BONES: Michael Peterson Previews Betty White’s Guest Spot

Betty White is making her BONES debut in the October 22nd hour, “The Carpals in the Coy-Wolves,” and the writers found themselves with a teeny tiny problem when it came time to penning the hour.

“You can’t write an episode with Betty White in it, and not let every single actor be in a scene with her,” BONES co-showrunner Michael Peterson laughed. “You would have had mutiny on your hands. So it was very carefully crafted. We had to make sure, where’s Booth with her? Where’s Brennan? Where’s Angela? Cam, Hodgins, everybody, to give them that moment.”

White plays Dr. Beth Mayer, and “we played into the fact that Betty is 93 years old, and is this amazing woman who has done everything,” Peterson teased. “We made her character a [pool] of knowledge. She’s an expert on everything you can imagine. The episode revolves around fantasy football — she knows all about that. She [also] helps one of our interns with a very personal issue.”

And though Brennan has some misgivings about Dr. Mayer, she ends up providing some important insight into an issue that has come up with Booth and Brennan.

“[Mayer] ultimately helps out Booth and Brennan, as well,” Peterson previewed. “There’s a little twist with Brennan’s latest novel, that she’s written in her time when she was away from the Jeffersonian. There are some ramifications to the novel that don’t exactly please Booth at all. And Betty White’s character will help with their relationship as well.”

And off-screen, White impressed everyone with her spot on the long-running Fox drama.

“It was just an absolute dream come true,” Peterson gushed. “The fact that we heard from her camp that she was interested in being on the show, we literally just stopped what we’re doing and said, ‘OK, let’s write her into the next episode. We got to get her in, right away.’ It was great. Nothing like getting a hand-written note from her the day after, saying she’d love to do it again. So, we’ll see what happens.”

And while they haven’t nailed down White’s return yet, “everyone had such a great time, I don’t know how we wouldn’t do it,” Peterson said. “Obviously, she’s busy. We felt so fortunate to grab her when we could, and we’ll see if we get so lucky again, next time we have an episode appropriate for her.”

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