Booth and Bones never would have had a family if not for Stewie Griffin.
THE BIG PICTURE
TV crossovers have a long history, from I Love Lucy to recent hits like The Flash and Arrow.
Family Guy has had hilarious crossovers, including appearances on The Simpsons and Bones.
Seth MacFarlane’s thank you to Bones crew included Stewie’s appearance to help Booth and Brennan.
TV crossovers have long been a popular idea, going back decades. I Love Lucy merged with Adventures of Superman, The Carol Burnett Show mixed with The Gong Show, and for fans of early 90s TGIF, you could see Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) of Family Matters on Full House and Step by Step. More recently, The Flash intertwined with Arrow, the NCIS spinoffs joined forces, and New Girl combined with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Then there’s the animated FOX hit,Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane‘s series has crossed over onto other acclaimed animated shows, from The Simpsons to Bob Burgers, but onetime the youngest member of the Griffin clan, baby Stewie, showed up on the live-action procedural drama Bones, starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz.
*** It wasn’t done “just because”, but as a way for Seth MacFarlane to say thank you to the Bones crew for the specific way they had helped Family Guy.
‘Family Guy’ Has Had Some Hilarious TV Crossovers
Family Guy has done numerous crossovers during its run. Some of those make sense and aren’t really much of a surprise, such as the time in 2011 when a hurricane was the plot of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. With Seth MacFarlane being the creator of these series as well, and The Cleveland Show a direct spinoff of Family Guy, it may have been fun, but it wasn’t shocking to see the shows crossover, as Family Guy‘s Peter Griffin, The Cleveland Show‘s Cleveland Brown, and American Dad‘s Stan Smith sharing a scene.
What was really wild was when the characters of Family Guy showed up in The Simpsons in 2014, especially since some critics reduced Family Guy to being nothing more than a ripoff of the family from Springfield. The Simpsons season premiere, called “The Simpsons Guy”, put the two families together and even gave us an iconic fight between Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson. In 2023, they did it again, this time onthe Family Guy episode “Adoptation”, which had Peter walk into Bob Belcher’s diner from Bob’s Burgers. Who should be sitting at the counter but none other than Homer Simpson. Those were a joy to watch, but what was even crazier was the time Stewie landed in the world of live-action TV and Bones.
‘Family Guy’ Filmed Most of Their Live Action Footage on the ‘Bones’ Set
If you’re a Family Guy fan, you might think you know the Family Guy and Bones crossover we’re talking about. In 2010, during Season 9 of Family Guy, in “Road to the North Pole”, Stewie and Brian are on a road trip to the North Pole to find Santa Claus. Along the way, they run into the aurora borealis northern lights, but this being Family Guy,it’s the aurora Boreanaz lights they see, with the actor’s live action head appearing in the greenish glow. “Hi there, he tells them,” with a smile and wink, “things are kinda beautiful up north, huh.” When their snowmobile runs out of gas, aurora Boreanaz tells Brian and Stewie that there is an old cabin two miles north they can spend the night at. “Thanks, David,” Stewie says. “Guess there are a few stars in the sky tonight.”
While a funny little cameo from David Boreanaz, it’s not the first conversation he had with young Stewie Griffin. They’d actually met before (sort of). In an interview with Buddy TV, Seth MacFarlane spoke of how Family Guy‘s crossover with fellow FOX series Bones came to be. He said:
“ Bones has been really cool to us. We’ve worked with them a bunch of times. Every time we have a live-action gag on the show, it’s usually shot on the Bones set by the Bones team. They’ve really been very neighborly. They came to us, and they said it’d be really cool to have Stewie do a guest spot, and we were like, ‘Absolutely. It’s the least we can do. We owe you a hundred times over.’ It was fun. They did a great job with it.”
‘Bones’ Booth Had Hallucinations That He Was Talking to Stewie From ‘Family Guy’
MacFarlane’s thank you to Bones comes during Season 4’s “The Critic in the Cabarnet”. Booth (Boreanaz) and Brennan (Deschanel) have great chemistry, but they have yet to become a couple. Wanting a child, Brennan goes to Booth and asks him to be a sperm donor. He agrees, but the seriousness of the idea, which would make him a father, understandably makes him a nervous wreck. When he goes into the room at the sperm bank to make his, erm, donation, the TV used to help him out turns on and Stewie appears, a hallucination which speaks to Booth’s fears. Stewie asks, “Why are you here at the bank, Booth? You’ve got a hot doctor friend. Go to her and make a direct deposit like a man.” Booth turns the TV off, but it comes right back on, with Stewie teasing him about the bank’s porn collection. Booth and Stewie then have a heart-to-heart about how Booth wants Brennan to have a baby with him, and not alone with just him as the donor who steps away. “Go back to cartoon land or wherever you came from,” Booth tells Stewie.
Later, sitting next to Brennan while interviewing a murder suspect about a case, Stewie reappears, now sitting in his high chair. Stewie makes fun of the man next to him for not asking for a lawyer, while Booth talks out loud to nothing about remorse, while Brennan wonders who he’s talking to. As Stewie continues to mock the man he’s seated by, Booth tells him to shut up. Stewie then gets down to it, asking, “So, are you going to let her have this baby alone? You are. You’re going to abandon your child?” Booth tells Stewie that he can’t walk away, admitting, “This is my kid. If I can’t be involved, I don’t want her to have the baby.” Stewie is impressed by this, uttering, “And the sun shines again. Good man, Boothy!” With that, Brennan pulls Booth out of the room to talk, as Stewie screams, “You’re leaving a helpless child with a killer! Stop!”
*I still think the crossover was really silly and kinda weird…but once they revealed the brain tumor storyline, I kinda got it.
*It makes me like it more to know that the Bones crew had a working relationship with the Family Guy crew. I didn’t know they used real sets to animate their show!
*I also had no idea that DB appeared in Family Guy, because I never have watched that show. But I think I will now always call those lights the “Aurora Boreanaz” lights! That’s hilarious.
So I just got back from my 1st international trip to Cancun (I went to Canada once but it was before you needed a passport, so doesn’t count haha), and it inspired me. In our head canon, where would B&B actually go on vacation? With or without kids?
In the show, they spend some time on location in beachy areas, and sort of had a “honeymoon” but they have such different interests. They do touch on that at one point where they discuss what they like to do, but if B&B could go somewhere in real life, where would they go that they could both have enjoyment in it?
Maybe Cancun could work for them? Historical sites for Brennan and pool time for Booth? It does resemble their honeymoon location a bit. But is there a place or activity that they might equally enjoy?
It took six seasons for Booth and Brennan to get together on Bones, but there were many things about their relationship that didn’t make sense.
SUMMARY
Despite their opposite personalities, Booth and Bones bonded over their shared passion for solving crimes, resulting in entertaining banter throughout the series.
Fans were disappointed that the show didn’t feature the on-screen development of Booth and Brennan’s relationship, especially after waiting six seasons to see them together.
The revelation of their first kiss happening off-screen and their constant denial of their feelings contradicted their eventual relationship, leaving viewers questioning the authenticity of their bond.
