New Girl
| New Girl | |
|---|---|
 Title card variant from seasons 5–7 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Elizabeth Meriwether |
| Showrunner | Elizabeth Meriwether |
| Starring |
|
| Theme music composer |
|
| Opening theme |
|
| Composer | Ludwig Göransson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 146 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producers |
|
| Camera setup | Film; single-camera |
| Running time | 21–24 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox |
| Release | September 20, 2011 – May 15, 2018 |
New Girl is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for Fox that aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around quirky teacher Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel) after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three men, Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris), often along with Jess's best friend Cece Parikh (Hannah Simone). Former roommate Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.) later joins the characters. The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are in their late 20s and early 30s, mostly revolve around relationship issues and career choices. New Girl is a joint production between Elizabeth Meriwether Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television and is syndicated by 20th Television.
Produced in Los Angeles as a single-camera comedy, New Girl is an ensemble show aimed at a general audience, mainly teenagers or adults. New Girl received acclaim from critics and was named one of the best new comedies of the 2011 fall season. The pilot episode drew 10.28 million U.S. viewers and a 4.8 adults 18–49 demo rating, making it the highest-rated fall debut for a Fox scripted show since 2001. Particular praise has been given to the performances of Deschanel, Johnson, Greenfield, Morris, and Simone. The show has garnered increased mainstream viewership following its inclusion on Netflix, becoming one of the most popular shows on the platform.[1][2][3] The series concluded its seven-season run in May 2018.
Plot
[edit]Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel), a bubbly and quirky teacher, comes home from vacation to find her boyfriend, Spencer (Ian Wolterstorff), with another woman, and leaves him immediately to look for somewhere else to live. After Jess answers an ad for a new roommate on Craigslist, she moves into a loft in Los Angeles with three men around her own age: Nick, Schmidt, and Coach. After the pilot episode, Winston, a former roommate and Nick's childhood friend, replaces Coach, who leaves the apartment to live with his girlfriend. Jess's childhood best friend, Cece, is a fashion model who frequently visits Jess and the guys.
The series follows the group's interactions with each other as they become closer friends and develop romantic relationships. Midway through season 1, Schmidt and Cece become involved in a mostly sexual relationship but break up at the end of the season. In Season 2, Jess is laid off from her teaching job; she and the others get involved in mostly temporary relationships however, Cece enters an arranged marriage engagement with Shivrang (Satya Bhabha) that is broken up at their wedding in the season 2 finale when Cece realizes she loves Schmidt. Schmidt had recently started dating his old college girlfriend, Elizabeth, and had to choose between Elizabeth and Cece. Meanwhile, Nick and Jess develop feelings and start dating at Cece's wedding, making their relationship official at the end of season 2,[4] and it lasts through most of season 3 until they realize that ultimately, they want different things in life.[5]
Coach returns to the loft in season 3, revealing that he had broken up with his girlfriend and rejoins the gang, and even has a short fling with Cece, which did not last, after ending the short relationship with Schmidt. He stays through season 4 until he moves out to be with another girl, May (Meaghan Rath), and moves to New York.[6] At the end of season 4, Schmidt proposes to Cece, and they marry at the end of season 5. Meanwhile, after bouncing around several random jobs and several dating choices throughout the series, Winston works to become a police officer with the LAPD, and falls in love with his partner Aly[1] (Nasim Pedrad). At the beginning of season 5, Jess is called away to jury duty, resulting in the group bringing in a temporary roommate Reagan Lucas (Megan Fox), who becomes Nick's love interest for the rest of the season. Shortly after returning from jury duty, Jess realizes that she loves Nick and wants to be with him.[2]
At the end of season 6, Nick and Reagan break up and shortly after, Nick and Jess get together, Cece and Schmidt are pregnant, and Winston is engaged to Aly and is trying to meet his father.[3] Season 7 advances the storyline three years later where Schmidt and Cece have a three-year-old daughter named Ruth, Winston and Aly are expecting their first baby, and Nick proposes to Jess.[7] The story advances further to a timeline where Nick and Jess have a child.
Cast and characters
[edit]- Zooey Deschanel as Jessica Day: a bubbly, offbeat teacher in her early thirties who is originally from Portland, Oregon. In the premiere episode, she moves into the guys' apartment, where Nick, Schmidt, and Coach help her move on from a painful break-up with her boyfriend, Spencer. She later dates Nick on and off, eventually becoming engaged in the final season. Jess was not specifically written for Zooey Deschanel, but the producers found her a great match for the character. Deschanel became a producer on New Girl and helped build Jess's character, specifically concentrating on not making her the classic wife character being ignored by the men and trying to keep out of trouble.[8]
- Jake Johnson as Nick Miller: Jess's roommate who works as a bartender at a nearby bar. At the start of the series, he struggles with a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, Caroline. He and Jess have an on-and-off relationship but ultimately end up together.
- Max Greenfield as Schmidt: Jess's roommate, a seemingly confident ladies' man. He is a successful marketing associate in a female-dominated office. Schmidt dates Cece in the earlier seasons, but this ends after he cheats on her. However, they later reconcile, marry, and have a child, Ruth.
- Lamorne Morris as Winston Bishop: a former basketball player and Nick's childhood friend from Chicago. Returns to the loft after playing for the Latvian Basketball League, in the second episode. He later becomes a cop and meets his wife on the force. He is very close to his cat, Furguson, and sometimes is mocked for this.
- Hannah Simone as Cece Parikh: a fashion model and Jess's best friend since childhood. In spite of their differences, Cece is a very loyal and protective friend to Jess. Initially skeptical of Jess's new roommates, Cece becomes interested in Schmidt and integrates herself more and more socially with the others as time progresses.
- Damon Wayans Jr. as Coach (pilot, season 4; special guest seasons 3 & 5–7): a cocky and driven former athlete who works as a personal trainer. He appears briefly in the "Pilot" episode as a roommate but leaves in the second episode. After a break-up with his girlfriend, Coach returns to the loft two years later and reintegrates himself back into the lives of his former roommates, becoming a coach at the middle school Jess teaches at.
- Danielle and Rhiannon Rockoff as Ruth Parikh-Schmidt (season 7): Schmidt and Cece's three-year-old daughter.
Production
[edit]Development
[edit].jpg)