Writing Mrs. Maisel

One aspect was difficult to dramatize was Midge “grinding out” the work. In some ways, she’s naturally funny, but she does spend time writing jokes and coming up with material. “We did want to show the evolution of a joke, especially in the first season. You rarely walk out and that joke works the first time. There’s a lot of work to hone a joke.”

The real answer to this problem goes back to character. “Midge was someone who, the first thing that pops into her mind, that’s what she was going to talk about. It’s why she succeeded in the end, because she was original and there was no one like her, but it’s also why she got into trouble.”

The inability to sensor herself actually led to some jail time, being fired, and other slight derailments for the character. “That power can backfire on you as well as be the thing that makes you break through. We were hinging on the idea that she’s onstage all the time, even when she’s in a deli, and suddenly, through her life falling apart, she discovers an ambition and a way to channel that energy into something that made her life infinitely more interesting.”

This was the North Star for the show, the idea that her weakness was also her superpower. “We were always saying Midge was going to be a character who, no matter how much she thought about that tight ten, right before she goes onstage, someone pisses her off, and that’s all she’s able to have in her brain when she walks onstage. It’s either going to be great or it’s going to bomb. Good, bad or indifferent, when she was true to herself, that’s the way her career had to go.”

Casting Rachel Brosnahan

After selling the idea, the screenwriters had the difficult problem of casting Mrs. Maisel. “It was a daunting role. We had a comedian who passed and we had several actors coming out for the role. Our casting director mentioned a name and said this actress has zero comedy experience. Like she had never done a role with a laugh in it. It was Rachel Brosnahan. We knew who she was from House of Cards.”

Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) Picture courtesy Philippe Antonello/ Prime Video

“Will she audition?” they thought. “She had been nominated for an Emmy and my feeling was, that’s a lot of confidence to go out for a part as a standup comedian and you’ve never even done a sitcom. That made us want to see what she’s got. She walked in the door with a natural confidence and that was sort of it. She came in very prepared, took the notes and won the role the old fashioned way.”

That said, they were still nervous to take her audition tape to Amazon. “In the old days, one of the big four networks would have never let someone with no comedy experience be the star of a show like this. We actually sent them two other actresses we didn’t like as much. We said we like Rachel and they cut us off and said, ‘We love her too.’”

Once Rachel was cast, everyone could focus on making the show the best it could be. “Part of the gift that we got with Maisel was all of the amazing people we corralled to work with us,” says Amy. “They all cared as much as we did. Hair, makeup, wardrobe, production design, props, cinematographers—everyone wanted their history to be right. The colors of the 50s, what was possible in terms of signage. Everybody really kept an eye on their own work. Everybody cared so much and did so much work on their own.”

Ending the Series

Without giving too much away, the final season not only wraps up the series but takes the audience somewhat into the future for Mrs. Maisel. “We knew we were going to end with our version of her sitting on Johnny Carson’s couch. When I pitched it initially, that was in the pitch.” They tried a flash forward in a previous season, but it didn’t really work for the show. “We pulled it, but thought it was an interesting idea. Once we found out Season 5 was the last season, we knew the journey and had to stick the landing and bring it home. We thought about all the ways people could feel disappointed, or that the journey was short.”

“We thought it would be a good time to dip our toes into the future a little bit because we knew we were going to end it on Johnny Carson’s couch, so that means she is a star, but then what happens? And how can we selectively show her moments and Susie’s moments (Alex Borstein) because quite frankly, they were the love story of Maisel. That was a fun way for us to give our audience an extra bump in these last episodes.”

Amy Sherman-Palladino & Daniel Palladino

As for final bits of advice, the writers shared some wisdom on creating irresistible characters. “For both of us,” says Daniel, “I think what you discover as you get older and more experienced, everything you’ve seen with movies and TV that have been really good, they sort of enter your bloodstream and become really valuable. I recommend people watch as much as they can, read novels, go to museums and expand your mind in a creative way.”

Amy adds, “When you get into the screenwriting process, and everyone throws their two cents in, it’s important to keep reminding yourself why you fell in love with this in the first place? Why you love this character, this story, because there’s going to be a lot of people throwing ideas and notes, and it’s all going to get a little fuzzy and watery at times and you have to be able to go back to that feeling and zero in on what you wanted to do in the first place.”

“Because the minute you lose sight of that and start flailing around to give people what they want, you’re going to wreck your own project. You can’t be afraid to be fired. You’re going to be fired at some point. But that [fear] can’t be what stops you from seeing your vision through. If something is a success or failure, they’re not going to remember it was a success or failure because you took their note or you didn’t, they’re just going to know it’s a success or failure, so if you didn’t see it through the way you thought, and it fails, that’s the biggest failure in the world.”

This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio version here.

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