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These days, many a beloved network series is being given the streaming age reboot treatment. Kelsey Grammer pulled off a full "Frasier" revival series which was, lamentably, neither disappointing nor remarkable. Meanwhile, NBC ordered a "Suits" spin-off, "Suits: LA" which will see the show that experienced a remarkable Netflix renaissance in recent years revitalized for a new generation. All of which has only heightened anticipation for a "Bones" reboot.

The Fox procedural, led by Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, ran for 12 seasons from 2005 to 2017, and maintained a devoted following throughout. With renewed interest in resurrecting series just like this, talk of a "Bones" reboot has increased, though such a thing would be complicated given Disney's 2019 acquisition of Fox. If a "Bones" revival does come to pass, however, it would at least give series creator Hart Hanson a chance to address one of the most frustratingly nonsensical aspects of the original series.

Even the biggest fans of "Bones" — Hart Hanson's procedural series led by Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz which ran for 12 years and the same number of seasons — likely don't associate the series with Christmas, and that's extremely fair. Across those 12 seasons, the show, which can get pretty dark at times, largely eschews holiday episodes for "case-of-the-week" style installments as well as overarching storylines. So what about the few Christmas-themed episodes of "Bones?" Are they any good?

Actually, they are! While the Christmas episodes probably won't make a list of the best out of 246 episodes, only three center around Christmas, and each of them is pretty solid. Even sweeter, the best of them all even features a guest star you'll likely recognize from another hit Fox show (who also happens to be related to one of the show's leads). Here are the three "Bones" Christmas episodes, ranked from "pretty good" to "actually awesome.

It seems like pretty much every major TV show is getting either a reboot or a revival these days — so what about "Bones," the Fox procedural led by Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz (and created by Hart Hanson) that aired from 2005 to 2017? The show concluded after 12 seasons and since then, there hasn't been any official word about whether or not the cast of "Bones" could find the time to come back together and play their characters again. Boreanaz, for his part, thinks it's doable.

Despite telling TV Insider (in 2024) that the experience was "lightning in a bottle," Boreanaz said that not only does he think fondly of the series, but he'd be down to return in some fashion. "I hold that so near and dear, and it would be great to relive that again," the "Seal Team" actor continued.

According to Boreanaz, he feels like the characters were so lived-in...

"Bones" was never a show that held back when it came to depicting bodies in various states of decay. This was a series that somehow managed to balance a lighthearted banter between its two series leads, FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanez) and forensic anthropologist Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel), with some of the most horrific cadavers you ever saw on network TV.

There were bodies that upset actors, such as the time Eric Millegan got grossed out, and even a dead body that was so gruesome it went too far for one "Bones" producer in particular. In other words, this was a show that did not feel the need to censor its depiction of death. But that doesn't mean the writers weren't compelled to take a more modest approach to other aspects of the crime procedural.

Take that relationship between Bones and Booth, for example. It took the writers...

Throughout Hart Hanson's Fox procedural "Bones," the main cast of characters who work at the Jeffersonian Institute get attacked by vicious killers and murders a lot. No, really, it happens a lot, to the point where it's one of the bigger things on "Bones" that doesn't make sense — but I digress. Aside from the Gormogon, the Puppeteer, the Deity, and Mark Kovac, who are some of the most grotesque villains seen on the series, there's one particularly frightening villain who shows up as early as season 2 of "Bones" — specifically, the Gravedigger, who buries victims alive for generous ransoms (and may or may not even set them free if the money is delivered). Also, a lot of her victims are children, which is particularly messed up.

So, who's behind the horrific crimes committed by the person known only as the Gravedigger until season 4, when the predator slips up and accidentally...

Hart Hanson's massively popular Fox procedural "Bones" ended its run back in 2017 ... and when it did, star Emily Deschanel weighed in on the one thing she wished the show had done. Namely, Deschanel — who plays the preternaturally brilliant forensic anthropologist Temperance "Bones" Brennan on the show — loves and respects the character she brought to life, but she had hoped that the series could have been more direct about Temperance's likely neurodivergence.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly after the finale "The End in the End" aired, Deschanel said that she was genuinely honored to play a woman crushing it in a male-dominated field. "I loved playing a character who is such a brilliant female in science who is also not shy about telling people about her brilliance, that has so many different ways of living her life," Deschanel said. "She's not set by certain mores of our culture,...

There are 246 episodes of Hart Hanson's small-screen procedural "Bones" spanning a whopping 12 seasons, so the fact is that they can't all be winners. Apparently, though, there's a whole group of episodes that intrepid "Bones" fans really can't stand, and those episodes center on Hannah Burley, a journalist who dates series lead Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) during the show's sixth season.

