As promised in yesterday's Spoiler Chat, here's another video clip from my interview with Bones' David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel at the Fox upfronts in New York. Plus, as a special surprise (because I lurve you!), I hit an event last night at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and interrogated the cast and crew about what to expect when Bones returns in August.

Creator Hart Hanson, exec producer Stephen Nathan and stars David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth) and Emily Deschanel (Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan) were all more than forthcoming, so, direct from the powers that be, here's an exclusive little preview of season three!

The Course of True Love…  For you Bones and Booth fans out there, I've got good news, and I've got bad news: On the up side, executive producer Stephen Nathan told me, "We love the romantic comedy, so that, of course, will not go away." However, and this is the bad part, when pressed about the romantic future of screwball-comedy supercouple Booth and Bones, creator Hart Hanson told the assembled crowd at the Emmy theater, "Something goes out of a series when those characters sleep together." (Grumble, grumble...) 

Then again, back on the good side of things, here's a taste of what David and Emily want for their characters in season three:

Emily Deschanel:  I want hot dream sequences...
David Boreanaz:  Where I'm washing your...hybrid? Bones drives a hybrid now.
E.D.:  Shirtless!
D.B.:  I want hard-core, character-driven therapy that puts us in situations—
E.D.:  Oh, and stakeouts!
D.B.:  Stakeouts, and putting these two characters in situations where they feel uncomfortable—they think they know what they're doing, but they really don't—and then they pick each other up when they really do know what they're doing.
E.D.:  Pick you up, like, at a bar? Pick me up, carry me around?
D.B.:  Over the moon!
E.D.:  What? Okay, I'm going to learn from you, I'm going to speak in metaphor.
D.B.:  See, that's good, she picks up on the stuff that I say.
E.D.:  So, in metaphor, season two was the trampoline, and season three is going to be us flying through the air.

...Never Did Run Smooth:  Stephen Nathan also dishes that Dr. Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) and the lovely Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) can look forward to some detective work next season. Stephen says, "They're going to be on a quest to find out who she's married to and find out whether that can be undone or not, and who he is, because Angela doesn't know who she married back in Fiji—she doesn't remember."

Family Matters:  Expect lots of family-tree climbing for our heroes next season. Hart tells me, "We have to deal with the season ender: Brennan's dad was arrested, so we have to do dad's trial. And this year we meet some of Booth's family—his high-achieving brother, his father who doesn't understand him and his sainted grandfather. At least that's what's in the plans now..." And Stephen promises, "We're going to exploit Ryan O'Neal (as Brennan's dad) as much as possible."

Murder, They Wrote:  Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan filled me in on the Bones crime docket for season three, and it sounds chillingly good. Hart says, "We'll go after the Gravedigger, and there is a serial killer—not the Gravedigger, but a new and different serial killer—who is slowly putting together a perfect skeleton, bone by bone, from 206 different people. So, we've got to catch him before he gets his 206 bones and completes his skeleton. It's great—it's in the season opener."