Tom Selleck gave every Magnum P.I. crewmember $1,000 from his own pay after CBS refused to give them bonuses

Tom Selleck has opened up about giving each crew member of Magnum P.I. $1,000 out of his own pocket.

The legendary actor had his first big break in the 1980s series Magnum P.I. - starring as private investigator Thomas Magnum - and he's since revealed some of the behind-the-scenes drama which allegedly occurred in his recently released memoir.

In his 2024 memoir You Never Know, the 79-year-old explains he struggled with deciding whether or not to return to the series for its eighth season because he didn't 'want anyone to think that last season was just a ploy to get more money'.

Tom Selleck in Magnum PI (CBS)

And the subject of money became an issue when the actor began negotiating his pay with the studio, as during contract negotiations he also reportedly asked the studio for a bonus for members of the crew ahead of its eighth season.

Selleck claims he asked for the two studios in charge of the eighth season - CBS and Universal Television - to give each crew member $1,000 bonuses if the season was finished on time and under budget.

But what was the studios' response?

Well, according to the actor, they responded saying 'they could not under any circumstances talk about crew bonuses'.

Selleck details the alleged incident in his memoir (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

Apparently they claimed 'that it would set a dangerous precedent'.

Selleck continued: "They always invoked precedent when you had an original thought beyond their contractual boilerplate. Honestly, that pissed me off."

So, the actor decided to take matters into his own hands.

Selleck says he got the studios to agree to give just him a 'substantial' bonus instead, which he then decided to demand was issued to members of the crew in $1,000 chunks instead.

Selleck took matters into his own hands (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

He said: "I called Skip [Brittenham, his lawyer] and Bettye [McCart, his agent] and told them to tell Universal - not ask them tell them - to issue thousand-dollar checks to every regular member of our ‘Magnum’ company in both Hawaii and LA And that since it was coming out of my bonus money, there was no precedent involved."

When the checks were issued, the actor recalls he got sent a photograph from the LA crew 'standing on a bleacher with big smiles on their faces' with 'a very big oversized check for a thousand dollars' in front of them.

"The caption below read, 'Thanks, Tom. What a 'grand' gesture,'" he continued. "That made me happy."

UNILAD has contacted Universal Television and CBS for comment.

Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Money

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.