The Main Bones Character Who Almost Died After Six Episodes

Like any other long-running show, Fox's "Bones" has its share of things that don't make sense, as well as episodes everyone should watch at least once. And like any other long-running show, it also took a while to find its feet and become the best possible version of itself. Part of this involved setting up the perfect core cast around clear main characters Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz). While many components were in place early, some people — including me — might argue that the show only truly came to its own when Tamara Taylor's Cam Saroyan and John Francis Daley's Lance Sweets found their places among the main cast. 

Another thing, of course, was knowing which characters to keep in the roster. Case in point: the aforementioned Cam. During a 2012 panel discussion with the show's stars (via IGN), "Bones" creator Hart Hanson revealed that the character was originally supposed to die a mere six episodes into her "Bones" tenure, but both the character and Taylor's performance were so good that the makers of the show scrapped these plans. The rest of the cast didn't need much convincing, either: In fact, Deschanel and Boreanaz were already vocally supporting Taylor's spin on the character as early as her audition. So instead of dying just a handful of episodes in, Cam became one of the show's most important characters, and let's face it, "Bones" is all the better for it. 

As anyone who's seen Tamara Taylor's work as Cam can tell that the character's peculiar sense of humor, personality quirks, and struggle to balance her dual roles as a team member and the head of the Jeffersonian forensics department make playing her a true tightrope walking act. This may explain why the show originally intended to kill the character off quite early on. But it's also easy to see why "Bones" chose to keep Cam in the mix, considering just how great Taylor is in the role. 

The often morbid sense of humor and devotion to her team that are so integral to Cam's character were, incidentally, pretty much entirely Taylor's own invention. After seeing how straightforward the character was, Taylor put her own spin on Cam's originally more serious persona, and she soon saw that the "Bones" writers started playing up the traits she brought in. The end result was a long-running series main character who survived everything the show threw at her, and she even got her own happy ending in the "Bones" series finale.