BONES: Hart Hanson Talks ‘The Change in the Game’ and a Potential Season 7
April 18, 2011 by Marisa Roffman
With the BONES season winding down, it certainly appears that things are about to get crazy.
“The last two episodes of this season, I think, are going to run the whole gamut of tones that BONES does,” series creator Hart Hanson told reporters on a conference call today. “A lot happens in those last two episodes and I think the title of the season finale — ‘The Change in the Game’ — is about as much as I want to say about it in any kind of detail. I think it’s going to be one of those shows that the BONES audience will talk about and enjoy hugely. If anyone feels there’s an anticlimax to it, I’ve totally failed at my job.”
As for the finale title itself, I asked Hanson whether there was any concern about hyping up the fans for a potential change in the dynamic if they weren’t prepared to actually get Booth and Brennan together this season.
“Oh, I wouldn’t answer that in a million years, Marisa,” he laughed. You can’t blame a girl for trying, even if he does use that answer quite a bit when talking with me.
One question that he was slightly more willing to answer was the possibility of Booth acknowledging, before the season ends, that he wasn’t 100% blameless in the failure of his romantic relationships.
“If that moment happens to him, then it happens in a flash of light,” Hanson told me. “How’s that [for a tease]? That’s about all I’m willing to say about it.”
After I accidentally made a noise of discontent at the answer, Hanson laughed. “I’m sorry for your disappointment,” he said. “I’ll tell you this: we’ve been building all year to something. I would hate to say what it was, but we’ve been building all year and I’d hate to cheat the audience in any way out of the experience we’ve worked really hard to get them to. And that is in there.”
Looking beyond this season, there is still no official word on a probable seventh season and what impact series star Emily Deschanel’s (Brennan) real-life pregnancy will have on the show.
“We’re still contending with the effects of Emily’s pregnancy on the show,” Hanson said. “One possibility would have been for us — if we had enough scripts in the pipeline — to keep going through this summer instead of taking a hiatus and then take the hiatus when Emily [went off and] had her baby. We don’t have any scripts in the pipeline because we haven’t been picked up for season seven. But there’s any number…of possibilities — do we do shows without Emily? Do we simply shut down when Emily’s not available and thus do 16 or 18 episodes [next season]? These are all choices we have to make. I’m ready to pitch a bunch of alternatives to the network but we haven’t had those conversations yet.”
As for whether Brennan will become pregnant, Hanson was much more coy.
“We have a lot of things to figure out about how to deal with Emily’s pregnancy, let alone anything we decide to do with Brennan,” he teased. “And there are an infinite number of ways we could deal with the pregnancy: we could hide it, we could not hide it. We have a plan right now, but I’m going to be stubborn about saying what our plan is going into season seven. We’re shooting the final episode of season six right now, and we’ve had no cause to show or hide much of Emily[‘s pregnancy]. She’s not showing all that much yet. But if I told you how we were going to proceed into season seven, it would give you too much information on how we intend to get out of season six.”
But despite the lack of renewal, BONES fans shouldn’t be concerned about season seven not happening. Hanson stated he was “very confident” the network and studio would come to a deal and that the last renewal process (back in 2009, when the series was picked up for two years) wasn’t completed until the weekend before Fox’s May Upfronts. Hanson said he imagined the renewal for BONES this time around would be coming “anywhere between now and May 15.”
Ready to breathe a sigh of relief, BONES fans? Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out?
Related:
BONES: John Francis Daley Teases ‘The Truth in the Myth’
BONES: Michaela Conlin Teases ‘The Feet on the Beach,’ Prompting Radical Honesty and an Upcoming Surprise
BONES: Michaela Conlin Talks Baby Hodgela
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I have complete faith in Hart Hanson and Company. Whatever they have up their sleeves, I say…Bring It!
Very much looking forward the final episodes in S6 and what lies ahead in S7. 🙂
Exciting! If you ask me, an emotional cataclysm will happen in the penultimate and by the finale B&B are together. A little taste of what it will be like with them working together as a real couple. An ACTUAL ‘change in the game’.
