Why Winston replaced Coach after the pilot

Just as fans are wondering what happened to Coach on New girlWinston is introduced as the new character in the sitcom. New girl Premiered on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons. The series, created by Elizabeth Meriwether, follows Jess (Zooey Deschanel), a bubbly teacher who, after a bad breakup, moves into an apartment with three less-than-adult men to start a new life. Jess’ new roommates are Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.). Winston (Lamorn Morris) joined the group in the second episode of New girl.

Coach made quite an impression in the first episode of New girl As a cocky yet awkward former athlete who worked as a personal trainer but was a little too intense with clients. Despite Damon Wayans Jr’s great performance and his chemistry with the rest of the New girl cast, the character was quickly written out of the show. Coach left the loft between episodes 1 and 2, and Winston moved in. While Coach would later return to share the screen with Winston, many still wonder why Coach left New girl.

Why coach left new girl after episode 1

Coach’s role in New Girl has been on and off throughout the series

The reason coach leaves New girl Is that Damon Wayans Jr. Has scheduling issues because also being in the cast of the comedy series Happy Endings. As he expected Happy Endings To be canceled after its first season, Wayans joined the cast of New girl. however, Happy Endings Was renewed for season 2, and he had to leave New girl Only one episode left.

After the first Winston and Coach New girl exchange, Coach returned to New girl At the beginning of season 3 In 2013, which began airing a few months after ABC officially canceled Happy Endings After three seasons. It was stated that Coach originally moved out of the loft after the pilot episode to move in with his then girlfriend.

It was quickly established by the other letters in New girl That this was something Coach did often – jump into a relationship, and then move back to the loft if the relationship did not work out, which is the reason for his season 3 return. Wayans continued to play coach for two seasons before leaving at the end of New girl Season 4 after the character decides to move in with his new girlfriend, May (Meaghan Rath).

While Coach is gone once again, he hasn’t completely disappeared like he did before, with Wayans returning to New girl As a special guest star in the last two seasons of the comedy. Winston, on the other hand, stayed for the rest of the series. Winston went through a lot of ups and downs in his personal life but eventually settled down with Ali (Nasim Pedrad). While Coach was not as present as Winston was in New girlHe was always present in the hearts and minds of his friends.

Why New Girl didn’t recast Coach

Winston cemented himself in the ensemble

New girl Creator Elizabeth Meriwether realized that to remove coach from New girls pilot episode, about 80% of it would have to be reshot. To save extensive production work, it was decided that his character would not be erased at all. Instead, a new one would be brought in: Winston. Although the character Exchange was confusing at first, Winston’s addition to New girl Keeping up the dynamic between Jess’ new roommates Without trying to copy the coach’s personality and erase what he brought to the table.

Rather than ignoring the fact that Coach was in the pilot episode of New girlThe explanation is provided that the coach left the New girl Air because he moved in with his girlfriend. It reflects the changes in the lives of young adults, which is something the producers wanted to show across New girl. Not recasting Coach also allowed Wayans to return to the show later, so it was a win-win situation all around.

Why not recasting coach was good for new girl

Coach’s departure provided character growth for his return

Ultimately, the Winston and coach swap was a better resolution than simply recasting Coach after he left. New girl. While another show might have bitten the bullet and recast Coach (meaning huge reshoots for the pilot episode), New girl‘s decision was a big call for the series. Not only is the explanation for coach leaving New girl Still the pilot authentic to the story about the lives of people in their late 20s, but it helped give the character himself a strong arc.

Because New girls coach is not recast, He can return to New girl Later onAnd his penchant for moving around and struggling to find himself while also looking for a serious relationship was an interesting core component of his character’s journey.

Winston and Coach are used to study black masculinity in sitcoms

Having Winston and Coach together was a subtly groundbreaking sitcom milestone

Flesh out the respective story arcs of Winston and Coach, New Girl featured two black male leads coexisting in a sitcom with a predominantly white cast—a slyly groundbreaking move that led to the show becoming a case study for black masculinity in popular culture.

in Black Masculinity and White-Cast Sitcoms: Unraveling Stereotypes in New Girl – The master’s thesis of Linköping University Student Marie Zafimehy – it is perceived as Winston and Coach New girl Scenes broke down a boundary in sitcom casting, though both characters would fall back into black stereotypes several times throughout the series.

Zafimehi also shows how New girl Season 1 passed the Racial Bechdel Test but calibrated to study diversity and racial representation instead. Winston and Coach – New Girl’s Black male leads – may not be perfect, but they pushed sitcoms in a better direction when it came to representation. More importantly, the characters opened up important discussions about black masculinity and representation in pop culture—a critical eye-opener for audiences facing increasingly complex shows and movies in the streaming age. Zafimehi also had this to say in her analysis of New Girl:

“As media platforms that reflect society and participate in the identity building of young people, sitcoms and popular culture in general need a representation of a positive and progressive black masculinity, breaking from stereotypical traditional patterns of racial and gender representations.”

New Girl was often at its best with Winston and Coach in the cast

The best seasons of sitcoms include both characters

While Winston replaces Coach on New girl ended up working out well for Coach’s character in the long run, one of the other benefits of not recasting the role is that The show was eventually able to use both characters. Coach was a fully established character in the pilot with Damon Wayans Jr. Which brought enough to the role to make him memorable in just one episode. In contrast, Winston was an entirely new character that had to be developed and worked into the show because it was already moving forward.

There were issues with Winston’s character early on where it was clear that the show didn’t know exactly how to use him. However, when Coach returned, Winston was his own character and Coach slid back into the ensemble easily, making it even stronger. Seeing all four of the male stars bouncing off each other and supporting Jess as the main character made for some of the show’s best seasons. not only that, Wayans and Lamorne Morris proved to have wonderful chemistry together.

Coach and Winston’s scenes together played on the absurdity of both characters, with each of the actors taking their personalities to extremes and making them even more funny. While the show was funny before and after Coach’s return, seeing him share the screen with Winston and not have them battle for screen time, but rather elevate each other helped to make New girl a success