When New Girl first aired in 2011, many viewers immediately fell in love with Zooey Deschanel's quirky and colorful character, Jessica Day. These life lessons are being happily adopted by several shows, as writers embrace offbeat characters who can handle both funny and serious situations. The nostalgic classic broke the sitcom barrier by letting audiences watch people in their 20s and 30s struggle with their careers, love lives, and even friendships. While 2 Broke Girls leans more on crude jokes and sexualized characters, there are actually quite a few similarities to New Girl. Both series follow groups of friends living together in apartments and trying to work things out in their careers and love lives.