When Booth (David Boreanaz) and Bones (Emily Deschanel) got together in Bones, it happened off screen. It took six seasons and 128 episodes of Bones for fans to find out that it happened. Bones followed FBI agent Seeley Booth and forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (nicknamed Bones) as they solved crimes in which bodies were so badly damaged they needed a biological anthropologist to identify them. Though the series was a crime procedural, the emotional center of the show was a result of the relationships formed by the teammates, including the slow-burn romance between Booth and Bones.
Booth and Brennan were opposites, in who they were and what they believed, but they had crime-fighting in common. That alone led to much of their banter over the years, both before and after they got together. Because the show was a procedural, the focus wasn’t exclusively on romance. Sometimes, that didn’t allow for enough time for conflicts and consequences to play out. It was inevitable that the two characters would get together. However, the road they took didn’t always make sense. Fans waited years to see them together, yet too much of their relationship took place off-screen. Viewers (and the characters) deserved better after the time they invested waiting for the show and the couple to get their act together.
Bones Didn’t Show Them Getting Together
“The Hole In The Heart” Revealed The Relationship
Fans sat through six seasons, made up of 128 episodes, waiting for the two main characters to get together. They watched Booth and Brennan’s will they/won’t they dance. They saw them each have other love interests (and in some cases, they had significant relationships). Then, for some reason, Bones had Booth and Brennan get together off-screen. Fans saw him comforting her after an enemy took the life of one of the squinterns, Vincent Nigel Murray.
However, in the episode “The Hole in the Heart”, the audience didn’t see the kiss or overt romance. Instead, Brennan and Angela spoke about what happened briefly the next day. Then, in the next episode, the season 6 finale, Brennan announced that she was pregnant. Booth and Brennan’s relationship — and fans — deserved better from the main couple of the show after the wait.
Their Relationship Didn’t Have a Typical Beginning
A Time Jump Meant Relationship-Building Was Skipped
The series played out the usual tropes of a will they/won’t they couple with Booth and Brennan. For six seasons, fans watched them ignore their feelings and admit they could be more. They watched their friends and family talk to them about their relationship without the two agreeing to explore their feelings. Fans even watched them date others – and Booth proposed to another woman.
Yet, the drama skipped the beginning of their romantic relationship entirely. They got together, and then Bones told him about her pregnancy in the season 6 finale. The time jump between seasons meant that fans didn’t get to see the beginning of their romance. As a procedural, Bones was never going to dedicate whole episodes to them dating. However, it just doesn’t make sense that fans didn’t get to see the beginning of them going from friends to more. In contrast, Angela and Hodgins were also one of the best Bones couples and had a lot more screen time devoted to developing their relationship.
Their First Kiss Was a Surprise
The Mistletoe Kiss Happened In Season 3, Episode 9 “Santa In The Slush”
For years, fans thought that Booth and Brennan’s first kiss happened under mistletoe in season 3. However, the 100th episode revealed that they kissed — and nearly were together — after their first case. Booth and Brennan only briefly worked together then. When that was no longer the case, they thought they could then be together. However, because she had consumed alcohol, they only kissed. Then, they both went home.
Yet, for five seasons (and 99 episodes), there had never been a hint of that happening or the two considering more. Sweets was surprised — as was the audience — when they revealed what had happened years ago. He’d always thought that a kiss would lead to more for them.
They Constantly Denied The Possibility Of More Between Them
Booth And Brennan Already Knew There Was More After A Secret Kiss
The usual trope with will they/won’t they couples on TV shows is that the two characters involved deny the possibility of anything romantic existing between them. They refuse to acknowledge that they could get together to friends, family, or anyone who asks about their relationship. That was what happened with Booth and Brennan until they finally were together and discover they’re having a baby.
Yet the 100th episode revealed they’d kissed and almost were together after their very first case together. Denying that there could be more between them after that makes no sense. Yet, that’s what happened for 99 episodes, before that reveal. The shock of that first kiss called into question everything Booth and Brennan said about each other up until then. It might have worked if they hadn’t both been so vehement about just being coworkers and friends.
Booth Had Brennan Detained at the Airport
Booth Abused His Power To Get Her Assistance
The first time Booth and Brennan were on screen together in the pilot, he manipulated the system. Brennan returned from two months in Guatemala identifying victims of crimes. In the airport, an agent from Homeland Security detained her for having a human skull in her bag.
Then, Booth showed up to fix things. He used the opportunity to try to recruit her to help with a case. She only agreed when he agreed to her conditions. On the one hand, it led to the first time fans saw the two banter. On the other hand, Booth enlisted another federal agency and had Brennan detained at the airport. He took things a bit too far to get her help.
Booth Lost Out On Time with Christine Because of Brennan
Christine Was Born In Season 7, Episode 7 “The Prisoner In The Pipe”
One of the team’s recurring nemeses was Christopher Pelant, a computer genius. He managed to not only evade capture more than once, but he also framed Brennan for a crime. With no way to prove her innocence immediately, she took a page out of her father’s book. She went on the run, and she took Christine, the daughter she shared with Booth, on the run as well.
Her time away meant that Booth lost out on time with Christine, and that should have been a bigger deal than it was. It was a lose-lose situation; one of them would have had to be separated from her. However, Bones could have remedied that by having it be a serious discussion for the couple that lasted longer than it did and wasn’t forgotten about after a handful of episodes.
Brennan Shouldn’t Have Needed Aldo to Understand Why Booth Turned Down Her Proposal
Brennan Proposed To Booth In Season 8, Episode 24 “The Secret In The Siege”
Just like it took years for Booth and Brennan to get together, it took time for them to get married. It was up to Brennan to do the proposing, and she did. Booth accepted until their recurring nemesis, Christopher Pelant, intervened. Pelant threatened the lives of five innocent people if Booth married Brennan. Booth had to turn down her proposal, but it took Brennan talking to Aldo to understand that he had his reasons.
Considering how long she’d known Booth by that time — and that she knew how important religion was to him — she should’ve figured that out on her own. She likely would have, too, if the series hadn’t brought in Booth’s former Army buddy and counselor to provide even more insight into Booth.
Caroline’s Obsession With Their Relationship
Patricia Belcher Played Caroline Julian
Everyone in Booth and Brennan’s life commented on their relationship (or lack thereof) at one point or another. Why weren’t they together? Had they ever been together? Don’t they want to be together? Anyone who entered their lives and was around them for even just an episode seemed to have an opinion.
However, Caroline Julian took that one step further. When Brennan wanted to orchestrate a family get-together — in prison — she had one condition. She made Booth and Brennan kiss under the mistletoe. Fans liked it because it was the couple’s first kiss, on-screen, at least. However, it’s strange how invested Caroline was in their relationship and how that was dropped seasons later.
Their Conflict Over Brennan Going On the Run Shouldn’t Have Been Resolved So Quickly
Brennan Goes On The Run For Three Months
When a recurring nemesis, Christopher Pelant, framed Brennan for a serious crime, she had to go on the run. She and the others couldn’t clear her name quickly enough. So, she did what her father would have done. She took Christine, and she left her life behind for a new one for months. That meant leaving Booth behind.
That should have led to more tension in her relationship with Booth than it did. However, like other aspects of their relationship, that was addressed (but resolved quickly) or glossed over. While no one would have wanted to see Booth and Brennan separated any longer considering that they had been, she did make a decision that directly affected him.
