Hart Hanson’s Journey With Bones
Hart Hanson, Executive Producer for Bones, gave an excellent talk at the Banff World Television Festival in Alberta last week: from how the show was created, to how David Boreanaz was cast (and his initial dislike for Emily Deschanel!), to spoilers for the next season. Not to mention what would have happened to Zack Addy had the full Season 3 aired without the strike interruption.
Hart Hanson, who has been a great supporter for our SearchingBones.com site, talks about the series of decisions that led him to Bones. After a number of unusual decisions in the industry, including quitting a series, Hart landed at FOX with a contract to produce 5 pilot scripts. Bones was the fifth pilot he wrote and pitched.
Hart Hanson was invited to meet with Barry Josephson, who had bought the rights to an A&E documentary on Kathy Reichs, author of the novels upon which Bones has been based. After turning down the meeting, he was intrigued by Barry’s career and proceeded with talks. That said, he couldn’t see himself doing a procedural drama like CSI.
"There were enough procedural things. CSI kind of rules the world. Why would you enter into that?"
They assured Hart that they wanted his way, the "soft" way. Hart Hanson is quite honest in saying he is a "soft" writer, vs. a procedural writer. He likes humor and characters, so to bring procedure into Bones (a mostly "soft" drama), Hart later hired writers from CSI, Law & Order and other shows.
Hart says that by the time he’d written the script, cast the pilot, and shot it, Bones was his child. There were a lot of battles in the first year to push the show towards CSI, but he discovered a great way to win those battles. By saying:
"Oh, you’re right, but I can’t do it. I’m not the guy… I just can’t do it. I understand that you need to make a change."
But they never did, to his surprise and our pleasure. Bones has survived three regime changes at FOX so far, but the success of the show continues to keep it around.
The casting of Bones was long, as with any pilot. The first person cast was Eric Millegan, then the other "squints" TJ Thyne and Michaela Conlin. The leading man and woman were not so easy. The mandate was for a younger woman, aged 25-35, and finding a great actress for the pilot was difficult.
The head of FOX at the time suggested David Boreanaz to Hart Hanson for the lead. Hart was ready to offer the job to David instantly.
"I thought he could be funny. I underestimated him. He can be very funny. I thought ‘This guy could be funny. He’s handsome. Handsome guys are funny.’"
So, Hart Hanson took a meeting with David Boreanaz that he describes as "disastrous." Hart now knows to never bring up Angel in discussion with David. Despite the meeting, David Boreanaz signed onto the cast and he could then read with actresses for the lead. Four days before shooting the pilot, still no female lead.
A friend of Barry Josephson’s had done the movie Glory Road with Emily Deschanel and had recommended her.
"And in came Emily, who is tall, has a deep voice. She has gravity. And she was young, she was 30 at the time. And so you could believe in her as a scientist, which was kind of tough with some of the actresses we saw… and it turned out that she could be funny. And she looks like Grace Kelly."
Hart says that a number of actors for each part had to be taken into the studio and into the network. The network casting stage is intimidating – nobody talks, says hi, or exchanges pleasantries. The actors had to come in and do their bit, then leave and be discussed. Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz read together for the network. And here Hart Hanson tells a story about the casting he’s not sure David wants him to tell.
"David had another actress he liked, that he thought should be the lead. David’s a very strong-willed man. So he… I wouldn’t say sabotage… he challenged Emily to rise to the occasion by advancing on her.
David’s about 6′1", and about 200 lbs of shoulders with pecs attached, and the ‘package’ and knees… very, very… he’s a guy… And he advanced on her in the network test. And Emily stepped into it. She stepped right toward him. And then they had one of the exchanges that we used in the pilot. And it was when even a thick-head like me went ‘whoa.’"
Emily Deschanel was originally slated to be a single lead in the show. In 13 out of the 24 episodes, David Boreanaz would be the cop, and Emily would have contact with other cops as well.
"But we had a thing which you don’t pass up, which is chemistry between the two leads. It’s impossible to find."
Luckily, David decided he’d work full-time on the series, something he hadn’t wanted to do. Perhaps because Emily stepped into his challenge. And this brings us to the Bones we have now, which rests heavily on the chemistry between David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel.
In the finale of Season 3, Bones fans were given a shock in finding out that our beloved Zack Addy (Eric Millegan) is Gormagon’s apprentice! However, it was not slated to be so. Originally, in the arc planned out prior to the season, Zack Addy was to be a victim of Gormagon. He was going to die! However, when the WGA interrupted the season, and Bones had to tie up the rest of the season in 2 episodes rather than 8, the arc couldn’t play out as it was structured. That, and Hart Hanson is a nice guy.
Thinking about what six episodes less of pay would mean to Eric, Hart Hanson decided to keep Zack Addy alive, and write him in as Gormagon’s apprentice. That way, Zack can make return appearances in Season 4 (confirmed!!). Hart is not sure how yet, but did mention visits to the mental hospital and perhaps some tragic gloves for poor Zack. Talking later to Hart, Eric Millegan had been texting him during the session to gauge the reaction of the audience to his leaving the show. The fan reaction to Zack Addy being Gormagon’s apprentice, and to leaving the show as a regular cast member, has been quite negative. That said, the finale episode was the highest watched episode in Bones history, and the official show site and forum received more traffic than at any time before.
