Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience

By October 2018, Marvel Studios was developing a limited series starring Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany's Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films.[2][3] In January 2019, Jac Schaeffer was hired as head writer of WandaVision,[4][5] writing the first episode.[4] In August, Matt Shakman was hired to direct the miniseries,[6][7] with Schaeffer and Shakman executive producing alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso.[5][6][8]^:50 Feige described the series as part "classic sitcom", part "Marvel epic",[9] paying tribute to many eras of American sitcoms.[10] Olsen described the first episode as a "big love song to The Dick Van Dyke Show",[11]^:0:39 though it also pays homage to I Love Lucy.[12] The episode's title was revealed to be "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" in January 2021.[13]

Schaeffer said the series was trying to "blaze new territory" in addition to paying tribute to past sitcoms.[14] She said the 1950s era was one of the most challenging to write for because of the "patter-patter" dialogue of the time.[15] Having the scenes of Wanda and Vision in the kitchen and Vision at his job were conceived for the episode early in development, while the end of the episode that features the dinner with the Harts was the most difficult for Schaeffer to write. She consulted with other writers of the series for their ideas to help her craft the scene.[16] Schaeffer, Shakman, and Feige spoke with Dick Van Dyke, the star of the eponymous 1960s sitcom, to learn how that series could be "very broad with silly physical-comedy gags, and yet it never feels false". Van Dyke told them his show was guided by what could and could not happen in real life.[14][7]

External video
ToastMate 2000 | Marvel Studios' WandaVision | Disney+ presents the full ToastMate 2000 commercial from the episode, YouTube video from Marvel Entertainment's channel

The series features fake commercials that Feige said would indicate "part of the truths of the show beginning to leak out",[15] with "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" including a commercial that is advertising a Stark Industries ToastMate 2000 toaster oven with the slogan "Forget the past, this is your future!".[17][18] The toaster oven has a blinking red light which is the first time color is introduced to the series, and it has a sound effect reminiscent of Tony Stark's Iron Man repulsors.[18] Including a Stark Industries product points to Tony, who manufactured the weapons used to bomb Sokovia and kill Wanda's parents that led to her resentment of Stark.[18][19] Abraham Riesman of Vulture noted that "toaster" is a common insult for robots in science fiction, and highlighted the blinking light for its introduction of color and for blinking long enough to make Riesman uncomfortable.[20] His colleague Savannah Salazar looked to the commercial's slogan as a reference to Wanda letting go of her anger towards Stark when she joined the Avengers, and agreed with Riseman about the toaster being a metaphor for Vision.[18] Brenton Stewart at Comic Book Resources said the light had "a particular air of menace" which gave the commercial an "unsettling feeling of a bomb about to go off". Stewart also pointed out the sexist nature of the commercial and how the slogan seemed to be alluding to the current situation that Wanda is in.[21]

The episode stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Paul Bettany as Vision, Debra Jo Rupp as Mrs. Hart, Fred Melamed as Mr. Hart, and Kathryn Hahn as Agnes.[22][23]^{:23:37–23:56} Also appearing as residents of Westview are Asif Ali as Norm, David Lengel as Phil Jones, and Amos Glick as the mailman Dennis. Ithamar Enriquez and Victoria Blade portray the man and woman in the ToastMate 2000 toaster oven commercial.[22]

Filming began in early November 2019,[24][8]^:45 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia,[25] with Shakman directing,[6] and Jess Hall serving as cinematographer.[10] "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" utilized a multi-camera setup and was shot over two days in black and white, with a live studio audience present to mimic sitcom filming.[10][14][26] A diverse group of Marvel Studios friends and family served as the live studio audience members,[26] including series co-star Teyonah Parris since she does not appear in the episode.[27] Co-executive producer Mary Livanos felt the audience produced "a really great, genuine" reaction to the episode, exceeding the expectations of the producers.[26]

As with past multi-camera sitcoms, the episode was rehearsed for a week before filming,[28] with the crew dressed in period appropriate outfits during production.[8]^:50[11]^:0:58 A 4:3 aspect ratio is used for the black and white scenes,[29] shifting to a modern widescreen ratio for the end of the episode outside of the fictional WandaVision program.[20] Hall tested camera lenses from the 1950s to find characteristics he liked about them, and then modified modern lenses to match. He used tungsten lights that were common for the era.[30]^:6[14] On set, the special effects team moved props with wire rigs and used camera tricks to create the effect of Maximoff's magic, as was done in series like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.[14] When shooting scenes in black and white, Bettany was painted blue, rather than Vision's maroon color, since the blue appeared better in the grayscale image.[14]

Additional shooting took place without the studio audience for moments when something goes wrong with Maximoff's illusion, such as in the episode' dinner scene. Shakman used lenses, lighting, and sound design to change the mood for these moments, inspired by The Twilight Zone, and felt the transition to these moments from the multi-camera sitcom scenes was "very dramatic".[31] In the dinner scene, Mrs. Hart repeatedly says "stop it", for which Shakman instructed Rupp to act as if she had one emotion on the inside and another on her face. Rupp said balancing the levity and horror of the scene was "one of the more interesting things" she was asked to do, and described these moments in the series as "genius".[32] Olsen and Bettany both found the experience of filming the premiere to be surreal and unique.[14]

Film cuts and rewind effects augmented the practical effects that were shot. Visual effects supervisor Tara DeMarco said contemporary visual effects were used to remove wires and smooth cuts, and to add wire gags that were not filmed. For example, the kitchen features a blend of practical wire gags and CGI to help "fill out the scene".[30]^:8 Visual effects for the episode were created by Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, Framestore, Perception, RISE, The Yard VFX, and Luma.[33][23]^{:25:57–26:05}

"A Newlywed Couple", the episode's theme song composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, was meant to evoke the "dawn of television". They included "an optimistic group of voices singing jazzily" about the love between Maximoff and Vision, and were thrilled to use words like "gal" and "hubby" as well as a "big musical pratfall" in the middle of the song.[30]^:9 "Gal" is used along with a triplet to pull the "lyric and musical choice together" and make the theme sound like it was written in the late 1950s.[34] Composer Christophe Beck introduces several themes in the episode that he reprises later in the series, including Wanda and Vision's love theme when Wanda creates rings for them. The episode also introduces Beck's "definitive" theme for Wanda during the end credits.[35] "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters is featured in the episode.[17][36] A soundtrack for the episode was released digitally by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on January 22, 2021, featuring Beck's score. The first track is the theme song by Anderson-Lopez and Lopez.[37]