If Max Greenfield can’t stop smiling, it’s for good reason.
After just over half a decade of guest starring gigs that saw the actor jump from one TV Addict favorite (VERONICA MARS) to another (GREEK) — not to mention every other show in between (See: LIFE, UGLY BETTY, MELROSE PLACE, RAISING THE BAR, LIE TO ME, CASTLE among others) — the serial guest star has finally hit the jackpot: A steady gig on a network television series.
And not just any network television series.
As part of the NEW GIRL, Fox’s breakout comedy that sees the actor play one of three single guys (Including Jake Johnson’s Nick and Lamorne Morris’ Winston) who open their apartment to Zooey Deschanel’s Jess after a bad break-up, Greenfield’s performance as loveable lothario Schmidt may very well go join the likes of Urkel, Kramer and Barney in the pantheon of small screen characters whose single-syllable name won’t soon be forgotten.
“For lack of a better term, it’s a dream come true,” said the actor during a recent one-on-one at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena. “This business is a grind, you get really close on different jobs where it almost happens here or it almost happens there. You know a lot of those jobs like VERONICA MARS and GREEK were jobs that I had tested for the pilot, for series regular roles that didn’t work out so they just had me back because they liked me, which was extremely flattering. But you waver between, ‘Oh it’s got to happen eventually and it’s never going to happen,’ and for it to happen on this [NEW GIRL], on this level, with this crew it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Suffice it to say, one hit show and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Comedy later, Greenfield’s hard work and patience seems to have paid off. Raising the slightly awkward albeit painfully obvious question as to whether or not having “made it” is all it’s cracked up to be.
“It is so far beyond anything. I mean going into pilot season with NEW GIRL I was just like it would be really nice to just get on a show, I would love for it to be on a comedy, and I would love to be with a good group of people and whatever happens I really don’t care,” admitted the actor. “I really just wanted to do a pilot and we’re so far ahead of where I ever though I’d be at the beginning of this year it’s incredible.”
Evidently, there’s no raining on Max Greenfield’s parade, even after we alerted him to the fact that NEW GIRL creator/executive producer Liz Meriwether has gone on record as stating that his character’s trademark lack-of-shirt will continue as payback for all the gratuitous nudity women are forced to endure on television.
“I’m just so happy to be here, they could tell me to jump off the roof of the stage that we working on and I’d be like, ‘Yeah okay!’ I’m just so grateful for this job.” 
NEW GIRL airs on Tuesday at 9PM on FOX (CityTV in Canada) and stars Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield, Hannah Simone, Jake M. Johnson and Lamorne Morris. Catch up on past episodes you may have missed for free online at clicktowatch.tv