After taking nearly a month off for post-season baseball, Bones returns to FOX on Wednesday (Nov. 5) with a new episode titled "The Skull in the Sculpture." Series creator and executive producer Hart Hanson got on the phone with a cadre of reporters to talk about what's coming up for the show.One thing viewers can expect is a continuation of the Zack-of-the-Week at the Jeffersonian. Since Eric Millegan's Zack checked out at the end of last season, Bones' team has been fleshed out with a variety of aspiring Zacks, allowing for memorable guest appearances by actors including Carla Gallo, Joel David Moore, Michael Badalucco and Eugene Byrd.
"It has been really fun for us, notwithstanding everybody’s deep affection for Eric Millegan and Zack," Hanson says. "What it has done for us is we've been able to invent a series of characters that make more stuff happen at the lab. It kind of gives B-stories to the B-story, to get some character and humor out of the lab. We found this group of people; we found actors that have just been delightful. It's been amazing for me how good these people have been at coming in and integrating and being on kind of a revolving door. Initially, I thought, 'Oh, we'll look at four to six people and then pick someone who is great and have them come in.' We have a couple of more ideas now that we'd like to pursue with these grad students. It's no longer a case, at least in my mind, of finding someone to replace 'Zack,' but... figuring out how long we can do this and how long it serves the show."
Hanson acknowledges, though, that the Zack-of-the-Week runs the danger of becoming tired, like with Murphy Brown and her revolving door of secretaries.
"Murphy Brown did it every single week and it was kind of a gag that they pursued. We're actually not interested in having an infinite number," he says. "For example, a couple of times, some very interesting casting ideas have come to me as to whom we might have come in as an intern and no character suggests itself. They each have to be different. It just can't be someone with a quirk each week. I think that would become very tiresome."
Byrd's Clark is set to return during November sweeps and Hanson says he'd love to bring Badalucco's character back. But that doesn't mean that we've seen the last of Millegan and Zack.
"We’re not done with Zack," Hanson promises. "Zack is a fun character. We left a big hanging chad with Sweets, that Sweets knows that Zack didn't do what he is thought to have done. He has a problem, an ethical problem on how to deal with that and we will deal with that. That's an ideal episode in which to have Millegan come back again; Eric Millegan come back and play Zack again. I think it's okay for me to say that I'm looking into Stephen Fry's availability because I think he would be the ideal person to help Sweets figure out how to deal with that. But, Zack is still in our minds. His name is hanging up there on the boards in the writer's room as to what cases he would be useful in, that he could organically fit into."
Amidst the returning faces, upcoming episodes will also offer some new actors, including Brendan Fehr in a one-episode stint as Jared Booth, brother of David Boreanaz's character. Also stirring up trouble will be Nichole Hiltz as Roxie, who shares a romantic past with Michaela Conlin's Angela.
"It was like you get to watch Michaela kiss another really beautiful woman. That's not the worse thing in the world. But, I don't think that's why we did it. You want to jolt a series every once in a while and remind people that anything can happen."
Hanson notes that the wild-child part of Angela's character, central to so much of her early development, has been a bit neglected in recent seasons.
"It worked quite well," Hanson says. "The actress who was playing her ex-girlfriend, perhaps girlfriend again is Nichole Hiltz and she's very funny and very warm. Also, if we do this right, and you'll let us know, it's not played very prurient. It's pretty matter of fact. This is who she is. This is who she was for a while and who she could be again.
With Bones, scheduling is always the big unspoken question. FOX has routinely threatened to move the show to the wasteland of Friday nights, which would be both a sign of respect for the show's reliable audience, but also a potential kiss-of-death. FOX has, once again, tentatively slated new episodes of Bones for Fridays starting in January.
So I asked Hanson where, if he had to guess, he figured Bones would be airing in the new year.
"I will tell you I have no idea. I don't know what their plans are," He says. "I know anything is possible. I think not Friday. I'm pretty confident we won't be on Friday, but I don’t know what they’re going to do with Idol. I don't know what they’re going to do with Dollhouse. Your guess is as good as mine. For a while, I thought Mondays; they'd put us on Mondays. For a while I thought, 'Oh, my God, maybe they'll,' which I would love, 'pair us with House on one of the nights that Idol isn’t on.' But, I don't even know, I don't think anyone does -- well, they do at the network -- when Idol is coming on. That, of course, will change everything.