They Both Forgot Hannah Existed
Katheryn Winnick Played Hannah Burley
After leaving the FBI and the Jeffersonian behind for months, both Booth and Brennan returned to DC. He wasn’t alone. He’d met a journalist, Hannah, and they were not only together, but it was serious. It was serious enough that he proposed. It would never have lasted, even if she’d said yes, though, because of Booth and Brennan’s relationship.
Hannah wasn’t just Booth’s girlfriend. She and Brennan were at the very least friendly. Booth and Hannah’s breakup occurred in the same season he and Brennan finally got together. However, once they got together, it was like Hannah never existed. Neither mentioned her, and it seemed like no one remembered the role she had in either of their lives.
Brennan’s Treatment Of Booth’s Religious Beliefs
Booth Was A Devout Roman Catholic.
The problem here wasn’t that they had different perspectives on religion. They didn’t have to have the same religious beliefs to be together. However, as an Atheist, Bones was very dismissive of Booth’s beliefs, which led to more than one disagreement between the two.
She did come to accept the importance of his beliefs for him over the course of their relationship. That included having Christine baptized (before she went on the run with her). Still, they could have taken the same sides of their arguments about religion without her disrespecting his. That wasn’t necessary for their relationship nor for the banter that ensued because of it.
There Should Have Been More Time Dedicated To Booth’s Gambling Addiction
Brennan Meets Booth’s Bookie In Season 10, Episode 19 “The Murder In The Middle East”
Booth had a history of a problem with gambling, as Brennan knew. During a case, he took a turn for the worst in season 10, and he lied to her about it. She only found out because his bookie showed up at their house when he owed a lot of money. That led to a brief separation for the two, though by the end of the season, he and their relationship were back on track.
However, there was then a time jump between seasons 10 and 11. Because of that, Bones didn’t give him and them the time they deserved to heal on-screen. Fans didn’t see what came next when he moved back in and the two were back together.
How Jealous They Got About Other Love Interests
Both Characters Also Denied Their Jealousy
It took Booth and Brennan years to admit their feelings, let alone get together. However, both often showed signs of jealousy when the other was in a relationship or just showed interest in another person. In the early days of the show, it wasn’t made as obvious. However, as the show went on, and they grew closer, they got more and more jealous, to the point that they should have admitted their feelings earlier. Instead, they’d be jealous, others would remark on it, and they’d deny it.
The only reason why this happened as long and often as it did was because they were a couple on a television show. It’s a common trope used with will they/won’t they couples, which Booth and Brennan were for six seasons, but it is something that becomes tiring for the audience.
Booth Arrested Brennan
Booth Arrested Brennan In Season 1, Episode 7 “A Man On Death Row”
In season 1, Brennan requested to be able to carry a concealed weapon. Booth denied her request, on the grounds of a felony charge on her record. He was the arresting officer, and he refused to say he was wrong to charge her. However, she shot someone who was going to hurt her but didn’t have a weapon himself. She argued that it was only his leg and the man was in jail for the rest of his life.
Booth delighted in sitting there and making her go through the process of submitting her request. He also enjoyed denying her request and told her he’d take care of any weapon needs. He even suggested she use her words if need be in a situation that might require her to have a weapon. It was another case of Booth using the power of the position he held in a way that inconvenienced Brennan.
Their Personalities Never Meshed
Brennan Believed In Facts While Booth Trusted His Gut
Booth and Brennan are complete opposites. Yes, opposites attract, but their opposing views were often the reasons for their conflicts. Brennan was a scientist first and foremost. She relied on facts and refused to use her gut when it came to the cases. She also wasn’t much of a people person and lacked some social skills. That meant she didn’t understand jokes or some comments those around her made.
Unlike Brennan, Booth listened to his gut. He was a people person and understood social aspects his partner did not. His religion was also very important to him, and it was often a source of contention between the two, especially in the earlier seasons.
Booth Thought His Brain Tumor Caused His Feelings for Brennan
Booth’s Brain Tumor Is Revealed In Season 4, Episode 25 “The Critic In The Cabernet”
In season 4, Booth learned that he had a brain tumor. During the coma following his surgery, he dreamed he and Brennan were together. In season 5, he was confused about how he felt about Brennan. It was possible the tumor and dream caused those feelings, and he had to figure out if that was true. Though brain scans suggested it was, he grew to realize that he truly did love her that season.
Still, that brain tumor called into question all of Booth’s actions and feelings about Brennan for a brief period of time. Considering that neither was willing to admit their feelings up to that point, it didn’t seem necessary to suggest his were because of a tumor. Of course, another Bones storyline was dropped completely regarding his brain tumor – memory loss caused by the surgery was never mentioned beyond immediately after the successful removal of the tumor.
Brennan Wouldn’t Risk Being With Him, But Didn’t Like Him With Anyone Else
“The Parts In The Sum Of The Whole” Is The 100th Episode Of Bones
In the series’ 100th episode, Sweets learned that Booth and Brennan kissed after their first case. Following their talk with him, Booth took a gamble and told Brennan he knew she was the one. However, Brennan couldn’t take the same risk. She played it safe and didn’t want to risk losing him.
Each stayed true to who they were at that point in the show (and the audience couldn’t fault them for that). It was still hard to see Booth so hurt. After “The Parts in the Sum of the Whole”, it took almost a year for her to try to remedy that. Instead, fans had to sit through her being jealous of his subsequent relationship with Hannah. Those were two of the most emotional scenes for the couple before they got together.
Booth Didn’t Tell Brennan He Was Helping His Brother
Booth’s Brother Is Killed In Season 11, Episode 1 “The Loyalty In The Lie”
In season 11, Booth helped his brother, Jared, but he didn’t tell Brennan what he was doing. She was his wife, and he shouldn’t have kept her in the dark. In fact, when Jared’s body was found, it was briefly thought that it could be Booth’s. Brennan had to examine the bones like any other and figure out herself that she hadn’t lost her husband.
After everything was over, and they found Booth, the couple spoke in the hospital. However, they resolved things much too quickly, considering how dangerous and serious the situation was. There was no reason for Booth to keep Brennan in the dark. Bones clearly wanted her to think that she could have lost him, but that could have happened even if she knew what he was doing.
Brennan Wrote Booth A Letter When the Gravedigger Captured Her
Brennan And Hodgins Were Buried Alive In Season 2, Episode 9 “Aliens In A Spaceship”
In season 2, Brennan and Hodgins were victims of a recurring nemesis of the team. They thought they weren’t going to make it back to their loved ones, so they each wrote a letter. He wrote to Angela, and she wrote to Booth. At her wedding to Booth, she read that letter as part of her TV show vows. She had written about her early, messy feelings for him, but she denied her feelings for him for years after that.
However, that didn’t make sense given what followed — and that’s because it wasn’t the original letter. The original “was totally unsuitable for wedding vows,” executive producer Hart Hanson told TVLine. “They had to be completely rewritten.” The original note apparently said, “Don’t blame yourself if you didn’t get to me in time. I enjoyed working with you.”
