By Flora Carr

Published: Wednesday, 16 February 2022 at 12:00 am

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The acclaimed Amazon Prime Video series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is returning for a fourth season, once again focusing on the fictional Midge Maisel, a housewife turned stand-up comedian.

The 1960s-set comedy-drama, starring Rachel Brosnahan in the lead role, kicks off at the turn of the decade and “change is in the air”, according to the synopsis. “Looking to hone her act, Midge finds a gig with total creative freedom.

“But her commitment to her craft – and the places it takes her – creates a rift between her and the family and friends around her”.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel cast is made up of both fictional characters loosely inspired by real people, including Midge herself, and real-life famous faces from the period, including comedian Lenny Bruce and entertainer Moms Mabley. There are also real places included in the fabric of the show, including the Gaslight Café.

Read on for everything you need to know about the real stories behind The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Is Midge Maisel based on a real person?

Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Marvelous Mrs Maisel, has said that comedienne Joan Rivers was one of the inspirations behind the character of Midge. The women share several similarities: both are Jewish, both New Yorkers, and both performed stand-up at the real-life Gaslight Café, where Midge gives an impromptu performance in season 1.

What’s more, Rivers has said Lenny Bruce helped her early on in her career (Midge also meets Bruce at a pivotal moment for her career in season 1).

“I’m a massive Joan Rivers fan; the world is sadder without her, and will always be sadder without her,” Sherman-Palladino previously told Vanity Fair. “And she had that wonderful mix, that battle of wanting to be accepted on a feminine level – [but] you can’t have that many balls and be accepted on a feminine level. It just doesn’t work that way.”

However, Midge and Joan differ in one key way, according to Rachel Brosnahan (who plays Midge). “Joan’s comedy came from a place of feeling like she never belonged. She always referred to herself as the ugly duckling,” she told Vanity Fair. “Midge is the opposite. She knows she is beautiful; she knows she is great at what she does, and she will be the first to tell you about it.”

Sherman-Palladino’s father, Don Sherman, was also a stand-up comic, and she has said that she often draws on her memories of him when writing Midge: “It’s weird, but it’s true.”

“Comedians would open for jazz singers,” explained Dan Palladino, Amy’s husband and an executive producer on the series. He told Women’s Health: “Amy’s dad opened for the singer Dinah Washington. He opened for Johnny Mathis. He opened for a lot of musical entertainers.

“Through his experience, we got to know the highs and lows of a working comic. And we certainly got to know [it] up close – like, Amy grew up with it –but I got to see it from a more objective place.”

In the series, Midge also opens for Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain), a Black and closeted pop singer. In season 3, Midge was fired after she alluded to Shy’s sexuality during her Apollo show gig.

Which characters are based on real-life people?

Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), a stand-up comic who develops a will-they-won’t-they relationship with mentee Midge Maisel, was a real-life famous figure in the 1950s and ’60s. Other real figures who crop up in the show also include actress and entertainer Moms Mabley (played by Wanda Sykes), The Kingston Trio, activist Jane Jacobs, and comedian Red Skelton.

There are also a number of fictional characters who are loosely inspired by one or multiple real-life historical figures. For example, crooner Shy Baldwin is “kind of an amalgamation of a lot of different figures who were that successful, but [real-life singer] Johnny Mathis comes to mind,” Brosnahan told Refinery29. In the show, Shy is a closeted gay singer, and Mathis publicly came out as gay in recent years.

Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), Midge’s talent agent, is drawn from the real-life female talent agent Sue Mengers, according to Borstein. Mengers went on to represent the likes of Cher, Sir Michael Caine, Dame Joan Collins, and Bob Fosse.

Finally, Midge’s rival Sophie Lennon, played by Jane Lynch, shares similarities with the real-life Phyllis Diller, an entertainer who, like Skelton, purposefully made herself less conventionally attractive onstage in the hopes that audiences would find her funnier (in the show, Skelton wears clownish make-up and dons padding under her clothes).

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel season 4 premieres on 18th February 2022. You can sign up to Amazon Prime Video for £7.99 a month.

If you’re searching for more to watch, take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage, or check out our TV Guide.

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