David Boreanaz's Real-Life Father Had A Cameo On Bones

"Bones" star David Boreanaz has a somewhat famous dad ... and you might not know that he appeared on the long-running Fox procedural not once, but twice.

Boreanaz was born in Buffalo, New York, before moving to Philadelphia with his family when he was a kid. In both cities, his father Dave Roberts worked as a local broadcaster. Ultimately, Roberts spent 31 years working at 6ABC in the City of Brotherly Love, first for its morning show "AM Philadelphia" and then, most notably, as a weatherman on the evening news show "Action News." Roberts retired in 2009, but he's very well known in Philadelphia (which I can confirm, as I happen to live here), and Boreanaz has inherited some of his dad's goodwill throughout his career. (Just as a quick refresher, Boreanaz spent twelve seasons playing the lead character FBI Agent Seeley Booth on the series alongside Emily Deschanel as Temperance "Bones" Brennan , a forensic anthropologist.)

In 2024, Boreanaz spoke to Philadelphia Magazine and was asked if he was named after anyone. Boreanaz responded that his first name, David, came from "my father, of 'Action News' fame. The biggest weather forecaster in Philly for many years. I like to call him the mayor of Philadelphia." So when did Roberts appear on "Bones," and who did he "play?"

Though Dave Roberts' first-ever appearance on "Bones" was uncredited, he still showed up to support his large adult child at his job for the show's landmark 100th episode, titled "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole." The reason he goes uncredited is, in all likelihood, because he's barely in the episode; he basically just uses a copier in the background of a scene. Roberts returned for the series finale of "Bones," though, with an incredibly on-brand cameo.

Roberts — whose real name is Boreanaz but uses Roberts as a stage name — uses his real name in the show's last-ever episode, "The End in the End." After the Jeffersonian Institute — where Temperance Brennan, Seeley Booth, and their colleagues solve cold cases using skeletal human remains — is blown up, we see a television screen reporting on the disaster ... and the person reporting the news just so happens to be Boreanaz's dad. It's a nice little Easter egg for "Bones" fans from Philly, and a sweet way for the show's star to include a family member before "Bones" wrapped up.

"Bones" is streaming on Hulu now.