15 Trivia Tidbits About ‘New Girl’
For seven magical seasons, New Girl transported us to a place where crafting is king, public school teachers can afford gigantic lofts in the heart of Los Angeles and there’s nothing that can’t be solved with a good float in a pool with an elderly stranger. Behind the scenes, though, things were just as chaotic as a game of True American, up to and including the mechanics of True American.
Amanda Bynes Was Almost Cast as Jess
Bynes was the more experienced comedian at the time, but it’s probably for the best that they went with Zooey Deschanel. Once Bynes started throwing bongs out windows, it would have been hard to Coach her out.
Deschanel Turned Down ‘The Office’ for ‘New Girl’
She’s never said what role she was considering, but based on the timeline, it was most likely Cathy Simms, the replacement office manager who tries to sleep with Jim. Nobody would have wanted that.
Why Schmidt Talks Like That
Max Greenfield has a thick New York accent that was preventing him from getting roles, so before he was cast on New Girl, he worked with dialogue coaches, specifically on “pronouncing full letters in the middle of words.” Sometimes, he overdoes it, resulting in Schmidt’s love of chut-uh-ney.
Hannah Simone Feared for Her Life
As part of Cece’s modeling gigs, Simone had to do some pretty weird stuff, including pose with a vulture. They might seem like stupid, harmless birds, but Simone was told not to “say a word because it will attack you.” She was especially put out when her very own Hitchcock moment was ultimately cut after she “risked (her) life.”
The ‘Adorkability’ Was All Marketing
Despite the title, New Girl is essentially an ensemble series about “weird people in L.A. living together,” according to creator Elizabeth Meriwether. When marketing the first season, however, Fox pushed Deschanel front and center and came up with the tagline “Simply Adorkable,” giving a lot of viewers the wrong idea about the show. Meriwether and Deschanel have both, as politely as possible, disowned the “adorkable” label.
The Fridge Is Full of Easter Eggs
For the pilot episode, the production designer hadn’t had time to figure out what photos to put on the fridge, so assuming (mostly correctly) that no one would notice anyway, he just slapped a bunch of photos of his own family on there. It became a running gag as he encouraged other crew members to hang their own personal photos on the fridge, so keep an eye out for people’s adorable Halloween babies.
Why Nick and Schmidt Went to Syracuse
The decision for Nick and Schmidt to meet for the first time as roommates at Syracuse University was pretty arbitrary and somewhat politically incorrect. An essential part of Schmidt’s backstory is being a former fat kid, so in his flashback scenes, Greenfield wore body prosthetics, and it just so happened that the only sweatshirt the wardrobe department had that was big enough for Fat Schmidt was a Syracuse sweatshirt.
The Loft Is Real — And Popular
Like most sitcoms, the interiors of The Loft were filmed on a studio lot, but the building is real. It’s called the Binford Building, and it’s also appeared on American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Only Murders in the Building, even though the latter is set in New York and the building is in L.A. It’s a talented building.
The Loft’s Layout Isn’t Possible
Apartment 4D sits on a corner of the building on a floor with three other units, yet somehow all of the bedrooms have windows. Nick’s and Winston’s rooms definitely shouldn’t have windows because, logically, their walls should be shared with the hallway, unless they rigged up fake windows with a handsaw and a couple of SAD lamps, which honestly isn’t totally out of the question.
They Definitely Couldn’t Afford the Loft
Even finding an apartment in the Los Angeles Arts District with four enclosed bedrooms is unlikely to the point of impossibility, according to one real estate expert. Throw in all that exposed brick and massive square footage, and you’re looking at around $4,500 in monthly rent for people who aren’t even always employed. Maybe Schmidt was bankrolling all of them?
Nick’s Bar Has a Checkered History
The Griffin was a real bar, and it didn’t stay out of the headlines for long. Shortly after the series wrapped, the bar’s owners came under fire for agreeing to host a Proud Boys meeting. When the event shockingly ended in violence, the bar was forced to shut down, reopening under new management as the Moon Room and then High-Low.
Prince Was a Superfan
Prince’s appearance on New Girl has gone down as one of the greatest TV guest stars ever and reeled in about 10 times as many viewers as a typical episode. So how did it happen? Prince’s manager cold-emailed Deschanel to say, as she recounts it, “Hello, I am manager to legendary artist Prince. He is loving the show New Girl. He would like 2 B on the show.” She thought it was a joke, but it turns out “he was watching it every week with his band, and they’d watch it on tour, and it was like he couldn’t miss it, and they were really invested in the Nick and Jess relationship.” Stars really are just like us.
Prince Turned Down His First Role
But even a superfan like Prince wasn’t willing to compromise his beliefs to be on his favorite show. Meriwether initially offered him a spot on the episode where each character recalls how they lost their virginity, and there’s only one celebrity in that episode, so it stands to reason that the plan was for Cece to lose her virginity to Prince. He said no because the concept was “too racy,” and Cece ended up losing it to Mick Jagger instead. It seems like a weird response because Prince built his entire career on being too racy, but we’re not about to argue with Prince.
‘True American’ Does Have Rules
Everyone’s favorite drinking game has roots in a game one of the writers played in college and couldn’t remember very well, so that was the joke, that it doesn’t seem to make sense. However, fans started trying to piece together the rules based on what was shown on screen and, as a result, getting drunk way too fast, so now there are official rules to follow at the next Fourth of July barbecue.
Lamorne Morris Is Allergic to Cats
Winston was married as much to his cat, Ferguson, as to his wife, so it was uniquely tragic for Morris that he’s allergic to cats. It got so bad that Hannah Simone once convinced the producers to let her hold Ferguson for an entire episode to give Morris a break, but fans loved the cat so much that there was no writing him off, so Morris had to do what every congested feline enthusiast eventually must: learn to love the Benadryl.
