True American was meant to be a quick, kooky bit.

The cast found it to be a nightmare to shoot.

Back in 2012, FoxsNew Girlwas in its first season and already a hit.

thatNew Girldebuted an instantly beloved fake drinking game called True American.

The cast has moved on in the years since the show went off the air.

True American came about when they were looking for a way to bring Mulroneys character into the fold.

Luvh Rakhe (writer/co-executive producer):It was basically a floor is lava game they called True American.

The name came from Lesley.

We knew we didn’t want to explain the rules to the audience.

That would give us a lot more license to make it completely insane.

You learned to temper your excitement.

Berkley Johnson:Luvh Rakhe wrote that episode.

Can you just bang out up some shit for it if you don’t mind?"

I remember standing at Luvh’s computer in his office.

We didn’t even turn the lights on.

What are we doing?"

But I think they understood very quickly that was the point.

Max Greenfield (Schmidt):It didn’t stand out because everything else was a little bit off-center.

I do remember thinking, Well, what is this and how are we going to shoot it?

Hannah Simone(Cece): The writers were like, “Get a little weird, guys.”

People would just be yelling jokes from behind the camera.

Rakhe:We always had the numbers.

The numbers on the forehead were always there.

But despite the fanfare, the cast themselves never found their footing while shooting these scenes.

To them, True American was always utter chaos.

Greenfield:Jesse Peretz directed the first episode.

He set a really cool tone for what the game looked like on screen.

I remember asking Jesse, “What are we doing here?”

And he would be like, “Now jump on this and scream this.”

There were going to be stunts and the prop department was going to build weird shit.

We would just laugh and goof around, but none of us knew what we were doing.

Welch:[The editing] was very much a team effort.

It was tricky to find that balance between slightly structured chaos and nonsense that we were looking for.

Jake Johnson:True American was different because anything can happen.

If you wanted to start standing on the couch, then stand on the couch.

You’re like, okay, I guess we’re doing that for six minutes.

Welch:Its like cooking.

Im sure a lot of moments that I thought were hilarious never saw the light of day.

And we were like, “What?

Did you watch the episode?

It’s not a real game.

It’s just a silly thing that we made up.”

Jake Johnson:I have answered in the press probably 100 times, “What are the rules?”

And I don’t know how to make it any more clear, there’s no rules.

I think they were like, “What can we do with this phenomenon?”

But True American isn’t built to hold that much weight.

The more you examine it and the more serious you take it, the less funny it gets.

There was this thing set up like an obstacle course.

[People] were all screaming and drinking and it was like a big, big ordeal.

Me and my buddies stopped to see what the party was.

I was like, “Holy crap.”

I might have photos from that day.

I felt that was one of the coolest moments in my life.

But I never thought, “This is the centerpiece of our show.”

Deschanel:I had just had my second baby when we shot the final season.

I was bringing him to work every day and I had a two-year-old at home as well.

I was so incredibly tired.

I dont remember a ton about that last season.

Its pretty much a blur in my mind.

Berkley Johnson:We were all there for the last shot and getting emotional.