The Time Marvel's Sean Gunn Made A Quick Appearance On Bones
Thanks to his roles as perhaps Stars Hollow's most unorthodox resident, Kirk Gleason, on "Gilmore Girls" and the sensitive Ravager Kraglin Obfonteri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (where he also served as the on-set stand-in for Rocket Racoon), most people have probably laid their eyes upon Sean Gunn's mug at some point. For a long time, though, he was one of those actors who could pop his head into a major film or TV series, then vanish before you even had time to register whether you recognized that dude from somewhere.
Like his brother, filmmaker James Gunn, Sean Gunn got his start on Troma's B-movie farce "Tromeo and Juliet" in 1996. A few years after that, he scored a small role in a major TV venture, playing the demonic Lucas in the first season of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff "Angel." Four episodes later, Gunn returned to the show, this time portraying a human (named Mars) who gets into a bit of trouble with demons and a princess from another dimension. In doing so, he also crossed paths with series star David Boreanaz, years before the two would reunite on the actor's extraordinarily durable Fox procedural "Bones."
The pair's reunion in "Bones" season 10, episode 5, "The Corpse at the Convention," was serendipitous in its own way. Just a couple of months before the episode premiered on Fox on October 30, 2014, Gunn had co-starred in one of the year's most buzzed-about box office hits with "Guardians of the Galaxy." When he suddenly swooped in to lend Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel), Seeley Booth (Boreanaz), and their associates at the Jeffersonian a helping hand, it must've been a real, "Hey, wait a minute..." moment for many of those watching at home.
Dr. Howard Fitch is just flattered to be here
Would that the "Convention" in "The Corpse at the Convention" had been some kind of Comic-Con. Alas, fate isn't quite that on the nose, so far as Gunn turning up on the heels of the original "Guardians" goes. Instead, it's a convention for forensic scientists with Bones herself delivering the keynote speech, only for a dead body to be uncovered, causing everyone to nerd out about having the chance to put their products and know-how to good use. It sounds kind of bad when you word it like that, but that's the way the cookie crumbles when you stick a bunch of weirdos who love examining dead stuff in a room together. (This isn't a mean-spirited jab either; I studied forensics for a while myself, and it's a fascinating field.)
Among those weirdos is Gunn as Dr. Howard Fitch, who ends up lending his expertise to the investigation ("I can't tell you how flattered I am that you asked me to be here," he assures T.J Thyne's Jeffersonian workman Jack Hodgins) — that is, when he isn't squabbling with his rival Aldus Carter (Gabriel Tigerman), who takes unbridled delight in besmirching his name. Watching Gunn portray an uppity, pompous ass makes for a fun change of pace from his usual quirky or oddball comedic roles, and "Bones" does its part to play him squarely for laughs.
It's assuredly not the best use of Gunn as a supporting player (it's hard to top him bringing the bug-eyed, naked Weasel to life in "The Suicide Squad," even if he is entirely unrecognizable due to visual effects), but at least both he and the show are firmly in on the joke. That's far from a given when you're guest-starring on a network crime procedural.