New Girl is one of my favorite shows to have come out in the last ten or so years (technically 11 as it came out in 2011. Ugh, I am old). I have watched it more than any other television series from start to finish, often times playing in the background while I do, well, pretty much anything. And it recently occurred to me, watching it again this week for the 547th time, that there is some massive sitcom potential in a prequel about the guys in college.
‘New Guy’ Needs to Happen
Nick and Schmidt’s relationship is unique and obviously filled with plenty of humor. But underneath, the foundation of their bond is held up by pillars of love, resentment, anger, and all the ingredients needed to have a great show all on their own. Of course, you can’t have a show about those two without Winston Bishop, so naturally Winny the Bish will need to have a major role here as well so here is what I propose in a sequel to New Girl, to which I have come up with the ingenious name ‘New Guy’.
The show follows Nick Miller, currently enrolled in Syracuse University, as he struggles to sort out what he wants to do with the remainder of his life. Tossing and turning at night, wrestling with the thought of being a lawyer forever, Nick decides it’s time for a change. As to what that change is to become, he isn’t quite sure. But what he does know, is that while he struggles with the unbearable weight of planning his future, a strange obese student named Schmidt has come into his life and won’t leave. The two form an unusual, albeit unbreakable bond that would change both their lives forever. Meanwhile, Nick’s childhood friend Winston is working toward becoming a pro basketball player while simultaneously trying to maintain his role as the “best friend” as Schmidt attempts to force his way in.
In the flashbacks showing these three in college, I often found the humor of the actors’ age to make the scenes all the more hilarious. Clearly, this was intentional but I always thought that the older they got, the funnier these flashbacks were. And now that the three of them are all around 40 years old, Max Greenfield is 42, Jake Johnson is 43, Lamorne Morris is 38, the show would be funnier with the trio portraying their own younger selves (with Greenfield in the fatsuit).
There would undoubtedly be cameos, of course, from the likes of Hannah Simone (Cece) and even Outside Dave. I even had this idea that Outside Dave is originally a college professor at Syracuse University that loses his job and becomes homeless for something that Nick does while being unaware of the disastrous results.
New Girl is a great show with a cast that has incredible chemistry. So much so that many of the original cast members are still doing projects together or constantly playfully teasing each other on social media so it’s clear that they get along after all these years after the show ran its seven-season course and concluded in 2018 after 146 episodes. However, I still want more.
Look, if Full House can get a sequel, if How I Met Your Mother can get a spinoff (or whatever that lousy How I Met Your Father show is), if Boy Meets World can get a sequel, then damn it, we need a New Girl prequel featuring Nick, Winston Bishop, and Schmidt. Now, who the heck do I have to email at Netflix to get this show off the ground so it can be abruptly canceled after two seasons?