Emily Deschanel’s Real-Life Pregnancy Affected the Beginning Of Their Relationship
Emily Deschanel’s First Son Was Born In 2011
It took six seasons for Booth and Brennan to get together. As soon as they did, they were expecting a baby. That was because series star Emily Deschanel, who played Brennan, was pregnant.
“Emily being pregnant certainly figured into it to a certain extent,” executive producer Stephen Nathan told TVLine. However, it did allow them to take the story in the direction they wanted. “By going this route, we didn’t have to have them go through the traditional love-dovey stage,” he explained. “We avoid all of the [trappings] that people commonly associate with the Moonlighting curse.” Still, the characters and fans deserved better than rushing into their relationship — and kids — after waiting that long to see them together.
Many of the aspects of Booth and Brennan’s relationship that didn’t make sense during the show’s run were a result of having to incorporate real-life situations into show storylines and the Bones writers creating more conflict for the characters.
Questions:
Do you agree with any of these?
Does the show get a “hand wave” because its a fictional show and doesn’t need to be realistic?
One that I really agreed with was the one about Pelant and their marriage, where the author said,
“Pelant threatened the lives of five innocent people if Booth married Brennan. Booth had to turn down her proposal, but it took Brennan talking to Aldo to understand that he had his reasons. Considering how long she’d known Booth by that time — and that she knew how important religion was to him — she should’ve figured that out on her own. She likely would have, too, if the series hadn’t brought in Booth’s former Army buddy and counselor to provide even more insight into Booth.”
That one I do agree with because I was mad they killed off so many of Booth’s confidants only to randomly throw in Aldo who was there and also gone pretty quickly. Brennan was with Booth all these years and couldn’t figure out something was terribly wrong?
Bones’ Tamara Taylor Put Her Own Spin On Cam’s Initially More Serious Persona BY RYAN SCOTT/FEB. 4, 2024
For a working actor, there is nothing quite like getting a recurring role on a long-running network TV show. While the days of a show running for 100 episodes or more are quickly dying out in the age of streaming, for a long time, such shows were golden tickets for actors as they could provide steady work (and a steady check) for years well beyond the show’s initial run. Such was the case with “Bones,” the beloved Fox procedural crime dramedy, which ran for 12 seasons. Among those who became mainstays on the series was Tamara Taylor, who made her debut as Camille “Cam” Saroyan, the then-new head of the Jeffersonian Institute’s Forensic Division, in the second season. Originally, however, Taylor was only going to be a guest star.
Having also appeared on shows like “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Party of Five,” Taylor would ultimately star in 223 episodes of “Bones.” The reason Cam became a fixture on “Bones” came down to the choices Taylor made as an actor. Rather than perform the straightforward version of “the boss” that was on the page, she tried to bring a little something extra to it, as she explained to CherryPicks in 2021:
“Rather than just being ‘the boss,’ which felt very two-dimensional, I tried to bring a sense of humor to her and a deep appreciation for her team. Cam Saroyan was originally written pretty straightforward, but I noticed, the more fun I had with her, the more I started to see that reflected in the writing.”
So, rather than a guest star whose character would’ve been swiftly killed off, Taylor wound up being a main cast member right alongside David Boreanaz (Booth) and Emily Deschanel (Brennan) for a 12-season run on a hit show that’s had a long life. That’s impressive.
Turning a small role into a career-defining one
For Taylor, there probably wasn’t much to lose by trying to bring something more to the role of Cam. When she first got the gig, it was a smaller thing, so why not try to do something unique with it? Fortunately, that’s something that caught the attention of the writers and brass behind the show, which led to by far the most steady role in her long, impressive career. Not many actors get to say they starred in more than 200 episodes of a show.
Taylor has also had an impressive career in television outside of “Bones.” Some of her other notable credits include “Lost,” “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” and “Snowfall,” just to name a few. But when you spend more than a decade of your life on the same series, working with the same people, that’s undoubtedly significant. That’s why it was, in many ways, difficult for the cast to say goodbye when the show ended its run in 2017. In the same interview, Taylor explained that it wasn’t so much a celebration as it was a low-key farewell:
“We didn’t really celebrate it. It was very emotional saying goodbye to a place we’d called home and people who had become an extended family for over a decade. I think we made the goodbyes low-key because it was too much to process at the time.”
You can currently stream “Bones” on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.
*Cam is a bit of a controversial character in the Bonesverse. Did Tamara’s changes make Cam better or worse?
*Should Goodman have stayed as the boss? How would the series have been different?
*Personally, I didn’t need the Cam/Booth backstory. I guess it could have worked if Cam had truly been a short-term character who wouldn’t last long…but it got weirder when she stayed permanently. Everyone has to date each other in this small circle. I think I’m still annoyed they got rid of her doctor boyfriend, Paul to make her date Arastoo. I liked that at least one person was dating someone outside the lab!!
**This is an older article, but I thought it was a nice perspective on the show we all know and love 🙂 **
To be a television fan in 2015 means many things. During the course of ten years, the format in which we enjoy TV changed drastically as cable galvanized the medium. Music videos now live on YouTube and the old music channels are now devoted to the lives of basketball wives.
As a lifelong devotee of television and the culture surrounding it, I like to think that I’ve put up with a lot this decade. Of course there’s the graveyard of series cancelled too early, but also the shows I’ve had to, sometimes painfully, break up with after stretches, sometimes whole seasons of abuse. Why would Dexter fall in love? Why do I care about Sally Draper’s period and who is this violin prodigy? Isn’t what make America’s Next Top Model great the fact that a man cannot win? Why do we have to hold our applause until the end of the In Memoriam portion of the Oscars? These are the questions I have shouted at my TV set, sent as text messages and posted onto social media.
However, in the last decade, there has been one constant element, one sturdy source of renewable energy occupying the airwaves or HDMI cables or however it is television now works: Bones.
Set inside The Jeffersonian, a fictional mashup of the FBI and the Smithsonian, Hart Hanson’s morsel depicting the professional and interpersonal lives of forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan, FBI Agent Seeley Booth and a solar system of auxiliary characters debuted in 2005. The world wasn’t set a flame, neither did it shake, stop mid-axis or halt to notice Bones’ arrival. The series premiere opened to completely average ratings and received perfectly middling reviews from critics. Despite the mild fanfare, Bones, alongside Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Supernatural, NCIS, and Law & Order Special Victims Unit, is among the echelon of longest running, live-action show on network television.
Yes, this means David Boreanaz, who is currently enjoying his 20th consecutive year on television, has now portrayed Special Agent Seeley Booth longer than he inhabited the role of Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Boreanaz has gotten ready for work by slipping on a two-piece suit and fake gun longer than he did his signature leather jacket and white, ribbed tank. His hair has remained reasonably crunchy and he’s maybe gained a little weight around the middle, but nothing the observer, not even a vampire, couldn’t explain with age. And while I admittedly began tuning into Bones out of some perverse pursuit of Buffy residue—as if checking up on an ex-lover and his new girlfriend on social media—I quickly fell for its stilted charm and outright adherence to formula.
Now, at season eleven, after a summer of waiting to hear of its renewal or cancellation, this show will likely wrap up an era of murders. While boutique shows like Top of the Lake, Broadchurch and of course, True Detective, enjoy hot moments in the sun, and new network programming like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and Quantico circulate under a reforming paradigm of network dramas, Bones remains, as always, warm but not smouldering. It reminds us how consistency is as admirable as flashes of passion are and how originality and ingenuity can only make their meaning against the formula of the familiar.
