Bones Opens Season 6 with Special Shout-Outs To Fans

A sweet thing happened in the season 6 premiere of Bones that you may not have noticed. To the average viewer nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Booth and Brennan solved a case, there was plenty of unresolved sexual tension and the occasional line that made you laugh out loud. It was Bones as usual.

What you may have missed were the writers of Bones giving some special shout-outs to their fans. I’m talking about more than just addressing fan concerns like Brennan’s seemingly inconsistent fear of snakes and the fact that Booth never wears his seatbelt in the car. No, the writers of Bones threw in a couple sweet moments that were not only for the fans, they were BY the fans.

Exhibit A:
In the reunion scene, as Caroline explains the lack of interns, she mentions that Vincent Nigel Murray won a million dollars on Jeopardy and is travelling the world.

The Story Behind It:
Shortly before The Death of The Queen Bee episode, Bones fan @BonesJonsing on Twitter changed her avatar to her high school senior portrait in honor of Brennan’s high school reunion. She asked executive producer Hart Hanson to do the same, and soon all Bones fans joined the crusade. The campaign took off and soon major Bones players on Twitter were involved in the fun. Executive producer, Stephen Nathan, Stephen Fry (Gordon Gordon Wyatt), and Kathy Reichs were just a few of the nearly 500 people who brought back fond memories of their school days.

Seeing the immense popularity that the campaign had garnered, Bones fans @BonesJonsing and @birdgirl33 conceived the idea to take everyone’s pictures and make an actual year book. Some of the most dedicated Bones fans on Twitter ( @thnx4thegum, @colleenmcpinto, @ChoeBe and @Rayne73) worked to produce it. In addition to adding everyone’s pictures, they created superlatives for several of the characters, like this one:

Superlative Courtesy of @ColleenMcPinto

Less than an hour after the line had been uttered by Sweets, Hart Hanson confirmed to GiveMeMyRemote’s Marisa Roffman that yes, it was a nod to the Bones yearbook.

Exhibit B:
When Booth is giving Brennan the list of things she has to achieve now that they’re back, he adds “Round up your Squinterns.”

The Story Behind It:
If you ever check out Bones on twitter, you may have seen the term “squinterns” being used before. It’s just a simple combination of squints + interns, but the term itself was coined by long-time Bones fan, Sarah Curtis ( @seeleybaby, @sarahinprint). Last August she tweeted Hart Hanson asking if the “squinterns” would be back this season. Below is Hanson’s reply:

Using fan created nicknames and nods to projects that the fans worked tirelessly on is a simple way to slip a little something, something in for the die-hard, vocal fans of the show.

Hart Hanson always says to those vocal fans that “he’s listening.” Well, he just proved it.