Abby's so popular that when CBS was ready to spin off its No. 1 drama, it had Perrette help in the handoff to "NCIS: Los Angeles" with an early crossover.
Chloe's so iconic that including a woman who's good with computers and other technology - think Penelope, the Caltech dropout Kirsten Vangsness plays on CBS' "Criminal Minds," Jasika Nicole's Astrid on Fox's "Fringe" or Angela, Michaela Conlin's tech-savvy artist on Fox's "Bones" - is now more the TV rule than the exception.
"Bones," of course, is a geek-girl extravaganza, a romantic comedy (with, yes, corpses) built around a brilliant scientist/novelist named Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her less cerebral FBI agent partner, Seeley Booth (Philly's own David Boreanaz).
"I think that for years we saw one thing, which was men and technology and math and science and women being the heart and soul and spiritual person, and I think that all of us eventually - the people who make TV, networks, studios and TV writers - look at that and get tired of that," said "Bones" creator Hart Hanson.
Conlin, an Allentown native whose character was initially less comfortable with science than most of her colleagues at Washington's fictional Jeffersonian, has seen Angela evolve into a tech-savvy member of the team.
"I think the thing about Angela is I think she thinks she's not a geek," Conlin said. "She kind of postures as this very cool kind of, you know, street-smart gal, but I think she's actually a real dork at heart. And I think that's why she's been at the Jeffersonian for so long. You can't have that sort of skill set and know how to do all those things that those people do there without being kind of geeky."
