Producer Says ‘New Girl’ Is the ‘First Post-Post-9/11 Show’

Not pictured: cynicism

Oh boy. “New Girl” creator Liz Meriwether and two of the show’s producers, Brett Baer and Dave Finkel, recently spoke with Written By, the official publication of the Writers Guild of America, about what makes their series so unique and funny. But not JUST funny, at least according to Baer – he thinks “New Girl” is the first “post-post-9/11 show” and that it basically healed America from feeling sad. True American, indeed.

When we tested the show, after we put the pilot together, it was strange how people were responding. We were all surprised by how connected people felt to it during the focus group testing. I was thinking long and hard about it, and I said to Dave, “What we’ve done here is created maybe the first post-post-9/11 show.” The comedy in the past 10 years prior to our show had an edge to it. It was satirical. There was a cynicism about the comedy. What our show came along at the right time for— this weird alchemy that happened—is that we were willing for the first time to go, It’s OK to feel again. I might be completely boneheaded and wrong, but it’s the first show that actually tries to emotionally connect on that level. (Via)

You, sir, are wrong. OK. “Post-post-9/11” is a dumb term that has already been applied to other shows (“Homeland,” for instance), doesn’t mean anything, and trivializes a tragedy, so I’m not even going to bother with that. Instead, let’s talk about this idea that “New Girl” saved sitcoms from MEAN PEOPLE. Baer has evidently never heard of “Parks and Recreation,” a show about genuinely good people you care for doing genuinely good things, nor “The Middle” and “Raising Hope” and plenty more. I mean, jeez, what were we doing in the days between September 12, 2001-September 20, 2011, when “New Girl” premiered? Certainly not feeling.

Here’s a message for everyone involved with “New Girl”: you dug yourself out of an “adorkable” ditch, which wasn’t your fault, by becoming one of the strongest new series from the 2011-2012 season. Don’t do anything to f*ck up the goodwill you’ve earned but could easily lose. In other words, don’t say you guys were the “first” to do anything, especially saving America’s morale from those jerk terrorists, or whatever point Baer was trying to make. To make up for his comment, we demand at least one episode devoted to Jes and Cece reenacting THE scene from Wild Things, minus Matt Dillon’s obtrusive presence. All would be forgiven and forgotten.