A secret to the popular CBS police procedural “Blue Bloods,” which is now in its 13th season, lies not in the precinct but in the dining room.
The show’s family meal scenes, which take six to eight hours to film, usually portray the Reagan clan locked in argument as they break bread together, a feature that audiences find especially appealing.
Apparently, the meals mean as much to the cast, for it is the only time they are all on set together. Some of them even start to misbehave like real members of a family: Actress Vanessa Ray has confessed she gets the church giggles after the second hour of filming.
Why would the dinner scene, of all things, be the most beloved part of a crime drama? Perhaps both cast and audience unconsciously recognize the importance of a shared meal — and the increasing dangers it faces. The American College of Pediatricians reports, “Over the past three decades, family time at the dinner table and family conversation, in general, has declined by more than 30%.”
Another study suggests that family time has not fallen so drastically overall but that low-income families (who have less control over their work schedules) have suffered disproportionately from this trend. The disappearing family meal concerns parents because children and teens who lack this time of conversation and affection suffer from more substance abuse, unwanted pregnancies, depression, obesity, lower academic performance, smaller vocabularies, and reduced literary skills.
Among adults, fewer family meals correlate to poorer
