Neon hues of orange and pink glistened off the wet sidewalks and the fulsome chrome grills of a Buick Super and Ford Customline. Outside a diner, under bluish curls of cigarette smoke, a crowd milled around in the darkness. Men well under the age of 70 unironically wore pants hitched high above their waists. And women accessorized their outfits with pillbox hats and pearls, illuminated by the glow of a storefront window rather than a smartphone.

Experiencing these predawn tableaux late last summer, it was as if one city block’s worth of mid-20th-century Americana had seeped from a well-preserved Kodachrome photo onto the streets of the West Village. But these street scenes were actually the stunning handiwork of the creators and the behind-the-scenes magicians of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” about an Upper West Side housewife (Rachel Brosnahan) who aspires to be a comedian in the New York of the late 1950s. (The show returned for a second season on Amazon on Wednesday.)

While period pieces are nothing new, the attention to detail on “Mrs. Maisel” transcends the usual nostalgic kitsch. As much consideration is paid to the paper coffee cups, pretzel tins and No. 2 pencils as to the dresses, suits and hats. Hoping to capture not just the look but the feel of the era, I photographed over several days and one long night the meticulous transformation of an old Williamsburg bank into the B. Altman department store, a Midtown Manhattan television studio into a telethon set circa 1959, and, for a flashback scene, a West Village luncheonette into a period diner. And to learn how “Mrs. Maisel” pulls off these dramatic changes, and what it’s like to be enveloped in this throwback world, Alexis Soloski spoke to the key members of the production team and an assortment of extras. — TODD HEISLER