Why is that? What's wrong with poor Hannah? An easy explanation here is the fact that, throughout "Bones," there's an ongoing "will they, won't they" situation between FBI agent Booth and his colleague at the Jeffersonian Institute, bestselling author and forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. By the sixth season, fans have endured a series of near-misses with the couple, which is when Hannah shows up. Throughout seven episodes, Hannah dates Booth after they meet in Afghanistan, and not only does their relationship seem like a direct result of Brennan's recent rejection of Booth,...

12 years is a long time to keep a TV marriage going, yet that's precisely what David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel managed to do on "Bones." Granted, their on-screen counterparts, Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, weren't literally married the entire time (they didn't tie the knot until season 9), but for all practical purposes, they might as well have been. The two actors were also instrumental in ensuring that "Bones" was more of a character-driven procedural than Fox initially had in mind, even taking extra time to work with an actor coach on refining their chemistry. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine the show would've had anywhere near the longevity it achieved had its stars and creator Hart Hanson been content to merely xerox "The X-Files" like the network had wanted.

Even with that, though, the series had a hard fight to make it to 12 seasons. Whether it...

Fans of the popular procedural series "Bones" know that, throughout the series, the number 447 just kept popping up over and over and over again. Whether it appears as a time on clocks, room numbers, or just in the background of a scene — a trend that started in earnest in the show's fourth season — 447 is as important to "Bones" as "the numbers" were to "Lost." But what do they mean? Well, in the show's 12th and final season, the Jeffersonian Institute — where Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her team work as forensic scientists and anthropologists to solve cold cases alongside FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) — blows up, and in the "Bones" series finale "The End in the End," the show reveals that the explosion took place at 4:47.

"We came up with [our take] pretty near the beginning of the season," showrunner Michael Peterson told TVInsider after the finale aired in...

The closer one looks at "Bones," the more one begins to wonder if everything really does come back to Hart Hanson's long-lived rom-com/gnarly crime procedural. From multiple "Breaking Bad" actors showing up as guest stars to Kevin Yagher, the legendary creature designer who co-wrote Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow," playing a key creative role behind-the-scenes on the series with his brother Chris Yagher, it seems as though our plane of existence is merely a tangled web with "Bones" at the center. Were the show to somehow be lost to the ravages of time like so much older media has been, it's possible our reality as we know it would collapse. Clearly, we should stop playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and start playing Six Degrees of Bones instead.

You think I'm kidding? Try this on for size: Before he came to fame playing Adonis Creed and Killmonger, Michael B. Jordan...

"Bones" managed to differentiate itself from other TV procedurals by establishing a tone that carefully balanced drama, humor, and some of the most shockingly graphic murder scenes yet seen on TV. Some of the bodies on "Bones" just went too far in terms of sheer detail, with one gross bathtub scene having to be cut altogether. This form of uncensored violence doesn't seem like it would pair well with some light-hearted banter between the two series leads, Emily Deschanel and David Boreanez, but it was this delicate balance that made "Bones" what it was.

It's an approach that worked well enough to keep the Fox series running for 11 seasons before wrapping up in 2017. Now, the show seems primed for a streaming-age return, though a "Bones" reboot would be a complicated affair in the wake of Disney's 2019 acquisition of Fox. In the meantime, we do know Boreanez and Deschanel would be up for returning to "Bones,...

"Bones" — the procedural drama centered around forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her FBI counterpart Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) ran from 2005 to 2017, spanning nearly 250 episodes and 12 full seasons. But will it ever come back for a revival?

It seems like everything is getting a reboot or revival now. Earlier this year, they reinvented "Mean Girls" as a musical starring Reneé Rapp, and shortly after that came out, Jake Gyllenhaal headlined a remake movie of the '80s classic "Road House" for a new generation. In Ryan Gosling's (delightful) action comedy "The Fall Guy," Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, who played the lead roles in the original series, show up in cameo appearances at the very end of the film. Throughout the past few years, everything from "Cobra Kai" to "Fuller House" to the long-awaited fourth season of "Veronica Mars" has reunited original cast members for another go-around. So why not "Bones?...

"Bones," as the title of the show implies, often centers on, well, bones. The team of Brennan and Booth, played by Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in every episode of the series, investigate various, bizarre murders, making up the procedural format that carried this show for well over 200 episodes across 12 seasons. It's easy enough to write a unique dead body, but it's a little harder to create that dead body on a network TV budget. Sometimes, that meant using old-school practical effects.

