Enter Mr. DiMaggio

"Enter Mr. DiMaggio" was written by series creator Theresa Rebeck and directed by Michael Mayer.^[1] When the pilot was originally written it was for Showtime, but Robert Greenblatt left Showtime for NBC and brought the series with him.^[5] Due to the change in networks, Rebeck was forced to remove 20 minutes' worth of material from the pilot episode and put it into the second and third episodes.^[5] The episode marks the first appearance of Will Chase, who plays Michael Swift, the favorite for the role of Joe DiMaggio in the musical.^[6] He is also an old flame of Julia's.^[7]

The Iowa scenes were filmed in Nyack, New York.^[8]

Studio recordings of the original song "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" by Megan Hilty and Chase,^[9] and the covers of Bruno Mars' "Grenade" by Chase^[10] and Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" by Katharine McPhee^[11] were released on iTunes on February 20, 2012.

The ratings fell significantly for the episode, with only 6.5 million viewers and a 2.3 rating.^[12] With the DVR ratings factored in, the episode was viewed with a total of 8.7 million viewers and achieved a 3.2 ratings in 18–49 demographics.^[13]

The Huffington Post writer Maureen Ryan complimented the screener copy of the episode, calling it "quite solid", but not equal to the previous two episodes.^[14] HitFix writer Daniel Feinberg critically panned the episode, calling it "dreadful" and criticized the Iowa storyline and McPhee's performance of "Redneck Woman" calling it "embarrassing" and "kinda repulsive".^[3] He also mentioned that the storyline kept him from enjoying the good parts of the episode.^[3]