Two Character Deaths In Bones Hit David Boreanaz Especially Hard
If you thought George R.R. Martin had a monopoly on shocking character deaths, guess again.
In reality, killing off your faves is a tried-and-true tradition in TV. At worst, it's the result of a cynical ratings grab or behind-the-scene turmoil. But even when that's not the case, it can still be a controversial practice. Death is a part of everyday life and deserves to be treated as such, yet certain shows are better equipped to handle the topic than others. For example, medical dramedies like "M*A*S*H" and "Scrubs" were particularly well-suited to the task, seeing as their characters had to deal with people dying on their watch weekly. Likewise, the heroes in Fox's long-running crime procedural "Bones" spent their days, in a figurative sense, speaking to and trying to better understand the dead.
Still, as difficult as it can be for those watching at home to say farewell to fictional characters they've grown to love and care about, it can be much harder for the actual people making the series. Losing a beloved member of your work family is tough enough in any industry, much less when you're spending endless hours baring your soul to one another the way TV actors do. So it was for David Boreanaz when "Bones" killed off Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan's (Emily Deschanel) father Max Keenan (Ryan O'Neal), who by that point was also the father-in-law of his own character, FBI agent Seeley Booth.
Admittedly, by the time Max set sail for the Grey Havens in season 12 (that's just a "Lords of the Rings" reference for those not familiar, pay no attention to me), "Bones" was in the middle of wrapping up anyway. Nevertheless, it was one of two character deaths that weighed heavy on Boreanaz's mind looking back ahead of the show's ending.
The Sweetest member of the Bones team
"It's tough with Ryan because I loved being around — I mean, Ryan O'Neal, I mean it's just, that's classic and that's an icon to me," Boreanaz told BUILD Series, speaking a month before "Bones" completed its run in 2017. "What he's done, the work is so amazing. So it was tough to see his character go because I always enjoyed doing scenes with him."
His feelings about Max shuffling off the mortal coil aside, Boreanaz admitted that sometimes killing characters is a necessary part of telling a good story, citing the death of John Francis Daley's fan-favorite psychologist Lance Sweets as an example:
"But you have to sometimes kill those characters off in order to create the storyline going forward. It's important, I think. Some would agree, some would not. I mean, when John Francis Daley was killed off the show, I know that was very difficult for a lot of people to see Sweets go. He was such a great character, great person to be around on set. But these things happen because the story evolves in that direction. Now, some people may think that's wrong, but it's the way it is."
As Daley explained to Vulture in 2014, the "Bones" creative team ultimately decided that killing Sweets in season 10 would offer a "more satisfying conclusion" to his storyline than trying to accommodate Daley's then-budding career as a writer-director. But so it goes in the world of television sometimes. Just like in the real world, you only have so much say about the time you get in life. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. (Bet you thought that earlier "LOTR" nod was going to be a one-off, didn't you?)