In "Bones: The Official Companion," the creatives behind the show discussed the season 2 episode "The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House." That title, aside from serving a practical purpose for the creators, let viewers know that Brennan and Both were going to find some glowing bones, which they indeed did. But how did the team make those bones glow for viewers? Producer Jan DeWitt explained precisely how...

Despite David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel's enthusiasm to return, I am a bit skeptical about a Bones revival. I will admit, the news of the return of so many procedurals, such as Suits and White Collar, is exciting as an avid procedural lover. That positive attention means that a Bones revival is much more likely. Bones' iconic romance between Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) as well as each of its dynamic cases made it one of my favorite series and definitely worthy of more screentime, especially considering the actor's enthusiasm to return.

Boreanaz expressed interest in a Bones revival recently, with Deschanel and creator Hart Hanson not too far behind. Bones does have a few unanswered questions that never got tackled after the show's cancelation by Fox, and most of the cast seem to have openings in their schedule to return to the Jeffersonian. However,...

In a world where revivals and reboots are all the rage, the possibility of Bones coming back less than a decade after its series finale is quite high, especially when those involved with the original show are on board. Fox's police procedural drama, created by Hart Hanson, debuted in September 2005 and ran for 12 seasons and 246 episodes before ending in March 2017. Throughout its time on network TV, the series featured the protagonists (Emily Deschanel's Temperance "Bones" Brennan and David Boreanaz's Seeley Booth) hunting down horrific Bones criminals, but the dynamic between the two leads is what made the show so memorable.

Bones is very loosely based on forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs' life and novels, with Temperance Brennan being named after the protagonist in Reichs' book series. Meanwhile, Emily Deschanel's Brennan is also a successful crime novel writer in Bones, with her books featuring a forensic anthropologist character named Kathy Reichs.

"Bones" had a truly impressive run during its time on-air. Debuting on Fox back in 2005, Hart Hanson's procedural dramedy quickly became a hit, thanks in large part to stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanez, who played forensic anthropologist Temperance "Bones" Brennan and FBI agent Seeley Booth respectively. The duo managed to carry the show's balance between truly grim subject matter and its more lighthearted elements in a way that kept the series running for a full 12 seasons. Unfortunately, Fox finally canceled "Bones" in 2017 after 246 episodes.

Since then, fans of the series have had to make do with re-watching the episodes that did air (short-lived spin-off "The Finder" just couldn't match the charm or the success of its precursor). But with almost 250 episodes to revisit, there's not exactly a paucity of "Bones" out there. Still, with the show now having been off the air for seven years, enough time has...

While we have already made a list of the best of the best movies coming to Peacock in September, those are not the only films you should look out for as the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service is also bringing you a ton of original and licensed new content in the upcoming month, from the hilarious seasons of Martin to the highly anticipated Kevin Hart crime drama series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist. So, we picked out the 5 best new movies and TV shows coming to Peacock in September 2024.

Bones Seasons 1-12 (September 1) Credit – Fox

Bones is a police procedural drama series created by Hart Hanson. The Fox series revolves around a forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan investigates decomposed and broken bones to help FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth solve crimes. Bones stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in the lead roles with Michaela Conlin, Eric Millegan, T.J. Thyne, Jonathan Adams,...

"Bones" isn't just a show with more than 200 episodes spread out over 12 seasons and a devoted fanbase. The secret sauce is that it followed a comfortable formula, for the most part, with the show's leads Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) largely tackling a murder of the week plot. All the while, throughlines for the series would further along the way. It's the kind of show that has started to disappear in the age of streaming, which might help to explain its enduring appeal. But even series with a formula have to break that formula now and again.

In "Bones: The Official Companion," it's explained that series creator Hart Hanson largely resisted putting the main characters in any major jeopardy episode to episode. The season 2 episode "The Killer in the Concrete" was cited as an example of turning the usual formula on its head a bit. Here's what Hanson...

"Bones" seems like the kind of police procedural dreamt up by a network desperate to win the ratings war: A couple of attractive leads clash over their opposing views of the world, with the logical, scientifically-minded Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) frequently at odds with the more spiritually-inclined FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz). But the show wasn't just engineered to appeal to audiences in the early 2000s. It's actually based on real-life anthropologist Katherine Joan Reichs.

Reichs was the author of 23 novels in the "Temperance Brennan" series, which is often thought to have inspired "Bones." But Dr. Reichs herself was actually the primary inspiration for the show, which ran on the Fox network for 12 seasons between 2005 and 2017. Show creator Hart Hanson confirmed that he was influenced by the real-life forensic anthropologist when conceptualizing "Bones," and has since incorporated specific incidents from her life into the show. A scene from...

