The final season of New Girl made a time jump, so when viewers reunited with the main characters, they found out that their lives had changed a lot, and one of the biggest changes was that Schmidt became a stay-at-home dad – but why? Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl premiered on Fox in 2011 and lived on for seven seasons, coming to an end in 2018 after many ups and downs in the lives of its main characters, memorable jokes, but also some impressive development in most characters, most notably Schmidt (Max Greenfield).
New Girl follows Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), a young and always optimistic teacher who finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her, so she quickly moves out. Luckily, she finds an online ad by three complete strangers looking for a roommate and decides to go for it. Said strangers were Schmidt, Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.), and even though some of them were initially reluctant to let her stay, they end up welcoming her in, and with time, Jess becomes very close to them. Jess’ best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) also joins the fun almost right away, and they all form one big (though most times chaotic) family, and over the course of seven seasons, fans got to see them grow, and the one who had the biggest character development was definitely Schmidt.
When Jess arrives at the loft and she, along with viewers, meets the boys, Schmidt is nothing more than an overly confident, narcissistic ladies’ man, but with time, it’s revealed that Schmidt actually has a good heart. By the end of New Girl, Schmidt was married to Cece and they had a daughter, Ruth, and to the surprise of fans, season 7 revealed that Schmidt had become a stay-at-home dad, which was surprising as he was known for being a workaholic – but the reason behind his decision to stay at home with Ruth was all about family, further showing how much he grew as a person and how different from the Schmidt from season 1 he ended up being.
By the end of New Girl season 6, Schmidt and Cece were already married, purchased a house, and Schmidt was promoted to director of marketing, and in the season finale, they learned Cece was pregnant. New Girl season 7 begins three years after season 6’s finale, with Cece being a working mom and Schmidt a stay-at-home dad, which is a decision he took for the sake of his family. Back in season 6, Cece opened a modeling agency, and in season 7, her agency merged into a larger one, so Schmidt gave up his new position as director of marketing so Cece could pursue her own career while he looked after their daughter. However, Schmidt returned to work in season 7’s episode “Godparents”, and as he struggled to adapt to the many changes that the company went through in three years, Cece did her best to deal with Ruth – and, of course, both were disastrous but funny.
Looking back at Schmidt in New Girl season 1, no one would have believed he would become a family man who gave up his successful career in order to take care of his daughter while his wife pursued her own career, but that’s what made Schmidt so popular with viewers. Schmidt definitely went through some major character development throughout New Girl, and fans were happy to see him as a stay-at-home-dad (and a very peculiar one) in the final season.
