The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Midge Had a Real Life Inspiration

The Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, premiered in 2017, is now in its season 5, and it's going to be the last one for the show.

During all these years fans were following the life of the main character of the show, Midge Maisel, portrayed by Rachel Brosnahan.

She leads quite a controversial lifestyle for the era she was born into.

Midge is a happy housewife on New York's Upper West Side until one day her husband, Joel, a fairly successful businessman who dreams of becoming a comedian, fails in his act in a nightclub.

Disappointed, he decides to end their marriage in the hope of a better future (as it turns out later, there was also a certain receptionist involved).

For Midge, who has been nothing but supportive of her failing husband, this kind of news comes as a shock.

She is so outraged that she takes the stage herself and discovers that she is a much better comedian than Joel ever was or could ever be.

Well. As it was revealed, her bright future as a comedy performer was based on a real-life comedienne Joan Rivers.

Rivers became a true inspiration for Mrs. Maisel's character. Both were born in New York to Jewish parents who strongly disapproved of their daughter's chosen career path.

Both Rivers and Midge attended prestigious schools. They both performed at the very real New York Gaslight Café, although Midge's success came a little earlier than Rivers'.

There's one other big connection between the two of them, and that's another great real-life comedian, Lenny Bruce. He does something great for both of them.

Bruce, played by Luke Kirby, once did Midge a favor by opening for her at the Gaslight after she was blacklisted by Sophie Lennon.

Likewise, Bruce once saw Rivers perform at a club, and wrote her a letter that gave her the confidence she needed, telling her she was going to be a big star.

But the strongest link between the two comediennes is their material. They were both trying to be stars in a male-dominated comedy world, and it took courage for them to get up there and talk out loud about feminine things.

While it's not a biopic – Midge Maisel is a character in her own right, no matter how obvious some of the similarities are – it still takes inspiration from one of the most respected names in entertainment.

You can stream The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Prime Video. New episode, titled The Testi-Roastial, is scheduled to premiere on May 5.