Jonathan Adams Left 'Bones' After Season 1, but It Wasn't His Choice
"We loved Jonathan and his performance; we just couldn't use him as a series regular. We were prying him into stories."
May 9 2024, Published 11:05 a.m. ET
It has been several years since the show Bones went off the air, but die-hard fans will still remember when Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) had a different boss: Daniel Goodman, played by Jonathan Adams.
Jonathan only appeared in Season 1 of the iconic show about a forensic anthropologist who analyzed, yep, bones to help solve crimes. What happened that saw him exiting the series? Read on for details about why Jonathan Adams left Bones.
So, why did Jonathan Adams leave 'Bones'? Well, it wasn't really his choice.
In Season 2, Bones was answering to another boss named Dr. Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor). But what happened to Dr. Goodman?
Executive producer Hart Hanson talked TV Guide in 2006 to answer that very question.
First, he addressed the reason that the new character of Camille was introduced. "A couple of reasons," Hart told TV Guide. "The first one is to increase ways to bring stories into the lab. She's a coroner/pathologist."
"Very often we have to see DNA results come from somewhere else or hear about results from someone's decomposed liver or something. This way, we can actually be there for it," the Hart explained.
"On the character side, she's Brennan's superior, and has a completely different approach to how forensics are done," Hart continued, going on to explain that David's character has a past with his new boss, which sets up a triangle for the three main players.
"She provides a number of triangles for us to increase conflict in the show," Hart said.
Meanwhile, when it came to saying goodbye to Jonathan, it turns out the decision wasn't easy. "He's not gone for good, [but] he's not a series regular. We hope to have him back," Hart said, although this never happened.
Hart went on to confide, "We loved Jonathan and his performance; we just couldn't use him as a series regular. We were prying him into stories."
Apparently, the show went in a different direction, as Hart explained. "When I started the series, I thought it would be more lab-centric and that her boss, as an administrator, would have a larger role to play. And it just didn't work that way," the producer told TV Guide.
As for how the absence was explained to viewers, Hart said the alter ego of the underutilized "wonderful actor" was "busy running the Jeffersonian Institute. He's up the food chain further than a guy who would be hanging around the lab, which is something we knew right from the beginning. It's like having the president hanging around the Capitol or something."
Jonathan Adams went on to enjoy more TV success after 'Bones.'
Per his IMDb, Jonathan's career was just getting started when he said farewell to Bones after Season 1 in 2006.
Indeed, the list is long when it comes to the many shows he has been a part of since that time.
Jonathan notably went on to star in Last Man Standing, after having appeared in episodes of several iconic TV shows like Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, and NCIS, to name a few.
Most recently, the actor appeared in the show Bob Hearts Abishola.
