First, the bad news. Damon Wayans Jr. was working on the film “Let’s Be Cops” this summer when he found out his ABC series “Happy Endings” would be canceled after its third season.
“Initially, I was relieved,” Wayans tells The Post. “I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I get a break.’ ”
Then, the good news. Wayans, 30, got to talking to Jake Johnson, his co-star in the film and one of the stars of “New Girl.” Wayans had worked with Johnson for one episode of the Fox sitcom.
“So, we were talking about it here and there, and then towards the end of the movie, I was like, ‘You know, I’d like to come hang out for a little bit on ‘New Girl,’ ” Wayans says.
Last Tuesday, Wayans returned as Coach, the original third roommate of Nick (Johnson) and Schmidt (Max Greenfield).
Wayans filmed the pilot of “New Girl,” when it looked like “Happy Endings” would be canceled after its first season, in 2011.
Instead of recasting the role of Coach after the pilot was picked up by Fox, creator Liz Meriwether and the producers decided to write Coach off the show — he moved to Santa Monica from downtown LA — and have another character (Lamorne Morris) move into his room in the loft.
The door was open for Wayans to return, but Meriwether says that in the chaos of the early days of the show she didn’t think that far ahead.
“When ‘Happy Endings’ got picked up, we were in panic mode trying to just figure out what to do,” Meriwether remembers. “I loved that show, so I was never rooting for him to come back. But it ended up being a really good call that we didn’t write him off in a way that he couldn’t come back.”
And Wayans was contractually bound by ABC. No popping over to the Fox lot for cameos, visiting his old loft mates.
“I was down to do guest appearances, but the powers that be over where I was stationed for ‘Happy Endings’ were like, ‘Nope,’ and I was like, ‘Alright,’ ” Wayans says.
Wayans stayed in touch with both Johnson and Greenfield, so when he was free to return this season, it was an easy transition.
“I knew Max because we auditioned for ‘Happy Endings’ together. We both auditioned for Brad. No, I’m kidding,” Wayans says. “And I knew Jake from the pilot of ‘New Girl,’ and we just kept in touch. We had the same sense of humor. That’s all you need to be my friend — just make me laugh.”
Wayans is surprised by the positive response he has received from “New Girl” fans about his return. “I was only on for one episode!” he says.
Things have certainly changed since he was living in the loft.
In the pilot, Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) moves in with the guys after coming across an ad online. She spends much of her first week there moping, watching “Dirty Dancing” and mourning her breakup. Coach, a personal trainer, can’t deal so he often just yells at her to stop crying.
Fast forward three seasons. Jess and Nick are dating and Schmidt moved out — just across the hall — after trying to break the couple up. And Coach is back in the loft because he and a girlfriend broke up.
“He thinks relationships are kind of like prisons and you have to break free and enjoy your single life,” Wayans says. “I think it’s all disguised pain. He’s still not over his ex, so he’s trying to bring everybody else down.”
“We’ve made him into an alpha male,” Meriwether says. “He’s a really confident, cool, strong guy who plays in contrast to Schmidt and Winston and Nick, who are all a little bit neurotic and weird. They are all really invested in looking cool in front of him, which is really fun to watch.
“Plus, Damon just brings so much to the table — he’s been having a lot of fun improving.”
Wayans has comedy in his genes. His dad, Damon Wayans, created the sketch comedy show “In Living Color” with his uncle, Keenen Ivory Wayans, in 1990. Two other uncles, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, starred in the early ’90s sitcom, “The Wayans Bros.”
“They’re just maniacs,” Wayans says of his family. “It’s nonstop laughing. Everybody jokes, everybody needs a therapist.”
“I’m super close with [my dad]. He’s one of my best friends,” Wayans says. “Everything that has gotten me to the point where I am, I’ve learned from him.”
He gets his sense of humor, as well as his good looks, from the elder Wayans. Just last month, that famous face got him out of a traffic ticket.
“[The cop] pulled me over and he was like, ‘License and registration,’ and he read it and he was like, ‘Big fan of your work, sir, keep it up. Loved you in “In Living Color.’’ I was like, ‘You know, I have hair!’ ”
It was announced this week that Wayans will be on “New Girl” for the rest of the season (he was originally only slated to be on for 4-6 episodes), but he has another series in the works. Fox has committed to “Man/Child,” a comedy pilot he is producing with “Modern Family” director Jason Winer.
But he can always sublet his room in the loft again.
Meriwether says of his stay: “We’re happy to have him as long as we can have him.”