In television, most routine constructions often hold the most potential to mark a change in the medium. FOX’s Brooklyn Nine Nine surfaces as a shining example of this notion. As the show adheres to many office/comedy sitcom tropes, it also shifts the plates of the format’s earth beneath the surface. For example, the two female leads are both Latinas, the white actress plays their secretary, and a gay, black captain heads the precinct. Bones, nearly a decade before Brooklyn Nine Nine, similarly deploys familiar aspects of television to gently alter the genre’s most reductive elements. A half-Chinese, half-Caucasian actress, Michaela Conlin, plays Angela, Brennan’s best friend and the task force’s forensic artist. A black actress, Tamara Taylor, portrays the Jeffersonian’s lead pathologist, Dr. Camille Saroyan, and the show regularly casts ancillary characters, new cast members and guest stars from various racial backgrounds, creeds and economic statuses. While the topic of race never appears paramount within these character’s portrayals or narrative arches, their ethnicities are always considered, commented upon but never exploited.
Yes, both leads—Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel as “Bones” Brennan—are still straight and white, but living amongst their white straightness are polyps of variables, which differentiate Bones from shows of its ilk. Crime procedurals infamously rest their infastructure on the corpses of dead and oftentimes, sexually assaulted, women. Bones splits its victims evenly by both gender and age group. Maybe more salient: Dr. Brennan’s Asperger’s symptoms. The show routinely references Brennan’s lack of humor, her bluntness or how she cannot perform the social niceties, instinctual for her co-workers. Her diagnosis far from alienating Brennan endears her to her colleagues, and much of the show’s most humorous or promising moments rely on the slight gulf between Brennan and her associates. Moreover, religion and the belief in God surfaces often as a topic of resistance between her and Booth. Booth keeps the faith of Christian doctrine and Brennan, steadfastly, does not. Although well-read on the religions of the globe, Brennan’s unchallenged atheism is uncommon on network television.
Like The X-Files, a show Bones clearly admires, the woman assumes the role of the skeptic and the male retains a hope in the otherworldly. However, unlike The X-Files, and now Castle, Bones is suspended by the real, essentially favoring the woman’s perspective. Where shows like Castle undermine the female logician and other programs like CSI and Criminal Minds showcase the murder and rape of female victims, the result of each silences a female perspective. Brennan’s fastens herself to solid facts and discounts circumstantial evidence, and her expertise often secures her team the confession they need to warrant an arrest.
The ‘90’s network television shows with female leads featured narratives that leaned into the fantastical (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed) or women whose imagination would intercept an otherwise realistic narrative (Ally McBeal, Grey’s Anatomy). The bridge between these programs and current shows (Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Quantico) now showcasing women who operate in an approximation to the real world and are sturdily planted in the real appears to be Bones’ Dr. Brennan. It’s halfway a crime procedural, part workplace comedy and part romance. It’s wonky, its headlight flickers, but it’s always starts.
The little jalopy has limped along long enough for network television to accept a better paradigm of female representation, and what’s left of the show resembles a truce between subscription television’s prestige hits and the network’s routine offerings. So in a landscape shifting beneath the feet of a television fan, in many ways, Bones has been the atmosphere, and before it’s too late, I want to sing its gentle praise now, while it’s still alive and almost kicking.
*Little did the author know we’d get to 2017 with Bones!
*I liked how curiosity from the Buffy fandom turned people into an actual Bones fans.
*What is really cool to me is that even the non-die hard fans (like us! ha) still have love and affection for the longevity and steadiness of Bones. It truly is remarkable that we got 12 seasons. I’m still so amazed to this day.
*I still hope we can get some reunion special or made-for-TV movie out of the cast before it’s too late 🙂
Bones ended after 12 seasons in 2017, and following the series finale of the Fox procedural series, viewers were left with 10 unanswered questions.
SUMMARY
The number 447 in Bones remains a mystery, leaving fans eager for answers if the series is ever revived.
The working relationship between Booth and Brennan after the bombing is uncertain, but a revival would provide clarity.
Angela and Hodgins’ unborn baby’s health after the explosion is still unknown, leaving viewers wondering about potential side effects or conditions.
Rumors of a Bones revival have been swirling for some time now, and if the cast and crew ever get back together for another season, the episodes would need to address numerous unanswered mysteries. The Fox procedural crime television series ran for 12 seasons and 246 episodes on the network, and the series finale, which aired on March 28, 2017, left some aspects of the show ambiguous. Perhaps the writers wanted to leave the door open for the possibility of a revival, reboot, movie, or some other continuation of the series. Nevertheless, the last episode left the audience with plenty of questions about the future of these characters.
Bones starred Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan and David Boreanaz as FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, and the show revolved around their unlikely partnership. Brennan was a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute, and she often worked with Booth to solve murder cases. Other cast members over the 12 seasons included Michaela Conlin as Angela Montenegro, T.J. Thyne as Dr. Jack Hodgins, Eric Millegan as Dr. Zack Addy, Tamara Taylor as Camille Saroyan, John Francis Daley as Lance Sweets, and John Boyd as James Aubrey. Hopefully, if Bones season 13 is ever produced, it will feature these characters and answer these ten questions.
10 The Full Truth Behind Bones’ 447 Mystery
The number 447 appeared in various seasons and episodes of Bones, and fans came up with a bunch of fan theories regarding what it meant and how it would come into play by the end of the series. Unfortunately, the last episode came and went with no explanation of the importance of 447. The Fox procedural show never revealed why the number was seen and referenced so frequently. So if the series is ever revived by the network, viewers might finally get answers regarding 447.RELATED:The Brutal Reason Bones Killed Off Vincent In Season 6
9 Did Booth & Brennan Remain Partners?
The penultimate episode of Bones featured a bomb destroying the lab at the Jeffersonian Institute, which forced some of the characters to (temporarily) go their separate ways. The last scene of the series finale featured Booth and Brennan sitting on a bench outside the Jeffersonian and reminiscing about the past 12 years before walking off into the distance together. There is no doubt that they will stay married, but the one question remaining following Bones season 12 pertains to their working relationship. Hopefully, nothing changes after the bombing, but a revival would confirm that.
8 Did Angela Give Birth To A Healthy Baby?
Following the explosion in Bones season 12, episode 11, one of the biggest concerns was the condition of Angela and Hodgins’ unborn baby. Thankfully, Angela survived, and so did her child. But before the blasts, the couple was concerned that the infant could have Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) since Angela and Hodgins were carriers for the disorder. Angela didn’t give birth before the series ended, so viewers were left wondering if their baby was healthy or not, whether that meant that they were blind from LCA or if there were side effects from the trauma endured from the explosion.
7 What Does The New Version Of The Jeffersonian Look Like?
Bones concluded before the audience could see the new version of the Jeffersonian Institute, and the series left off with a construction crew fixing the lab. Characters commented how they wished it would be returned to its former glory. But viewers were left wondering whether the lab looked the same or different following its reconstruction. If Bones ever gets a revival, it would undoubtedly have to show the new and improved lab at the Jeffersonian, and fans would finally have an answer.