"Bones" is arguably one of the most successful network TV shows of the 2000s. In terms of sheer numbers, it's hard to argue against. It ran for a truly impressive 12 seasons on Fox, churning out a whopping 246 episodes. That's downright unthinkable in the streaming world we now live in, unless we're talking about reality TV. Each one of those episodes has a catchy title, such as the season 2 episode "Aliens in a Spaceship," which remains a fan-favorite. But the titles weren't crafted solely to be catchy or suggestive of the plot. It turns out, they were meant to help keep things straight for the writers.

In "Bones: The Official Companion," executive producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan discussed the episode titles, with "Spaceman in a Crater" cited as an example. The book explains that, first and foremost, each "Bones" episode title refers to both the victim and the state in which the body was found.

As Dr. Temperance Brennan and Special Agent Seeley Booth, Emily Deschanel and David Boreanez were the heart of "Bones". But almost as important were the so-called "squints" — the team of scientists who work under Brennan at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute Medico-Legal Lab. That team also comprised the "squinterns" — a rotating cast of interns at the institute who work with Brennan on various cases. So integral to the show were these supporting characters that saying goodbye to the "squinterns" for the season finale caused Emily Deschanel to break down in tears.

Agent Booth used the term "squints" to refer to Brennan and her team in the very first episode of the series back in 2005, and the term stuck throughout the show's 12-season run, right up to its 2017 finale. As Boreanez explained it:

"It's a term that I'd never heard of until we started the pilot [...] [The scientists are] always down, squinting at their pieces of paper.

The Mallorca Files is a British police procedural crime comedy-drama series created by Dan Sefton. The BBC One series is set on the beautiful island of Mallorca and it follows the story of a Welsh detective Miranda Blake as she is ordered to team up with the German detective Max Winter to solve crimes. The Mallorca Files stars Elen Rhys and Julian Looman in the lead roles with María Fernández Ache, Tábata Cerezo, Alex Hafner, Nacho Aldeguer, and Amy Beth Hayes starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the mysteries, crimes, the leading duo, and tons of comedy in The Mallorca Files here are some similar shows you could watch next.

Death in Paradise (Pluto TV & Prime Video Add-On) Credit – BBC One

Death in Paradise is a British-French crime comedy-drama series created by Robert Thorogood. The BBC One series follows the story of a detective inspector from London as...

Throughout its 12-season run, Hart Hanson's "Bones" acquired a reputation for basing its bizarre plot lines on astonishingly real events. For the investigative crew at the Jeffersonian Institution, the stranger the better.

"Bones" did, however, have a threshold. Obviously, being a network series, it could only go push so far with the blood and guts. Also holding Hanson and his writers back just a tad was the audience's goodwill. Though people loved "Bones" for its gallows sense of humor and gory spectacle, they were just as enamored of the characters. From the central relationship between Emily Deschanel's Bones and David Boreanaz's Seely Booth to the camaraderie and romances shared by their deep bench of subordinates, the show treated its dedicated fan base as part of an endearingly twisted family. So, while viewers were always on guard (if not positively giddy) for stomach-turning crime scenes, they weren't necessarily...

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Even Pinhead might've blanched at some of the sights that "Bones" had to show its audience. Across 12 seasons and just short of 250 episodes, Hart Hanson's screwball comedy/procedural hybrid saw its heroes come face-to-face with all manner of stomach-churning crime scenes involving long-dead corpses in putrid conditions. Be it a bathtub full of human ooze or a severed head that nearly had Hanson puking his guts out, you could always count on "Bones" to bring on the grossness. There were, however, times when the show's more disgusting moments got a little too real. That includes one particular second season episode featuring what sounds like the smelliest set this side of Carla's place from the Thanksgiving food fight episode of "Cheers."

That would be a reference to "Bones" season 2, episode 3, "The Boy in the Shroud." Things kick off with Bones...

TV detective shows often originate from crime books, with some featuring iconic duos rather than singular main characters. Adapted from books, popular detective shows like Bones and Sherlock maintained audience interest with gripping storylines. Characters like Temperance Brennan and Sherlock Holmes made successful transitions from novels to the TV screen.

Some of the very best detective TV shows to have ever graced the TV screen were adapted from crime books. Detective TV shows have kept audiences entertained for decades, with many finding it easy to engage with its characters and puzzling investigations that spanned across episodes or even entire seasons. However, only some detective TV shows followed the same format. Many saw a singular main character, whereas some shows introduced some of the best detective duos on TV.

Detective characters have come in all shapes and sizes, but only a few in recent years fit the mold of a grumpy police officer hellbent on justice.

