Bones' 200th Episode Credits Required More Than Just The Network's Approval
When David Boreanaz read for FBI agent Seeley Booth in the "Bones" pilot, he instantly thought of "Harry and the Hendersons." It's not hard to see why. The character's relationship with his then newfound partner, the forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel), readily evokes that between the open-hearted Bigfoot Harry and John Lithgow's uptight, disapproving patriarch George Henderson Jr. in William Dear's Oscar-winning 1987 fantasy comedy film. Much like Harry and George, however, Bones gradually opens up to Booth in spite of his shenanigans and even bids him a teary farewell when he rejoins his fellow federal investigators living in the wilderness.
Alright, alright, fine, Boreanaz actually thought of "Romancing the Stone." Even in the pilot, long before they became a romantic item, Booth and Bones' repartee recalled Robert Zemeckis' 1984 hit action-rom-com, itself a throwback to Golden Age Hollywood screwball comedy and action-adventure classics like "It Happened One Night" and "The African Queen," respectively. It's only fitting, then, that "Bones" should tip its hat directly to that era in filmmaking by paying homage to the work of Alfred Hitchcock in its 200th episode, "The 200th in the 10th" (one of many chapters that saw Boreanaz pulling double-duty as both a cast member and director on "Bones").
Far from limiting itself strictly to referencing Hitch's filmography, "The 200th in the 10th" also pulls from other Golden Age titles with its glamorous visuals and fusion of intrigue, humor, and allure. (For instance, while its plot is a knowing riff on Hitchcock's Cary Grant and Grace Kelly vehicle "To Catch a Thief," there's certainly more than a dash of Stanley Donen's own Cary Grant classic "Charade.") That extends to its boldly stylized opening credits, which proved tricky due to, unexpectedly, the sheer number of people required to sign off on them.
Credits where credit is due
When you make it to 200 episodes on network television, you deserve to cut loose a little and swing for the fences with that wild idea you've been keeping in your back pocket. Even Fox knew this and was almost shockingly accommodating after years of making life excessively difficult for "Bones" and its creatives. "The truth is the network and studio were fantastic," as executive producer Stephen Nathan explained to TV Tango in December 2014. "They were supportive and on board for the whole thing. They loved the concept and were as happy to be part of this as we were."
So why the trouble with the credits? The problem was that after the many important changes initiated over the decades by the Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America to better ensure their members receive the credit they're owed, imitating the credits for "To Catch a Thief" required more than a change in font. In Nathan's own words:
"We actually had to get the studio and network to sign off on [them]. All the actors and producers and writers and crew who were in the opening credits, everybody had to sign off on these new credits because people didn't have individual cards, people were sharing cards. There were only two that we were not allowed to share, and that was because of WGA and DGA rules that those had to be separate — and I think they might've had to be separate forever."
Once the necessary paperwork had been filled out, though, the episode's credits came together without a hitch. (Or should that be like a Hitch?) As with Grant's John "The Cat" Robie in "To Catch a Thief," it took more than a "lone wolf" to execute such an ambitious operation.