Zooey Deschanel on writing the New Girl theme song — and why it was changed

When it came to writing the New Girl theme song, there was no one better suited for the task than the New Girl herself.

The Fox comedy's sweetly sunny intro tune came courtesy of star and singer-songwriter Zooey Deschanel, who played the unabashedly quirky (let's leave "adorkable" in 2011, shall we?) Jessica Day across the show's seven seasons.

"It was written into the DNA of the show that Jess was the star of her own show in her head, that she'd say, 'Who's that girl? It's Jess!'" Deschanel recalled to EW during an interview for our celebration of the best TV theme songs of the 21st century. "And [series creator] Liz Meriwether, that was in her script. [So] when I was cast, I was like, 'Well, I want to write the theme song.' And I also just wanted to get the feel of this character in it."

That moment of Jess singing to herself in the opening episode — much to the confusion of her new roommate and future love interest, Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), who asks, "Did you just make up a theme song for yourself?" — gave Deschanel the perfect point of inspiration. "It was very much embedded in the DNA of the pilot script and [Liz's] idea for the show."

Deschanel approached the writing process the way she would for any other song, but knew that the final product needed to sound more like a jingle and less like a traditional pop track. "Melodically, I wanted it to feel catchy … like a little ear worm," she explained. She also turned to the classics, drawing inspiration from vintage shows that have since become unforgettable. "I grew up watching Nick at Nite, and there was Mary Tyler Moore [and] That Girl, that era of theme songs and a girl making it on her own. That's what we always thought Jess was thinking when she has this in her head."

The opening titles reflected the song's peppy feel, showing Jess singing as she and loft-mates Nick, Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) goof around amongst brightly painted set pieces. But midway through the show's run, that sequence — and New Girl theme itself — went through a major change. In season 4, the opener was swapped for a shorter intro showing photos of the cast over an electric-guitar version of the chorus. The switch gave more time back to the show and showcased the full ensemble (adding in Damon Wayans Jr. and Hannah Simone, who played Coach and Cece), but had a very different vibe from its Emmy-nominated predecessor.

"I was kind of sad [about that]," Deschanel admitted of the switch, adding that the studio was concerned the original theme would alienate male viewers. "They were like, 'We think men are going to think the show is too female if it's this way.'"

"It was somebody at Fox that made that decision, and I'm not sure if I remember who it was," she said. "They did a great job supporting our show, and I'm definitely not mad at that, but I did not agree with that [decision]." Ultimately, with the show still ongoing, "I just had to be okay with it. It wasn't something I probably had the bandwidth or energy to fight." (A representative for Fox had no comment.)

Meriwether also wishes they kept the original theme through the show's entire run. "I'm not sure that the studio ever totally got it," she said. "They were trying to syndicate the show … [and] there was just a lot of pressure to try to make the show not skew so female, and the theme song was the thing that was on the chopping block because of that. I would not have done it, if I could do it again. But I sort of had stopped caring at that point because I just wanted the time [that the shorter intro gave back to the show]. I wish we kept it the whole run of the show. That was me trying to appeal to the older male demographic, which I've never understood in any part of my life."

Despite the mid-show switch, the original version remains so memorable (and earwormy — if you're humming it after reading this, we're not sorry) that Deschanel recreated the sequence with her costars ahead of the 2020 presidential election, and again when she joined TikTok last summer. "I think people got what we were hoping [from it]," she said — that it was "a throwback to another era of theme songs." A loft-y goal, achieved.

—Additional reporting by Lauren Huff

A version of this story appears in the February issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands now and available to order here. Don't forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

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