Hack comedian. Midge’s bitter enemy. Susie’s client.

S1E7 - Midge and Susie go to see Sophie perform, in advance of Midge hopefully opening for her. After the show, Harry Drake briefly introduces the pair to her.

S1E7 - Midge meets Sophie at her place and discovers that her whole persona is a sham.

S2E9 - Susie spots Sophie on the set of WNPO-TV’s 3rd annual Stop Arthritis & Rheumatism Telethon, but she doesn’t think that Sophie saw her back. She later learns that she was wrong, however, as Sophie sends Nicky over to greet Susie and Midge while she’s on stage doing her act. She then gets Sal the stage manager to humiliate Midge by putting her off-screen in the phone bank and bumping her to the end of the show. Later, Sophie goes back on stage to interview three people who suffer from arthritis and rheumatism. Afterwards, in her dressing room, she is confronted by an angry Susie.

S2E10 - Sophie’s secretary calls the Gaslight to inform Susie that she is expected to be at Sophie’s townhouse this friday at 1:00 sharp.

S2E10 - As demanded, Susie visits Sophie’s house, where she is asked to become the star’s new manager.

S3E1 - Jackie goes around to Susie’s apartment to prepare for his sublet, where he has an unpleasant encounter with Sophie Lennon. The two call Susie at the military base so Sophie can press Susie for an answer on her job offer.

S3E3 - Susie meets Sophie at her house. Sophie escorts Susie up to the writer's room, where Herb Smith, Ted, and several other men are toiling away at jokes with no sense even of what time or day it is. Sophie then leads Susie up to the study, where she expresses her desire to perform Strindberg on Broadway.

S3E4 - Susie calls Sophie, who is taking a bath, to share the good news about booking Gavin Hawk for her show. Sophie's response is tepid, as she's unsure if he's attractive enough for her to sleep with.

S3E5 - Sophie calls Susie in Florida to pressure her into coming back when rehearsal does not go well.

S3E5 - Sophie struggles taking direction, but Susie talks her down.

S3E6 - Sophie surprises everyone by actually delivering a great performance in the investor showcase.

S3E6 - Sophie calls Susie in Florida to complain about Gavin.

S3E6 - Gavin calls Susie in Florida to complain about Sophie.

S3E6 - Milken calls Susie to complain about Gavin and Sophie having loud, animalistic sex for hours.

S3E7 - Susie wakes up in the morning with Jackie and Chester, and reiterates her distress at having recently learned that Jackie sub-sub-let to Chester. After a moment, Sophie calls to thank Susie and notify her of the gift canaries she sent, much to the chagrin of Jackie (who has instituted a no-pets rule for the household) and Chester (who has just killed his cat in compliance with said policy).

S3E7 - Sophie throws the opening-night performance of Miss Julie. Afterwards, Susie confronts her outside the theater and drops her as a client.

S4E2 - Susie visits Sophie in an asylum and tries to get her to sign a document formally severing their partnership. Sophie appears to assent, but actually signs “Lucille Fucking Ball”.

S4E4 - As Susie repairs the desk, Sophie Lennon wanders in, desperate to get Susie back as her manager so she can get a game-show hosting gig she wants. Susie has no sympathy for her, taking particular glee at learning that Sophie has now been blackballed by Harry Drake (she recounts a story where she went by his office and his secretaries claimed he was golfing, even though it was raining, and he literally walked right by her) just like she did to Midge and Susie before. As Sophie leaves, however, Susie is struck by a moment of pity, and she reluctantly agrees to help her, on the condition that she agrees to leave her alone forever when it's done.

S4E5 - Sophie and Susie meet with Mike Carr at the Stage Deli and talk him into booking Sophie on the Gordon Ford show.

S4E5 - Sophie goes on the Gordon Ford show and kills, reviving her career.

S4E6 - Midge angrily confronts Abe and Rose as they eat TV Dinners while watching Seconds Count! with Sophie Lennon.

S4E6 - Susie calls Sophie’s place to protest the shower of gifts she has received by mail for getting Sophie her gig, but Dawes answers and fields the call as Sophie gets waxed off-screen.

S4E6 - Sophie visits Midge at her apartment and offers to give her a job doing the warmup for her in the studio, in exchange for helping to get Susie back as her manager. Midge refuses, but Sophie draws on info she got from a private investigator to point to her dire financial straits.

S4E6 - Midge goes to open for Sophie on “Seconds Count!”, but Sophie can’t deal with Midge getting more laughs than her, so she breaks their agreement and goes on stage with her. The two get into a roast competition, which escalates until Midge quits.

