Tom Selleck, Pre-'Magnum P.I.,' was Fired From 'Charlie's Angels' by Present 'Blue-Bloods' Boss

Photo byDrew Barrymore YouTube Channel

Before his star-making role on TV's original Big '80s edition of Magnum P.I. and latest hit show Blue Bloods, Tom Selleck made several small screen guest appearances on detective series of the '70s. Those include an early episode of The Streets of San Francisco and an episode from the first season of Charlie's Angels.

In the Charlie's Angeles segment, "Target: Angels," which premiered October 27, 1976, Selleck played Dr. Alan Samuelson, boyfriend to Jaclyn Smith's Kelly Garrett.

The episode was directed by Richard Lang, who would go on to guide several segments of the Kung Fu TV series.

The "Target" episode, written by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts, and David Levinson, had to do with death threats and attacks made on all the angels. That would be Smith's Garrett, as well as Kate Jackson's Sabrina Duncan, and Farrah Fawcett's Jill Munroe.

The part of Selleck's Samuelson was intended to be a recurring role, but as the actor explained during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, he was fired from Charlie's Angels.

The decision not to have the Samuelson character return to Angels was made by showrunner Leonard Goldberg, who partnered on the series with TV-producing icon Aaron Spelling.

Decades later, Goldberg would produce Blue Bloods, Selleck's second hit TV show which began on CBS in 2010, and is this year ending its iconic 14-season run.

Selleck frequently joked with Goldberg behind the scenes of Blue Bloods, about his firing from Charlie's Angels nearly fifty years before.