“I had such a huge crush on him,” Hardin recalled, detailing a hugging scene that she dared to ask the episode’s director to shoot twice.

Melora Hardin looks back on playing ‘child prostitute’ on *Magnum, P.I. *opposite Tom Selleck when she was 15

“I had such a huge crush on him,” Hardin recalled, detailing a hugging scene that she dared to ask the episode’s director to shoot twice.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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August 19, 2026 7:50 p.m. ET

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Melora Hardin in 2025; Melora Hardin in 1980. Credit:

Frazer Harrison/Getty; CBS via Getty

- Melora Hardin is looking back on playing a “child prostitute” opposite Tom Selleck on a 1983 episode of *Magnum, P.I.*

- “It’s super cute. Well, except that I was playing a child prostitute,” Hardin recently joked. “Different time, folks. Different time.”

- “I had such a huge crush on him,” Hardin recalled, detailing a scene in which Selleck hugs her that she asked the director to shoot twice.

Child stardom often lands young actors in strange circumstances. Case in point, Melora Hardin’s 1983 turn on *Magnum, P.I. *as... she tells the story better herself.

“I have a picture right here of me and Tom Selleck when I was 15 [from] *Magnum, P.I.*,” Hardin noted on the Aug. 11 episode of the *Hey Dude... The 90s Called podcast**.*

“It’s super cute. Well, except that I was playing a child prostitute,” she said, causing cohosts and *Hey Dude *costars Christine Taylor and David Lascher to erupt in shocked giggles. “Different time, folks! Different time. Where that was was considered cute.”

Melora Hardin showing a picture of herself with Tom Selleck.

Hey Dude... The 90s Called!/YouTube

Hardin, Taylor, and Lascher then moved on to some of the other credits in Hardin’s illustrious catalog, from Jan Levinson on *The Office*, to Jacqueline Carlyle on *The Bold Type*, to Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of *Chicago*.

Finally, Taylor returned to the subject of the Selleck photograph, which Hardin was able to produce. “So this is me and Tom Selleck when I was 15,” she said, holding up a faded Polaroid of herself and the *Blue Bloods *star looking chummy.

“This is me without my wig, but I wore a very platinum blonde wig in this character. Obviously he had fallen, his character had gotten bumped-up. But you can see that I have tons of makeup on,” she explained, adding with a wry laugh, “That was the whole prostitute part of it — the streetwalker part.”

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Hardin was indeed only 15 when she appeared as Nancy Perkins Gillis on “Luther Gillis: File #521,” a 1983 episode of the popular crime drama. Selleck starred across the series’ eight-season run as Thomas Magnum, the titular private investigator, who solves crimes in Oahu, Hawaii.

It may have been some other actors’ first big credit to their names, but at 15, Hardin, the daughter of acting coach Diane Hardin and actor Jerry Hardin, had already appeared on over a dozen popular series, including *The Love Boat*, *Diff’rent Strokes*, and the infamous *Little House on the Prairie *two-parter, “The Reincarnation of Nellie.”

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Hardin explained that Selleck took Polaroids with each of the series’ guest stars and created a scrapbook. That act may have led to his apparently photographic memory of the series, as Hardin recalled the actor remembering the exact title of the episode they starred in together when they ran into each other decades later.

She raved about her time working with the actor, who most recently ended his 14-year run as Frank Reagan on *Blue Bloods*.

Tom Selleck for ‘Magnum, P.I.’.

“He was so cool. This is such a sweet picture to me because, he’s this very big man, right? And I had such a huge crush on him. And literally, so we have a scene where he like saves, and he hugs me — another thing that they would never do on TV anymore, the detective hugs the 15-year-old streetwalker,” Hardin joked. “We have this scene where I’m crying and he’s found me and he’s like, ‘Your father’s really worried about you and you need to go home.’”

In the scene, Selleck was supposed to hug Hardin. “He hugs me in this big hug, and he’s this giant man with this big barrel chest and he puts his arms around me and hugs me. It’s this big, really good hug because he’s a good hugger.” Selleck and the episode’s director were satisfied with the take, but Hardin couldn’t help herself, and asked to do it again.

“The whole crew burst into laughter because they knew that’s why I wanted to do it again,” she recalled. “It was so sweet.”

Watch Melora Hardin talk all about Tom Selleck on the *Hey Dude... The 90s Called* podcast below.

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