6 Was Cam Ever Going To Return The Jeffersonian?
The second to last episode of Bones featured Cam marrying Arastoo Vaziri, one of Brennan’s interns, who was introduced in season 4. The newlywed couple decided to adopt three boys from Mississippi after the wedding, and Cam took a leave of absence while starting her new family. It was unclear whether she would ever return as the head of the Forensic Division at the Jeffersonian Institute or if Cam’s decision to leave the lab in the hands of Hodgins was permanent. Hopefully, that isn’t the case, and Cam eventually resumed her rightful position at the Jeffersonian.
Cam named Hodgins her replacement when she took a leave of absence in the Bones series finale, and he, of course, immediately declared himself the “King of the Lab.” Hodgins was ecstatic since he had been arguing that he deserved that title for 12 seasons, and his wishes finally came true by the time the Fox procedural series came to an end. If Cam never returned to work and chose to permanently focus on her new family or choose a different, less demanding career path, Hodgins might have remained the “King of the Lab” for a long time following the finale.
4 How Innocent Was Zack?
One of the biggest twists of Bones came in season 3 when the characters learned that Zack Addy, Brennan’s trusty intern, had been working with a serial killer. Zack was the apprentice of The Gormogon, who had been manipulating him from the beginning. It came out that Zack had killed one person during his partnership with the murderer, but there were discrepancies over the former intern’s innocence over the seasons. Zack’s murder trial ended in him being declared not guilty, but he still had 13 months left in his prison sentence for being The Gormogon’s apprentice. The constant back and forth was confusing, and Zack’s complete involvement was a question mark.
3 Did Zack Resume His Job At The Jeffersonian?
Following Zack’s release, it would make sense if he somehow got his job back at the Jeffersonian Institute in Bones. His former coworkers kept in touch with him over the years and even testified at his trial, so it would not be surprising if they vouched for him to return to work. If Fox ever revives Bones for a thirteenth season, Zack should return, given that he was one of the most important and complex characters, and fans will get an update on his career status.
2 Did Aubrey & Karen Start Dating?
The Bones series finale featured James Aubrey and Jessica Warren breaking up and Aubrey turning down a job opportunity in Los Angeles. Then, he shared a flirtatious scene with Karen Delfs that indicated there was a potential for a romance between them. Unfortunately, the audience never got to see them officially start dating. But a Bones revival could show if Aubrey and Karen ever decided to take the leap and act on their feelings for one another.
1 Did Brennan’s Brain Injury Have Any Lasting Side Effects?
The explosion in the penultimate episode of Bones left Brennan with a minor brain injury that affected her memory. As a result, she couldn’t remember a significant clue that would help the team in their final case. Thankfully, Brennan’s memory returned at the most opportune time, which was convenient, but this was a fictional television show, after all. However, the viewers should still be curious about whether Brennan’s brain injury had any other lasting side effects, which a Bones revival could address.
Thoughts:
*Which unanswered series questions do you still have?
*Mine are mostly Gravedigger related. How did this middle aged woman–by herself—incapacitate people, sometimes more than one at a time (the brothers in the “spaceship” and Brennan/Hodgins) or giant, heavy grown men like Booth?? How did she bury them underground or drag them to a boat in the ocean? It has always bothered me and always will. They never mentioned her working with any accomplices. It was such a promising story arc, but at the end, it felt like they just gave up on it.
In Bones , Brennan’s father Max Keenan’s criminal past shapes her view of justice and motivates her to solve crimes with a scientific approach.
Max’s recurring appearances add moral complexity to Bones and prompt Brennan to question the law, truth, and justice.
Max’s significant role in important moments like Brennan’s wedding and daughter’s birth adds depth to the series and Brennan’s character.
The beauty of procedural crime shows like Bonesis that every episode is dependent on the individual case that the characters are forced to solve. Some cases are more interesting than others, but rarely does an episode introduce a larger storyline that takes an entire season to pay off. While this makes a series like Bones great for first time viewers, as they can essentially start whenever they want, it does make it challenging for loyal viewers to feel that their years of viewership have been building towards something. How have the characters changed over the course of ten seasons, and what events shaped them into who they are now? Bones answered this question through the introduction of Temperance Brennan’s (Emily Deschanel) father, Max Keenan, played by the great Ryan O’Neal of Barry Lyndon fame. Within his limited capacity on the show, O’Neal changed the stakes of the series and offered insight on the upbringing that shaped the series’ protagonist.
Who Is Max Keenan?
It is revealed throughout Bones that Max and his wife, Ruth, were career criminals that went on the run after a series of bank robberies. Although Max’s skills make him dangerous, he was originally guilty of being a burglar, and not a murderer. Max and Ruth’s intentions weren’t just to line their pockets. Their series of crimes revealed a conspiracy of corruption that was related to the FBI. While Max may view himself as a Robin Hood-esque hero, his activities prevented him from staying with Brennan during her childhood. In turn, Brennan never knew the truth behind her father’s actions, and she’s spent her entire life blaming him for being absent during her childhood.
Bones does a great job at gradually revealing information surrounding Max. Brennan’s first open-hearted conversation about her father comes at a critical moment in her relationship with her partner, Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz). Booth and Brennan both come from broken homes, and both have felt responsible for their younger siblings. Brennan has lost contact with her brother Russ (Loren Dean) and after her parents’ disappearance, and Booth has been taking care of his alcoholic brother Jared (Brendan Fehr) after he gets in trouble with the law. Booth understands how difficult it is for Brennan to acknowledge her upbringing; she can’t help but fear that she will go down the same dark path that her father did. This makes her all the more determined to use her skills for good in order to bring the show’s most ruthless serial killers to justice.
Max’s Backstory Explains Brennan’s Motivations
Max’s backstory also reveals why Brennan is so intent on solving crimes in the first place. Above everything else, Brennan feels that the justice system failed her when she was younger, as her parents’ crimes ended up negatively affecting her development. As Brennan grows older, she realizes that her father’s actions, however misguided they may have been, were done on his part to protect her. Although Max has an odd way of showing it, he felt that he had to commit to a criminal lifestyle in order to provide for his family when he wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. This emphasizes to Brennan how important it is to know the definitive truth behind all the cases that she solves. She feels that she would have had a more positive relationship with her father if she had known the truth from the beginning. The only way to know the truth is to prove it, and Brennan’s entire career has been spent in the service of using scientific principles to explain human behavior.
Although earlier seasons of Boneswere more episodic, Max’s recurring appearances signified that the show was building towards a more important narrative conclusion. Max rarely appeared in more than a few episodes of each season, as the show stayed true to its procedural roots. Max introduced a level of moral grayness to the show that forces Brennan to reflect upon her values. She realizes that the law isn’t always right, that criminals sometimes have justified motivations, and that truth and justice aren’t necessarily the same thing. Within his limited time on the show, Max was able to question the inherent concept of the series, all whilst making Brennan more relatable as a character. Although Brennan’s direct-speaking nature could have made her less appealing as a protagonist, Max’s appearances show why she finds it so difficult to understand human emotions. She’s walled herself off from feelings as a result of her arrested development.
