For five seasons, they’ve struggled to find a balance between reason and emotion,  intuition and science, love and friendship. Of all the unconsummated love affairs currently complicating television plot lines, the relationship between Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) of “Bones” has got to the be the most classically romantic.

While the Fox detective drama struggled in its early years to find its voice—a straight forensic procedural? an off-beat crime-comedy?—the chemistry between the two main characters never faltered. Over the years, the folks behind "Bones" created not only a voice and a devoted fan base for their show, they remade the crime procedural: the fond but still prickly partnership between two unlikely foils has become just as necessary for crime procedurals as DNA analysis and all that super-cool gadgetry.

So it is fitting that the 100^th episode, directed by Boreanaz, will take Booth and Brennan back to the beginning. And if the will they/won’t they question isn’t precisely answered, fans will have at least a better understanding of what lies at the, um, heart of the relationship.

To commemorate that bit of illumination, I spoke with Deschanel and Boreanaz about the push-me-pull-you of the perpetually courting, the wonderful ick factor of forensic anthropology and how sometimes a TV show just needs a little time to find its way.

-- Mary McNamara

I guess we know whose team Jimmy Kimmel is on.

The ABC late-night host donned a gray wig and an extra-large prosthetic chin for Tuesday night's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and proceeded to relentlessly mock Jay Leno.

"Let it be known I'm taking over all the shows on late-night," Kimmel-as-Leno said.

Kimmel's get-up appeared to be a reaction to the statement Conan O'Brien released earlier in the day in which he said he would not participate in the "destruction" of "The Tonight Show." NBC on Sunday announced the network would move "The Jay Leno Show" into the 11:35 p.m. time period that is currently home to O'Brien's "Tonight Show" after the Olympics.

O'Brien on Tuesday said "'The Tonight Show' at 12:05 a.m. simply isn't 'The Tonight Show.'"

[Updated at 9:00 a.m.: Fans of Conan O'Brien across the country, meanwhile, showed their support by tuning in to "The Tonight Show." Tuesday's episode notched a 1.7 rating /7 share in adults 18-49 in Nielsen's 25 major markets with people meters -- up 40% from Monday's episode. O'Brien's demo rating was also double that of "Late Show with David Letterman.")

Check out the video of Tuesday's entire episode here.

-- Denise Martin

TV critic Mary McNamara and film critic Betsy Sharkey weigh in on the snubs and surprises of the 67th Annual Golden Globes nominations.

-- Times staff

- Complete list of Golden Globe nominees
- Golden Globe nominee reactions

Anyone who happened to be at the Swell Season's first of two concerts at the Wiltern this week lucked into an extra treat on Wednesday night. Toward the end of performance, Jason Segel of "How I Met Your Mother" joined "Once's" Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová on stage and sang a hilarious original number about using his celebrity status to hook up with a Swell Season fan. The song wittily referenced Segel's "Freaks and Geeks" stint as well as his, um, other assets, and the refrain called out the digits of a phone number, 1-315-329-6673 ("call it if you need me"). And in case those in the audience missed it, the number was also written on a homemade sign that Irglová herself gamely held up on the stage. Here's a clip of how it went down:

The phone number, it turns out, is an actual number (with a Syracuse, N.Y., area code) which quickly gives way a voicemail message issued by Segel himself, entreating callers to send an e-mail to an address that sounds a lot like healthtronics@gmail.com. 

Those familiar with the "How I Met Your Mother" star are aware of Segel's considerable piano and songwriting skills. (Some of his other tunes include the catchy "You Just Got Slapped" song from the CBS sitcom's Slapsgiving Day episode, as well as "Dracula's Lament" from the 2008 film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall.") And while the 1-315-329-6673 song seems to be a new number in Segel's repertoire, this was not the first time the actor has performed it: A quick Internet search revealed it was sung earlier this month at a concert with Maroon 5 as well (and with lyrics slightly altered to reflect the audience).

