David Boreanaz

LOS ANGELES — "We’re pretty damn happy," says executive producer Hart Hanson, who has just learned that FOX has renewed his freshman crime drama "Bones" for a second season. "I had long ago given up the hope of getting an early pickup. I knew we were performing quite well, and we seemed to have a really solid audience that they couldn’t shake."

"Bones" stars David Boreanaz ("Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") as FBI Agent Seeley Booth, who is unofficially partnered with forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and, by extension, with her scientific cohorts (TJ Thyne, Michaela Conlin, Eric Millegan, Jonathan Adams) at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute, whom he calls "squints."

After a rough launch on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET against a not-dissimilar show, CBS’ military crime procedural "NCIS" — which has garnered huge audience numbers in its third season — "Bones" moved around when "American Idol" premiered in January, eventually landing on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

"We kept laughing that we could not catch a break, ever, on this show," Hanson says. "We were up against ’NCIS,’ then ’Survivor’ and ’Lost.’ Good Lord. Barry Josephson, my partner, is a very, very optimistic man. I guess he turned out to be right. I was not nearly so sanguine.

"But our loyal audience just keeps tuning in. I guess FOX was heartened enough by that to pick it up. That’s my guess."

Asked what he thinks he’s done right, Hanson says, "Obviously, the key to this show is the chemistry between David and Emily. We covered a lot of tones, and the audience stayed with us. We had lots of different ways of plotting our stories, and the audience stuck with us.

"The thing that was always the same, withstood the test of time, was David and Emily at the core, and then the squints around them."

While Boreanaz has consistently played Booth with good humor and gusto, Deschanel’s Brennan started out the season as distant and a bit chilly, but Hanson says that’s been changing.

"Emily has to learn," he says. "She’s very intelligent, so she learns. She has to let some of her own charm come out — Brennan’s charm and Emily’s massive amounts of charm.

"Emily’s an immensely charming, cheerful, happy, connected human being, then all of a sudden she turns into Brennan, and it’s quite a change. Of all the actors, it’s the biggest change from who she is."

Hanson, though, has no plans to alter Boreanaz’s approach. "I’m starting to think, ’Oh, my God, he’s James Garner.’ That man loves to work, and the more he works, the better he gets, and he just gets it. He’s a big star. Love him.

"As we go toward the end of the season, he’s in a lot of scenes. He’s working very hard. He’s a bear for punishment, that guy, such a pro."

One advantage of an early pickup is that it comes before the season-finale episode has been shot, or even written.

"I’m writing it as we speak," Hanson says. "I took my hands off the keyboard. Let me just say that we’ll be looking at a little bit of what happened to Brennan’s parents. I don’t want to tell you anything else, because now we get to do a cliffhanger."

For those who missed it, Brennan’s parents vanished when she was 15, sending her into the foster-care system.

"I’ll tell you that we’ll find out at least half the story of what happened to Brennan’s parents," Hanson says.

While he’s not planning to send thank-you flowers to FOX programming chief Peter Ligouri, Hanson quips, "We’re going to send him money and vehicles."