The 61-year-old, who first showed up on Blue Bloods in Season 6, was only supposed to star in eight episodes, but his rapport with Bridget (Erin) led to a recurring character arc that has now spanned over 65 episodes.
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"I enjoy working with Bridget Moynahan a lot and doing scenes with her," he told Talk Nerdy With Us in a 2016 interview. "We had a scene in the first episode that I did… it kind of set the tone for everything. They were kind of having a little squabble but you can see that he has a lot of confidence in her and her opinion."
But no matter how many episodes of Blue Bloods the actor films, he’ll always be The Sopranos’ Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri to a generation of TV fans.
"Now, I’ve been on Blue Bloods for four years. I play a DA investigator. But not a day goes by where someone doesn’t call me 'Bobby' or 'Bacala.' Not one day since the show," Steven told Esquire in an interview conducted earlier this year.
"I was just in California… young guys, nice, college guys from Saudi Arabia came up to me and said, 'Are you Bobby?'" he recalled. "And I said, 'Saudi Arabia?'… And [one] said, 'Oh, we love The Sopranos…' So, I mean, all over the world I’m Bobby Bacala. And I’m okay with that. I don’t have a problem with that."
CBS’ Blue Bloods returns with an all-new episode on Friday, Jan. 3 at 10 p.m. ET.
