Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jim Carrey had a breakthrough early in their careers. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Late-night talk shows have long been a stepping stone for stand-up comedians, and Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) tries to follow that route in the show’s final season. Gorgeous Miss Maisel.
It didn’t quite go as planned. Instead of appearing in front of the camera, Midge took a staff position presenting the “women’s point of view”. Gordon Ford Showthe writers’ room. Amy Sherman-Palladino’s series has never shied away from mixing real-life celebrities with fictional figures. But instead of taking the Lenny Bruce route to get Midge to create a crazy comedy dynamic with an actor playing Jack Parr (or even Carson), Veeps Reid Scott takes on the role of Gordon Ford, host of “the #1 talk show in the country”; so he currently manages 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Behind the scenes, talent bookstore Mike Carr (Jason Ralph) has the power to make or break an entertainer, but he’s caught up in a battle of wills – the extortionate sleazy producer George (Inheritance Peter Friedman) – and continues to self-sabotage his ambitions.
Ralph and Scott made their first appearances as guest stars last season, before both characters took the series regular promotion for a final outing with Midge and her manager Susie (Alex Borstein).
The two recently chatted with Daily Beast’s Obsessed about joining the Emmy Award-winning team. Gorgeous Miss Maisel live one last time.
“Amy and Dan [Palladino] write these incredibly poetic, epic scenarios and the last thing you want to do is chop up these beautiful words they give you,” says Scott. Coming to a show this late in the game is a daunting experience, and there’s also the fact that Gordon Ford Show the team does not interact with most of the season’s regulars (Brosnahan and Borstein aside). “One of the challenges, at least for me, is making sure we still stick to the tone of the show,” admits Scott.
Fast-paced dialogue with an inherent musicality is a signature Sherman-Palladino script that requires every player to step up and be at the top of their game. “You want to please them, impress them, and they’ll let you know when you do,” Scott says.
Ralph is in a unique position to join the cast as he is married to Miss Maisel Rachel Brosnahan. So his experience in this world goes back to the beginning. “I’ve known everyone for so long, and in many ways it was like coming home and hanging out with all these people I love,” she says. “But with the added bonus of having a welcome opportunity to play and join in all the fun.”
This familiarity came with some trepidation, as Ralph “feared that I would embarrass my wife.” Worst case scenario? “Amy wouldn’t know what to say and she should have quietly deleted me from the show without trying to embarrass anyone, but it didn’t.”
Humiliation to Comrades
Instead, Ralph’s character tries to channel his resentment for George into showing off his strengths at work – as a result, he often resembles a tightly wound screw. So far this season, Mike has endured Susie’s insistence, coping with Gordon’s moodiness when he quit smoking, and handling an after-hours emergency meeting with Midge and a resourceful brand rep that stemmed from an incident on a boat.
Ralph jokes that Mike is “an overly ambitious little sociopath.” He enjoys peeling off the character’s layers as the season progresses. “At first, I thought he was a grumpy, crazy clown, and then Amy and Dan did a great job bringing out all the nuances,” he says.
Over the course of several episodes, Mike went from snapping at the double bird Susie to talking openly with her about her frustrations with talent reservation woes (“Doris Day’s ostrich got sick, so she postponed it”).
Philippe Antonello/PrimeVideo
“I think they’re both up to the same thing, and Mike definitely sees in Susie that she’s a very friendly person trying to get to the top,” says Ralph. “I think he sees himself in her and he sees himself a little bit in her.” The friendship blossomed from humiliation, which still leaves room for playful back and forth. “They see what each other is doing so they know how to press each other’s buttons correctly – especially to him,” says Ralph.
Persistence is how Susie helps Midge get her foot in the door, but George’s rule that not everyone who writes on the show can’t appear on the show is an added hurdle. Mike is the first watchman to block Midge’s path, but is also at a stalemate in her desperate attempt to climb the ladder. “I wasn’t this happy when my kids were born” was Mike’s giddy response after Gordon dressed George in this week’s episode. But it’s also a lesson to be careful about what you wish for, Ralph said in a future episode that Mike had a “dog chasing car moment”, [to the top] And he doesn’t know what to do with his newfound strength – we hope it makes a great comic effect.”
Late Night Talk Show Research
Meanwhile, Gordon sits quite at the top of his game and at number one. Of course, it’s not as fussy as it might seem behind the television table.
As in his seven-season stint buzzThere is a wealth of material about the inspiration behind the stories. Playing Dan Egan, Scott visited Washington, D.C. to meet a real-life counterpart to his thirsty, escalating politics of “great education.”
For MaiselScott explored icons of the past, such as the young Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Jack Benny at the beginning of his career; As I recently discovered, it’s easy to fall into a hole on YouTube by watching old nightly clips. “I need to talk to a few modern night talk show hosts I’ve known over the years,” he says. As for how Gordon behaved when he wasn’t in front of a studio audience, these conversations were eye-opening. “What interested me was the people they had to give on and off the camera—the more juicy stuff off-camera,” Scott says. Because the night format “hasn’t changed much in the last 60 years”.
A meeting with the writers in Gordon’s office on this week’s episode gave us a sense of how much he was loved by the public: plaques with the presenter’s face hung on the walls, the Emmy awards rack lined up, and photographs of celebrities filled the room. . (The attention to detail Maisel unbeaten, and Scott recently posted some highlights on Instagram.)
The scene also shows how quickly he can go from kind to grumpy. Her annoyance is directed at George—who benefits Mike—who tries to introduce her to potential Diddy Doo diaper cream sponsors. “Fuck the net!” It’s not what you want to hear your star say, but it does speak to how much Gordon is against this sponsor. Scott latched onto this behind-the-scenes element: “All the people they have to be when they do. was not He’s so charming on camera.”
Hepburn-Tracy Dynamics
Gordon’s closeness with Midge has been hot and cold throughout the season, from his anger over her loudly reacting to her misreading a joke during a recording, to trying to kiss her during the ice skating celebration in the same episode. Midge yelled at him in a bar in response to his awkward joke and swept away his advances on the ice rink. “I think he is influenced by it on several levels. A). He respects his talent,” says Scott, and b) physically attracted to him. But he also has these character traits that remind him of himself, or perhaps of himself at a different time in his life.”
Ambition and drive bind these characters at different stages of their careers, but Midge has some pretty big hurdles in her path beyond George’s management. Midge doesn’t have the same opportunities, and since Gordon is her boss, they also have unequal power dynamics. Scott mentions that when it comes to workplace romance, Gordon is “trying to lift his weight a little bit”. He even stops by to watch Midge in action on stage in Episode 5, “The Pirate Queen,” and offers to take her out for dinner when the host doesn’t have to worry about HR getting involved.
Midge chooses the restaurant and, under the harsh fluorescent lights of the restaurant, tells her that she wants to take her on the next date (although this isn’t a date), to arrange an unconditionally elegant hotel date. or even just share a kiss. “He thinks he can get away with taking a little more than he needs, and when she doesn’t allow it—pushing back the right way—it puts him in his place,” Scott says.
Ultimately, after Midge scolds her for her advances, she decides to have a dance in the middle of the all-night City Spoon restaurant. “Rachel is a great stage partner and a very strong woman in her own right and her character is so strong, so you have these two personalities clashing,” Scott says. “She was very Hepburn-Tracy. Talk about classical dynamics; It’s a dream come true to play that kind of relationship.” However, as we see it in flashes to the future, Midge is anything but Gordon’s daughter.
Keep being obsessed! Sign up for Daily Beast’s Obsessed newsletter and follow us Facebook, twitter, instagram And TikTok.