Fans of Blue Bloods were bummed when CBS announced that the long-running police drama about the Reagan family was wrapping up for good in late 2024, leaving a big hole in the 2025 TV schedule. The cast, including star Tom Selleck, weren’t thrilled either. It seems that even at 80 years young, Selleck still loves putting in serious time on set.
It’s no surprise that last week, rumors emerged that Selleck could be returning to one of his most beloved characters, Detective Jesse Stone. That is great news, and it has me hoping that another character from author Robert B. Parker could also get a reboot.
Spenser Was Parker’s Main Character
Before Parker died in 2010, he wrote 40 novels about a Boston detective named only “Spenser.” A surname or first name was never given, so it’s up to us to guess which Spenser was. The books have long been a favorite of mine, going all the way back to my teen years. I’ve read all 40 and a 41st, as Parker’s final novel was unfinished at the time of his death at age 78 and later finished by Parker’s agent, Helen Brann.
In contrast, Parker wrote nine Jesse Stone novels. He also had a third character, Sunny Randall, though she has never been adapted. So, Spenser is really Parker’s most important character, and years before Selleck first starred as Jesse Stone in a TV movie, Spenser: For Hire was adapted from the Spenser novels.
Spenser Has Been Adapted A Few Times Before With Mixed Results
Robert Urich starred as Spenser on the ABC show Spenser: For Hire for three seasons in the 1980s. The show was a modest hit for a short time and even led to a continuation spinoff about Hawk, played by Avery Brooks, called A Man Called Hawk. Hawk is also a main character in the books as Spenser’s right-hand man.
Between 1999 and 2001, Joe Mantegna played Spenser in a series of TV movies on A&E, though if I’m honest, those were fairly forgettable, unfortunately. Still, they were better than what happened next when, in 2020, Mark Wahlberg starred in the Netflix original movie, Spenser Confidential.
Spenser Confidential was incredibly disappointing. I and other Spenser fans were excited when the project was announced, but the movie really missed the mark in a lot of ways. For starters, both Spenser and Hawk’s backstories were completely rewritten and had basically nothing to do with the literary counterpoints. Wahlberg wasn’t a good fit for the character at all, and the movie, which opened with Spenser in prison, was completely divorced from the original character.
The enduring popularity of Jesse Stone is clear, and authors Ace Atkins and Mike Lupica have continued the Spenser saga in print, so obviously there is still a real appetite for the popular character. Now is the perfect time for him to return in a series that stays true to the books.
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