Max Appears in the Most Important ‘Bones’ Moments
Although Max wasn’t the type of character that would have worked as one of the series’ leads, he was involved in several important storylines that changed the tone of the series. Booth arrests Max in the second season, prompting Brennan to pry deeper into her father’s backstory. Her revelations inspire both her and Booth to question the FBI’s policies. As Booth and Brennan acknowledge that sometimes a less “by-the-book” method is needed to solve crimes, Max slowly becomes their ally, even if he’s only occasionally able to interact with them. Max’s limited appearances made him feel more valuable; whenever he showed up, it was clear that it was for an important moment in Brennan’s life.
Max shows up for Brennan’s wedding with Booth, hinting that he’ll get revenge on Booth if he doesn’t take care of her. It’s the type of darkly humorous, yet touching moment that the series does so well. Similarly, Max’s appearance for the birth of Brennan’s daughter, Christine, is a great step forward for their relationship. It was a great role for O’Neal. Despite his popularity in ’70s classics like Love Story, Paper Moon, and What’s Up, Doc?, his recent filmography has been rather lacking. Bones allowed him to play an important paternal figure who completely changed the tone of the series.
Thoughts:
*I liked the character of Max and how he worked with B&B on certain cases that needed his “expertise”.
*Max was also the ultimate B&B shipper.
*I’m ambivalent about the Max and Ruth changing names and abandoning their kids and all of that. Sometimes, it made sense, and sometimes I wondered why they couldn’t have come up with another way to keep their family safe but together. Of course, the show wouldn’t have happened if they had stayed a close-knit family, but you know…. 🙂
*In my head canon, his death (and the way they did it) never happened. He’s off playing with his grandkids.
*We always talk about how Max affected Brennan….but we also need to remember how he changed Booth. He did help provide some fatherly advice and conversations that Booth never had with his own father. PLUS, he helped Booth see some gray areas instead of just black and white, good and evil. Max often blurred those lines to help his family, and while initially, Booth just wanted to arrest Max who fell in the “criminal” category, eventually, Booth realized the redeeming qualities that Max had. (I think Booth also was mad at Max for hurting his partner and making her grow up the way that she did.) But eventually, they all came to terms with each other, which was really one of the nicer things Bones was able to do with its characters. Everyone found some level of understanding about each other over time.
Playing Bones’ Jack Hodgins Went Against The One Thing T.J. Thyne Tried To Avoid
BY RYAN SCOTT/FEB. 24, 2024
For a great many actors, getting on a long-running TV show is the dream. Steady work is hard to come by as an actor, and network television is one of the best ways to find such work (or at least it was, given that we’re now in the age of streaming). Actor T.J. Thyne found himself in precisely that situation playing Jack Hodgins on Fox’s “Bones.” For 12 seasons, Thyne got to bring the forensic entomologist to life, but in taking the job, the actor put himself in precisely the situation he had been avoiding for years.
Speaking with Oh No They Didn’t! in 2007, just a couple of seasons into the show’s run on Fox, Thyne was asked about playing the same character for so many episodes for multiple years. In response, he explained that he had previously resisted such things, because he didn’t want to get stuck doing the same thing for years on end. But in this case, it proved to be the right situation for him.
Thyne explained:
“To be completely honest, I’ve always resisted the whole ‘series regular’ thing. Over the years I’ve tested for so many shows and when I got to the studio test, I’d pull myself out thinking — I can’t spend 6 years on a show playing the same character, I can’t do it! To me, the idea of playing different characters in different genres was always what I wanted to do. But when Bones came along and the character of Jack Hodgins had so many different colors and opportunities, I took a risk for the first time. And I’m so glad I did. Jack’s got a lot of different layers, we’ve got an amazing cast, great writing and [series creator] Hart Hanson is a genius in terms of being a showrunner.”
TJ Thyne
Bear in mind, this was relatively early on in the show’s run. By the end of it, when the show aired its finale in 2017, Thyne had starred in 245 of the show’s 246 episodes – just about every single one of them. He was right there with David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel as one of the show’s anchors. Even then, the actor saw the value in playing a regular on a cable show, which was becoming more popular around that time. He recalled:
“I do miss playing a lot of different characters, as well as film. I think cable guys have the best. Guys like Michael C. Hall get to play an amazing character [Dexter] and still have time to do film and everything like that. But if I had to be on a show on network television, I’m so thrilled that it’s this. I’m glad I never took anything before that would have prevented me from being on Bones.”
It would be hard to say it didn’t pan out. Thyne’s time on “Bones” helped give him a career with flexibility. That stability allowed him to take risks when the show wasn’t filming and, in the years since, he’s undoubtedly had financial security so he can focus on what he wants to do creatively rather than merely having to survive. Even at that time, he was making time for other things, as he explained in the same interview.
“I spent the hiatus and did 4 movies, small parts. But it was nice to jump back in. I played a 1940s priest in the south, then a tattoed gun-totting drug dealer in LA and the voice of an Armadillo on a Nickelodeon show. As long as I can find time to squeeze in some parts here and there I think I can be happy playing Jack Hodgins for the rest of my life.”
TJ Thyne
“Bones” is currently streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.
The Only Bones Guest Star To Appear In Every Season
BY BEN PEARSON/FEB. 11, 2024
GUESS BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN!
The beloved procedural crime show “Bones” ran for an impressive 12 seasons, continuing the upward TV star trajectory for David Boreanaz after his work on shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” and helping to launch Emily Deschanel to become a household name after a slew of small roles in a handful of TV shows and movies. (See if you can spot her as a receptionist in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2,” which came out the year before “Bones” began.)
As the co-stars of “Bones,” Deschanel and Boreanaz naturally appeared in every single episode of the series. And while viewers know guest stars didn’t pop up nearly as frequently, some casual watchers may think that some of the more familiar faces might have at least popped up one time per season. But as it turns out, out of all of the guest stars who graced the series from 2005-2017, only one performer managed to make at least one appearance across all 12 seasons:
Patricia Belcher, who played Caroline Julian, a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Patricia Belcher’s filmography is wild
Belcher played the highly capable yet demanding prosecutor who helped Brennan and Booth countless times over the course of the show, and prosecuted her way into the “Bones” history books along the way. But that series is far from the only place the actor has appeared on screen.
Patricia Belcher has one of the most impressive filmographies I’ve seen in a long time. Her first credited role is as a ward nurse in Joel Schumacher’s 1990 film “Flatliners,” and her career took off like a shot straight from there. She also had roles in movies like “Clear and Present Danger,” “Species,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “The Number 23,” “500 Days of Summer,” “Bad Words,” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
But she really made her bones (sorry about the pun) on the small screen, popping up in practically every major TV show of the ’90s and 2000s. Get a load of this list, which doesn’t even include every show in which she appeared: “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Who’s the Boss?”, “NYPD Blue,” “Seinfeld,” “Martin,” “ER,” “Step By Step,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The Hughleys,” “Ally McBeal,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Boston Legal,” “Community,” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” That may be one of the most impressive runs in sitcom history.
*I know we talked about Caroline recently, but I didn’t realize she was the only guest star to have the milestone of every season! I guess I don’t think of her as a guest star as much as I do the squinterns, but I guess she is not on that frequently either. She just makes more of an impact with her appearances 🙂
*Caroline, our gruff but sweet B&B shipper! It is amazing the variety of roles she held. I’m still surprised she was able to maintain frequent guest starring roles on both the Disney channel and Fox channel (before they merged).