S5E3 - In the Gordon Ford Show production offices at night, Susie congratulates Mike on the show's number one slot and asks why he isn't celebrating with everyone else. Mike opens up about the disastrous state of his talent board, and mentions that he booked Sophie Lennon for later this week. He asks Susie if it's true that she dropped her as a client, and she confirms it, earning a glimmer of respect from him. He invites her to lunch later and returns to his office. Left alone, Susie removes Sophie from the talent board and puts Doris Day in her place.

S5E4 - Lacking any replacement for his missing guest, Gordon reluctantly hosts Hart Buckley from the Zoo for a third segment, this one with Cooper the sloth. Maury, Teddy, George and the Band Leader all stand at their posts, and Mike makes his way back in from outside. Just as the segment begins, however, Sophie Lennon appears by the band, surprising Gordon and the audience. Realizing that this was Mike’s doing, George gives him a dirty look for showing him up. Elated, Gordon beckons Sophie over to the couch and sits them next to Hart and Cooper, who he rudely ignores for the rest of the interview. Before Mike can truly savor his moment of triumph, Sophie bursts in and confronts him about Gordon’s rule that nobody who works on the show can be on the show. Mike refuses to help, and Susie leaves, frustrated.

SOPHIE: Put that on your plate!
– S1E7

MIDGE: I grew up listening to this woman on the radio.
SUSIE: Me, too.
MIDGE: Even my dad laughed at her. He tried not to, but he did.
SUSIE: She got a lot of us through the Depression.
– S1E7

DAWES: The lady was inquiring as to the provenance of the doorbell.
MIDGE: It was a joke. I said Puccini.
SOPHIE: It was Aaron Copland.
MIDGE: Wait. Aaron Copland wrote your doorbell?
SOPHIE: It's something he does. Aaron writes doorbells for all his friends.
MIDGE: I guess even composers need to let loose sometimes.
SOPHIE: Dawes, how is the light in the Blue Room today? I got a terrible night's sleep, and you know that makes my eyes sensitive to light. Is the light caustic today?
DAWES: I'll check, ma'am… The light is not caustic, ma'am.
SOPHIE: The Blue Room it is.
– S1E7

SOPHIE: Surprised?
MIDGE: A little.
SOPHIE: You were expecting Sophie Lennon, weren't ya?
MIDGE: Yes.
SOPHIE: It's a very successful charade, isn't it?
MIDGE: Amazing.
SOPHIE: It's all fat suit and makeup.
MIDGE: How do people not know? I've never seen a picture of you out of character.
SOPHIE: I pay the publicists, I pay the rags. I paid for Walter Winchell's summer home, for Christ's sake. Fans don't want to see this. They want the hausfrau from Queens.
– S1E7

SOPHIE: You are so refreshing.
MIDGE: Hmm?
SOPHIE: Eating a macaroon like that.
MIDGE: Oh, am I eating it wrong?
SOPHIE: No, no, no. You're eating it.
– S1E7

SOPHIE: I went to Yale Drama School.
MIDGE: You're kidding.
SOPHIE: Yes, I wanted to be the next Laurette Taylor. Then I graduated, and I starved, so I started doing this character… Sophie from Queens. And look what it paid for.
– S1E7

MIDGE: I don't have a persona. I'm just me.
SOPHIE: Oh, no, no, no, that will not work.
MIDGE: It won't?
SOPHIE: No. No one wants that.
MIDGE: I-I've been doing okay.
SOPHIE: Downtown. Honey, you give a downtowner a swig of gin, and he'll laugh at a sponge. The mainstreamers, the people from Pacoima, the people who buy the dish soap and the dog food, who pay for the Modigliani's… they want a character.
MIDGE: But… Bob Hope doesn't have a character. Lenny Bruce doesn't have a character.
SOPHIE: They have dicks. Do you have a dick?
MIDGE: Not last time I checked.
SOPHIE: Darling, look at you. I mean, really… men don't want to laugh at you. They want to fuck you. You can't go up there and be a woman. You've got to be a thing. You want to get ahead in comedy? Cover up that hole.
– S1E7

