Stewie Bones up for TV crossover

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This article was published 07/05/2009 (6323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OMG! Seriously?

In a dazzling, audacious stunt that hasn’t been tried on TV since, well, the last time Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was rerun in the wee hours of the morning, an animated character is about to cross over to a live-action show.

Baby Stewie, the foul-tempered, homicidal baby from Family Guy, appears on tonight’s episode of the police procedural Bones (Fox, 7 p.m.). Suddenly, Izzie’s ghostly hallucinations in Grey’s Anatomy and Dr. House’s spectral visitations by the dead Amber in House don’t look so out-there.

David Boreanaz’s alter ego, Booth, suffers the hallucination after his partner-in-crime-solving Brennan (Emily Deschanel) asks him to father her child, which would be a gut-check moment for just about anyone. It takes the concept of workplace romance to a whole new level, and of course it sends Booth spinning into a world of his subconscious making.

Stewie’s appearance is tied to a sperm donor clinic — the mind boggles — in what’s being billed as a crossover episode you have to see to believe.

Certainly, tonight’s Bones/Family Guy experiment makes previous TV crossovers — Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, etc. — look positively lame by comparison.

The idea was the brainchild of Bones‘ Canadian creator and showrunner Hart Hanson. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, no stranger to pushing TV’s envelope, was receptive to the idea. That’s important because, while Stewie isn’t played by a real actor — he’s an animated character, after all — MacFarlane provides his voice, with its snobby, Brit-twit upper-class overtones.

Conventional TV is often accused of being plodding and predictable, a label some have used to describe the procedure-heavy Bones.

There are always casting stunts and high-profile guest appearances this time of year, as most series prepare to wrap up their seasons.

Nothing comes close to this, for sheer zaniness, though. The Fox network has certainly jumped into the spirit of fun and gamesmanship, as it put out an official press release earlier this year, complete with a statement from Stewie himself.

“Oh, have you seen it?” Stewie is quoted as saying. “Was I good? Because I heard they said I was amazing, and they want me to replace Emily.”

Relax, Bones fans. That will never happen — not even in a world where animated homicidal babies suddenly turn up in semi-serious police procedurals.

In the real world, where ratings count for everything, Bones has boosted Fox’s Thursday night numbers by 74 per cent over last year’s numbers at this time. No bones about it, Bones is on an upward curve.

— Canwest News Service