Amy Sherman-Palladino on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’: You do not have to deal with Snapchat or Instagram!’ 

Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, and Executive Producer, Daniel Palladino, speak of the joys and challenges of a period show 

After the marvellous Mrs Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) is dropped from the world tour by singer Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain) at the end of Season 3, she is back in Season 4 ready to avenge her humiliation. The Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning period drama details Midge’s adventures as she discovers her talent for stand-up.

While  The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is pretty much all-around amazing, the music deserves an extra special mention. “Music is a personal thing to us,” says creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, speaking from Brooklyn, New York. “We have always been heavily involved musically in all of our shows.  Gilmore Girls was music heavy. When we put music in a show, it has to mean something, it has to have character. I was lucky because I married a psychotic music-file. My husband, (Daniel Palladino, Executive Producer), has the serial killer equivalent of a music basement, which has thousands and thousands of albums and CDs.” 

The collection is a treasure trove of music, says Amy. “One of our greatest joys is sitting in the editing room, scrolling through the iPod, looking for music for different moments and different pieces. Sometimes we will have a piece of music in mind and script a scene around it. That happened with the pilot. All of the music was in the script. It gave us an evolutional journey to what Midge was going through.” 

Praising the music department and music supervisor Robin Urdang, Amy says, “We record so much music. We have a special team to arrange the music. They bring in orchestras like a Broadway show. Music is a big part of Midge’s life. She is in the world of entertainment and nightclubs at a time when music and the radio were important, not so much television. People listened to the radio and music constantly. Even now, when I walk down the streets of New York, there is music coming out of windows and cars. We wanted to make sure that the show had the same sort of feel.” 

With Season Four set in 1960, would Bob Dylan make an appearance? “He shows up in mid-1961,” says Daniel Palladino with a laugh. “He is probably practising his guitar right now and singing a lot of Woody Guthrie songs. He is not quite in our world. Hopefully, we will figure out a way to get him in.” 

Midge’s costumes from the hats to the frocks and everything in between are in a word, spectacular. “The sets and costumes work together,” says Amy. “There is a weird synergy between Donna (Zakowska) who does the costumes and Phil Groom who does our set design. Midge will show up in a dress that somehow does something with the background.” 

Rachel herself feels like she is not Midge until she puts her dress on, says Amy. “She shows up in jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt and then she puts on a corset, high heels and hat and she just walks differently. The costumes have that energy, colour and fun. We wanted to do a show that had all of those elements to it. It was vibrant and eye-catching. Midge is a flamboyant, out there, look-at-me character and the costumes mirror that.”