New Girl has its own jokes and references to other characters and events, but there’s one constant reference that can be found on every single episode, sometimes explicitly, and others more subtly – and here’s what it is. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl premiered on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons and a lot of ups and downs in the lives of its main characters. New Girl was praised since season 1 for its sense of humor and the performances of its main cast, particularly those of Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson, and was packed with jokes, including visual ones.
New Girl followed Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), a young and bubbly teacher who after finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, moved into a loft with three strangers she found on the internet. Such a sudden move and more didn’t help make Jess’ arrival at the loft easy for anyone, but she eventually became close to her new roommates: Schmidt (Greenfield), Nick Miller (Johnson), and Winston (Lamorne Morris). Together, along with Jess’ best friend Cece (Hannah Simone), they went through many highs and lows, both inside and outside the loft, and there’s something else that further connects them: all the references to bears throughout the whole series.
Fans who have rewatched New Girl began to notice there’s one constant detail in all (yes, all) episodes of the series: bears. According to these eagle-eyed viewers, there’s a reference to bears in all episodes of New Girl, and while a bear is not an image you could ignore nor is it a word that can be easily added to a casual conversation, these references can either be very obvious or so subtle that fans have struggled to find them. For example, in the pilot episode of New Girl, when Coach (Damon Wayans Jr) was still around, he sang “bears in my house” as he didn’t know the lyrics to “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life”, and in other episodes, an image of a bear can be seen on the fridge at the loft, and there’s even a painting of a very colorful bear next to Wiston’s room.
Other more obvious references to bears in New Girl include Nick being a fan of the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs, a bear on the California state flag, Nick saying Winston is “so cute, Teddy bears buy Winston for their kids" during the Honey Roast, that one time Schmidt’s college girlfriend, Elizabeth, called him an “idiot panda bear” – and, of course, there’s also Bearclaw, played by Josh Gad. Other references are more subtle and could either be the image of a bear in the background or even a nickname, as is the case of Winston, whose nickname was “Winnie the Bish”, which can be taken as a reference to Winnie the Pooh. The reason for New Girl to have so many references to bears is unknown, but according to a Reddit user, a commentary track on the season one DVD states that there’s supposed to be a bear reference in every episode.
The “bear hunt” for New Girl fans won’t be easy as bears can be everywhere and sometimes there is more than one reference, and not all of them will be as explicit as a giant teddy bear Nick found in the garbage or Schmidt mentioning Winnie the Pooh and Paddington. This is a good excuse to rewatch all seasons of New Girl and see if you can find the bear reference in every episode, just remember to pay attention to dialogues, people, and background details.