Hart Hanson talks 'Bones,' 'The Finder,' the art of show running

Hart Hanson, the creator of both “The Finder” and “Bones” on Fox, talks about the pitfalls of running a network show. And one of those pitfalls -- cancellation -- happened earlier this week, with Fox canning "The Finder" after this interview was conducted. The final episode of "The Finder" airs Friday; the "Bones" season finale is next Monday.

Were you surprised by "The Finder’s" performance?

I was hopeful that the “Bones” audience would check it out, but as I said to the network: It’s always tough to explain the “Bones” audience to people.... Every character that we’ve introduced on “Bones” has been roundly hated from the get-go. It took a year for people to like Tamara Taylor (who plays Dr. Camille Saroyan). They didn’t like her. And when John Francis Daley came on, I told him, "Don’t look at Twitter or the message boards for a year because they are going to hate you. You’re coming in to a very tight community." And, so, I thought there was a very good chance that would happen to "The Finder."

And it did. I got a lot of messages saying, "Hey, quit trying to force "The Finder' down our throats." There was no way to explain to people that “The Finder” wasn’t replacing “Bones” -- that Emily [Deschanel] got pregnant and she took some time off to have a baby; “The Finder” wasn’t there to push “Bones” away.

As a show runner in this new age of TV, what do you look at as your measure of success?

I'll tell you, one of things that has been hugely gratifying for me, especially with “The Finder,” was the anecdotal response I've gotten. People talking to me [about “The Finder”] love it. And on “Bones,” the satisfaction was, literally, the fact that we were booked to be dead before the end of the first season and the network moved us around a ton on the schedule — really, a ton. We never had four episodes in a row without being moved or pre-empted — and yet 6 million people followed us wherever. I think it was in Season 3, the network realized it wasn't going to die and thought, “Well, we might as well be nice to it.” And here we are going into Season 8.

Fox renews 'Bones'

Fox announced Thursday that it is bringing back "Bones" for an eighth season.

The veteran crime dramedy's renewal marks the network's first official order for the 2012-13 season.

Series creator Hart Hanson on Thursday tweeted about the news: “Bones picked up for an 8th season! What a great tribute to cast and crew…”  At least star David Boreanaz, who plays special agent Seeley Booth, didn’t let it out of the bag prematurely like he did last May.

The show’s current season — its seventh — was reduced and split because Emily Deschanel, who plays lead Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan, had a baby.  Also this year, its spinoff “The Finder” premiered — originally in “Bones' ” former Thursday slot, before moving to Fridays — but its ratings haven’t found steady ground. 

“Bones,” meanwhile, returns from its winter hiatus on a new night and time on Monday.

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-- Yvonne Villarreal

twitter.com/villarrealy

Photo: Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in Fox's "Bones." Credit: Fox

Bringing the pain: Top TV dramas have a blood thing going on

Many of TV's most popular series, such as "The Walking Dead," "True Blood" and "Dexter," are known for high drama and high body counts. Spatter and gore are essential — and expected — parts of their DNA.

But extreme, sometimes unflinching acts of graphic, stomach-churning violence have also been spilling over into an unexpected arena: TV's elite dramas. "Breaking Bad," "Boardwalk Empire," "Sons of Anarchy" and other shows praised for their complex plots and high production values have lately displayed a new level of savagery.

For more on this trend, read this feature and let us know what you think.

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— Greg Braxton

Photo: Gustavo Fring (GIancarlo Esposito) dons plastic overalls as he prepares to slash the throat of an accomplice with a box cutter on AMC's "Breaking Bad." Credit: Ursula Coyote/AMC.

 

 

 

Why did so many good people have to die on TV finales?

Any faithful TV viewer is familiar with the end-of-season shocker, which usually comes in the form of a cliffhanger or a horrible violence. But the body count seems to be going up, and going deeper.

This season we lost lovable intern Mr. Vincent Nigel-Murray (Ryan Cartwright) on the penultimate episode of "Bones," "Justified" wonder Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale), "Castle's" Capt. Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), not to mention  Sue Sylvester's sister Jean (Robin Trocki) on the penultimate episode of "Glee" and, seemingly, "Fringe's" Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson).

Read more here of Mary McNamara's Sunday Critic's Notebook on why writers resort to sacrificing so many of their own.

Also in Show Tracker:

Jeff Conaway: "I would like to go to a nice place when I die"

The women of 'Justified'

Full Show Tracker coverage of 'Fringe'

Photo: Margo Martindale on "Justified." Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX.

Tweeter's Digest: What's 'Two and a Half Men' squared away? Ashton Kutcher

How quickly we forget about last week’s excitement — it's like Osama bin Laden meant  nothing to us. 

This week’s celebrity Twitter feeds skittered all over the place, from news of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s split and Neil Patrick Harris (@actuallyNPH) hosting the Tonys to the elimination of fan favorite James Durbin from “American Idol” and the surprise announcement that Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) would take over for Charlie Sheen on “Two and a Half Men.” [For the record: An earlier version of this post had Harris hosting the Emmys and has been corrected.]

Kutcher himself hinted about it Thursday in an oblique tweet: "what's the square root of 6.25?" And while TV folks from “Lost” producer Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) to child star Demi Lovato commented on Kutcher’s move, Sheen himself (who had been very vocal  just a month ago) issued no tweets on the topic.

— Joy Press

twitter.com/joypress

 

 

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Photo: Ashton Kutcher in January. Credit: Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images.

David Boreanaz was right: Fox has renewed 'Bones'

Fox officially announced Tuesday that "Bones" would return for a seventh season.

All we have to say is: Duh!

The news is not too surprising for fans of Brennan and Booth, considering David Boreanaz spilled the beans on Twitter last night. But it's always reassuring to have official confirmation.

A new episode airs Thursday.

ShowTrackers, will lucky Season 7 finally see Brennan and Booth become a couple? 

-- Yvonne Villarreal
Twitter.com/villarrealy

Photo: Emily Deschanel (Bones) and David Boreanaz (Brennan) in a scene from "Bones." Credit: Fox

David Boreanaz of 'Bones' breaks the news via Twitter of the show's fate for next season

Actors aren't supposed to announce show renewals, but that didn't stop David Boreanaz. The star of Fox's "Bones" tweeted Monday night that the show has been picked up for next season.

"Oh, season 7 is GO for 'Bones,'" Boreanaz told his followers on Twitter.

His information appears to have been accurate -- no one in a position of authority has come forward to contradict it -- but it still created a bit of a headache for Fox's PR department. The network's business-affairs people still haven't finished all the paperwork, so Fox has yet to make the official announcement. The network will reveal its fall lineup later this month in New York.

Hart Hanson, the executive producer of "Bones," is an active Twitter user but did not address Boreanaz's tweet Monday night.

Trackers, what do you think of the "Bones" news?

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On set with David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel

--Scott Collins
Twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT

Photo: David Boreanaz in Pasadena in January. Credit: Dan Steinberg / Associated Press