By Jamie Ruby

Tonight on New Girl, in the episode titled "Longest Night Ever," Jess must keep Schmidt busy while Coach (guest star Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Cece go on their first date. Also Nick and Winston search for a missing Furguson.

Yesterday creator, executive producer, and writer Liz Meriwether talked to the press about what fans can expect moving forward on New Girl.

FOX Conference Call
New Girl
Liz Meriwether

November 18, 2013
1:00 p.m. ET

QUESTION: In what ways do you think your Midwestern upbringing influences you today and/or the show?

LIZ MERIWETHER: That's funny. Yes, oh God, sorry. I feel like—oh no. I don't know what to say. I think it's a big part of who I am. I think it helped me sort of be able to—I don't know what I'm saying. I think, Nick is from Chicago, which I think is definitely part of—Nick and ... are from Chicago, which is like partly coming from me being from Michigan, but also Jake Johnson and Lamorne are both from Chicago, so we're writing to our actual lives there and just something of the—the show is set in LA, but these characters are from the Midwest, so there's a little bit of like an outsider quality to the characters where maybe they feel a little bit—they're like a little confused about all of the—like they feel a little bit outside in a place like LA and think some of the stuff is a little stupid. That's definitely influenced it.

Yes, it's such a good question. I'm sorry; I'm just like I'd feel like I'd have to like think about it a little bit longer to talk to you about it. I think that like I also—I'm sorry; I don't have anything else.

QUESTION: I know we're about to see some developments between Coach and Cece and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the decision to go in that direction with those two characters, and a little bit more about how long Damon will be on the series.

LIZ MERIWETHER: Yes, Damon is with us for the rest of the year, which is really exciting. We are so happy to have him back and he just like fit in perfectly and it's just been like a really like fun—it's been a really fun thing to have him back on the show. He's going to stay with us for the rest of the year. I don't know beyond that. In the next episode, Coach and Cece go out on a date, which obviously causes a fair amount of stress for Schmidt. We thought it was sort of interesting to have this new character come in and not really understand all the back story between Cece and Schmidt and kind of just like swoop in and take her out on a date. We thought it would be like a fun thing to happen.

And then going forward, I'm not sure if the Cece/Coach relationship is going to go forward. I think it might have just been this one date that they go on. I think that Cece is just wanting to kind of like get back out there and go on a date with a really hot guy, so I think that's kind of what is going on in her head.

It was really fun the shoot them together and they have like a great chemistry. It's really different than Cece and Schmidt, which is also really fun. And they're both just so gorgeous, that it's like it's fun to just watch them on screen, so that's good.

QUESTION: Jess and Nick, it's been really interesting to me how you developed their relationship this season and it hasn't gone the typical TV path where they really kind of worked out some of their issues and have been kind of happy and a happy couple for a lot of it. Can you just talk about how it is to write for a show where there's not that tension between them and what's that been like to write that this season, where you actually have them kind of together and happy together?

LIZ MERIWETHER: As someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with happy relationships, it's sort of interesting for me to write them, but it's felt good. We didn't want to go the traditional TV route. We didn't want to have them be breaking up every five minutes and having all these problems. We really wanted to invest in the relationship and see what would actually happen between them. There's definitely been some challenges, because we used to have that story, that tension and conflict just baked into the series, but I think there is kind of new and deeper conflicts, which are—you know, if they're going to be together, like some of the things that they got away with in the past they're really have to deal with, so that's also been good.

And then it's just really nice, I think it's just really nice having them together. They're so lovely together. They have such great kind of chemistry, it's like it's really kind of nice to watch them be happy for a little bit and enjoying it. Yes, it's definitely like changed the DNA of the show a little bit, but I think it's important for a show to keep changing and growing and evolving, so that it feels real and it feels like what would really happen to these people.

QUESTION: Did you want to be an actor at some point and do you think anything about acting helps you run shows or run a show?

LIZ MERIWETHER: Yes. I wanted to be an actor when I was growing up and in college I did a lot of acting and then sort of like started writing in the midst of that, just because I felt writing is an extension of acting and just creating characters and stories for the characters. I think it really informs how I write. I try to think about the actors and where their strengths are. I try to write to our actors' strengths and I also don't—I mean I think our show is really funny. I think it has a lot of jokes in there that are dependent on performance. They're not so much perfectly constructed punch line jokes, so I think our show has a lot of kind of behavioral jokes like jokes whether the actors are, they're making faces or they're—it's like Zooey singing or just stuff that they can do that are other forms of comedy. I want to always write stuff where the actors can play and really be themselves inside of the character.

