Blue Bloods’ Detective Abigail Baker Almost Had A Different Identity

Given how she’s factored into numerous “Blue Bloods” storylines over the years, it’s hard to think that Abigail Baker was almost a throwaway character. As Abigail Hawk mentioned in an interview with Starry Mag, the character’s name wasn’t “Abigail” to begin with. In fact, it was “Melissa.” Just Melissa, without any last name. She states, “Originally, she did not have a last name. She did not have an age. She did not even have a gender. She did not have a race. She did not have an anything. She was either detective Mel or Melissa. So, no first name. Definitely not my first name.”

This checks out. If you go to Hawk’s IMDb profile, you’ll notice that for the first season of “Blue Bloods,” she’s credited as playing either “Det. Melissa” or “Det. Melissa Baker.” As it turns out, it’s all thanks to her co-star Tom Selleck that her character got fleshed out at all, as she goes on to say, “Tom [Selleck] decided to change it to Abigail because he thought Melissa was too ordinary, which I guess is a compliment — so I’ll take it. Then he cleared with the lawyers the last name Baker. He obviously thought it was very important for me to have a last name since I was a person on the show. So, they gave me a full-fledged identity and that was all him.”

With the show currently on its 13th season, it’s hard to imagine it without Abigail Baker, so good on Selleck for knowing a good character when he saw one.