“I remember reading ‘Bones’ and being so intrigued by the [Booth] character and by its relevance to ‘Romancing the Stone,'” Boreanaz explained to BUILD Series in 2017. Indeed, much like Kathleen Turner’s timid romance novelist Joan Wilder gets entangled in a life-or-death situation with the free-spirited Jack in Zemeckis’ film, the impersonal, highly logical Bones finds herself at odds with her new partner’s spiritual outlook and go-with-your-gut way of doing things. Boreanaz not only cottoned onto this screwball comedy at the heart of the characters’ relationship right out of the gate, but he was also determined to let it take its natural course. In his own words:
“I thought of that movie and the connection that those two characters had and the give and the take and the back and forth and the humor that could be created while solving crimes, and then you add the beautiful Miss Deschanel and it’s like a perfect lighting in a bottle combination. You can’t — that was just the [… ] just very lucky to have that. So that just unfolds, and so instead of chasing certain things like that I just want to kind of lay back and see how it goes.”
Fox, it should be pointed out, wanted “Bones” to prioritize its procedural elements over its rom-com shenanigans, but Boreanaz and Deschanel made a conscious effort to explore what their characters were like off-the-clock as much as (if not more than) their daily lives at work. It certainly isn’t the first time TV executives have turned their noses up at artists wanting to focus more on characters’ relationships and emotional lives, but it is a telling example of why creatives should be trusted to have a better understanding of what makes a compelling story than their corporate bosses.