Yes, I think starting as an actor really helped me as a writer and helps me talk to the actors and write for the actors hopefully. I hope so.

QUESTION: Do you ever want to do it again?

LIZ MERIWETHER: Acting, no. I like eating too much. I like to eat. I don't think I could ever be able an actress.

QUESTION: You said that Damon is signed for the rest of the season, but more importantly what about Ferguson? How many more episodes is Ferguson signed to?

LIZ MERIWETHER: Well, it's funny that the next episode there's a date between Cece and Ferguson and it goes really well. No, I don't know. I don't have an end date for Ferguson right now. He's the cutest thing. We all just kind of fell in love with him and we actually have to like hold ourselves back from writing him into episodes, because we don't want any Ferguson fatigue; but we kind of love him and I personally love Winston's relationship with him.

Actually the next episode there's like a sort of big—it's sort of about Winston maybe taking a step back from Ferguson because their relationship has gotten a little too intense. So actually the next episode there's like an important kind of Ferguson plot development.

QUESTION: Yes, the storyline says that he goes missing, so I'm hoping that he's found.

LIZ MERIWETHER: Yes, he goes missing and that kind of forces Winston to—Nick is to blame for Ferguson going missing and so Nick kind of helps Winston take a step back from Ferguson and maybe try to—Nick is worried that Winston has stopped putting himself out there with women because he's gotten too into the cat. Nick is kind of trying to help him a little bit get back into what Winston calls human women. And then Nick says is there any other kind. It's like an important character moment for Winston just take a step back.

Yes, no worries. He goes missing, but I don't want to spoil anything, but it's not too dire.

QUESTION: I know that it's only your third season on a TV show. Do you feel like you have a better sense of what works for the show now than you used to, and like are things are getting easier for you now that you're kind of getting into the swing of things?

LIZ MERIWETHER: Well, you would think so, wouldn't you? That's the best part about this job is that it's just like every day is something new and it's also the hardest part; it's constantly challenging and really fun and interesting. I think there's some sense of that in TV at some point you get to go on auto pilot and you get to just churn out episode after episode. I've never felt that way with the show. Sometimes I've been like, God, I wish I could go on auto pilot, but it just doesn't exist with the show. I think like for better or for worse we're always trying to kind of like challenge ourselves and like change the dynamics of the show with Nick and Jess dating and we took a big thing in the beginning of the season with the Schmidt/Cece story and then ... coming back. I think we're always trying to sort of push what we can do with the characters and change things and keep it really fresh.

It's definitely challenging to stay on top of it and make sure that the show keeps going and we keep creating great episodes. I've never had a moment where I felt like I just could like sit back and get my feet rubbed or whatever. I don't know what people do; whatever you do when you have extra time on your hands.

QUESTION: Now that we know you have this Super Bowl episode, I'm just wondering what your approach was to that episode now you're going to have this big audience, if you thought of any storylines already. What's your approach to that episode?

LIZ MERIWETHER: Yes, it's definitely been, it's so exciting. We're thrilled and so happy to kind of get a chance to show the show to this massive audience and definitely like a little bit nervous about it, but in a good way. We're just really excited to be doing it.

The conversations have been ongoing. We've been working on the story for about a month and writing it and we're going to shoot it in December, so we're kind of in the process of putting it together. The story is going to be mostly about Ferguson—I'm just kidding.

QUESTION: Oh, good.

LIZ MERIWETHER: It a Ferguson-centric show. We really wanted to create an episode that was a lot of fun. Hello? But it was just like a fun group centered episode where everyone can kind of be together. The group all got, mostly all gets invited to a big kind of fancy party and it's sort of all of them at this party together. I sort of can't say more than that. We're working on getting some exciting people on the show, which should be really fun. We mostly just want to make it feel like it's a classic New Girl episode and not try to make it feel that different from what the show is week to week, so that's also been something that's been important to us.

QUESTION: Yes, I'm looking forward to it.

LIZ MERIWETHER: Yes, me, too.