Stephen Nathan doesn't use the typical approach most executive producers of hit TV shows do -- ratings or awards -- to measure a show's success. Mickey Mouse DVDIn the case of Fox's "Bones," which celebrates its 100th episode Thursday, Nathan uses another criterion. teenage mutant ninja turtles dvd| teenage mutant ninja turtles
"There's a bit of tongue-in-cheek to every episode," he says. "We're winking at the audience when we show a body that's truly horrific. We know if we see the Twitter boards where someone says, Nip tuck dvd season
'I couldn't eat my dinner!' we're doing something right." Everybody loves Raymond dvds
No show survives on the strength of disgusting corpses alone. "Bones," however, is an unusual television animal: A criminal procedural grounded in being a reliable, workhouse audience generator that's also very modern in style and tone. married with children dvd|married with childrenThink of all the quips cops are known to make at murder scenes to keep their sanity, and expand that dark humor into an hourlong series.Rurouni Kenshin DVD
Call it -- as the producers do -- a "crimedy." that 70s show dvd|that 70s show
For the past five seasons, the creators behind this crimedy have built a skeleton piecemeal: Each week, a mystery -- what, or who, killed this body? And each week,Rurouni Kenshin DVD
a romantic comedy between two leads (a social misfit forensic anthropologist and an FBI special agent with his own issues), clearly nuts about one another yet unable to take the obvious next step.Hogan’s Heroes DVD Set
It has taken 100 episodes, but this show -- which almost couldn't cast its female lead, which played time slot musical chairs and which had a tone that baffled the suits -- is now earning its highest ratings ever (7.2/12).Prison Break DVD
"From the outside, I thought of 'Bones' as a well-produced show with two terrific leads that had chemistry; it was a solid utility player, but didn't have a home on the schedule," says Fox Broadcasting entertainment president Kevin Reilly, who joined the network from NBC in 2007. Ben 10 Alien Force DVD Set"Once I got to know the show, I started thinking of it as the secret weapon."
With good reason. "Bones" has never been a flashy, high-octane series.The Simpsons dvd It never got the "event" treatment that Fox dramas "24" or "House" did. But it always drew a core audience that tuned in no matter where it turned up on the dial. South park dvd
"It seemed that we had 6 million viewers who would follow us anywhere," creator/executive producer Hart Hanson says. "It was like we were trying to shake them and they'd still show up."Disney dvd set|Disney dvd
But "Bones" is more than the sum of its audience's dedication; it makes many bottom-line executives happy. The show airs in 175 territories around the world; family guy dvd|family guythe U.K.'s Sky has broadcast "Bones" nearly every day for the past year, and Germany's RTL has aired it in the same time period for the past 100 weeks. In Canada (where Hanson grew up), new episodes now air a day earlier than in the U.S. Warner Bros DVD
Home