Archer is about to go through some major changes. Again.
It’s been quite a rollercoaster few seasons for Archer. Besides the thematic escalation, there have been changes to the dynamic of that kooky office as well; They’re not even named ISIS anymore, and for good (and unfortunate) reasons. Archer Vice was a bold experiment that, however divisive its reception, proved that this golden age of television is a space for bold exploration.
But the show goes on, and Archer more or less returned to its regular antics and familiar spaces last season, including a bottle episode where the whole gang was stuck in their office elevator. What can we expect this season? I went to San Diego Comic-Con and spoke to the people responsible for Archer to find out.
“I think that there’s a lot of changes, specifically when it comes to the power structures and the relationship between the characters,” said Casey Willis, the show’s executive producer. Lucky Yates, who provides the voice for the mad Krieger (and the face for Ray!) echoed that sentiment. “There’s been some role shifts and some sort of status shifts within the group, is really all I can say.” I tried to egg him on to give more, but he said he values his role on the show “a little too much.”
Will these changes be permanent? “Who knows,” said Yates. “The core of the show … is our relationships between our cast of characters. No matter what their occupation or whatever is. Like relationships, they evolve and change and things shift around. Suddenly good guys are bad guys, and all that kind of shit. As long as that keeps going and moving around, I think we’ll be all right.”
“You’re going to see us working hard for the money this season. It will be fun to see everybody putting their various levels of espionage skills to the test.” Aisha Tyler is naturally charismatic, which tends to happen if you’re selected to host things like E3 conferences and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Her portrayal of the iron-willed Lana has endeared fans to both her and her character over the years. “[We] are the worst spies ever and don’t seem to have any jobs. You kind of saw us turn to cocaine dealing, which we weren’t very good at either, mainly because Pam just kept … turning it into foodstuffs and then bottling it down. [And] Lana is obviously the best spy on the show, the most confident, and I think you’ll see that … going forward this season.”
“We’re not airing an episode at Comic-Con because it’s so secret that we can’t reveal anything because we’ll ruin it all,” added Amber Nash, who portrays the wonderful Pam in Archer. “There’s some big stuff happening. The fun thing is, just like when we did Archer Vice, the dynamic between the characters is what the show is, no matter what they’re doing, it’s always going to be those guys being those guys. We’ve done two episodes so far, and the scripts are even funnier than last season. It’s really exciting.”
I tried guessing if that means someone Archer takes over the organization. “I don’t know if Archer has the capacity to really take over,” said Willis. Could someone like Cheryl? “That would be awesome.” He shifts a little. “I mean, that could be it.”
So I asked Cheryl. “I don’t know the plan,” Judy Greer told me in a noisy press room at Comic-Con. She sounds exactly like Cheryl: speech, tone, inflection, vocabulary. It was awesome, to the point it was almost kind of scary. “I don’t ask. I assume they would tell me if I asked, but it’s more fun for me to get the script and … learn it that way. They told me before we started sort of the new concept. There was a concept they were talking about and they had mentioned that to me, but otherwise, it’s way more fun to just get the script and read it.”
After nearly seven years of getting scripts, I wondered if anything still surprises its cast. “I feel like I’m always surprised,” Greer said. “I just can’t believe the mind of Adam Reed. It genuinely shocks me every time I read a new script. Even when he kind of came up with Archer Vice, I was like, ‘Who would do that?’ The show’s a total hit … and it just keeps getting more and more of a following and you’re just going to change the whole thing? Totally fearless. Totally exciting. So smart. So interesting. “
Chris Parnell, a Saturday Night Live veteran who plays the try-hard Cyril, says he’s surprised at “how consistently [series creator] Adam [Reed] is able to keep writing the show, and write it with such great jokes and scenarios and detail.” What doesn’t surprise him? “In terms of where he puts us or what he does with us, nothing shocks me.”
