Why It Was So Important to ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Creators to Go to the Catskills Resort in Season 2
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 2 spent a handful of key episodes in the Catskills. Here’s why Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, who created Amazon show together, found that family trip to the resort so crucial to Maisel’s overarching narrative.
Why ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Season 2 episodes at Steiner Resort were so crucial for the Amazon series creators
According to an interview with Variety, Sherman-Palladino and Palladino (also known for their work on Gilmore Girls), wanted the Catskills vacation to be part of Midge’s journey from the series’ creative nascence.
Or, at the very least: “from the moment they were pitching the series to Amazon.” A lot of that had to do with the fact that, at its core, Maisel is a story about a Jewish family from New York City.
“We felt that was an important part of the cultural history of Jews, just in general. The Catskills was the getaway,” Palladino explained to the publication. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel co-creator expanded on the location’s narrative intrigue:
It’s just really interesting that there were 500 hotels and hundreds of thousands of people congregating in these hotels for two months. They were the cruise ships of their day.
Once the show made it into season 2, they had a bigger storyline — Midge’s stand-up career — to deal with. But the Palladinos managed to depict the “story [they] were going to do anyway” at this upstate New York resort.
The characters who shined in the Catskills
However, it was also a chance for the Maisel writers to “dig into the personalities of characters such as Rose.” The Maisel family matriarch — as the actor who plays Rose believes — is “in her element among her friends.” As Marin Hinkle told Variety:
In the pilot, there was a stage direction that said, ‘Rose enters as if in her own MGM musical.’ And I feel like when we’re in the Catskills she’s in her summer musical and she can dance to her heart’s content.
The Palladinos, who thrive in developing female relationships, found a perfect setting for Rose at the Catskills resort.
“That world of women congregating was probably a place of relief and release that in Manhattan these women didn’t have as easily, so those scenes were really delicious,” Hinkle continued.
The other character who truly shined at the Steiner Resort? (And who Midge never would have met otherwise?) None other than Benjamin, played by Zachary Levi.
The real resort where ‘Maisel’ filmed is on sale
Scott’s Family Resort served as the shooting location for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel episodes set in the Catskills. The real-life property has resided in upstate New York (more specifically, Deposit, New York) for more than 150 years, per The New York Post.
While the Amazon series’ use of the Scott’s Family resort led to an increase in reservations, the property is now dealing with “lingering debts and the ailing health of its owners, who are in their 90s.”
Therefore, the resort was put up for auction a few months ago. But “without a qualified bid … it still remains on the market.”
