Damon Wayans Jr. will be sticking around “New Girl” for the rest of this season.
Wayans returned to the FOX comedy – he was originally the third male roommate in the pilot, but couldn’t stick around because ABC somewhat unexpectedly renewed “Happy Endings” – in last night’s episode, which I reviewed here. When “Happy Endings” was canceled (RIP) after last season, Wayans was available, and agreed to reprise the role of Coach for four episodes. Today, though, he closed a deal to be with the show as a special guest star (Heather Locklear style) for the remainder of season 3.
That the “New Girl” creative team wanted to keep Wayans/Coach around past these first few episodes suggests they had fun writing for the character again. It makes the cast bigger, and we know the writing staff has had trouble servicing the full ensemble. But Wayans is funny, and though he wound up being upstaged last night by Taye Diggs in one subplot and by his pilot co-stars in the other, I imagine there’s some comic mileage left in Coach.
I just hope his continued presence doesn’t drive Crazy Winston even crazier.
What does everybody else think? Did last night’s episode make you glad to have Coach back? Would you rather this be a brief reunion? With Wayans here and Adam Pally on “The Mindy Project,” which “Happy Endings” alum do you want to see smuggled onto “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” or (God help us all) “Dads”?