But one thing did shock him: I asked Chris what he thought of Cyril being a type of spirit animal for those who forever try hard but fail. We all know one, and I know several. They frequently relate to Cyril, but what did comedy veteran Parnell think about his popularity with those kinds of viewers? It surprised him. Looking in my eye, Parnell says I’ve told him “something, in a way … because people say how much they love Cyril. And it’s interesting to hear that maybe that’s a part of why. Because I hadn’t actually thought of that.”
Returning to the topic of Adam Reed, Judy Greer noted with eyes open and darting. “I’m always shocked by him and how he can come up with this stuff. Where does it come from?”
I couldn’t find out where it comes from in the mind of Adam Reed, the mastermind behind this massive cult show. This seventh season has managed to attract the likes of Patton Oswald and Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons as guest stars. “They’ll both be in a few episodes,” Reed said. But as the show gets a little long in the tooth, what could possibly be next? As Reed puts it, Archer is “limitless.”
“All things we couldn’t probably do live action, because they’d be expensive, but I’d really love to do a submarine episode.” Reed acknowledges that similar submarine episodes have already been done before on the show, but he wishes to tackle it more properly soon. “I’m fascinated with submarine movies,” he puts it.
Is anything off the table when it comes to Archer? Turns out, there are limits. “For me, things that remind me of bad news in real life. Just because it’s a bummer to write,” Reed admitted. “I don’t think there’s anything where [FX] would go, ‘Oh, that’s too much.’ When we’ve talked about terrorists, they’ve been obviously made up terrorists, like the Free New Finland Army or whatever … I guess it’s self-editing, but FX would let us do whatever, I’m sure. Except throw a baby. They won’t let us throw a baby.”
Wait, what?
“Archer was babysitting for … the prostitute’s baby.” I remembered the episode. “He was going to throw a baby to disarm a gunman, and FX was like, ‘You can’t do that.’ I think Archer threw the baby up in the air and when everybody looked at the baby, Archer kicked the gun out of the guy’s hand and then caught the baby. Usually we turn in an episode and they’re like, ‘Great, thanks for the episode,’ but that one scene they watched over, to make sure, how high is the baby going, is the baby in danger at all during the process? They’re a baby-friendly network.”
Jessica Walters, who plays Mallory Archer, the matriarch of the spy organization, is a film and TV legend. She’s not above gross comedy, “but compared to some of the stuff on cable, I don’t think we’re that risqué.” Sitting next to Jessica is intimidating. She’s nothing like the venom-spewing Mallory, but her presence commands you direct her attention to her yet she’s as sweet as mint candy. Being used to the screeching, rigid Mallory, hearing Walters speak soft was oddly comforting amidst the busy Comic-Con press room. “I just love [playing Mallory]. It’s so much fun to have something that you really care about to do, and make a living at it. It’s incredible. Like a dream still.”
“Dude, it blows my mind,” Yates tells me about playing Krieger on Archer. “Not too long ago, I was just a con-goer. I was an attendee. We have Dragon-Con in Atlanta and I go to it every year. Now suddenly I’m on the other side of the panel tables … The first time I saw a guy dressed as Krieger was at Dragon-Con. I went up to him and I was nerding out about him so much. He was like, ‘Yeah, cool.’ I was like, ‘I’m sorry. I play Krieger on the show.’ He was like, ‘What?’ The two of us were just like, ‘But, you!’”
Much of the people who work on Archer still can’t snap themselves out of the madness that is both Comic-Con and the show’s popularity. That includes its creator, Adam Reed.
“I didn’t think I would be sitting here even in season one. I didn’t think the pilot would get picked up. When it did, that just floored me. The ratings were terrible the first season, it was sort of on the bubble, the Winter Olympics were that year, and I think just because the Olympics went off or something, and then people were like, “Let’s check out this other show.” FX stuck with it, but I didn’t think it would have been the success that it is at all, so I’m continually amazed.”
Archer begins its seventh season this fall on FX.