Did not know that Emily was pregnant! Congrats to her! I’m still hopeful, but I never take HH athis word. He sees things differently than a lot of us!
I hope they don’t put BB together just to get rid of the bad taste of season 6 (and boost DVD sales).
I need the bad taste of this season to go away *before* BB get together.
I think his big plan is to bring everyone back together for the season finale.
His reset split them all up and now his big plan is to have them be one big happy family again. Somehow he has to erase all of the damage he has done to the Brennan character this year. Maybe she visits the Wizard and gets her brain and heart back. (and her friends)
Honestly, this has been a very long season and a season that has really been unkind to the main character, Dr. Temperance Brennan.
Hmm….I think my predictions about Cam may come true. Here forecast of death started in the premiere with the ‘veteran brain trauma’ and TT has had alot of individual epsidoes this year (finding her grandma, taking care of Michelle, and finding love). With ‘The Finder’ having brain trauma and Broadsky ‘going off the reservation’ and someone wants this brain trauma hushed…..death is on the horizon.
That ‘flash of light’ Booth has is Cam getting blown up in the final scene.
I’m really bored and disappointed with the writing of the B&B characters. I don’t know how two mature individuals who have been through so much can act the way they do. The producers have taken two strong individuals and turned them into pathetic wimps.
I agree with several of the earlier posters. The writers have done so much damage to both main characters in the name of “character development” that the show is no longer one of my favorites.
They’ve a LOT to do in the last few episodes to resurrect my interest in the show. Booth needs to get more “Boothy” and to find his balance; Brennan needs to reconnect with the heart she had – ‘though rarely showed it – in seasons 1-4. There also needs to be more connecting between Angela and Brennan, and more Caroline Julian, Max, and Russ.
Good luck to HH & SN & Co. They have lost their way and I only hope they find their way back before the season finale/series finale – whatever it will be, coming up this May.
So HH would hate the cheat the audience, eh? Someone should fill him in on the feelings of the audience and the critics throughout this entire ghastly season. I really can’t see how two episodes will set all to rights but I wish him luck.
This season has been a disaster for our “much beloved” Booth and Brennan. Booth lost his mind over blonde Barbie while Brennan became a caricature of her former self. I frankly didn’t like either of them. The blonde Barbie mess took away from the story lines of the best ensemble cast on TV. Booth and Barbie should have been done after three episodes but instead it took half a season of mostly bad scripts. The slave ship episode, the first sniper episode, and the one where Booth and Barbie split are the only ones I would remotely be interested in watching again of the first 13. The chemistry is still not back between Booth and Brennan and I don’t know if it will ever be back. The writers are going to have to come up with a small miracle and it hasn’t happened yet. Good luck!!
Theres only one thing that could make me happy again about the show this season. That is if they truely, seriously deals with Booths jerk behaviour toward Brennan and his friends. To me that is what they have been building up this whole season, making Booth an ass.
If that happens, then i would like them to get together, not with anything less.
“If” …… “it happens in a flash of light”
I hate to be a downer, but doesn’t this sound like Booth’s realization or taking responsibility will be dealt with in passing, as a sudden awakening?
It sounds like the opposite of substantial self-reflection. That alone would cheat me of my satisfaction.
I agree with those above, I hope they don’t put BB together just to save the awful season. Forget the outcome. The JOURNEY has to be enjoyable and satisfying.
I have a bad feeling Booth admitting his problems will happen like Bones-Hannah friendship. In the writers’ heads, never on screen. HH recently gave an interview about his favorite Booth scene where he said lines that were NEVER STATED in the show!!!
I’ve been mad at the show before, but this is the first time I just don’t care of BB get together. It’s been a slow death.
By the way, Marisa’s question was the only one I was genuinely curious about. The rest of the stuff is PR release or conjecture about undecided contracts and decisions.
