Pilot

Season 1, Episode 1

**Pilot** is the first episode of the first season of *The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel* and the first episode of the series overall.

## Summary

In 1958 New York, Midge Maisel's life is on track- husband, kids, and elegant Yom Kippur dinners in their Upper West Side apartment. But when her life takes a surprise turn, she has to quickly decide what else she's good at - and going from housewife to stand-up comic is a wild choice to everyone but her.

## Plot

     The episode starts with Midge giving a speech at her wedding. She continues to talk about what a dream (or a nightmare if you're her father). She gestures to her father, Abe mimicking him by saying *"how much are the flowers, who eats mushroom caps, do the caterers have any ideas what the Jews just went through a few years ago"* her father murmurs to the crowd. She talks about how she is a planner, at the age of six she knew she would major in Russian Literature, by twelve she had her signature haircut, at thirteen she had set on Bryn Mawr College.
Flashing back to her first days at Bryn Mawr, you see Midge walking through the doors of the lunch room with amazement. *"Thankgoodness my roomate Petra was fat so I would have someone to eat with who wouldn't steal my boyfriend."* She describes the place as old and amazing with "stain glass windows and monogrammed butter pads". Next we see Midge with two of her friends laying back in pain with girls fanning them from above because they had decided to bleach a private area, and it was burning them. Suddenly Midge stands up and runs out the door, she is seen running around, naked from the waist down, in the cold air.

However these were just small adventures on her way to meet a man. She describes her perfect man as tall and blonde with a name like Dashel but instead its none other than a man named Joel Maisel.      She talks of how he took her to all these amazing places like museums and art galleries but it cuts to a clip of Joel and Midge at a risky show. Here we are first introduced to Lenny Bruce, a well known New York comedian. Back to the speech, she goes on to tell of all the things Joel taught her. It cuts to a scene where Midge and Joel are doing it on the lawn of Mawr College, here he tells her he wants to make her laugh every day of her life. They continue what they are doing and we see Midge hold up her hand and admire her ring, showing she is now engaged.
She finishes up her speech by saying she has a wonderful family, a wonderful dress (referring to her wedding dress) and turns to Joel and states loudly "I love this man" and then quickly adds as a joke *"there was shrimp in the egg rolls"* causing a panic in the ballroom and a walk out from the Rabbi, this is because it is a Jewish wedding.
**FOUR YEARS LATER**

