DHANA RIVERA GILBERT : Dan and Amy always had a five-year arc on Maisel. They knew where it was going to start and end. AMY SHERMAN ! PALLADINO : We like a show to have a road map. We did it on Gilmore , even though we fulfilled it belatedly. So, we knew where we wanted Midge to end emotionally from the very beginning, and it was just a matter of how many seasons it was going to take to get us there. It’s a good way to remind ourselves of why we fell in love with the project in the first place, and where it’s going. Not that you can’t veer o ff a little bit. But in general, it worked out the way we wanted. DANIEL PALLADINO : It used to be that if you did a TV series, it would disappear for a long time. Sometimes it didn’t even repeat. What’s great about Maisel is that people will continue to discover the show. The comedy in it warrants multiple viewings because it’s packed with so much stu ff . The Casting CINDY TOLAN (casting director) : Maisel is nothing without its incredible ensemble that Jeanie Bacharach and Meredith Tucker put together. I came on board after the pilot, and the three of us won the Emmy collectively for that first year. DANIEL PALLADINO : When you write someone complex like Midge Maisel, you’re lucky if there’s maybe two people to choose from. Jeanie said, “I’m going to give you a name. She’s a great actress, but she has no comedy reel.” We knew Rachel because we had watched House of Cards, but… AMY SHERMAN ! PALLADINO : …We were like, “The girl who got thrown in a ditch? That’s the next comedy star?!” RACHEL BROSNAHAN : I spent the first ten years of my career crying and dying. I was looking to move more into film and maybe theater, so it took me a little while to read the script that had come across my desk. I finally picked it up, and by the bottom of
the first page, I was like, “I want to be a part of this.” Midge delivering a speech at her wedding was one of the smartest character introductions I’d ever seen. TONY SHALHOUB : I got a call from my agents. They said, “Look, this is a pilot for Amazon. They’re interested in talking with you, and we thought you’d like the material.” It was from the same couple who did Gilmore Girls, and my wife and daughter always watched Gilmore Girls. I loved that style of writing. So, I said, “I don’t know Amy and Dan, but I’m happy to talk to them.” And we hit it o ff . ALEX BORSTEIN (actress, Susie Myerson) : I’ve known the Palladinos for years. Dan was my boss on Family Guy in the writers’ room, and he was like, “You should read for my wife’s pilot.’” It was Gilmore Girls. It didn’t work out, but that’s how I came into Amy’s world. She is loyal, and she remembers people. CINDY TOLAN : The connections that Amy and Dan make, they stay true to them because they just love the people that they collaborate with and want them to come back. It’s magical, in a way. That’s how Amy and Dan can get someone like Milo Ventimiglia [who appeared in Season 4.] It’s like, “Who can we get? We love Milo, maybe he’ll do it for us.” Kelly Bishop is another one. It’s so nice to be able to pull from that Gilmore Girls world. We even got Wallace Shawn because he did an episode of The Return of Jezebel James for them in 2008. ALEX BORSTEIN : So, I moved to Barcelona. I was frustrated and done with show business. And Amy was like, “Are you really moving, because I have this script.” I read it and was like, “Damn it, I gotta do this.” It was such a great part. She wasn’t a mom or a non-necessary sidekick or the fat best friend. It was a fully realized, interesting, unique female character. Amy has said she wrote the part with me in my mind, but that may be revisionist history. I think Susie was part me, part Amy and many parts women she’s encountered in her life. MICHAEL ZEGEN (actor, Joel Maisel) : I’ll be honest: I’ve never seen Gilmore Girls. I had a friend auditioning for Midge, and she wanted me to help her with the audition. I’m rehearsing the breakup scene from the first episode with her, and I was just like, “I want this. I could do this.” I called my agents right away.
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MIDGE DELIVERING A SPEECH AT HER WEDDING WAS ONE OF THE SMARTEST CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS I’D EVER SEEN.
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RACHEL BROSNAHAN actress, Miriam “Midge” Maisel
SEASON 1
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