I hate to add to the negative phase Bones is going through, but I feel everyone is free to speak their minds. I’ve been a Bones fans since the first episode, and loved the chemistry between Booth and Bones. I was definitely a shipper and, in some way, still am… just not as much as I used to. Like many of you, I don’t want to see Booth and Bones get together just for the sake of the show. With that being said, I think season 5 would have been the perfect opportunity to have them become a couple, or at the beginning of season 6. Like someone mentioned above, Hannah and Booth should have only been together for a few episodes.
The show just hasn’t been the same. The cases are irrelevant and not interesting, the chemistry between the whole cast is different, it’s like everyone has their own storyline but nobody is connecting. And really? A blind Hodgela baby? Why can’t people just be happy? Why is it so difficult to have a healthy baby?
The writers have turned drama-based Bones into a comedy, which really doesn’t fit with the mood of the show. I felt my IQ lowering every second of the first three episodes this season. Like most of the fans in the world, I am really hoping the writers will come to their senses soon and bring back the quality that was in Bones at the beginning. Watching the past seasons on DVD wouldn’t hurt, writers!
Booth’s anger towards everyone (include his snarkiness with the squints) must be dealt with. Brennan must return to her intelligent, sometimes socially awkward, self. They went from the firs half of the season of Brennan being a sad, social misfit to the second half of Brennan being a “giddy” social misfit.
She had always been awkward but not idiotic like this year.
HH claims this has all been part of a plan. However, how many things had been discussed earlier in the season that just fizzled out. Hannah being extended, Brennan and Hannah suddenly becoming BFF’s, no PTSD storyline for Cam, and Hogela supposing interviewing all kinds of birthing rituals.
I just don’t see a major plan. Also, what happened with the Cindy Lauper line that only she could deliver. He then said there would be another way to deliver it. That was supposed to be earlier in the season. From the episodes I have seen, I don’t remember any line being that important to the overall storyline.
I think HH is just throwing the end of the season together like the whole season seems to have been thrown together. I realize he has been extremely busy, but IMO it has shown in the quality of the show. Nothing has been consistent. History has shown that the second to last episode has been better than the finale (at least in my opinion) I am reading about all of the shows with great finales in store (Grey’s, Castle, Hawaii 5 0, and more, even NCIS which has been on longer than Bones has a major twist going down. Obviously be the ratings, NCIS stil hold the interest of millions of viewers, me included) I just can’t see where Bones goes to the “fun” finale. If this is anything like the last two, I will be one of those fans that think in the long run, he failed with his plan. If it is good, I will fully admit I was wrong.
This season started off really bad and is now mediocre. I hope these last few episodes are good. Still now way in hell that I will buy Season 6 DVD.
Bones has gone from a good show to a Soap Opera. This season has been
the horror. The writing is bad and the acting just doe’s not cut it.
I wonder if having a spinoff in the making has distracted the writers of Bones.
At this point a season 7 for me…. I do not really care. The last eposide of
any worth was The Doctor in the Photo. The rest have benn fillers… offering
nothing except making the writers and actors rich.
Great interview as always Marisa… you keep plugging away at him… He’s a bloody hard nut to crack!!! I love you too Hart!
Season 6 has been a disappointment in terms of what I really like about Bones. This manufactured relationship angst between Booth and Brennan was not necessary. The Hannah angle was totally unnecessary and a distraction.
Both Booth and Brennan had enough issues to deal with without the fake-out of a soap opera “other woman” issue.
I have a feeling Hart Hanson not revealing his “cards” simply means he has no clue what to do for Season 7 at this point. It’s sad when a showrunner doesn’t understand the characters nor the audience.
Just sad.
And, hopefully, Booth will wake up, ala Bobby Ewing, and Season 6 will have all been a bad dream… 😉
I actually liked this season. I liked Hannah. Booth can’t just sit around and wait for Bones to get the stick out of her duff. So people want them to get together but don’t you agree that him NOT finding someone else would have been even less in character. He’s not a wimp who is just going to wait around for Bones to decide what she wants. I like Bones and I did think her character was a little off this season, but not that much.
