A couple of months into the fourth season of New Girl, all of a sudden Fox changed up the original, iconic opening credits which were admittedly pretty annoying at first but eventually grew on you — replacing them with a generic, shorter version with an instrumental version of the song and still images of the cast.
The decision was ostensibly made to include Damon Wayans Jr. and Hannah Simone, who had been promoted to series regulars, which is totally understandable. It also makes sense in the respect that the series has kind of moved in the direction of an ensemble cast and isn’t focusing as much on Jess’s character. But even keeping all of that in mind, the new credits still just feel pretty lame.
Well, it seems like we’re not the only ones who think so, because in this new Hitfix interview with Zooey Deschanel the conversation takes a turn for the, um, awkward when she’s asked about the new opening credits.
Finally talk a bit about the new credits. What are your thoughts on seeing them?
I had no choice. Yeah, it wasn’t my choice and I had no real influence in the matter.But what was your reaction when you saw them for the first time?
It’s different.Do you view them as being sort of like long-term or would you ideally like to have season five a whole new thing?
I don’t really have an opinion on it. I like the original ones personally but that’s just me.I just feel like a lot of people miss the original ones.
Yeah. I like them too. I mean that’s my personal opinion and a lot of people have kind of complained to me on Twitter and stuff. But it was mandated by not me.That’s what Twitter is there for to give people a chance to complain.
Exactly. No, someone wanted it for some, and I’m sure it was a good one, reason and I don’t know why. But anyway I like the original.
Translation: Zooey Deschanel is sick of hearing your sh*t about the new New Girl opening credits. She later says that she understands why the credits were changed, but wishes that they could have kept something that would have been more in the spirit of the original. I’ve never seen fans so worked up about something as minor as opening credits, so who knows. Maybe they’ll rework them again for season five.
In case you missed it, here’s what the new credits look like now:
As opposed to the original:
