Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Amazon Studios
Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jim Carrey all had a breakout moment early in their careers on 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) attempts to take this route in the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
It hasn’t quite gone to plan. Instead of ending up in front of the camera, Midge has taken a staff position offering up the “women’s perspective” in The Gordon Ford Show’s writers’ room. Amy Sherman-Palladino’s series has never shied away from mixing real-life celebrities in with fictional figures. But instead of taking the Lenny Bruce route of having Midge strike up a screwball comedy dynamic with an actor playing Jack Parr (or even Carson), Veep’s Reid Scott takes on the role of Gordon Ford, who hosts “the No. 1 talk show in the country”—meaning he currently rules 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Behind the scenes, talent booker Mike Carr (Jason Ralph) has the power to make or break an entertainer, but he is caught up in a battle of wills—dreaming of usurping sleazy producer George (Succession’s Peter Friedman)—and keeps self-sabotaging his ambitions.