I think they are dealing with their relationship the best they know how and of course it’s awkward- how could it not be awkward. Bones copped to loving him- FINALLY and he was with someone else. Now he’s single and it’s a little funky, I don’t know how else you expect them to act. It’s called character development people.
Fox could just renew the show permanently. (8 years would be fair.) Then no viewers have to suffer. ; )
SO i have read each and every comment and i agree with most but BONES, in my opinion, is by far a great show. i am a little sad that this season has been very different than the others but i find myself hooked. the first half of the season was a downer because it was awful to see Brennan so depressed but it took Hannah and Booths relationship for her to realize that she needed to let down her barrier and open up to the idea of a longterm relationship. after Hannah’s departure, i personally felt like the chemistry that Booth and Bones once had has been slowly been mending itself, and i am eager to see what the finale is going to be like. I really hope that no characters are booted off because i am still mourning the loss of zach. I hope that if Bones and Booth do get together that the same business that happened with Scully and Mulder doesnt happen because the x-files went down the drain after season 7. I also hope that if Bones has a baby that somehow it doesnt change the show too much. obviously a baby does but they need to find a way to incorporate that into the show so that a situation like the one in FRIENDS with Rachel and Ross doesnt happen.
if i had a chance to have a sit down with Hart Hanson i would give him so many ideas! and i agree that the hannah and booth relationship was dragged on for a bit too long but who are we kidding, hannah was the type of character that you wanted to hate but you just loved her. i wish theyd get hannah and sully together because i liked sully.
#bonesfan4life
Any one remember when brenan ask booth to be the father of her baby well do we get to see this conclusion? Ok she has save his life and vice versus its time for love the looks are there the teasing is there can’t wait. Its going to a long summer.
I just want to know what happened to the ring after Booth threw it into the fountain. Did it wash away? Homeless person fish it out? Still there? I know, not as trivial as some of the complaints/praises here…. but I’m concerned. Who would not go back for it!?!? I know I would.
Okay, I usually don’t pay attention to comments here, but I have got to protect “my girl”. Brennan used to be a sad, social misfit. She used to be insanely awkward and all that, but Booth has slowly over the seasons turned her a little more… human, I guess you could say. Now she’s comfortable enough to giggle at silly jokes and to kid around and some of you decide she’s being stupid?! What, she can change Booth into the kind of man who wears funky socks and belt buckles to go against the system but when Brennan starts behaving a little less awkward, suddenly she’s idiotic? Grow up, guys.
I, personally, am very much enjoying this season. Sure, I wasn’t a fan of Hannah, but I respected her. She helped Brennan realize that she was in love with Booth and that she wanted a chance with him. She realized she’d made a mistake. Think about it, had it not been for her ever-growing jealousy of the woman and then that case… she may not have noticed that she really wanted him as soon as she had. It may have taken her months, maybe even YEARS to come to that conclusion. Her character has grown so much this season. Yeah, it wasn’t emotionally fair for her.. but I think she’s a better person now.
Come on, when she was trapped in that elevator with Booth, she said MAKING LOVE, not HAVING SEX. That is a HUGE difference from the previous seasons!! Don’t you all remember the conversation Booth had with her about that? She’s listening to him. She’s growing, slowly but surely. And I am so psyched to see what the final two episodes of this season will be like. The possibility of them becoming a couple, or even going into a constant flirting stage, is enough to make my B/B shipping heart leap with joy. I cannot wait. <3
The Change in the Game is Angela having a baby.
The “big” Cyndi Lauper thing, was having baby Hodgelena be blind.
Cam’s big thing is in a deletaed scene, somewhere in Narnia.
The person who dies is someone no one really cared about anyway.
B+B bowl in the last episode.
With those as my expectations, I’ll never be dissapointed… I hope. :S
No way has Brennan “evolved” or “grown” from the beginning of the series. Maybe within the bizzarro world since 100th. But compared to the sophisticated, nuanced, empathetic, don’t-care-about-social-conventions, kickass Bones of season 1~3? No way. And from the dry wit of earlier seasons to the weird braying of last episode? No thanks.
