New Girl had the fortune of having the legendary Prince as a guest star, and as expected from an icon like him, there’s an interesting story behind his cameo. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl made its debut on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons. The series was very well received from the beginning, with critics praising the performances of the main cast, mainly Max Greenfield’s in season 1 and Jake Johnson’s in season 2.
New Girl centered on Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), a young, bubbly teacher who after finding out that her boyfriend had been cheating on her, moves into a loft with three complete strangers. With time, Jess and her roommates Nick (Johnson), Schmidt (Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) became very close, with Jess’ best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) also joining the fun. New Girl won critics and general audiences over thanks to its humor and writing, and among its most loyal fans was none other than Prince, who even had a cameo appearance in season 3.
The episode appropriately titled “Prince” had the actor and musician as a guest star, being one of only two TV acting roles in his career (he appeared in Muppets Tonight back in 1997, but it might not be properly considered an “acting role”). In it, Jess and Cece are invited to a party at Prince’s house, but just as they’re leaving, Nick tells Jess that he loves her, and she panics. Nick, Schmidt, Coach, and Winston then crash the party, where Nick and Jess try to talk about their feelings and their relationship. There they are approached by Prince, who asks to spend some time with Jess. Over pancakes, he gives Jess advice on love and life in general, helping Nick and Jess finally come clean about their feelings. Prince’s appearance was possible thanks to him, as he turned out to be a big New Girl fan, though he had been previously offered a role in a different episode.
The team behind New Girl wanted Prince to appear in season 2’s episode “Virgins”, but he turned it down. When New Girl secured the post-Super Bowl XLVIII timeslot, the crew began working on an episode that would attract a new audience while also being a special treat for regular viewers. Around that time, Prince enquired about making a guest appearance on the show, which Zooey Deschanel initially thought was a joke. The crew then decided to write the episode around him, and Prince actually had some ideas for the script and other details of the episode. He came up with the idea of giving Jess a makeover, asked for the party to be as close as possible to his real house parties, and had a lot of ideas when it came to decoration, wardrobe (not only his but Jess’ too), hairstyles, and more.
“Prince” was the most-watched episode of the series at the time, and it did attract new viewers, both during the episode and after it. However, critics weren’t as kind, saying the episode wasn’t exactly good, but Prince’s appearance was the best part of it, as it brought a nice balance to the series’ peculiar sense of humor. Nick and Jess can brag about how Prince helped their relationship and the whole team behind New Girl will forever cherish that Prince was a fan of the show and even asked to be in it.
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