SOPHIE: Did you know that I went to the Yale School of Drama? That's where I met Kazan. Fucked him, too. I fancied myself Medea, Phaedra, Nora, Hedda Gabler, Maggie the Cat…
SUSIE: Richard III?
SOPHIE: But fate had something different in store for me. Sophie from Queens. (chuckles) You know I've never been to Queens? I've driven through, I've performed there, but I've never actually been. Tell me, is that really how they talk?
SUSIE: Well, they don't discuss putting things on plates as much as you think.
SOPHIE: Harry Drake, he knew I wanted to be a serious actress when he signed me, but he didn't care. (chuckles) He didn't care about Sophie from Ann Arbor. He only cared about Sophie from Queens. And I thought, “All right, so become a star, Sophie. Then you can do whatever you want.” And now I am a star. And I still slap on a fat suit night after night because my people don't think the audience will come see me in A Streetcar Named Desire.
SUSIE: Oh, they're wrong; I'd pay anything to see you carted off to an asylum.
SOPHIE: My people say, “Stay where you are or you'll lose everything.” They don't believe in me. I want someone to believe in me. To fight for me, to threaten violence for me the way you threatened violence for her.
– S2E10

SOPHIE: Why do you live here? Let me rephrase that. You don't live here. Not anymore. I forbid it.
– S3E1

SOPHIE: (sighs) My Jell-O was disappointing.
– S3E6

SOPHIE: Oh, everything's so cloudy. And the clouds. They're all shaped like fruit. There's a banana. There's a kumquat.
– S4E2

SOPHIE: Oh, Susie, I've been through such hell. After Miss Julie, I just spiraled downward. Darkness enveloped me like an old mink coat. I needed help. So I met with my lawyer, my press agent, my business manager and my investment broker, and we all decided that I should have a nervous breakdown.
– S4E2

SOPHIE: Well, you're so quiet over there, so I wasn't sure. My business manager said my lifestyle needs to change. And then he quit. So that's a change. My dogs won't eat canned food. Even though it's not that bad.
SUSIE: What do you want, Lucille?
SOPHIE: Don't you want to know how I know the dog food's not that bad?
SUSIE: Nope.
– S4E4

MIKE: Unprecedented? She's been on every goddamn talk show in the country.
SOPHIE: I have. I've been on Sullivan nine times.
MIKE: Yeah, I heard about you being “on Sullivan.”
SOPHIE: He said he was leaving his wife.
– S4E5

SUSIE: You book Sophie on that show, she will give Gordon the kind of interview no other star in her right mind would ever agree to.
SOPHIE: I am not in my right mind, that is true.
– S4E5

GORDON: So… what happened that night, Sophie? The night of your big Broadway debut?
SOPHIE: Hmm. I got scared.
GORDON: Well, I think we can all understand that. You were afraid that you'd fail?
SOPHIE: I think I was afraid I'd be good. It's not a joke. I was ready for that chance. I rehearsed and rehearsed, and… You ever feel so close to something you really want, so close that you just can't stand it, so you destroy it? You-you blow it all up?
– S4E5

GORDON: On behalf of millions, are we ever gonna see Sophie from Queens again?
SOPHIE: Sophie from Queens? Hey. Heck, Sophie's having a comeback! She's running after her career, yelling, “Come back!” But, you know, I would like my fans to get to know me, Gordon. I'd like for them to spend some time with the real Sophie Lennon. She's fun, too.
– S4E5

7. Put That On Your Plate!

9. Vote for Kennedy, Vote for Kennedy
10. All Alone

1. Strike Up the Band
3. Panty Pose
4. Hands!
5. It's Comedy or Cabbage
6. Kind of Bleau
7. Marvelous Radio

2. Billy Jones and the Orgy Lamps
4. Interesting People on Christopher Street
5. How to Chew Quietly and Influence People
6. Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest

4. Susan

• Jane Lynch also appeared in the Palladinos’ previous series, Gilmore Girls, as a nurse.

• The revelation that Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch) is actually nothing like her onstage persona (while performing, she wears a fat suit and assumes a working-class accent and deglamorized backstory) is true to the real-life stories of several women who were pioneers of American comedy. Phyllis Diller became a huge star in the 1960s after adopting an onstage persona that included self-deprecating humor, voluminous outfits, and fright wigs all designed to desexualize her and make her seem less threatening to a male audience. Moms Mabley (born Loretta Mary Aiken) presented herself as an old woman (she even deliberately performed without dentures) in a housecoat and centered her comedy around her attraction to younger men even though in her actual life she was a lesbian. Lucille Ball started her career as a glamorous chorus girl for RKO in the 1930s and 1940s, but only found success in comedy by playing Lucy Ricardo, the hapless, accident-prone housewife whose schemes to get into show-business always end in disaster, in the long-running sitcom “I Love Lucy.” (Source: IMDb)

• List of Characters