Exclusive: Non-profit Humanitas on Friday announced the five fellows selected for its 2024 New Voices Fellowship, and the awardees of its Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award and the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award.

Recipients of the New Voices Fellowship, a six-month mentorship program for emerging television and screenwriters, include Aj Currie, Lucas Miller, George Pérez, Mads Summerfield, and Kim Lee Winslow. As fellows, they will each be paired with acclaimed screenwriters for one-on-one mentorship focused on polishing a script submitted for fellowship consideration. Past mentors have included Jenny Bicks, Scott Z. Burns, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Steven Canals, Marissa Jo Cerar, Robb Chavis, Tom Fontana, Hart Hanson, Winnie Holzman, Jason Katims, Bill Lawrence, David Shore, Charise Castro Smith, Robin Swicord, and many more.

Fellows will also each receive a $7,500 stipend, a three-month membership to MasterClass, headshots and a free course from UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and take part in a...

David Boreanaz excitedly embraces the idea of a Bones revival. Boreanaz reflects on the strong connection fans had with the characters of Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan. The actor expresses enthusiasm for a potential revival due to the fun and heartfelt nature of the show.

The chances of a Bones revival get an enthusiastic response from star and producer David Boreanaz. Running from 2005 to 2017, for 246 episodes, the police procedural was led by Boreanaz and co-star Emily Deschanel in their respective roles as Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan. Even though the Fox show has been off the air for several years now, those who've enjoyed the show have continued to wonder whether a Bones revival could ever happen.

In recent comments to TV Insider, Boreanaz enthusiastically responded to the possibility of returning for a Bones revival. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor spoke about the fondness he feels for the time...

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Thanks to the lightning-quick rise of the internet around the tail-end of the 20th century, the entertainment industry suddenly had a shiny new tool at its disposal to promote its products. And while the eventual rise of Facebook and Twitter would send social media marketing into overdrive, Hart Hanson's "Bones" proved to be exceptionally savvy at navigating the wild, wild west that is the information superhighway in the years that came both before and after that. In fact, as early as its second season, Hanson's gooey-gross procedural rom-com had already started using the ancient relic known as MySpace to make its viewers feel like they themselves were playing an active role in the show's weekly murder investigations. Such was the case with season 2, episode 20, "The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House." 

On the surface, "Glowing Bones" had...

In the modern TV landscape, there isn't really anything quite like "Bones." Not only are there so few shows outside of reality or unscripted TV that can claim they've made it to 12 seasons in the streaming era, but so many shows have gone the serialized route. On the flip side, this was very much a network TV show that allowed viewers to pop in and out, catching up with Brennan and Booth for the murder of the week. The creators often went all out to make those murders stand out, particularly when it came to the bodies. To that end, a severed head from the show's second season was so realistic it was downright barf-worthy.

In the "Bones: The Official Companion" book, authors Paul Ruditis and Hart Hanson go into detail on the severed head of Caroline Epps from the episode "The Man in the Cell." Crafting this prop was...

"Bones" episodes usually followed a fairly simple plot: A body was found and it was up to Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), and FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) to find out what happened. This was how "Bones" worked, with each episode offering up its own mini mystery that was usually solved by the end of the installment. Except, quite often, the show would introduce viewers to a serial killer, prompting multi-episode storylines which could often be tricky for an episodic series.

Throughout the show's run, we were introduced to The Ghost Killer, The Gravedigger, and The Hacktivist, who was responsible for serving Bones and Booth with a fresh body that went a little too far even for the show's producer. There was also season 3's cannibal killer The Gormogon, whose storyline Boreanaz once called, in about as candid a way as possible, "just bad television." But the very first...

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The 1999 summer movie season was one for the history books. It saw the release of the first "Star Wars" film in well over a decade, "Austin Powers" went from VHS success to bonafide blockbuster, and an unknown director named M. Night Shyamalan came out of nowhere to deliver the second-highest grossing title of the year. "The Sixth Sense" would've been that year's definitive work of horror, too, had it not been for "The Blair Witch Project." Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's shoestring-budgeted phenomenon, which premiered just a few weeks before young Haley Joel Osment saw dead people, was inescapable. Heather Donahue's terrified, teary-eyed confession to her camera in the film instantly became a widely-recognized piece of iconography alongside the movie's maddening final shot, both of which would soon be referenced and parodied in virtually equal measure.

By the...

"Bones" may have only gone off the air in 2017, but it already feels like a relic of a bygone era in many ways. The episodic procedural was a "murder of the week" show that invited viewers to see what crime Emily Deschanel's Brennan and David Boreanaz's Booth were trying to solve each week. There were plenty of throughlines in the series, but it was also the sort of show that someone could just jump on board with for the most part because most episodes did contain an isolated story. This worked to the show's benefit, to be certain, but it also caused a bit of a problem for the show's central character.

