Bones' Cast Included Family Members Of The Stars (And The Show's Creator)
The term "nepo baby" tends to carry a negative connotation, but it doesn't have to. Take the Deschanel sisters, Emily and Zooey. Their mother, Mary Jo Deschanel (née Weir), began acting in the 1960s and has dozens of film and TV credits to her name, from "2010: The Year We Make Contact" to "Twin Peaks." Their father, Caleb Deschanel, is likewise a decorated director and cinematographer whose career spans 50 years, having collaborated with filmmakers like Philip Kaufman, Carroll Ballard, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, Roland Emmerich, and Christopher McQuarrie.
In the face of that, "nepo babies" Emily and Zooey Deschanel have emerged as artists fully worthy of admiration on their own merits. On top of forming one-half of the successful indie pop group She & Him, Zooey Deschanel spring-boarded from her early breakout roles in the hits "Almost Famous" and "Elf" into an ongoing career as a movie star, in addition to playing Jess Day for seven seasons on the beloved Fox sitcom "New Girl." Meanwhile, Emily Deschanel banked a starring role in a popular Fox series of her own with "Bones," which lasted more than a decade plus change.
Working together is, understandably, something of a Deschanel family tradition. Mary Jo Deschanel, for example, starred in Kaufman's exemplary 1983 historical NASA drama "The Right Stuff," which was lensed by Caleb Deschanel. In like manner, Emily Deschanel made her feature film debut in "It Could Happen to You," the 1994 Nicholas Cage/Bridget Fonda rom-com that, once again, had her old man serving as cinematographer. Several members of the Deschanel household would also collaborate in some capacity on "Bones" throughout its run from 2005 to 2017, as would other people related to members of the show's cast and crew. Let's run through some of them, shall we?
All in the Bones family
In a Christmas-centric "Bones" excursion full of hijinks, including Emily Deschanel's Temperance Brennan taking off her FBI colleague Seeley Booth's (David Boreanaz) pants for "evidence" (an amusingly blatant escalation of the pair's then-ongoing will-they/won't-they dance), the biggest joke in season 5's "The Goop on the Girl" involves Brennan's "second cousin," Margaret Whitesell (Zooey Deschanel). And if you expected this episode to play it cool and refrain from nudging you with its elbow by firing off some "You two could be sisters!" cracks, then, well, you clearly don't know "Bones." After all, this is the same show that had Booth name-dropping Scully and Mulder in its pilot.
To its credit, "Bones" was more subtle about incorporating other members of the cast and crew's family. Notably, Caleb Deschanel stayed behind the camera while directing season 2's "The Glowing Bones in 'The Old Stone House.'" Meanwhile, Boreanaz's father (real-life TV broadcaster Dave Roberts) made an uncredited cameo as an FBI agent using a copier in the show's landmark 100th episode, "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole" (which Boreanaz also directed). He would later return — this time credited as David T. Boreanaz — as a news reporter for the series finale, with his son once again calling the shots.
Appearing on Live in 2017, Boreanaz confirmed that his mother, Patti Boreanaz, additionally cameoed in the series finale to "pass me off a file," while his son, Jaden, cameoed as a selfie-snapping fan of demolition derby competitor "Filthy Rich" (Jaime Bergman, who's married to Boreanaz) in season 12's "The Steal in the Wheels." Even Boreanaz's daughter Bella joined the party with a minor role during season 11's "The Movie in the Making" (as apparently did Emily Deschanel's son Henry, assuming you trust the "Bones" fan wiki).
Family is in the show's Bones
If you thought "Bones" creator Hart Hanson was going to miss out on all the fun, think again. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2010, the show's production team confirmed that Hanson's father, Paul Hanson, had shown up as "a vending machine repairman" in season 4's "The Bones That Foam." Emily Deschanel's actor husband, David Hornsby, similarly paid a visit to the "Bones" set to play Father Harrow, the priest at Brennan and Booth's wedding rehearsal in season 9's "The Woman in White."
During his Live appearance, Boreanaz said it was "great" to have not just his parents but other members of his family appear on the show, adding that it had "a family environment" behind the scenes (as you might expect, what with so many kids, parents, and other assorted loved ones popping in and out). One could extend the same sentiment to Brennan and Booth's closest associates at the Jeffersonian Institute Medico-Legal Lab and the way they formed their own working family unit over the course of the series. I'm not suggesting this is a "Fast & Furious" situation where it's all about family, but you can't have the same core group of people working on a TV show together for 12 whole years without at least a little familial bonding.
You can stream all 12 seasons of "Bones" on Hulu and Freevee now.