Did anyone else catch the Wiltern performance? What's more, did anyone get a date with the actor? While Segel croons that this hook-up opportunity is "a one-time offer," Swell Season is performing at the Wiltern again tonight, which may give fans another chance to get lucky.

—Allyssa Lee

Even at 83, Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner has no trouble bouncing back from a breakup.

"My reaction always to a lost love is to, you know, get back in the game," Hefner said in an interview last week in the Playboy Mansion library.

As he and his three new blond-bombshell girlfriends, Crystal Harris and twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon, sat on the antique couch, Hefner discussed soured relationships and the latest of countless new beginnings. All the while, Hefner affectionately rubbed the legs of his costars on the new season of the E! show "The Girls Next Door."

America's grandfather of sexual liberation said he wasn't expecting to settle down, per se, immediately after his recent breakup -- not to be confused with his divorce last month from second wife Kimberly Conrad, from whom he had been separated for 11 years.

Hefner split about a year ago with Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, the former stars of the surreality show whom he called his girlfriends for several years.

"One might have expected a lonely period or a period with a lot of whoever happened to be here," Hefner said. "But instead of that, it moved very quickly and very smoothly into a wonderful relationship."

The transition between girls plays out on the screen Sunday during the sixth-season premiere of "The Girls Next Door."

Hefner said his relationships generally follow a path where his Playmate girlfriends gain fame and eventually pursue celebrity rather than a more-relaxed life at one of Los Angeles' most legendary manors. These new girls, too, will become celebs "rather quickly," Hefner predicts.

Watch the video at the top for our interview with the "Girls Next Door" stars.

-- Mark Milian

Times television critic Mary McNamara talks about some of this season's new TV, including its best new drama, "The Good Wife."



Review:'The Good Wife

Last week, Simon Cowell dubbed Danyl Johnson, a contestant on English talent competition show "The X Factor" as the best first-timer he'd ever judged.

"Danyl, that was single-handedly the best first audition I've ever heard," Cowell said. The performance, which also earned a standing ovation from the "American Idol" judge, has now reached more than 1 million hits on YouTube. Could he be the next Susan Boyle?

Johnson, a 27-year-old Reading, England, native, has quickly become a global online sensation in the days following the rave review he received Aug. 22 for his rendition of The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends."

He performed the tune again this morning on NBC's "Today," wowing the show's hosts. "He's got great range, but he’s also got this incredible presence," Matt Lauer said. "It's just extraordinary how he captivated the audience and these judges."

Johnson is a schoolteacher and was once a member of the English boy band Street Level. He first auditioned for "The X Factor" — an English version of "American Idol" — in 2006 but was sent home before making it to the judges round.

British newspapers are already declaring the crooner the soon-to-be winner of "The X Factor."

— Kate Stanhope

Video credit: MSNBC

Updated: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated "With a Little Help from My Friends" as a Joe Cocker song. Cocker produced a remake of the song but the tune was originally performed by the Beatles.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is back for another season of "The Tudors" on Showtime as Season 3 premieres on April 5.

Can't wait until then? Need your fix of regal scandal? Watch the first episode here!

Loosely based on the biblical tales of David vs. Goliath but set in modern times, NBC's "Kings" imagines a United States ruled by monarchy.

Here's a first look at the series:

From the review:

“Kings,” which begins Sunday on NBC, is certainly the strangest series to be offered by a major network in this slowly unrolling winter season, a parallel-world modernizing of the biblical story of King Saul and little David, who with his sling slew Goliath and later became king himself. (Goliath in this case is the name of a kind of tank, and the sling is a bazooka.) Playing like some weird mix of"Dirty Sexy Money" and "Battlestar Galactica" -- though I doubt that was the pitch -- it is an interesting muddle of a show, smart and silly by turns. It's corny, ponderous, literary, ambitious, obvious and, at the beginning at least, as slow as molasses, but continually re-energized by Ian McShane as King Saul, or, as he's known here, King Silas Benjamin, possibly because Saul Benjamin sounded too Jewish.

Read more here.