In the "Bones: The Official Companion" book, it's explained that the episode "The Woman in Limbo," which served as the show's season 1 finale, wasn't originally intended to cram in Brennan's full backstory. We're talking about one...

As "Bones" headed into its first-ever midseason break at the end of 2005, the show's creatives were starting to breathe just a little easier. The series was consistently drawing seven million viewers a week and even creator Hart Hanson was beginning to realize his modest procedural dramedy might yet enjoy a healthy shelf life on par with the likes of "Magnum, P.I." and its own forbearer on Fox, "The X-Files," after "Bones" found its groove with its fourth episode, "The Man in the Bear." But with penny-pinching network execs still breathing down his neck, the pressure was on Hanson to employ some cost-cutting measures.

Enter season 1, episode 9, "The Man in the Fallout Shelter". This particular Christmas-themed outing sees Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her crew investigating a skeleton that, true to the title of the episode, has been rotting away in an atomic fallout shelter for decades. When...

"Bones" had an impressive run. The procedural crime dramedy comprises 246 episodes, making for a total of 12 seasons. Of course, a show that goes on for as long as that was going to encounter some issues at along the way. Over its decade-plus run, there were all manner of problems that cropped up on "Bones," from the fresh body that went too far for producer Stephen Nathan to the storyline that star David Boreanez thought was just "bad television."

Usually, the show managed to overcome its issues, often in ingenious fashion. For instance, there was one point at which "Bones" borrowed a set from a short-lived Kelsey Grammer sitcom in order to shoot several scenes and ensure the set didn't go to waste. Or how about the time the showrunners cleverly covered up star Emily Deschanel's injury using an eyepatch and a circus-focused storyline.

But often, the show would stoke...

"Bones" enjoyed a ridiculously healthy run on Fox from 2005 to 2017. With 12 seasons and well over 200 episodes under its belt, we're talking about one of the more successful network shows of the modern era. Getting any show made is hard. Making one this enduring? It's almost impossible. Any number of things can derail a show from a casting decision to the whims of a network. But everything went right for this series. Would it have been as successful with a different title? We'll never know but "Bones" was very nearly called something else before Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz came into the picture.

In "Bones: The Official Companion," creator Hart Hanson reveals the show's creatives were struggling to find the right title during development. At one point, the idea was to simply call the show "Brennan" after its lead character, Temperance Brennan, not unlike Fox's other very successful 2000s series "House,...

Forensic anthropology is not for the impatient. It requires long, tedious hours of poring over and trying to make sense of bone fragments, so you'd better be a real nerd when it comes to loving the minutiae of the human skeleton. It's also not a field for the squeamish. As you might imagine, the human remains you have to recover and analyze at crime scenes can be deeply upsetting.

"Bones" fans would know all about that. The longtime Fox mainstay was full of utterly gross and gnarly scenes, like the time its heroes, Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel), found themselves staring down the barrel of a bathtub full of liquified body parts in the season 2 episode "The Truth in the Lye". Bones, never one to be easily phased by a nauseating sight in her workplace, quickly sets to work examining the melted...

Special effects shenanigans are to be expected on almost any police procedural. After all, these shows often involve unusual crime scene setups, many with some kind of gag involved. With 12 seasons and 246 episodes, the beloved Fox series "Bones" had plenty of time for a special effect to misfire, and in one spectacularly silly case, it caused a bit of a decapitation mishap! Don't worry, no one was hurt, just a little embarrassed. Just before "Bones" started to find its footing with a stellar fourth episode, there was "A Boy in a Tree," following Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) as they investigate the remains of a teenage boy found hanging from a tree at a prestigious private school. The episode itself is decent enough, but behind-the-scenes things were just a little bit more difficult.

In the book "Bones: The Official Companion...

There's nothing quite like a TV show that features our protagonists watching another, somewhat random TV show. In "The Sopranos," Tony at one point unwinds with an episode of "Gilmore Girls." In "Community," pop culture superfan Abed gets really, really into the ABC sitcom "Cougar Town." And in "Family Guy," the Griffin family watches, well, everything.

"Lucifer," the cult favorite supernatural series that aired from 2016 to 2021, took the TV-show-in-a-tv-show trope one step further by using a different primetime series as the catalyst for one of its best callbacks. In a season 3 plot, Luci (Tom Ellis) refuses to sleep after learning that he may be moonlighting as a guardian angel in a fantastical take on sleepwalking. He stays up for a week straight, binge-watching 12 seasons of the always-gross, always-shippable hit forensics drama "Bones" all the while, and even resurfaces with a new nickname for Chloe (Lauren German).