I’ve learned to just adjust and accept the cartoonish direction since season 4, but I call BS on “character evolution.” More like contrived regression to avoid putting BB together.
Just have the balls to admit the cartoonish change and if it lead to better ratings, –own– it. Don’t annoy viewer intelligence by pretending it’s for the “integrity” of the story. Bones fans are loyal, it’s the BS they’re not accepting.
Seriously….if FOX doesn’t pick-up a Season 7 I may need intense psychotherapy to deal with that!!!!
Kind of off topic, but everyone has been ooc in this season. Brennan’s braying, sweets, getting mad a Cam for getting Michelle into school because it was “cheating”, when he helped Daisy cheat for her security clearance test… I’m pretty sure everyone agrees that Hannah lasted too long. She was there for a reason, but Brennan would never have been friends with her, nor would she have followed the social stereotype of pretending to like her just because Booth thought he was in love with her. I agree with most people, B/B can’t get together now, cause then it would feel like Brennan is just Booth’s consolation prize. It would feel like he was only with her because he couldn’t have Hannah. If Hannah and come in for a few eps, made Bones realize she loves Booth, Booth never proposed etc I would be happy for them to get together, but at this point, if they do, it will just feel thrown together for the finale and it won’t mean anything. No matter what happens, still won’t buy season 6 on DVD. If there is a season 7 though I would definitely watch….maybe bring Zach back? <3 Zach. At least pick a freaking intern already though!
“I’ve learned to just adjust and accept the cartoonish direction since season 4, but I call BS on “character evolution.” More like contrived regression to avoid putting BB together.
Just have the balls to admit the cartoonish change and if it lead to better ratings, –own– it. Don’t annoy viewer intelligence by pretending it’s for the “integrity” of the story.”
This. So much.
I also think earlier Bones was warm and funny even if she was standoffish and awkward. She did have a sly, witty sense of humor and could be charming without making me cringe. Booth used to have more layers than this season’s angsty woobie, and was much more mature and self-aware.
I hate what they have done to the best show on tv this season. It has been at best a haphazard thrown together affair. I am a shipper and proud of it but it is getting seriously ridiculous!!
I have watched every ep and most have been seen so many times I can repeat huge chunks of dialogue verbatim. I hate that Bones and Booth are pale imitations of what they were just a few short seasons ago. Hannah was a complete distraction and unnecessary to boot.
I don’t agree with what some of the earlier posters were saying about growth. I see regression and fragmentation. They aren’t a team anymore. Just people going about the day to day humdrum. Even Angela hasn’t really talked to Brennan. Not even one “Sweetie”. In the past she would have been going on and on to Brennan about the pregnancy and Bones would have been going on and on about some tribe and the rituals surrounding pregnancy in far flung places. I have missed the connection and the show needs a dose of humanity and connectivity fast.
I don’t think I would like B&B to get together this season after all. I don’t want Bones to be the consolation prize for Booth as others have said. Bones has felt unwanted and unloved for most of her life. HH, Brennan deserves to know what it feels like to be center of someone’s life, and heart. She should be cherished and allowed to be goofy and socially awkward. Booth and the changes he has been foisting on her this season are annoying. If he is still hurting after Hannah, fine but quit taking it out on her. She has never truly tried to change him in any fundamental way. She has supported him even when it was hard to do so.
Close the season in a hilarious way and lets all forget that it ever happened. Agreed?
But I don’t want a 7th season, they’re gonna ruin Bones! I don’t think they can come up with enough good new stuff to make it good. I just want Booth and Brennan to get together this season, and then it could end there, while it’s still good.
I am with Rain.
Now, for my own personal comment. I am look forward to seeing how the season goes out. I look forward to Hodgins and Angela’s baby being born. Mostly, the season finale is an undercover episode and me, I love undercover episodes. Can’t wait to see the wrap up of the sniper arc. I am sorry others seem to think Brennan isn’t progressing. I guess it’s a matter of not liking change at all with her character. Moving to my exit which for this comment section shall end like this consistently:
Haters continue on…
Bones has gone downhill this season. It is a shadow of its past.
