What\u2019s more, Rivers has said Lenny Bruce helped her early on in her career<\/a> (Midge also meets Bruce at a pivotal moment for her career in season 1).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a massive Joan Rivers fan; the world is sadder without her, and will always be sadder without her,\u201d Sherman-Palladino\u00a0previously told Vanity Fair<\/a>. \u201cAnd she had that wonderful mix, that battle of wanting to be accepted on a feminine level \u2013 [but] you can\u2019t have that many balls and be accepted on a feminine level. It just doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Midge and Joan differ in one key way, according to Rachel Brosnahan (who plays Midge).\u00a0\u201cJoan\u2019s comedy came from a place of feeling like she never belonged. She always referred to herself as the ugly duckling,\u201d\u00a0she told\u00a0 Vanity Fair<\/a>. \u201cMidge 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Sherman-Palladino\u2019s 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: \u201cIt\u2019s weird, but it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cComedians would open for jazz singers,\u201d explained Dan Palladino, Amy\u2019s husband and an executive producer on the series. He told Women\u2019s Health<\/a>: \u201cAmy\u2019s dad opened for the singer Dinah Washington. He opened for Johnny Mathis. He opened for a lot of musical entertainers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough his experience, we got to know the highs and lows of a working comic. And we certainly got to know [it] up close \u2013 like, Amy grew up with it \u2013but I got to see it from a more objective place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s sexuality during her Apollo show gig.<\/span><\/p>\n
Which characters are based on real-life people?<\/strong><\/h2>\n $\""lenny-bruce-marvelous-mrs-maisel"\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), a stand-up comic who develops a will-they-won\u2019t-they relationship with mentee Midge Maisel, was a real-life famous figure in the 1950s and \u201960s. 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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u201ckind of an amalgamation of a lot of different figures who were that successful, but [real-life singer] Johnny Mathis comes to mind,\u201d Brosnahan told Refinery29<\/a>. In the show, Shy is a closeted gay singer, and Mathis publicly came out as gay in recent years.<\/p>\n
Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), Midge\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
$\""Alex\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Amazon Prime Video<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Finally, Midge\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel season 4 premieres on 18th February 2022. <\/strong>You can sign up to Amazon Prime Video for \u00a37.99 a month<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
If you\u2019re searching for more to watch, take a look at the rest of our Drama<\/a> coverage, or check out our<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Flora Carr Published: Wednesday, 16 February 2022 at 12:00 am 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11232,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-scaled.jpg",2560,1708,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-1536x1025.jpg",1536,1025,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/02\/is-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-based-on-a-true-story-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Flora Carr Published: Wednesday, 16 February 2022 at 12:00 am 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…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}