Midge is seen walking down the street, she enters the butcher talking about how *"the got the Rabbi* for Yom Kippur. The butcher suggest lamb, as it is the Rabbi's favorite, when a lady in line interrupts madly saying she was in the middle of an order, midge adds her order to her tab causing the lady to quiet up.      She walks back home joyful, she goes straight to the kitchen where she pulls a brisket out if the oven. Joel calls asking about the Brisket for tonight, saying he thinks it will help bump up his stage time tonight at the *Gaslight*, because his original time was at 1:45 in the morning.
Later that night Joel is in his office, he changes from his business attire to his balck turtle neck for his Comedian look, Archie comes into his office asking about Joel's gig tonight. Shortly after midge walks in carrying the brisket. They say bye to Archie, inviting him to next weeks show, walking out of the office Joel says buy to Penny, his secretary, who is having trouble figuring out a pencil sharpener.
The couple arrives at the Gaslight Cafe, Midge goes off to the back where she runs into Susie, she gives the brisket to Baz persuading him to give Joel a better time tonight. He gives him a better time of 10:30 and makes next weeks request of latkes. 10:30 rolls around and Joel goes up on stage and the crowd goes crazy over his act. Midge is seen writing down the laughter and reactions of the audience. She then notices that Susie isn't impressed at all by Joel's act. After the performace is over, Joel and Midge are in the cab as she reads him his improvements for the night, all the laughter and reactions she saw from the audience.
Later that night after they have gone to bed, Midge gets up and tuns off to the bathroom where she removes her makeup and wraps her hair for the night. She wakes up before Joel and put her makeup back on and uncurls her hair before slipping back into bed before Joel's alarm goes off - indicating he has never seen her without her completely put together.
Later that morning after Joel has left for work, Midge goes two floors up to her parents apartment where we are introduced to her son Ethan, Midge says hello to him but he is unresponsive as he looks through his book. Her mother {{Rose Weissman| Rose]] comes out saying the baby has a problem, her forehead is to big and they're worrying about how her nose will turn out, this indicates that Midge learned her *morning routine* from her mother.Her mother looks at her arms and comments how she has a few more months until her arms are back in shape. Later that night Imogene is with Midge helping her measure different parts of her body to check that her body is proportional. Joel comes home saying a quick hello before going off to the Kitchen, Miriam notices that Bob Newheart is on the T.V. doing one of Joel's acts. She races off the the kitchen telling Joel what she just saw, where Joel reasures her he didn't steal it because it's Bob Newheart's act, he claims he *borrowed* his act.
The next day Joel calls Midge panicked asking about the brisket for that nights show. He had to work straight through work and couldn't get a time for that night. She reassures him they will get him a time, he ask her to bring him his show sweater and to be at his office at eight. Midge arrives as 8:30 to Joel's office, upset he ask where she's been they get in a cab and she gives him his sweater where holes have now appeared and Joel is now upset. When they get to the Gaslight Archie and Imogene are already there. Midge goes off to find Baz, but instead she finds Susie who is not wiling to give Joel a better time. It gets later and later and Joel still hasn't gone and he starts to get more upset. When it's Joel's turn finally he goes up there starting to talk about his holy sweater, when nobody laughs and people start leaving he gets nervous and messes up his act. On their way back home in the cab that night Joel blames his screwed up act on Midge.
Back at their apartment, Joel still upset grabs a suitcase and starts packing, when Midge ask what he's doing he states he is leaving her. Reminding him that Yom Kipper is the next day and the Rabbi is coming but he is still in a downward spiral. When he says he'l never be a famous comedian and Midge agrees he gets mad asking her what he thought all those night at the club were for, she states she thought they were just for fun. They get into a more intense argument where he states he has been having an affair with his secretary Penny, she tells him to get out and then Joel finally leaves.
Miriam goes up to her parents apartment where she tells her parents Joel left her. Her parents both is shock, Rose asks her what she did and Abe storms off to his office slamming the door. While her mother rambles on there is loud frantic piano music coming from her fathers office. Abe stands up and reminders Midge what he told her when he sent her off to college, *don't pick a week man*.
Miriam gets drunk and heads out into the poring rain and makes her way back to the Gaslight, trying to find her cooking dish. Then she goes up to the stage drunk and soaking wet where she rants about Joel, the people think she's hilarious, however when she decides to flash the audience she is arrested and thrown in jail. While she's in the cop car another guy is in there. She is bailed out buy Susie who takes her to a cafe and tells her she should be a comedian.
The next day she goes back to the jail and bails out the guy in the cab who turned out to be Lenny Bruce. She asked him if he loved it (referring to comedy) where he says its a terrible job, he never answers her question but Midge smiles to herself and says *"yeah, he loves it."*

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel
* Michael Zegen as Joel Maisel
* Alex Borstein as Susie Meyerson
* Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman
* Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman

### Recurring

* Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce
* Bailey De Young as Imogene Cleary
* Joel Johnstone as Archie Cleary
* Brian Tarantina as Jackie
* Holly Curran as Penny Pann

## Trivia

* A key plot point to the episode which is set in April 1958 is Joel Maisel ripping off Bob Newhart's famous "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue" routine, and Newhart is heard performing the routine on "The Ed Sullivan Show". However, Bob Newhart did not release his debut album - which includes that routine - until May 1960, and his first "Sullivan" appearance was in November 1960.
* Doris McCarthy the deli patron in blue out races Midge back to the apartment with enough spare time to gather her two dogs for a walk.
* Joel Maisel uses the phrase "take a meeting." Back then, it was "have a meeting." "Take a meeting" came into use decades later.

## Locations

* Maisel Apartment

* Weissman Apartment
* The Gaslight Cafe

## Quotes

**Susie:** I don't mind being alone. I just do not want to be insignificant.

## Multimedia

### Soundtrack

* "Teach Me Tonight" - The McGuire Sisters
* "On a Wonderful Day Like Today" - Cyril Ritchard
* "Come to the Supermarket (In Old Peking)" - Barbra Streisand
* "It's A Good Day" - Peggy Lee