Bones: More of Your Burning Questions Answered!

As part of the exclusive cover story appearing now on newsstands, TV Guide asked fans of Fox's Bones (Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET) for the questions they most want answered. Within the pages of the new issue, David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel and other cast members address 18 looming queries. Here, executive producer Hart Hanson himself tackles several more pressing topics.

Q: I read David Boreanaz talking about Booth having a nervous breakdown. True?
Hart Hanson: I’m not sure I would call it a breakdown, but there is an incredibly inappropriate piece of behavior on his part. Booth has to talk to the departmental psychiatrist after a death with which he is involved. We will also see some of the origins of his gambling addictions, but I’m not willing to tell you yet what they are. We saw a little bit of that in the dress-up episode in Vegas.

Q: Will we see Brennan and Booth get together?
Hanson: We will see everything we can do to put them together without them getting together for as long as we can pull that off. We’re going to place them in romance's way as much as we can, but we think we have quite a ways to go. They will actually have to go into partners/couples counseling because of a range of things.  And then, as they are to one degree or another involved in each other’s romantic lives at separate times, they find themselves being there for the other, and they may end up discussing things that they probably wouldn’t willingly discuss about love, romance, and especially sex.

Q: If Brennan and Booth won't actually be getting together, are you considering any kind of "daydream" sequence?
Hanson: We consider it. There are a whole bunch of techniques for building up the pressure and releasing it. One is, you think it’s happening, and it’s just a dream. You’ve seen that a million times. We haven’t done it yet, because we haven’t felt the need to let off that pressure that way. I think that the Hodgins/Angela relationship lets off a little of that building pressure.

Q: Why are the fan boards so mean toward Cam (played by Tamara Taylor)?
Hanson: She shook things up, like, "Here comes the new person into our tight group," and people don’t like that. Let me say that for all those who hate Cam, she has to jump over a few hurdles, so they should be pleased by that. But we’ve also seen the characters change their attitude toward Cam as she becomes more a part of that group, and now she feels like one of them. I think that the viewers are going to take to her even more.

Q: Is the "Angelator," which Angela uses to create holograms of dead people's faces,  based on any real technology?
Hanson: I’ve seen us get slaughtered for the Angelator, and the fact is, the technology exists. What we can be faulted for is the fact that we would have one in a lab to use it for the things that we use it for. They’re massively expensive, and there are not a lot of ‘em [in existence] — maybe a dozen. We got the idea from one that specializes in weather and tries to forecast hurricanes.

Q: Is real-life forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, who inspired Bones, ever going to be in one of the episodes?
Hanson: She is in an upcoming episode [airing Dec. 13 and directed by The X-Files' David Duchovny] playing a member of Zach’s dissertation committee. She doesn’t like him; that’s all I’ll say about that. [See TVGuide.com's recent Q&A with Reichs about her drop-by.]

Q: Has Reichs ever been concerned that aspects of the show may not be up to her scientific expertise?
Hanson: She looks at every script, and we listen to her. But we’re very accurate, and so far we have not made her angry. You do not want to make her angry. She’s tough. She knows how to get rid of bones. For instance, feeding bodies to pigs is a brilliant way, because pig poop does not retain DNA. And they’ll eat anything. 

Q: Who is the goofball on the set?
Hanson: TJ [Thyne, Hodgins] and David are the most focused, but when they snap, they snap big. Emily and Eric [Millegan, Zack] are the most hair-trigger ready to burst into song. Eric's Michael Jackson impersonation is just a horrible thing to behold, unless you like Michael Jackson, in which case it’s wonderful. Emily’s Borat is spot-on. TJ can imitate non-famous members of the crew, and it’s crushing to be imitated by him. They are all horribly disgusting talented people who can do a million things.

Q: Is Bones moving to a new time slot come January?
Hanson: No, we’ll stay at 8 o’clock on Wednesdays, preceding American Idol. It’s good for the whole network when American Idol comes on. Those American Idol people — they know what they are doing.  Michaela [Conlin, Angela] has been there, and I think they have guards to keep Eric from running up on to the stage. They love American Idol.

Pick up the Nov. 20 TV Guide for our exclusive Bones cover story.

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