Is ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Based On A True Story?

Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” certainly does a good job at convincing viewers that Midge’s journey to becoming a stand-up comic could be real. However, it isn’t a true story.

Midge and her family are completely fictional, but there are some real people in the show. Jane Jacobs was indeed a real activist at the time, and Lenny Bruce was a famous comedian as well. Season 2 brings in even more real faces when Midge goes to a bar full of artists and Benjamin points out people like Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell, both of whom were real painters.

Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has admitted that Joan Rivers somewhat inspired the Midge character (played by Rachel Brosnahan), especially in her stage persona.

“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,” Sherman-Palladino told Vanity Fair in 2017. “It was such a wonderful dichotomy, and she crafted those monster jokes. And because we knew we were going to get an actress to do [this part], we felt like it needed to be more of a rant, of a monologue. Going forward, that’s how we’re looking at Midge’s humor. She’s going to learn how to control that and craft it a little more.”

Brosnahan has also said that she studied Rivers before playing the role. “I’ve been watching a lot of Joan Rivers. They’re very different, but something about their drive is similar, I think,” the Emmy winner told InStyle.

While they share similarities, Midge is not Rivers. She is a fictional character.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 2 is now available on Amazon Prime Video.