New Girl cleverly referenced a very peculiar detail from Jess’ post-break-up process in the pilot episode when Nick proposed to her six seasons later. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl premiered on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons full of ups and downs in the lives of the main characters, who always came out on top thanks to their peculiar sense of humor. New Girl was very well received from the beginning and was praised for its tone and the performances of its main cast, particularly those of Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson.
New Girl followed Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), a young teacher who after finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, moved into a loft with three strangers she found on the internet. After a period of adjustment that wasn’t easy for anyone at the loft, Jess became very close to her roommates Schmidt (Greenfield), Nick Miller (Johnson), and Winston (Lamorne Morris), with her best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) also joining the fun. Jess ended up getting together with Nick, and the flashforwards in the series finale revealed they built their own family, but before getting to that, the final season saw Nick finally proposing to Jess, which had a fun callback to the pilot episode.
After a couple of obstacles in their relationship, Jess and Nick got back together at the end of season 6, and season 7 jumped three years into the future, in which Nick was already a successful author and Jess went with him on a worldwide tour promoting his novel Pepperwood Chronicles. Everyone thought Jess and Nick would return from the tour as an engaged couple, but it took him a while to plan the proposal, which ultimately didn’t go as he wanted, but still turned out great. In the episode “Mario”, Nick arranged a dinner date that would lead to the proposal, but Jess wanted them to adopt a dog and so prepared the apartment for a home visit so they could get the dog. The group ended up in a park where Dirty Dancing was playing, and with their closest friends (and their new dog, Mario) as witnesses, Nick finally proposed to Jess on the spot, with “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” playing as they kissed.
Dirty Dancing and that particular song have a lot of meaning in the world of New Girl and especially to Jess. Back in the pilot episode, after Jess moved into the loft, she cried for days due to her sudden breakup with Spencer, and as part of her process, she watched Dirty Dancing many, many times. At the end of that same episode, she was stood up, and Nick, Schmidt, and Coach met with her at the restaurant and sang “The Time of My Life” to make her feel better. The song was also what made her rush back to the apartment to profess her love to Nick in season 6’s finale, so it was only fitting that the song played during the proposal, which was a moment fans (and characters) had been waiting for for a while.
Their wedding also had a heartwarming callback to the first season thanks to the song “Groovy Kind of Love”. In New Girl season 1 episode 3, “Wedding”, and after an argument, Nick joined Jess on the dancefloor and did the chicken dance together to that song, which in season 7 played during their chaotic and non-traditional wedding. Details like this elevate the story of New Girl’s main couple and the series as a whole, as it didn’t forget about those little details that made those moments so special.