It's no secret that movies and television projects can go through a lot of changes from script to screen. On New Girl, however, there are a lot more changes than the audience might expect thanks to the show's unique filming style. With so many of the cast members loving improv and so many comedy writers involved in the show, much of what ends up on screen isn't in the initial drafts of the scripts.

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Many cast members have explained in interviews over the years that the show starts with a script, but they're also provided with alternative lines of dialogue for jokes. The cast is also given the chance to improvise in different scenes, play off of one another and see what happens. That's why the show employs the use of multiple cameras - to get reaction shots of characters that might otherwise be missed to a one-off improvisation. There are plenty of pieces of the show, jokes, and conversations that didn't appear in scripts.

Schmidt's Mispronunciations

Cece and Schmidt in New Girl

Over seven seasons, Schmidt has a lot of great lines. Some of his most memorable moments in the show, however, involve him mispronouncing specific words. That is not in the initial scripts for the show.

Max Greenfield, in the season one episode "Cece Crashes," mispronounced "chutney" on purpose during his list of things Schmidt loves about India. With Schmidt's specific emphasis on syllables in the way he speaks, it made sense to Greenfield. The crew and the producers thought it was great, and that one word led to Greenfield mispronouncing a whole lot of other things, becoming a part of Schmidt's character.

Winston And Nick's Initial Personalities

Winston and Nick grinning in New Girl

Fans watching the first season of the show will notice a subtle shift in Nick's character. At the start of the series, he's the guy with a steady job who fixes things and holds the members of the loft together. He's supposed to be the mature one. With the introduction of Winston, that gradually changes.

Winston, after all, isn't in the initial scripts for the series. Coach leaves after the pilot as a result of Damon Wayans Jr.'s commitment to Happy Endings, so the writers introduced a new character rather than replace Wayans. The way Lamorne Morris and Jake Johnson approached their characters led to the writers shifting their personalities to make Winston the more responsible one and Nick more immature, changing the paths of their characters.

Jess Having Raccoon Hands

Jess speaks with Schmidt and Cece at the table in New Girl episode Secrets

In the episode "Secrets," Jess finds out that Schmidt and Cece have been hooking up behind her back for months. She doesn't take it well and wants all of the secrets the roommates keep from one another in the open, which leads to all of the guys outing one another about thinking about - or dreaming about - Jess during intimate moments. Nick reveals that Winston had a dream about Jess, but her hands were like a raccoon's.

That particular line wasn't in the initial draft of the script for the episode. Instead, Nick originally stated that she was "dressed as a lollipop." The original line is likely a victim of alternate drafts for the scene.

Dirty Dancing

Pretty Woman And Dirty Dancing

Can any New Girl fan imagine the series without Jess obsessing over Dirty Dancing after a breakup? Likely not. It becomes a huge part of her as she spends the pilot repeatedly watching the movie, and Nick eventually proposes to her in front of the movie playing in the park.

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The original pilot script, however, featured Jess watching a different movie. She cried over Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. Jess watches the movie so many times that by the end of the episode, the guys even know the dialogue, quoting it while watching it with her. This is one change that is definitely for the better. Without Dirty Dancing, the audience wouldn't have had one of the most iconic musical scenes in the show at the end of the pilot.

The Theodore K. Mullins Speech

Winston gives his Theodore K. Mullins speech in front of his roommates and their guests in the living room in New Girl

Like Schmidt, Winston has a lot of memorable lines for fans to quote. When it comes to entire scenes, however, his speech as his imaginary character Theodore K. Mullins takes the cake. The speech in "Secrets," when everyone wakes him up on a Saturday morning, is not how it is written in the script.

Instead, the script simply has Winston say, "I'm Theodore K. Mullins and Nick is my lover on the down low," before he tells Nick's latest houseguests to leave. Lamorne Morris gives a masterful performance as he riffs on the idea of Mullins, like a dramatic reading of a one-man show, that has the young women practically running from the loft. Viewers can even see Max Greenfield laughing in the scene, breaking character.

Schmidt Tells Jess To Run Back To The Car

Nick grimaces in pain while his roomates watch him in New Girl

Jess just wants to be included at the start of the episode "Injured." She wants to play football with the guys, but Schmidt doesn't have much faith in her skills and tells her to run right back to the car during the huddle. That's not his original instruction when going over the team's play in the script.

Jess is actually instructed by Schmidt to see if she can "find any shamrocks in the grass." The joke that makes it into the show is slightly longer with Schmidt specifying which direction to run and getting Jess' hopes up for the play, so it lands a little better than the shamrock line likely would.

Nick And Winston's Slap Fight

Winston And Nick Shop And Fight In New Girl S1E16 Control

When Jess tries to get Schmidt to relax in the episode "Control," it means Nick and Winston are on grocery duty. Because the two are already arguing about Nick owing Winston money, their trip to the store is a tense one that culminates in them repeatedly slapping one another in line at the register.

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In the script, it's not a slap fight, though the slap fight might have been more practical - and less likely to injure the actors - than what was in the script. The original script for the episode features Winston getting the better of Nick and pressing his face to the conveyor belt as their groceries come toward him. That's probably not a safe thing for the actors to do for the laughs it would have garnered.

Schmidt's Jar

Douche Bag Jar New Girl

In apartment 4D, until the end of the fifth season, sits Schmidt's douchebag jar. When he says something offensive or something the rest of the roommates find too pretentious, he has to put money in the jar. That jar is nowhere in the original idea for the series.

The original pilot script, when New Girl was still going to be called Chicks and Dicks, doesn't feature the jar at all, even though it's present in the filmed version of the pilot right after Jess tells her story to the guys. It becomes such a big part of his storyline and symbolizes him growing up when it's used as his broken glass during his wedding to Cece, that it's hard to imagine the show without it.

The Final Nick And Schmidt Flashback

Final Nick And Schmidt Flashback In New Girl

The final episode of the series features a flashback to when Schmidt and Nick first move into the loft. They discuss what the future holds for them. As Jake Johnson revealed in an interview, initially, the script simply called for them to give nods to the future that plays out on New Girl. He and Max Greenfield, however, improvised a few different takes.

The take that made it into the show is one of those improvisations in which Schmidt describes the woman he thinks he'll end up with. Funnily enough, she looks an awful lot like his best friend - and is even wearing his beanie.

How The Gang First Plays True American

Russell plays True American with Winston, Nick, and Jess in New Girl

True American is a drinking game that the characters describe as "life-size Candyland." Borrowing a lot from American history, and involving the concept of "the floor is lava," the game's rules change in every appearance.

That's because, according to Lamorne Morris, the initial script didn't have much in the way of a game description. While the script stated that the characters played the game, the actors were allowed to improvise much of the gameplay, leaving a lot of the rules up to the imagination of the audience.

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