The Only Bones Actors That Were In Every Single Episode Of The Series

Ensembles are the lifeblood of television. "Scooby-Doo" had the Mystery Machine team. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" had the Scooby Gang (no relation). "Riverdale" had its polycule, which it ultimately dubbed the "Quad." With its distinctive blend of humor and horror, Hart Hanson's "Bones" followed the motley crew at the Jeffersonian Institute as they cracked murder cases week in, week out. But when you really drill down to its core, you'll find that a lot of the show's most endearing players weren't around for as long as you might think.

Takes Dr. Sweets. Everybody's favorite nerdy FBI psychologist infamously died a heartbreaking premature death after John Francis Daley's directing career went into overdrive. Still, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that he didn't actually show up until season 3, episode 4, "The Secret in the Soil," considering he ultimately appeared in an eye-watering 138 episodes (albeit out of 246 total). The same goes for Cam. Much as Tamara Taylor's forensics aficionado and her gallows sense of humor came to operate as a guiding light to the Jeffersonian's eclectic employees, this only happened after Daniel Goodman (Jonathan Adams) left at the end of season 1.

So, exactly which members of the "Bones" family did appear in every episode of the series? Fox might've regarded it as little more than a quick-and-easy replacement for "The X-Files," but in reality Hanson's show was more like a hybrid of that cult favorite, your average network crime procedural, and the screwball comedy of "Moonlighting." That being the case, it may come as little surprise that the series' own "Quad" — the emotionally entangled Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel), FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), Dr. Jonathan "Jack" Stanley Hodgins (T.J. Thyne), and forensics specialist Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) — anchored the show from start to finish.

Set aside the guts and gory remains, and you'll find that "Bones" was as much about people stumbling into love with their co-workers as it was about stopping serial killer cults and one-off murderers. Deschanel and Boreanaz themselves made a conscious effort to ensure they were working on a "character show" (contrary to Fox's desire for a more case-focused crime drama), starting with the steady, simmering will-they-or-won't-they courtship between their characters. Meanwhile, as the impassioned Booth and analytical Bones did their two-step, the sarcastic Jack and Bones' free-spirited bestie Angela began to play a very different dating game with one another.

On top of being your classic opposites-attract love affairs, both couples endured all manner of abrupt loop-the-loops and turns on their roller coast ride to becoming steady, stable spouses. Angela and Jack, for example, appeared destined for splitsville right up until they got hitched in a jail cell in season 5 (a sudden twist the show's creatives kept hidden from the cast up to the eleventh hour). Likewise, it wasn't until the final scene in season 6 that we found out Booth had jumped Bones', uh, bones at long last and vice versa, although it took them a few more seasons to finally put a ring on it because, hey, why start rushing things now?

By the time they were picking up the literal pieces of the Jeffersonian in the series finale, all four "Bones" staples had gone through more than their fair share of ups and downs, transforming the careers of many of the actors behind them along the way. That they'd lasted 12 whole seasons (something Thyne, specifically, never saw coming) is proof positive: Find yourself a dependable ensemble and the sky's the limit on television.