New Girl: 10 Big Things That Changed From The Pilot To The Series Finale

When a television series films a pilot episode, it’s made with the goal in mind of selling the show to the network. The audience is supposed to be hooked from the start, but they also need to understand who the characters are, where the show takes place, and what the tone will be. New Girl accomplishes a lot in its pilot episode, introducing the audience to the characters, the loft, the bar, and the dynamics between the roommates while still being just as funny as the entire rest of the run of the show.

Following a pilot though, things can change. Certain sets might not be used anymore, actors might not be available, and lines of dialogue might not end up fitting with the rest of the story. That can result in changes as the show moves forward, changes that can reverberate to the end of the show, as they do in New Girl.

10 Nick Isn’t Excited To Live With Jess

When Jess makes her case to move into the loft, Schmidt is actually the only one excited at the prospect of living with her. More accurately, he’s excited about the fact that she’s friends with a model. Coach doesn’t want to live with a woman at all. Nick is on the fence.

While he’s pleasant enough with Jess, for the most part, he’s a little more hostile about the idea of actually living with her. That changes fairly quickly. As much as he and Jess get under each other’s skin in the first season, Nick is always there for her, and he’s definitely excited to spend the rest of his life under the same roof with her by the series finale.

9 Coach Lives In The Loft

One of the biggest, and most noticeable, changes following the pilot episode, is just who lives in the loft. Coach is a fixture in the pilot, but by the second episode of the series, he’s gone.

Damon Wayans Jr. was contracted to another series, which got picked up for another season, so he wasn’t available to film New Girl. Larmorne Morris was cast as Winston Bishop as a result. Winston lives in the loft for the remainder of the first season and nearly all of the show. Though Coach would return for season three and a handful of other episodes, the dynamic wasn’t exactly the same as it was in the pilot.

8 Jess Gives Advice When Asked

One of the hallmarks of Jess’ character is that she gives advice and butts her nose into the lives of her friends without any prompting. That’s not entirely the case in the first episode.

Instead, she only doles out advice when asked for it. In fact, her advice is well received by Coach as the two have an entire conversation about issues he’s having at work and he tries to implement her advice. It’s a big change from the guys arguing with her and not actually wanting her input.

7 Not All Of The Set Pieces In The Loft Remain The Same

For the most part, the loft maintains its appearance until Nick and Jess are the only ones living in it in the seventh season. Fans who watch the show from the pilot, however, will notice a few changes to the kitchen and living room areas from the first to the second episode.

The layout of the furniture is slightly different in terms of the positions of the shelves and the couch in relation to the front door to the loft. While they appear to face away from it in the pilot, they are oriented slightly more toward the door in later episodes. That makes the scenes run smoother when someone walks into the space. Likewise, there are fewer cabinets and more open shelving in the kitchen as the series goes on, creating more open space for group scenes.

6 Jess’ Level Of Innocence

Jess is always portrayed as a bit less worldly than her roommates, especially when it comes to things like sexual situations or anatomy. In one memorable episode, she and Nick even get into argument because she’ll use every euphemism for male genitalia possible other than its proper name.

That’s pretty different from her pilot episode appearance considering she’s able to sing to Nick about his genitalia with no problem. It even makes him laugh while he’s talking to her in the bar. She might be portrayed as less mature in later episodes, but not in the pilot.

5 Schmidt And Benjamin’s Friendship

In addition to the four roommates in New Girl’s pilot, the audience also gets to meet a few of their friends. Nick’s ex Caroline pops up, as does Jess’ best friend Cece, but also Schmidt’s friend Benjamin.

Benjamin runs into the group at the bar, and it’s clear that Schmidt has an intense need to impress him – or at least run in the same social circles as him. Benjamin doesn’t make it to the series finale as part of Schmidt’s life. In fact, he doesn’t even make it to the end of the first season as he becomes a casualty of dropped plot lines. Schmidt eventually makes his roommates, Cece, and eventually Aly, seemingly his only friends.

4 The Bathroom Set Up

The loft’s bathroom doesn’t look like a typical in-home bathroom. Instead, it’s more akin to the facilities one might see in a public space. That’s because the building is a converted warehouse. The stall and the soap dispensers remain intact for the entire series, but there is something that changes that actually becomes part of a future episode.

At one point in the show, Schmidt becomes obsessed with how humid it is in the apartment because his towel is never dry. As it turns out, he and Nick have been using the same towel. Jess’ solution to his problem, however, is that they should install towel bars instead of hooks in the bathroom so the towels have more space to dry. While that’s a great idea, in the pilot episode, not all of the towels were on hooks right next to one another. The hooks were spread out across the bathroom and there was even a towel bar behind the door.

3 Jess Wears A Bathing Suit In The Shower

There are a lot of scenes that take place in the bathroom as the roommates are getting ready for their day. The one and only time the audience sees Jess step out of the shower wearing a bathing suit, however, is in the pilot.

To be fair, it makes a statement that she’s not quite comfortable in her new apartment that she’s sharing with three men just yet. It’s also, however, like a nod to the original pilot script, which went through a lot of changes before it was filmed. In the original script, in addition to Schmidt being focused on the fact that Jess was friends with a model, he also repeatedly asked her if she would be showering naked, which was incredibly creepy and inappropriate. If the line had stayed in, Jess’ discomfort level would have made more sense instead of it simply being nonexistent in the next episode.

2 Coach Doesn’t Understand Women

While Coach initially doesn’t want to live with Jess, he does take advantage of her presence in the pilot by going to her to better understand women. His job involves training women at the gym, and he’s been getting a lot of complaints about his motivational style.

This is in direct contrast with Coach’s return in New Girl’s third season. By the time he comes back to the loft, Coach declares himself a female expert thanks to growing up with sisters. Supposedly he understands how women think, fight, and make amends as a result. It’s a complete change for his character.

1 Jess’ Ability To Dress For A Night Out

When Jess gets her chance to go out and find a rebound in the pilot, her hopes are almost dashed before she leaves the loft because she chooses to wear overalls for a nice dinner. Cece ends up lending her a dress because Jess apparently cannot dress for a date.

Jess almost exclusively wears skirts and dresses in the series that work just as well for teaching as they do for a dinner date. Even at the start of the pilot, she wears a dress that would have been acceptable for a date. It’s odd that she’s suddenly unable to dress herself.

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