The Office and 25 TV shows that were never supposed to be hits

17. Bones (FOX)

Series run: 2005-2017 (12 seasons/246 episodes) 

Everyone has their guilty pleasure television show, and for many, that show was Bones.

Bones had a surprisingly long run on primetime television, just ending its run last year and comprising over 246 episodes, which, by the series finale, had claimed the spot of longest-running one-hour television drama ever produced by FOX, and will also keep the actors who starred in it paid for a long time thanks to syndication.

Back when it was pitched, Bones was an interesting concept for the network. It premiered at a time when crime dramas were all the rage, and it was skepticism as to whether Bones would be able to stand out from a pack that included the king of crime dramas, NBC’s Law & Order, and CBS’s CSI, which was on its way to becoming a runaway hit for CBS and spurring a franchise of its own.

The uniqueness of Bones, which centered on the partnership between smart, socially awkward forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan and no-nonsense FBI Special Agent Seely Booth, was what pushed Bones out from the pack, and the characters and interesting storylines grew on viewers, which helped the show grow a large, and devoted, fanbase.

Though Bones would grow somewhat stale toward the end of its run, the series is still an enduring piece of television pop culture. We still can’t imagine how the actors were able to learn all of the humongous, scientific word-speak that made the series a hit, but many walked out of a Bones episode feeling smarter than they did when they entered it.

Maybe that was the enduring charm of this unique crime drama.