A brief history of pregnant actors in TV shows, inspired by 'New Girl's' Zooey Deschanel (2024)

Fox

Zooey Deschanel

With the pregnant Zooey Deschanel taking a six-episode break from her hit-show New Girl, we decided to take a look at some of the more notable actor pregnancies in television history.

Showrunners have a variety of tricks they use when a prominent actor becomes pregnant, from incorporating the pregnancy into the plot, to hiding it altogether.

Deschanel elected to temporarily leave the show and was replaced by Megan Fox. Scroll through the slides to read about other unique and interesting ways writers and producers accommodated pregnant actors.

NBC

Julie Louis-Dreyfus

Julie Louis-Dreyfus famously hid her stomach behind laundry baskets and furniture to conceal her pregnancy during the third season of Seinfeld.

HBO

Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City

Sex and the City producers simply cut the fifth season to eight episodes from 13 when Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays the precocious New York City columnist Carrie Bradshaw, found out she was pregnant early in the filming.

NBC

Courtney Cox in Friends

Courtney Cox, who was four months pregnant while filming the Friends finale, wore loose-fitting clothes to hide her belly. Writers decided to work with Lisa Kudrow’s pregnancy, revealing thather character, Phoebe, would serve as a surrogate mother during the fourth and fifth seasons. This development gave her baby bump a place in the show while leaving her character childless.

NBC

Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation shot the first several episodes of its third season early to accommodate Amy Poehler’s pregnancy.

CBS

Nana Visitor in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

When Nana Visitor, who played Bajoran security officer Kira Nerys in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was expecting, the writers worker her pregnancy into the plot. Kira became a surrogate for another woman who couldn’t carry her baby to term. Similar to Friends, it gave the writers a way to work her pregnancy into the plot without introducing a child into the series.

FX

Kaitlin Olson in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Several episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s sixth season revolved around Kaitlin Olson’s pregnancy. The writers again used surrogacy to explain why her character, Dee, didn’t keep the child, but didn’t reveal that key plot point until the season finale. Her husband, Rob McElhenney, is a co-creator and executive producer for It’s Always Sunny and co-stars along with her.

AMC

January Jones in Mad Men

Mad Men showrunners used a variety of tricks to hide the pregnancy of January Jones through the show’s fifth season. Some of the episodes were filmed out of order to accommodate the later stages of her pregnancy. They also had her character gain weight in the series to give Jones a reason to wear prosthetics that covered her baby bump.

CBS

Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulder in How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother managed to hide the pregnancies of two stars, Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders, whom were both expecting during the show’s fourth season. Directors used loose-fitting clothes and camera tricks to keep their bellies out of view, but also provided subtle acknowledgements to fans in the know. Hannigan intentionally shows her baby bump during a scene in which her character, Lily, won a hot dog eating contest. In another scene, her torso is obscured behind a rack of basketballs. Hannigan’s second pregnancy was written into the show several years later.

Fox

Gillian Anderson in The X-Files

Gillian Anderson’s character, Dana Scully, was abducted for several episodes in the show’s second season to give producers an excuse to sideline the actor during the later stages of her pregnancy.

Showtimes

Claire Danes in Homeland

Homeland producers actually used CGI hide star Claire Danes baby bump during the show’s second season. They simply worked around co-star Morena Baccarin’s pregnancy during the next season. Baccarin has significantly less screen time than Danes.

ABC

Ellen Pompeo in Grey's Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo hid her pregnancy under hospital scrubs during the sixth season of Grey’s Anatomy and the camera often shows her from the back, or the neck up. She also spent much of the season lying on a hospital bed after her character donates part of her liver to her estranged father.

NBC

Jenna Fischer in The Office

Jenna Fischer’s character, Pam, had two children through the course of The Office’s ongoing storyline, plot points the writers used to accommodate the actor’s two pregnancies.

AMC

Betsy Brandt in Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad showrunners used Betsy Brandt’s baby bump to their advantage in season 2. Although her character wasn’t expecting, Skylar White — portrayed by the decidedly not pregnant Anna Gunn — was. Brandt’s belly was substituted for Gunn’s when the director needed a close-up.