New Girl S3 E6 – Keaton

Last updated on June 5, 2022

This podcast covers New Girl Season 3, Episode 6, Keaton, which originally aired on October 22, 2013 and was written by Dave Finkel & Brett Baer and directed by David Katzenberg.

Episode Recap

Jess needs Schmidt to be out of the apartment for a party she’s throwing but he’s in a slump so she takes matters into her own hands and brings out Schmidt’s old friend – Michael Keaton.

Episode Notes

On this episode’s Pop Culture section we reviewed:

• Michael Keaton in Batman / Batman Characters – Michael Keaton was referenced many times in the episode. We found out that Schmidt thought he was sharing his problems with his favorite childhood actor, Michael Keaton, from his title role in the 1989 Batman. In reality he was sharing with Nick, who sometimes included references to other Batman characters. Later in the episode, Jess dresses up as Michael Keaton as Batman so Schmidt could “meet” him.
• The Truman Show – When Nick and Jess equated Schmidt’s Michael Keaton situation to The Truman Show, Winston says he loves the movie, but it’s clear he had never seen the movie. We also reference a Vanity Fair article on the 20th anniversary of The Truman Show. 

Additional Pop Culture References such as:

• Michael Keaton Movies – In addition to the 1989 Batman, the episode also makes reference to Multiplicity and Clean and Sober, two other movies starring Michael Keaton. 
  • Multiplicity – Multiplicity is a 1996 Sci-Fi comedy starring Michael Keaton as the main character, Doug Kinney who clones himself to keep up with his demanding life. 
  • Clean and Sober – Clean and Sober is a 1988 drama starring Michael Keaton as a hotshot real estate salesman who has a bad cocaine habit and after committing crimes, hides from the police by checking into rehab. 
• [Ernest] Hemingway – Nick shared he’s a simple story teller, “like Hemingway”. Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. We previously reviewed Ernest Hemingway in S2E9 (Cabin) of our podcast. 
• Joey Ramone / Ramona Quimby – Jess’s Halloween costume was a blend of Joey Ramone and Ramona Quimby. Jeffrey Ross Hyman, known professionally as Joey Ramone, was an American musician who was the lead vocalist for the punk rock band Ramones. His image, voice, and tenure as frontman of the Ramones made him a countercultural icon. Notably, the sunglasses and leather jacket in Jess’s costume was inspired by Joey Ramone. Ramona Geraldine Quimby is a fictional character in an eponymous series by Beverly Cleary, that concentrates on Ramona from nursery school to 4th grade, touching on social issues about growing up in middle-class America. Jess’s hairstyle in her costume was similar to how Ramona is depicted. 
• David Letterman / New York Knicks – Winston dressed as David Letterman for Halloween and jokingly introduced himself as his character by saying, “And now the man who once played center for the New York Knicks in the nude, David Letterman!” David Michael Letterman is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is most notable for hosting late night television talk shows for 33 years. The New York Knickerbockers, known as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. 
• Maya Angelou – Schmidt thought Winston looked like he was dressed as Maya Angelou, not David Letterman. Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, who published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years.
• Billy Joel – Schmidt announces “In the famous words of singer-songwriter Billy Joel…[He’s] I’m moving out.” William Martin Joel is an American singer, pianist, composer and songwriter, who has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 13 albums. The song Schmidt references is “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”, which details the singer’s disgust with the upward aspirations of working- and lower-middle-class New Yorkers who take pride in working long hours to afford the outward signs of having “made it”.

For our “Most Likely To” segment this episode, we discuss who would be more likely to have a punny halloween costume, find out that your friends are fooling you and prank them back, get freaked out by a haunted apartment, and pretend to know a famous movie even when you haven’t watched it. We also cover Schmidt seeing Jess dressed up as Batman as our “Schmidtism”. For “Not in the 2020s” we discuss the continuing fat shaming comments that Nick made about Schmidt when discussing flashback scenes. However, in the “Yes in the 2020s” we love to see how Nick opened up about being Michael Keaton and also how he supported Schmidt by doing it in the first place. We also give a brief look into Emerson Min (Trick-or-Treater) and Samuel Gilbert (Young Schmidt), the guest stars we feature in this episode.

Also in this episode were the following guest stars who we do not discuss in the podcast: Barbara Kerford (Schmidt’s mom), Marty Quinn (Guy), Ethan Munck (Kid Ghost), Jenna Emery (Trick-or-Treater), Leif Carlgren (Young David Letterman), and Desiree Louise (College Girl).

The Halloween costumes of the episode are:

• Jess | Joey Ramona-Quimby / Batman 
• Nick | Trash from the car 
• Winston | Dave Letterman 
• Schmidt | “Public Serpent”
• Cece | Pirate

We also share how while Jess can’t say “batmobile” correctly in this episode, she does say it correctly in S1E22 Tomatoes, when she’s in Russell’s car and how we get to see the fake bricks of the set when the broom that Schmidt hurls sticks in the wall. Another thing we found really interesting was this trailer for the episode which had content from the episode that didn’t make the final episode! This episode, we did find the bear which was something Nick showed as he was getting into the Michael Keaton character.

While not discussed in the podcast, we noted other references in this episode including:

• Obama – When Schmidt is still spiraling, he starts talking to President Obama on the television screen. Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States of America, elected in 2008. He was the President in office at the time of this episode’s airing.
• Nelson Mandela & “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it” – When Nick is writing back as Michael Keaton, he uses this quote by Nelson Mandela in  his email to Schmidt. This quote continues to say “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”. Nelson Mandela was a South African revolutionary and political leader who fought against apartheid and was the first President of South Africa.
• Civil War – When Winston pretends to know the plot of the movie The Truman Show, he says that it’s about the Civil War. The American Civil War was fought in the United States between the Union and Confederacy (states who wanted to secede) around the expansion of slavery in the 1860s.

This episode got an 8.5/10 rating from both Kritika and Kelly; Kritika’s favorite character was Nick and Kelly’s favorite was Schmidt.

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Episode 7!

Music: “Hotshot” by scottholmesmusic.com