Friends inspired this underrated sitcom — but it might’ve done it better

The fame and popularity of Friends could scarcely be recreated once again. Despite this truism, several shows tried to replicate the craze created by Friends. As can be expected, none of them could reach the zenith of popularity enjoyed by the original show. Among the plethora of shows either inspired by or directly ripping off of Friends, New Girl holds a place of special mention.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author.

Friends and New Girl shared several similarities, with the most notable one being their premises - both sitcoms involved characters living with their friends and/or roommates and delving into their personal lives amidst the chaos of shared living. The storylines of both shows revolved around love and s*xual relationships, breakups, and emotional turmoil. However, as compared to Friends, New Girl didn't quite manage to achieve a third of its popularity, and I feel it could have done it better.

Notwithstanding the similarity between the two shows, there were also multiple points of difference between the overall characteristics of Friends and New Girl. Here, I shall endeavor to take a closer look at what worked for New Girl and what didn't. Keep reading to learn more.

Both Friends and New Girl started off with identical premises

Friends debuted for the first time in 1994 on NBC and quickly rose to prominence. The beloved sitcom was created by Marta Kauffman and David Crane. Throughout its ten-season run on network television, it provided innumerable gags and emotionally laden moments. The primary crux of the sitcom was derived from the interaction and banter between a group of six young adults who tried their best to find their footing in life, emotionally and in terms of their relationships.

On the other hand, New Girl appeared on FOX for the first time in 2011 and aired for seven seasons till 2018. The show was set against the backdrop of Los Angeles and the West Coast, featuring Zooey Deschanel as the awkward and often haphazard teacher Jess Day. Deschanel was joined by a cast comprising Max Greenfield as Schmidt, Damon Wayans Jr. as Coach, and Jake Johnson as Nick. The narrative of the show was set in motion when Jess made a life-altering decision to move out to a loft after she caught her boyfriend cheating. It was at this loft that she met Schmidt, Coach, and Nick, and the four instantly hit it off together. I know how all of this sounds familiar!

Even on Friends, Rachel had initially moved in with Monica. While the original show did often mix light-hearted camaraderie with serious passages, so did the unofficial spinoff. However, what often lacked was the charm that the cast of the original show almost effortlessly carried. It is in this context that New Girl couldn't ever hope to recreate the popularity enjoyed by the NBC show.

I guess the showrunners of New Girl soon realized that competing with the NBC show's points of advantage wouldn't work out well, and focused their energies on developing a self-sufficient tonality that would build upon the drawbacks of the original show and make them better. This seemed to work exceptionally well. If New Girl was denounced as a rip-off of the NBC show during its debut season, by the time its sixth and seventh seasons rolled in, it had developed a completely different image of itself.

The one area where New Girl almost surpassed Friends was in terms of character development. Jess, Schmidt, Nick, and Coach were written as very well-developed and dynamic characters who lived and breathed in between the seasons. On the contrary, Ross and the others from the NBC show almost remained static throughout the ten seasons and didn't correlate with changing times. The storylines of New Girl also started pitching narratives that would take action outside of the core group, something which the NBC show seldom did. All in all, the characters of New Girl enable the show to remain in the audience's memory as not simply a carbon copy of the NBC show.

Will there ever be a renewal of New Girl?

Although the show aired its seventh and last season back in 2018, audience expectation surrounding a reprisal of the show has time and again made the news. In an interview with Comicbook.com, star Lamorne Morris had stated about a reunion:

"I'll say this: a lot of times, politicians, they overpromise, but me as a politician, I want to promise the right amount, and I want to let all the folks know that I will do anything for a New Girl reunion...Now, Jake Johnson, who's my rival, who's my political opponent, Jake says that he's down, but Jake is not. Jake is not, folks. I am Lamorne for the people. Jake Johnson, not so much. I want everyone to call Jake out. Call Jake Johnson out, let him know that his career began the moment he stepped on that New Girl set, and he should never abandon his roots. Never. Not like me. That's why I always come home to New Girl land, always."

Jake Johnson, on the other hand, didn't seem to be very positive about the idea of a reunion:

"So I don’t like the idea of all of us sitting on a couch and hugging in front of cameras and then getting sincere and being like, ‘What Max Greenfield means to me…’ with him right there. All that feels really bizarre to me, as well as the idea of doing a, ‘Let’s get the gang back together.’ And now it’s like, ‘Nick Miller’s definitely fatter.’ I’m thinking that we’re all with our fake kids. I don’t know.”

He also added:

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"But it’s the same thing in terms of the Peter B. Parker thing. Liz Meriwether is the creator behind it all. It’s her vision, it’s her show. Liz was such a great partner in that she allowed us all control of our own characters with her, so we could improvise, we could move around and she would write to us, but it’s her baby. So if Liz texted me in the middle of the night and said, ‘I have a great idea for New Girl,’ that’s very different than if Netflix or whatever, Hulu tried to put something together just to make money on it."

Friends is exclusively available for streaming on Netflix.

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