The gory cold opens in one of the best police procedurals of all time, “Bones,” were a great way to set the scene for each mysterious episode — but it was also a practical way for production to help Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. The show’s main stars had a pretty demanding shooting schedule that had them front and center for every case and most scenes, so starting each episode without them gave the actors at least half a day off to rest.
Discussing the series’ use of cold opens, creator Hart Hanson told Script Magazine in 2016, “The network guy on our show once said, ‘The best episodes start when you come across a body and you go, ‘How the f*** did this get here? What the f*** happened to this guy? How the f*** are we going to solve this question?’ And I remembered that.” Hanson said in regards to what became a fixture for the series, “Now we call that moment ‘The Find.'”
The benefits of Bones’ cold opens made them a no-brainer
The cold open “Finds” in the series generally follow a specific formula, one even shows like “Bones” abide by. Each episode starts with an average everyday citizen — or, sometimes, even an animal — somehow stumbling upon human remains, that go on to be the center of the episode’s investigation. The discovery then leads into the show’s title sequence.
Aside from giving Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz some reprieve off set, the scenes — of which there’s only one cold open creator Hart Hanson regrets — were also fun for the actors to preview ahead of the final episode. “They would come walking up and there would be human remains in some gross, yet engrossing, position,” Hanson recalled to Script Magazine.
Ultimately, the fact that Deschanel and Boreanaz were able to benefit from the cold opens made them a no-brainer, especially when considering their narrative strength. “We always had that beginning, at around five to seven minutes into the show you were going to be looking at something horrible and, we hoped, interesting,” Hanson told the outlet. “We’ve done that every time.”
