The New Girl Storyline That Made Network Honchos Skeptical
LatestIt’s hard to imagine now, but when FOX’s New Girl premiered two seasons ago, critics weren’t sure if it’d be any good. Zooey Deschanel’s oft-mentioned “adorkability” was beginning to tire on people, and it took awhile to be convinced Deschanel wouldn’t be totally annoying. But as the show entered season 2 and gained fans, the suits at FOX were “skeptical” of something else: whether it was feasible that Jess hook up with a dude and nothing more. A strictly sexual relationship. Friends With Benefits. Whatever label you prefer.
In an interview with The A.V. Club about planning the first part of season 2, the showrunners of New Girl explain their decision to take Deschanel’s character Jess (who has just lost her job) in a new direction, by dating Sam, played by the very handsome David Walton (note his handsomeness. It becomes important later):
“We were looking at the firing as a way to kind of crack Jess open a little bit and have her do something she wouldn’t normally do which is what that episode was about. She tries to go off the grid, or she tries to juggle men and is terrible at it. Then it leads into this unhealthy sex-only relationship with Sam—we were excited to do something completely different than Justin Long or Dermot Mulroney.”
But the network didn’t see it quite that way. Executive producer Brett Baer explains:
“So that was an interesting change in thought for us, which was to go, ‘Can we do that with this character? What would that look like?’ There was a lot of discussion, the network had some questions about it, but they were very supportive. They just wanted to know if we knew what we were doing, to make sure we were coming out of it with a purpose, which ultimately was to have Jess’ heart broken, which we all thought would be interesting for her to have to do.”
Ah, so it’s been clarified now: there needed to be a narrative purpose to Jess’ casual humping. And that purpose was…David Walton’s hotness. Explains show creator Elizabeth Meriwether: