Nick and Jess' first kiss in New Girl is an iconic and memorable scene, but the original plan for their kiss would've been much worse. The FOX sitcom, which focused on bubbly teacher Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) and her male roommates, featured an endearing friends-to-lovers relationship between Jess and sarcastic slacker Nick Miller (Jake Johnson). However, the writers' original plan for the characters' first kiss wouldn't have worked as well for the show.

Nick and Jess' first kiss happens in New Girl season 2, episode 15, "Cooler." In the episode, the guys, who consider Jess to be a "cooling force," leave her in the loft while they go to meet women at a bar. Jess gets scared after hearing mysterious noises and convinces the guys and their dates to come back. To make up for being Nick's "cooler," Jess initiates a round of the New Girl game True American. After witnessing Nick and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) competing over Holly (Brooklyn Decker), Jess gets the idea to settle the score by selecting two people to go "behind the Iron Curtain" to make out. Her plan was to get Nick and Holly together, but Nick and Jess end up being the participants instead. Nick panics, saying he doesn't want to kiss Jess as part of the game. At the end of the episode, Jess calls for Nick when the mysterious scratching noises return, which turns out to be the neighbor's dog. Jess says goodnight to Nick and prepares to go back to her room, but Nick grabs her and the two characters passionately kiss.

Related: New Girl: How Nick's Proposal Secretly Referenced Jess' Pilot Breakup

Creator Liz Meriwether's original plan for Nick and Jess' first kiss in New Girl was very different. It was revealed (via EW) that Jess and Schmidt were originally going to kiss during the True American game in "Cooler." However, when Meriwether changed the storyline to be about Jess and Nick, the writers were conflicted over whether or not to have them kiss. Originally, Nick and Jess weren't going to kiss in the episode, but a week before shooting, Meriwether changed her mind. Meriwether explained, "We were right on the edge of starting to spin our wheels with their story and holding out any longer felt like not an honest thing. It felt exciting to give ourselves this challenge of how are they going to get out of this or how is this going to affect everything." Liz Meriwether and the writers pitched the way Nick would kiss Jess, and when the crew watched Jake Johnson and Zooey Deschanel act out the scene, they applauded, feeling like they "ignited" something in New Girl.

It was a good call for Liz Meriwether to change the original plan. While Jess kissing New Girl's Schmidt would've been funny, the Nick and Jess kiss is an iconic moment that builds the foundation for their romantic relationship. Besides, if Schmidt and Jess kissed in this episode, there might not have been the hilariously awkward kiss between the two of them in the New Girl season 2 episode "Parking Spot," where Schmidt is angry at Nick for breaking the guys' "No Nail Oath" by kissing Jess. The two kisses showcase an interesting parallel between the electric chemistry between Nick and Jess and the complete lack of chemistry between Jess and Schmidt. Jess and Nick's kiss was also a good decision because it stopped New Girl from dragging out the romantic tension for too long and gave the show a reason to shake up the status quo.

Nick and Jess's first kiss is such a pivotal moment in New Girl season 2 that it's hard to believe it wasn't originally written into the script. The original plan of Schmidt and Jess kissing was an interesting choice, but it was for the best that the idea was scrapped. It's good that Liz Meriwether and the show writers decided to take a chance by having Nick and Jess kiss in the New Girl episode "Cooler," considered by many to be one of the best episodes of the series.

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