Writing for Mad Men Helped Mrs. America’s Creator Avoid TV Period Piece Clichés

While several of spring’s biggest series have been delayed due to COVID-19, some of the most highly anticipated new shows are sticking to their April and May premiere dates. That includes Mrs. America, FX’s nine-episode limited series about the ’70s movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and the conservative backlash led by Phyllis Schlafly (played by Cate Blanchett). The show also spotlights the feminists who were at the forefront of the ratification movement, including Gloria Steinem (played by Rose Byrne), Betty Friedan (Tracey Ullman), Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduda), Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale) and Jill Ruckelshaus (Elizabeth Banks). Mrs. America was developed for FX but will instead stream on FX on Hulu, as the company expands its brand beyond linear TV with a new branded hub on its Disney sibling’s platform. Its first three episodes will debut Wednesday, with a new episode streaming weekly, as part of FX’s new scheduling strategy across all its platforms. Creator and showrunner Dahvi Waller spoke with Adweek about how her two seasons as a writer and producer on Mad Men helped prepare her for Mrs. America, making the unexpected switch from FX to FX on Hulu, and how she picked the ’70s brands and ads that are interwoven into the show. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Adweek: Having a cast led by Cate Blanchett and all those other big names is a great way to break out in the Peak TV era. It is. There's so many television shows. I remember when I started in the business, I knew all the television shows that were on. Now I'll hear of a show, and I'm like, "Oh, did that premiere this year?" And it's in its fifth season. [laughs] So it definitely helps a lot as a writer to have a cast like this, just to get the word out. What was your reaction when you heard the show would be part of FX on Hulu instead of premiering on FX?I sold this show to FX in 2015, and it was in development for a couple of years. At that point, we were part of the Fox family. When we went into production [last year], we knew that they were being bought by Disney. Then, [FX Networks chairman] John Landgraf called all of the producers on our show and told us, "You’re going to be premiering on Hulu." I'm like, "Wait, what is happening?" He walked us through the whole thing and why, and it was really quite exciting. Why was that?I cut the cord years ago, so I actually have Hulu, and that's how I watch a lot of my television. And with all the subscribers to Hulu, I thought it was a great platform for the show, so I was quite pleased. Three episodes will debut April 15 with new episodes premiering weekly, which for a show like this seems like a better way to have viewers watch it as opposed to a binge-release.That was my first question, because we talked in the writer's room about how you break story for a show that is going to be binged versus a show that's going to be shown linearly. We broke all the story and wrote the scripts with the idea that it would be once a week. So that was my first question to John is, are we still once a week? I was very happy. I think it's great to drop the first three, because it's really when you get to episode three that you get what the series is about, and the structure of the series. So I'm really happy about that. I'm glad we're going to keep the conversation going for a few more weeks rather than it [comes] all at once and then everyone's done by Monday, and onto the next thing. You weave in a few brands and ads from the time period in the show. Were there specific ones in mind that you wanted to include, or did the production designers come up with them?To me, everything in the show is always driven by story. So for instance, that Fresca ad at the very top of episode two—I liked the idea of Fresca because it's so ’70s and anything that is specific that brings you back to that time period is always really great. But really, it was what the ad was saying about what was being advertised to women at that time period that really excited me about putting it in the script. It reminds the audience that, yes, this is 1972 and the women's movement is on the rise and women are making advances, but look, they're still being told to drink diet soda and be invisible, so that was why I chose that ad. I think you're right that the brands from that time period really sell the time period, especially the brands are no longer with us, or the idea of cigarette smoking. All those things really put you in a time and place in an immersive way. They help make the world feel lived in. [kickout id="3"] How do you walk the line between including those things without turning the whole show into ’70s nostalgia? Some period shows just bombard you with that.I won't name names. [laughs] It was something I was very concerned about because, the ’70s can very quickly become cliché. We wanted it to feel like a series that was actually filmed in the ’70s, as opposed to a series about the ’70s. Part of it is, we say, "Don't pick the low-hanging fruit." Don't go for the things that are super obvious, like Tab soda. Go for Fresca. You choose the things that are a little off, a little more obscure. With the fashion, we wanted it to feel like clothes people would really buy off the rack as opposed to ... and this is something I learned from working on Mad Men. You really have to think about, yes, this takes place in the ’70s, but just like there are people today wearing clothes that they've had since the ’90s, there are people in the ’70s with furniture from the ’40s and the ’50s, and people wearing clothes from last year. Not everyone is wearing 1972 high fashion. So when you populate your world with all those different brands from different time periods, I think it's a good antidote to that danger of going cliché. What else did you learn from your time on Mad Men that you brought to this show?[article_summary section="2"]When I was on set for my first episode [I co-wrote] on Mad Men, which was “My Old Kentucky Home,” there was a scene where a secretary is doing a crossword puzzle. And Matt Weiner, our showrunner, happened to come into set and he goes, "Oh my God, why is she using a pen for a crossword puzzle? She would never use a pen. She'd use a No. 2 pencil. She doesn't have the kind of confidence of knowing she knows every answer in the crossword puzzle." I learned in the moment the importance of every single detail on set, and the costumes. You put those things in the script. Before that, I thought of writing as predominantly about story, character and dialogue, and what I learned from Mad Men is that every aspect of what you're seeing has to go in the script or has to come out of the production meeting. Because otherwise, it doesn't have that feeling of authenticity. And I wanted to bring that authenticity to Mrs. America. [kickout id="2"] My producer turned to me at one point and said, “You have a little bit of Matt in you,” because we were filming the convention for Episode 3 and I walked on [set] and, was like, "It's the last day of the convention and it's 4 in the morning. The floor could be much messier. We need a lot more mess and it can't look this clean. The trash has to look like trash!" When you’re doing a show like this that deals with real people and events, how much artistic license do you get to take in order to tell the story you want to tell, while at the same time staying true to those people and to everything that actually happened?Every writer has a different approach. The way I approached this series was that all the events are factual. All the biographical details are true, but of course I can't get inside the heads of these real people. I don't know what conversations they had behind closed doors. I can only imagine based on everything I read. So for me, research is key. My writers and I read every book ever written—and these women wrote a lot of books! At the risk of sounding like I'm shilling for newspapers.com, that was my favorite source. That subscription was the most bang for your buck. We went down a rabbit hole into articles written by local newspapers in the ’70s, every interview done with these women, every profile of Gloria Steinem, so that we could really immerse ourselves in what they might've been thinking at the time. Does every event line up exactly as it did historically? Probably not. But is it emotionally true? I believe so.