The wrting is a horror and the actors seem bored with their lines.
I guess after 6 years it is time to wrap up the series lose ends.
Since Emily Deschanel is again making movies (perfect family)…a serious movie.
I question if her devotion to Bones is at the top of her list.
I AGREE WITH MOST OF YOU.
SAD,DOWNHILL,SLOW DEATH,DISAPPOINTMENT.THOSE ARE THE MOST USED WORDS HERE.AND its TRUE.THIS SEASON WAS KINDA SHOW ON ITS OWN,LIKE IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE 5 SEASONS BEFORE.
THERE WERE MANY TOPICS OPENED IN FIRST FIVE SEASONS,BUT THEY NEVER BROUGHT THEM BACK UP THIS YEAR.
THEY ALSO COMPLETELY DELETED BOOTHS GRANDFATHER,BRENNANS FATHER AND BROTHER,WELL MANY PEOPLE AND STORY LINES.
SWEETS IS STILL KEEPING THE SECRET ABOUT ZACH – THAT HE DIDNT KILL ANYONE.
IS HE NEVER GOING TO REVEAL THIS TO BRENNAN??????????????????????
One more thing.It wasnt necesarry for Hannah to buy Booth the old phone as a gift.He already had one,but only I noticed that. 🙂 (the ep.where his grandad nearly burns his kitchen)
OK,thats it. Hoping for a “change in the game” – good luck and dont forget – Bones has (had?) fans all over the world.Greetings from Czech Rep.
I have no clue what so many people on here are complaining about with the characters or this season. I LOVE Bones and look forward to each show each week! I really hope renewal comes soon as I have already heard of several of the shows I like being cancelled for next year. Congrats to ED and her husband on the upcoming birth of their baby. It is going to be interesting to see how it is treated by the show.
I have to say that since S1 everyone has wanted B&B together. But I think they’ve kept them apart this long because it’s what keeps the audience interested, the desire to see B&B finally together.
If they put them together on the finale of S6 I honestly think people would be thrilled for about 5 episodes then be just bored. The tension and friction between B&B is what makes the audience either want to throw a shoe at the television whenever they almost kiss or have a ‘tender moment’ and still don’t get together, or just be flat out angry when B or B finds another bf/gf that is their current interest on the show, and in all past cases either be the dumpee or the dumped. Then there are some moments when the audience is satisfied for a while but then the B&B desire kicks back up again.
We all know that B&B love each other but refuse to admit it, it’s obvious. But I think they probably won’t get together (God forbid) until the show is canceled or it’s the very last episode. Then it will leave the audience with a bittersweet goodbye to an amazing show. B&B would finally be together on a good note but the show would be ended on a lower note. I believe the writers have many great things in store and we can only hope that they do them right and do them good.
Bones cast and crew you guys are awesome!
OH God, please don’t put them together this season. BB finally getting together should be happy and satisfying, not a hail mary pass to save an awful season.
And writers, just because I watch and accept, doesn’t mean I don’t notice how bad the show has gotten, especially the dumbing down of Bones into an autistic punchline. Claiming organic development for this show is just asking for the ridicule from annoyed fans.
I have been dissatisfied with the series from the beginning because I am a fa of the books. There is no way I can reconcile the Brennan of TV with Brennan of the novels. I took a hiatus last season and this year nothing has changed to advance her towards her future!
the change in the game was brennan moving out of her big apartment and telling cam she needs a leave of abscence/but they have decided to do the finale about bowling/someone in a comment above this said hannah left a bad taste andfans don’t want bones to be next/couldn’t agreed more.
I WANT ZACH TO RETURN!!!!!!!!!!!!! now thats a change in the game XD
Hey fellow fan’s,
Ok I get it but let’s stay positive of what is in stock I don’t think that this year will be let down in the past 5 season they both had to go through there sheer of issues just like this season she had a brake down and he had is but there friendship stood the test of time because they love each other. HH probably wanted to explore the strength of there friendship, love and loyalty for each other.
Has Gordon Gordon wants said, hope and patience.