By Susan JAMES

San Diego’s Comic-Con is not just about comic books anymore. Hollywood has arrived in force bringing major movie trailers and television sneak peeks, together with their actors, producers and directors. Did these non-comic book heroes find an audience? Ask the 126,000 excited fans who flooded the convention halls and waited hours in line for the panels. For all you TV addicts who watch “Bones” (Fox), “Castle” (ABC) and “Glee” (Fox), Comic-Con was a buffet of teases and spoilers about the upcoming season for three highly anticipated shows.
For “Bones” shippers who have waited five years for FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel, to finally realize that they love each other, the wait will continue at least for the first part of season 6. Show creator Hart Hanson was asked in every interview how much longer fans must be patient. “Everything happens eventually,” was his mantra. But in the upcoming season, premiering Sept. 23, Booth returns from military duty in Afghanistan with a new journalist girlfriend.

“Booth’s tour of duty will bring physical and emotional repercussions,” teased Hanson. Deschanel promised fans that Brennan would be there to hold her partner’s hand while wrestling with her own feelings for Booth. On top of this blow to fan hopes for a full-on B&B romance came the news that the serial killer known as the Gravedigger would return introducing a fresh story arc featuring an even more terrifying threat to the team. And (screams of horror), one of the inner circle is going to die at the hands of the new killer.

The serial killer market has gotten very competitive out there. Over at the “Castle” panel, actor Nathan Fillion, who has the title role of writer Richard Castle, was pressuring the show’s creator Andrew Marlowe to write an episode for Christopher Walken to play Castle’s missing father. Fillion’s Walken impression led to the announcement of another impending serial killer, one, said Marlowe, “as smart as Castle and police detective Kate Beckett [played by Stana Katic].”  Both “Bones” and “Castle” (returning Sept. 20) are also planning undercover episodes for their starring couples and “Castle” producers are hoping to guest star Jennifer Love Hewitt in an episode next season.
One fan question about Fillion’s acting history with Neil Patrick Harris (‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along’), prompted executive producer Rob Bowman to issue a challenge to Harris to appear on the show in a musical duel-off with Fillion, his ‘Dr. Horrible’ nemesis.
Fans didn’t have to worry about serial killers during the “Glee” panel but Neil Patrick Harris, who appeared on the show last spring, was obviously a favorite. Ryan Murphy, creator and showrunner, talked about the pioneering efforts that have been made on ‘Glee’ (returning Sept. 21) to examine relationships rarely seen on TV.  Particularly popular with fans are the sympathetic bond between macho father Burt Hummel (played by Mike O’Malley) and his gay son Kurt (played in an Emmy-nominated break-out performance by Chris Colfer) and the friendship between white cheerleader Quinn Fabray (played by Dianna Agron) and black street-wise Mercedes Jones (played by Amber Riley). Murphy plans to reduce the number of musical spots from eight to five per episode this fall to allow for greater character development. Second tier characters like Brittany, Matt and Mike will get more on-screen time and upcoming episodes will feature takes on the music of Brittany Spears and “The Rocky Horror Show.”
So for all you Gleeks, Castletonians and Bones-watchers out there, everything happens in September.
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  Comic-Con, Crescenta