• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

Swap the Hudson River for the Charles and you get “Boston Blue,” CBS’s new Friday night spinoff of “Blue Bloods.”

Clearly, CBS has opted for the tried-and-true in the development of “Boston Blue,” which has one of the main characters from “Blue Bloods” -- Donnie Wahlberg in the role of NYPD Detective Danny Reagan -- taking his detective skills to Boston.

The move results from a tragedy in Boston involving his son, Sean Reagan (Mika Amonson), which has Danny rushing to Boston and then finding himself involved in the investigation into what caused his son to be critically injured.

In the process, Danny stumbles onto a Boston family whose members are intertwined with Boston’s police department and justice system -- just like his own family in New York.

That was what “Blue Bloods” was all about -- four generations in blue uniforms for whom New York law enforcement was in the blood.

The scenario is as familiar to him as it will be to “Blue Bloods” fans who will sample this new show, which is airing in the same time period that “Blue Bloods” occupied for 14 seasons.

In “Boston Blue,” the jumping-off point for Danny’s sudden and serendipitous immersion in this Boston law-enforcement family is Boston PD Detective Lena Silver (played by Sonequa Martin-Green).

She is a very capable police detective who readily accepts Danny as a new, unofficial partner, at least for the duration of his stay in Boston while he waits and prays for his son’s recovery.

In “Blue Bloods,” his father (Tom Selleck) was New York Police commissioner, and so was Danny’s grandfather.

Other members of the family were members of the NYPD, and Danny’s sister, Erin (Bridget Moynahan), was an assistant district attorney. She turns up in the pilot of “Boston Blue” to support her brother.

In “Boston Blue,” the family ties go something like this. Detective Silver’s sister is superintendent of the Boston PD and their mother is the city’s district attorney. Another sibling, a younger brother, is a rookie cop.

The Silver clan is decidedly mixed-race and multi-religious. Mrs. Silver’s late husband was Jewish. So are Detective Silver and her siblings.

The grandfather of the clan is a Baptist minister (Ernie Hudson), and the Jewish family attends his church on Sundays to hear his sermons.

And like “Blue Bloods,” the Silvers of “Boston Blue” traditionally assemble for family dinners (photo above), where they pray together before every meal. These dinners were a centerpiece of “Blue Bloods.”

As a sign that “Boston Blue” intends to project the same family values, Episode One is titled “Faith and Family.”

The very title of “Boston Blue” is nothing if not traditional too. Police dramas with the word “Blue” (or “Blues”) in their titles over the years include “Hill Street Blues,” “NYPD Blue,” “Dark Blue,” “Pacific Blue,” “True Blue” and “Shades of Blue.”

As for the qualities of “Boston Blue,” the show represents the same level of proficiency that has come to characterize all of the procedural-cop dramas on CBS, most of which stick around for a while.

“Boston Blue” premieres Friday night (October 17) at 10 Eastern on CBS.