Bones: That Confusing Season 1 Credits Mix-Up Explained
When Fox debuted its long-running procedural drama "Bones," it did so fronting a collection of characters almost wholly unique in the primetime landscape of the early aughts. It did so with a cast of actors largely unknown to the general public, as well, with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" alum David Boreanaz serving as the highest profile star. But combined with an odd creative decision in the show's opening credits sequence, it seems the relative anonymity of the cast also led to some unfortunate confusion about the names of certain cast members, including series star Emily Deschanel.
The actor, of course, played the title role of Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan for 12 full seasons of the hit series. But according to a 2022 Reddit thread, the arrangement of the Season 1 opening credits led u/camdoodlebop to believe Deschanel's name was actually that of her co-star, T.J. Thyne. The issue arose, in part, because the names as they appear in the credits do not actually coincide with the faces of the actors they are crediting.
During several Season 1 episodes, the name T.J. Thyne appears directly under the face of Emily Deschanel. So unless you knew who the actors were prior to their "Bones" debuts, it could be easy enough to misinterpret that credit.
The credits for Bones were changed from the second season on to avoid such confusion
Oddly enough, T.J. Thyne's name didn't turn up on the problematic "Bones" opening credit slide until the series' third episode, with that of Season 1 supporting player Jonathan Adams actually popping in over the first two. It seems nobody was mistaking Emily Deschanel for Adams, however, as his first name is arguably a bit more gender specific. But the just ambiguous enough T.J. was clearly enough to throw u/camdoodlebop for a loop. The user hilariously opened their Reddit thread with the post, "Did anyone else as a kid used to think her name was TJ Thyne," accompanied by a screen grab from the credits depicting Deschanel's face with Thyne's name.
Judging from some of the comments that rolled in thereafter, they were not alone in making that mistake. u/chilly_0556 chimed in to say, "YES lmao," before adding that they'd begun watching the show when they were 10, and didn't realize until sometime later the actor was actually Emily Deschanel. And as noted by u/julientk1, per a DVD commentary track for Season 1, the credit snafu was a much bigger issue than anyone likely anticipated, with the super fan claiming the series' creatives were eventually made aware of the problem.
In case there were any question, they did in fact fix the issue and change up the credits sequence in the ensuing seasons of "Bones." And yes, that not only includes leaving any names off of that close-up of Deschanel, but wisely also matching up specific names with specific actors throughout.