*She has the Hollywood life I would love to have (if I had any acting skill at all lol) . Steady income and jobs, yet no paparazzi chasing her down and making up rumors about her.
*While she is slightly pigeon-holed as a gruff character, she is able to be a part of commercials, crime shows, kids shows, blockbuster movies and TV shows, lesser known film and TV roles….she truly does it all!! And she got to spend 12 years flirting with David Boreanaz and isn’t that just the best role?? 🙂
Bones ran for an impressive 12 seasons, but the quality started to decline in its last three years.
Season 9 of Bones resolved the romantic tension between Booth and Brennan, but the show became less interesting once they got together.
The supporting cast of Bones suffered after Season 9, with strange storylines and the loss of a key character, Sweets.
Longevity in of itself is impressive for any television show, as simply remaining on the air for such an extended amount of time is a rare achievement when so many great programs are canceled early on within their runs. While there are many once promising shows that began to decline in quality around Season 3, the Fox procedural comedy-drama Bonesmanaged to run for an incredible twelve seasons before its series finale aired in 2017. While it’s easy to associate the end of Bones with its emotional series finale, the reality was that the series had started to dip in quality within its final few installments. Despite ending in a satisfying way, Bones would have been a stronger series had it wrapped up after its ninth season.
Season 9 of ‘Bones’ Had a Strong Ending
Loosely based on the experiences of the forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, Bones centered on a team of forensic anthropologists that work alongside the FBI to identify deceased victims and determine their cause of death. The lead scientist Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel), forensic artist Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin), entomologist Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne), psychologist Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley), and pathologist Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor) develop critical research that helps the FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) make arrests in the cases. While Bones was ostensibly a “case of the week” procedural show, the series’ core tension revolved around the blossoming romance between Booth and Brennan. Boreanaz and Deschanel worked to develop a real friendship that made their onscreen chemistry even more dynamic.
While Booth and Brennan are initially at odds with each other, they begin to steadily realize that their skills perfectly counterbalance each other as they grow closer over the course of several cases. While the couple had reached a point in the previous season when they were willing to be emotionally open with each other, Booth is forced to break up with Brennan due to threats made by the ruthless serial killer Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds). Bones never had a villain as domineering and terrifying as Pelant. With his ruthless hacking skills, extensive resources, and obsession with Brennan’s relationships, Pelant was a villain who affected each member of the team on a personal level. Pelant’s dominance within the ninth season gave the series a darker feel that suggested it was reaching its conclusion.
The ultimate standoff between the Jeffersonian team and Pelant made “The Sense and the Standoff” one of the most exciting episodes in the show’s history. After recognizing that Pelant’s ego is his greatest weakness, Brennan and her friends stage a fake murder to draw him out and defeat him. The episode epitomized the importance that each member plays in solving a case, and freed them from the burden that Pelant had put them under. While it was a great way to conclude one of the show’s most exciting storylines, Bones wasn’t able to top “The Sense and the Standoff” in its later seasons. In comparison, the villains, cases, and interpersonal conflicts that emerged within the final three seasons felt rather underwhelming in comparison.
‘Bones’ Season 9 Resolved the Romantic Tension
In addition to finally putting Pelant’s reign of terror to an end, “The Sense and the Sacrifice” opened up the possibility for Booth and Brennan to become an official couple. They eventually would in the episode “The Woman in White,” a heartwarming installment where the team must desperately try to solve a beguiling murder case on the eve of Brennan’s big day. While it was satisfying to see Both and Brennan set for a happy future together, Bones was far less interesting once the romantic tension was resolved. The “will they or won’t they” question that had lingered over the show wasn’t present in its final installments once the two were actually married.
One of the show’s best recurring characters also challenged stereotypes and negative cultural portrayals on television.
While it was able to have fun with the premise of a married couple solving crimes together, Season 9 did not present a sustainable template for the rest of the series. Much of the season was spent resolving some of the show’s long-standing storylines, including revelations about Booth’s family that had been teased in previous seasons. While the presence of Ryan O’Neal as Brennan’s father, Max Keenan, always gave the show a boost of energy, the character’s desire to protect his daughter felt less urgent now that she was officially married to Booth. It was clear that Season 9 represented a conclusion to the first iteration of the series. Unfortunately, the conclusive nature of these episodes meant that the only way to continue the show’s trajectory was to create artificial tension and strange plot twists, leading the show to continuously “jump the shark.”
The ‘Bones’ Cast Suffered After Season 9
The marriage of Booth and Brennan in Season 9 meant that Bones had to rely more heavily on its supporting cast within later seasons to keep the series feeling fresh. While the romance between Hodgins and Angela had always given the series a healthy sense of humor, Bones struggled to give substantial storylines to its supporting cast in later seasons. A strange storyline involving Camille’s identity being stolen came completely out of left field, and detracted from her compelling romance with the intern Dr. Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat). Additionally, the revelation that the fan-favorite character Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry) had developed a serious illness felt like a twist injected purely to gut punch the audience.
Most critically, Season 9 was the last season of Bones that featured Sweets, as he was dramatically killed off at the beginning of the next season. Sweets had been a core part of Bones’ success as an ensemble show because he challenged each of the characters’ perspectives in a way that made them feel more vulnerable. While the FBI Agent James Aubrey (John Boyd) was introduced to fill his shoes, he did not have the previously existing history with the other characters that had made Sweets’ role so critical. While it’s impressive that Bones was able to run longer than most television shows do, it would have been best if the series concluded after it had already peaked.
Thoughts:
*In some ways, I agree, just because of what the showrunners did by the end of the series. And we’ve talked about that, along with the loss of some of our core writers. It’s hard to keep up the magic when the essential magic makers leave.
*HOWEVER, I still think Bones was still a good show till the end, even if not quite as magical. After 12 years, it was like they were part of my weekly routine and I still looked forward to seeing what they were up to. I still haven’t found a show I was as into as Bones (besides The Office which also began airing in 2005 and made it to 9 seasons. People also suggested that one should’ve ended after only 7.)
*In this article, specifically, I did not agree about the wedding making B&B an official couple. They were a couple since season 7 and conceived Christine. People that argued the romantic tension was gone would have said it happened long before the official wedding ceremony. Though the honeymoon was the least romantic one of all time, they still shared some special moments throughout the last 3 seasons.
*All that being said, holding on to most of the core cast, and main squinterns, I think Bones was able to provide us with enough special moments to make it worthwhile to have 12 seasons. Some have said David Boreanaz has a knack of turning sometimes cheesy dialogue into greatness, and I agree that the cast was able to take the level of writing they were given at the end of the series and still make it work out. We got a lot of David directing towards the end as well which he is particularly good at doing, and that helped. I still think he did a fantastic job with the finale.
*But on the other hand, what would it have been like had they wrapped it up with a B&B wedding? Would that be a good ending? Or too cliche? Would it have forced them to focus on good storylines and drop the filler episodes? Are the last 3 seasons of Bones bad enough to wish they had never happened?
Boots & Blazers 