Read more: 15 Shows Like...

"Bones" is not just a show that has a devoted fan base despite the fact that it ended its run more than seven years ago, it's also a show that had a longer run than most shows that have ever made it to air. Spanning 12 seasons and more than 240 episodes, few series in the history of television can ever say they enjoyed such a fruitful run. That said, creator Hart Hanson wasn't always confident that the show was going to go the distance. There was, however, one key moment that led him to believe the show had legs.

In a 2017 interview with TV Insider around the time that the "Bones" series finale was about to air, Hanson spoke about the moment in question. For him, it was the show's fourth episode. Titled "The Man in the Bear," the episode aired in November of 2005 as the series was trying to find its footing.

When Hart Hanson's "Bones" premiered on Fox at the outset of the 2005-06 television season, the home entertainment world was a dramatically different place than it is now. The vast majority of TV viewers still looked to the big four networks for small-screen escapism, while word-of-mouth buzz was still a fickle thing that spread around the proverbial water cooler or in social circles outside of work. The internet was a valuable tool -- everyone either had a blog or knew somebody with one -- and an increasing number of folks were starting to get addicted to their Blackberry screens (the term "Crackberry" began to spring up around this time), but we weren't completely buried in our screens.

And, for folks over the age of 30 (or simply not heavily online), social media looked like a passing fad.

Three years later, Facebook and Twitter started to blow up, and it didn't...

Betty White was TV royalty. All she had to do was pop in, and viewers would sit up, aware they were in the presence of greatness whether they'd ever watched a minute of "The Golden Girls" or absorbed it purely through cultural osmosis. White's legacy goes far beyond playing lovable simpleton Rose on Susan Harris' legendary sitcom (though the character could be hella savage when the occasion called for it), but she spent much of her third act putting her razor-sharp comedic sensibilities to work in a never-ending string of small screen roles. Sitcoms, obviously, were her specialty; "Ally McBeal," "The Ellen Show," "That '70s Show," "Malcolm in the Middle," "Ugly Betty," "30 Rock," and "Community" all brought in White for an episode or more, as did the animated likes of "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill," "Family Guy," and "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy." 

So, of course,...

It's been said many times before, but it bears repeating, especially for easily triggered hardcore fans: To keep a long-running series fresh for writers, cast members, and viewers, producers/showrunners need to shake things up, and this occasionally means writing out a popular character. Sometimes, they've no choice in the matter. McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers both left "M*A*S*H" after its fourth season because they felt they'd outgrown their characters (the former wrongly believed he was on the cusp of television stardom). Shelley Long bolted "Cheers" after the hit sitcom's fifth season to launch a semi-successful movie career.

And sometimes it's just good storytelling to take a beloved character in a wholly unexpected direction, which is exactly what Hart Hanson and the "Bones" creative team did with the Jeffersonian Institute's oddly endearing uber-nerd Zack Addy, played by Eric Millegan during the series' third season. Obviously, this was...

Ensembles are the lifeblood of television. "Scooby-Doo" had the Mystery Machine team. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" had the Scooby Gang (no relation). "Riverdale" had its polycule, which it ultimately dubbed the "Quad." With its distinctive blend of humor and horror, Hart Hanson's "Bones" followed the motley crew at the Jeffersonian Institute as they cracked murder cases week in, week out. But when you really drill down to its core, you'll find that a lot of the show's most endearing players weren't around for as long as you might think.

Takes Dr. Sweets. Everybody's favorite nerdy FBI psychologist infamously died a heartbreaking premature death after John Francis Daley's directing career went into overdrive. Still, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that he didn't actually show up until season 3, episode 4, "The Secret in the Soil," considering he ultimately appeared in an eye-watering 138 episodes (albeit out of 246 total). The same goes for Cam.

Before the streaming wars reinvented cable yet somehow made it worse, television series didn't need to be ratings giants to enjoy a long life. In point of fact, shows that attracted a consistent audience tended to survive long after whatever pristine new series executives had counted on becoming their next breadwinner inevitably faltered partway into its soon-to-be-short-lived run. (My sympathies to "Terra Nova.")

"Bones" was one such series for Fox. Despite the network's baffling efforts to sink Hart Hanson's modest procedural dramedy, the show was quick to draw a loyal crowd that followed it anywhere Fox thought to move it (even the dreaded Friday night "death slot"). In fact, the series actually peaked in terms of immediate viewership after just 11 episodes (out of 246!) with season 1's "The Woman in the Car," which aired on February 1, 2006, to an audience of roughly 12.64 million viewers and double the number of eyeballs. Later...

