Joan Rivers may be gone, but her spirit lives on in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—a remarkable pilot that premieres on Amazon Friday. The show charts the improbable journey of one Miriam “Midge” Maisel (House of Cards alum Rachel Brosnahan), a perfect 50s housewife who seems to have everything—until her life implodes in a spectacular way. After the fall, though, Midge discovers a secret talent she never dreamed she might have: a knack for stand-up comedy.

The potential series comes from the mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino, the writer and producer best known as the engine behind Gilmore Girls. It’s an ideal marriage of creator and subject. Sherman-Palladino and her husband/creative partner Dan Palladino’s signature rat-a-tat dialogue is a natural fit for the screwball 50s, as are their frequent collaborators Alex Borstein and Bailey De Young, both of whom appear in supporting roles—De Young as another housewife, Borstein as a hard-charging, Sue Mengers–esque talent spotter. (Also, now that they’re on a streaming network, the Sherman-Palladinos can swear—which their characters do, occasionally with relish.)

Though a different Amazon period piece about striving women, Good Girls Revolt, recently died on the vine, Mrs. Maisel will hopefully meet another fate: not only a full season pickup, but a lasting run that charts Midge’s journey from grimy Greenwich Village clubs to television and beyond. (Maybe she’ll even be blacklisted by Johnny Carson someday!)

Below, we dive into the series with Sherman-Palladino and Palladino, who reveal the real-life events that inspired this unique TV show—but don’t, alas, have much to say about those new Gilmore Girls rumors.

Vanity Fair: Where did this show come from?

Amy Sherman-Palladino: Weirdly, my dad was a stand-up comic. So I grew up with a bunch of Jews sitting around trying to make each other laugh. And I knew Lenny Bruce’s mother when I was a kid, because she was sort of the godmother to all the comics. And I worked at the Comedy Store. So the show was not so much a conscious homage to any particular comic as it was something that was in my zeitgeist. I was having a meeting with the guys over at Amazon, and we were just kind of shooting the shit, and it was a little idea I had standing in the back of my head. They’re like, “Great. Go do that and bring it back.”

And then of course, the opportunity to do any sort of show where I don’t have to think about Snapchat—I’m thrilled, delighted, because I don’t understand technology. I just want to go back to a time where there wasn’t any.

Considering all that background, how much research did you have to do to build this world?

Sherman-Palladino: We’re in deep research mode hoping that there’s going to be a series. But for the pilot, I knew who this girl was. I didn’t want someone who was looking out the window thinking, What if there’s something over the bend? I wanted to deal with somebody who actually really loved her life, really thinks she won. And then it fell apart. The story that interests me is the pull between the safe, comfortable life, which sounds pretty wonderful to her still, and this sudden[ly] awakened sort of superpower in her.

Right—so often in current TV shows and movies set in this time period, you get these proto-feminists who are fighting the system. But this character, for example, really is obsessed with appearances. She measures her baby’s face because she’s worried it’s not proportional enough!