Hart Hanson describes the London arc of Season 4 as something that originated in the writing room as an opportunity to get funding from FOX in the UK. While that didn’t fly, Hart did receive the green light to do shoot in London, which was a very exciting thing. The challenge was, however, to do a 2-part episode that would fit together seamlessly, but which could stand on its own individually.
"The challenge was to create a seamless episode which would have a big fat seam in it… oh wait, I just said semen. I was trying not to say that."
So, stay tuned to Season 4 and if you’re in London, you may see the production crew shooting for Bones for the next few weeks. According to Hart, we’ll see Booth initially hating a lot about London, but then through a lot of comedy, he’ll come to enjoy it.
Hart Hanson is currently writing another pilot for Fox called Promises and Lies based on the Myron Bolitar series of books by Harlan Coben.
image: ianivarieanna Tags: hart hanson, bones, fox, fox bones, bones series, bones tv, searching bones, bones news, bones spoilers, david boreanaz, eric millegan, emily deschanel, bwtf08
8 Comments
Wow! That was the best article ever! Thanks!!!
OMG R U KIDDING ME HANSON
how could you do that to eric. HOW i liked Zack being that inoccent and weird scientist and then to mke him a killer. NO offence BUT I RATHER HAVE ZACK KILLED THEN HAVING HIM BE MURDER
[...] Alberta. Among the speakers at the event was none other than Hart Hanson, Executive Producer Bones. She covered his talk in great detail over on our MediaScribbler blog, so I strongly suggest you head over there to read all about what he had to say. [Photo: [...]
[...] by Brianne Clemmer At the Banff World Television Festival recently, Hart Hanson gave attenders an earful about the show and what we almost had – from the beginning and if we hadn’t have had the [...]
They were planning to kill Zach off, anyway? Oh, no! Zach is wonderful! Weird, yes, but he was absolutely wonderful to watch.
I loved the scene in the triel episode in which he tells the black guy, “Yes, I am always like this.” And I loved the bit in which he ran after Brennan, wanting to know why she hadn’t taught him the bone dyeing technique that uncovered the fact that the murder weapon had had a hilt. He was so upset at having been wrong. My favorite line of his: “We never guess.”
The only reason I am not disgusted by the handling of him becoming the Gormogon apprentice is that I kniw it was rushed because of the writers’ strike.
Still–you can’t brainwash someone effectively who lives away from his abuser and doesn’t spend all day in that person’s company. Zach came to work every day, was exposed to normal ideas and ethics. Even for Zach, I cannot swallow the idea that he was ‘logicked’ into becoming a killer.
On the other hand, at least we still get to see him. I’d have been really upset if he’d died. I just hate to think of him having to stay in the mental hospital and being unable to work at the Jeffersonian ever again.
Hart Hanson should be ashamed of himself. No decent writer would twist a character like Zack into the apprentice of a serial killer. It is a totally unbelievable story line. I have to wonder what Mr. Hanson is smoking these days.
Hart Hanson, America’s number one enemy this year, lol.
The depiction of Kathy Reich’s female character from her books (Temperance Brennan), as being an un-emotional person is/was totally laughable.
The reason, the reader has to read between the lines and realize that the writer (Kathy Reich) was a person whom withheld her own feelings during the writing; which, left the character seeming to be a bit flat in the emotion department. Some writers do this if the story is in correlation with their own lives, for protection of their ownself, or people they love.
The interpretor should have been able to “read between the lines” to see where emotions, feelings, etc. fit in. I think this would have been better than showing the character as being socially inept. Had to get that off my chest.
The second thing. Even with the wrong interpretation, the show built up well, and showed promise of being one of those great shows that you just cant wait to catch up on, and watch for years.
Someone carefully built up each character, story line, etc. and played them together well. Then last season, things changed. The show appeared to have new writers, and writers who had no idea who the characters were, where the story had been or was going. The characters began switching their personalities around, the story line appeared to be retarded/stunted at best.
What is with putting in the damn psychologist all over the place? The show was centered around work, now it is one big therapy session, total bs.
Then the crazy things at the very end, totally off the wall. It is as if there were an experienced mature set of writers, who knew about writing, how to create story lines within storylines, knew how to build a character, flaws and all—then someone fired these mature intelligent creators and hired a whole bunch of young college men, who have nothing more interesting going for them than trying to get as much flash/bust/booty/ignorant crap into one show without any connection to other things. And for some reason, the persons making the calls, think it is going to be ok, everything will be ok.
Looking around the internet, millions of people were watching this particular show. Millions seem to be angry, upset and in disbelief that things went south. Millions have hung in there, hoping that rectification would occur.
Then we/me come accross these sites that have flippant excuses for the changes made. Such a dissapointment. Why have Hanson and Fox ignored all of this? Yes faithfull followers will continue to watch for a while, but they too will leave.
Not sure who is feeding you the belief that America wants you to “keep things stirred up”.
I think you should do yourself a favor and look up the shows that ran the longest and were loved the greatest—Im talking shows, not the stupid daily soaps that are about as retarded as what has been happening to Bones of late.
Ah well, I guess it will continue to go the direction of other “lets stir it up shows”—and you apparently do not care. Sorry for you all, but more-so for us.
You have dropped the ball on this one.
i really believe that hart h is gay, and Eric was unavailable for a relationship.
Ah, the world of actors, directors, etc…