The thing about big swings and high concept genre television is that when it lands, its smacks you squarely in the stomach. It's how you get all-time greats like the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episodes "Hush", "The Body" (one of the most gut-wrenching explorations of grief put to screen), and, of course, the musical spectacular "Once More, with Feeling." When it misses, on the other hand, you can end up with "Buffy" stinkers like "Doublemeat Palace" (which is far less captivating than its "Soylent Green"-inspired premise would suggest) and the one-two punch of "Beer Bad" and "Where the Wild Things Are".

When it comes to "Bones," Hart Hanson's agreeable, long-running rom-com crime procedural was constantly testing the waters to determine whether a comedic episode was perhaps a little too silly for a show about nightmarish murder investigations. You can see that in the common denominator shared by the...

In genre television series fandom, there isn't a more reliable argument starter than "What is the best episode of X show?" Devotees of "Star Trek" The Original Series will fight to their dying breath defending the likes of "The City on the Edge of Forever," "The Enemy Within," and "Amok Time". As for the original "The Twilight Zone," it could be "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," "To Serve Man," or just about any other episode because the series had very few duds. And then, of course, there's "Airwolf." Where to start with "Airwolf?" The winning move is not to start, because we'll never stop!

This topic becomes especially fraught when you're dealing with a long-running show like "Bones." Hart Hanson's amiable forensics procedural driven by the romantic chemistry between Emily Deschanel's brainy Temperance "Bones" Brennan and David Boreanaz's impulsive FBI Agent...

Most actors would love to have a career like David Boreanaz's. The man wooed Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as her brooding, completely age-inappropriate vampiric boyfriend Angel on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," took his fight against the forces of evil to Los Angeles in the "Buffy" spinoff "Angel," and solved murders while falling for stiff forensic anthropologist Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) in "Bones." He's since led the military drama series "Seal Team," which will wrap up after seven seasons (a miraculously long run in the brutal current TV landscape).

That's not to suggest his closet is devoid of skeletons. The actor was sued for allegedly sexually harassing a "Bones" extra in 2010; the lawsuit was dismissed after being resolved out of court in 2011. That same year, Boreanaz also publicly admitted to cheating on his wife Jaime Bergman. As of 2024, however, they are still married, with Bergman having since become one...

Even though "Bones" has been off the air since 2017, the show maintains a loyal following. Audiences followed Emily Deschanel's Brennan and David Boreanaz's Booth for 12 seasons and nearly 250 episodes as they solved crimes while falling in love. That relationship was at the very center of the show from the pilot onward. That being the case, fans of the show had a tendency to not like it when the Brennan/Booth romance was messed with. That's why Katheryn Winnick was given a warning before she accepted her role as Hannah.

Winnick, who would go on to star in shows such as "Vikings" and "Big Sky," stepped into the series relatively late in the game. Her character Hannah Burley was a major player in "Bones" season 6, and one that fans had strong opinions about. She had a fling with Booth in Afghanistan and, in the show's sixth season, she made...

Tracker is an action drama series created by Ben H. Winters. Based on a 2019 book titled The Never Game by author Jeffrey Deaver, the CBS series follows the story of an extremely skilled survivalist who goes from town to town to find missing people and things to collect rewards for them. Tracker stars Justin Hartley in the lead role with Robin Weigert, Abby McEnany, Eric Graise, and Fiona Rene starring in supporting roles. If you loved the first season of Tracker and are waiting for Season 2 coming this fall here are some similar shows you could watch until the new episodes come out.

Reacher (Prime Video) Credit – Prime Video

Reacher is an action thriller series created by Nick Santora. Based on the Jack Reacher novel series by author Lee Child, the Prime Video series follows the story of former U.S. Army military police major Jack Reacher who drifts from one...

Bones character Brennan's mental health traits resemble Asd, though the show avoided labeling her due to network constraints. Show creator based Brennan's character on a friend with Asd, leading to traits like social awkwardness and focus on forensic anthropology. Actress Emily Deschanel acknowledged that her portrayal of Brennan would have included Asd if the show was on cable television.

This article contains quotes from Bones cast and crew, along with industry outlets, in which the now-outdated term "Aspergers" (as opposed to the preferred "Asd") is used with regard to Brennan's mental health differences. This piece will not change direct quotes when they use "Aspergers", but it's important to note that it is no longer a relevant term.

"Is Bones autistic?" is a question that will likely have flashed across the minds of many Bones viewers as they watched the forensic police procedural. The first season of Bones premiered in 2005 and...