time on the show.
Oddly enough, however, is that “Blue Bloods” is not the first time Anello had an extended role as a member of the NYPD in a show. That distinction instead goes to the storied series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” in which Anello recurs in a similar role as an uncredited background NYPD officer.
The actor plays this role for nearly the entirety of the show’s first four seasons, from 1999 to 2003, appearing in as many as 88 episodes in that time.
It’s certainly an odd sort of crossover between the two shows, but Anello does indeed play a part in both “Blue Bloods” and “Law & Order: SVU” for a considerable measure of time.
Fans of both series may never get the official crossover that they’ve dreamed of for so long, but they can at least take solace in the fact that one discrete character bridges the shows in some small way.
