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Irish Rican Chats With ARCHER Creator Adam Reed & Agent Lana Kane (AISHA TYLER)!!
Irish Rican here -
Talking to Archer creator Adam Reed was like a nerd dream come to life. For years he's put the most incredible animated shows like Sealab 2021, The Xtacles, and the incredible Frisky Dingo. Archer, whose season finale airs tonight on FX, is truly on the funniest shows on television. With its painted animation and excellent voice cast, which includes Jessica Walter, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, and Judy Greer, the show about a spy, the agency he works for, and the eccentric cast of characters is just perfect. It's my favorite show on television beating Lost, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, and...um...The Bad Girls Club (what? I love drunk girls getting in catfights!).
So sitting down with Adam Reed, who was busy finishing up the season finale when I talked to him, was enough to give me a geek-stiffie while he spilled the beans on Archer's finale, season two, and what would have happened in Frisky Dingo Season Three.
IRISH RICAN: Alright Adam I have three words for you: Archer Season Two! How excited are you?
ADAM REED: Super excited! The numbers for Archer weren't fantastic after the premiere. So we were getting a little nervous, but FX believes in the show. It was a nice feeling throughout Season One when they were saying, "It's a marathon, not a sprint. Don't freak out." Towards the later episodes they were saying that we found the floor on the ratings, but then they bounced up a little bit and we got picked up. So yeah, incredibly excited.
IR: I love the look of the show.
AR: Thank you!
IR: The first time I saw it when I was watching Frisky Dingo I thought, 'This show looks fucking amazing."
AR: There were alot of learning curves, with Archer I think we built on what we learned with Frisky Dingo.
IR: What can we expect in the season ender? What's up with the ISIS crew?
AR: Questions are raised about Archer's father and who he might be. Everything sort-of comes to a head with people's relationships: Cyril and Lana, Carol the choke-sex enthusiast, Pam and Lana...
IR: Anything more about Lana's big hands?
AR: They do come up in this episode.
IR: All I wanted to do when I started the interview was yell out, "TRUCKASAURUS!"
AR: I think it would have been a good way!
IR: Now you tell me.
AR: I didn't realize when I wrote that, that Truckasaurus was on The Simpsons. I thought Truckasaurus was the real monster truck. But I think the real name isn't as cool or funny as Truckasaurus.
IR: Is there anything in the show that fans haven't caught onto yet?
AR: We did this thing in Sealab that whenever there's a code we always used 9-3-4-Texas. I can't explain what it's for or I'll get in trouble. But that comes up in Archer as well. It's a very small and insidery thing. The Johnny Bench line was just an accidental ad-lib and then everyone's sort of doing it. Everyone talks about how Johnny Bench was famous for his huge hands, there's that great picture of him holding seven baseballs in one hand...it's stuff like that we really don't think about when we do it, but then viewers come up with their own theories on things.
IR: How's you snag your cast for Archer?
AR: We sent out a casting call for all the characters and one of the first that went out was for Mallory (ISIS head & Archer's mother). We described her as 'a Jessica Walter type.' The next day Jessica's agent called and said, "How about the real Jessica Walter?" Hyperventilation ensued, lots of fist pumps. Then when she agreed to do it we were thinking, "Maybe we can get Aisha Tyler. Tell her Jessica Walter is doing it." So we just name dropped her name shamelessly.
IR: It was great to hear Jeffrey Tambor (Walter's Arrested Development co-star) on the show!
AR: Yes, Jessica was a great selling point and we've had some great guest stars. Thomas Lennon from Reno 911. Ron Perlman from Sons of Anarchy. It's a huge change because on Frisky Dingo it was either me or guys in the house, we worked out of an old brick house, we had a VO booth in the bedrooms and we would just run into the booth and do the voices. So it really is fun to work with great, talented professionals.
IR: What are you guys cooking up for the second season?
AR: I'm working with FX now on it. Some of the things we've been talking about is introducing a recurring nemesis for Archer. All signs point to the world's sexiest Russian woman. Archer's just head over heels for her, but she thwarts him everytime. She is his Moriarty, but she's super hot. We'll be seeing more of the guys at ODIN - they are this gigantic agency, they have the world's coolest building, everyone there is better looking, and they're all sleek and modern. So we're playing with small business versus big business. Also we're trying to keep everybody getting slightly weirder and more dysfunctional with every episode. Of course we'll need to see how many times we can get Archer shot or blown up.
IR: I just rewatched Frisky Dingo and the two episodes of The Xtacles not too long ago and it made me sad how everything just ended abruptly. Where were you going with the shows? You had the aliens coming down and...
AR: Yeah. The plan was the whole gang was going to go back to Killface's planet and hang out there for at least half the season. Killface was going to be this spoiled prince character. His mother was queen of the planet and he was one of the screwups. So they sent him to Earth (to take over the planet) and he screwed that up. So seeing Killface in his world as the spoiled prince.
I really miss the Frisky Dingo characters. I spent so much time with them rolling around in my head that all of a sudden not to be writing for them anymore was kind-of depressing. I would come up with lines or scenes and realize, 'Oh. There's nowhere to put this.'
IR: I was very sad that it was gone. At least Archer popped up to fill the void. We got a longer format out of it, instead of these 10 minutes shows we got the full half hour.
AR: That was a real challenge at first. Usually it was just here's eleven minutes of crazy shit so Archer taught me how to adhere better dramatic forms. Which I think is good, my English professor would be proud of me. Actually no, he probably wouldn't.
IR: No?
AR: Actually my favorite professor from college is who Sterling Archer is named after. They are the only two people named Sterling that I know. I always thought it was such a cool name.
IR: For anyone who hasn't watched Archer, what would you say to them to watch the season finale?
AR: There's plenty of male nudity, there's sex with a robot, and gunplay!
Of course one of the biggest draws to Archer is the sexy Aisha Tyler. I found that getting the chance to kick back and talk to Aisha Tyler was actually a bit intimidating. Aisha is one of those great talents who is smart, great looking, and too damn funny. On FX's Archer Aisha brings those elements to voicing Lana Kane, super hottie secret agent of ISIS - a flawless voice casting which can have fanboys wagging their tongues at a cartoon character. At least I could out-nerd Aisha, right? I started off the conversation by saying to her my favorite line from Archer, "TRUCKASAURUS!" and went in expecting to school Aisha in all things nerdy. I was about to find out that Aisha, whether a real person or cartoon person, could pretty much beat me at everything.
IRISH RICAN: As a beautiful, sexy black woman what do you do to prepare for your role as Lana...a beautiful, sexy black woman?
AISHA TYLER: Very little. Some days I shower, some days I don't. That's the great thing about playing Lana, she's animated, so I can show up to work in the clothes I slept in the night before. And I generally do which is probably disappointing to the sound engineer who expects Lana to walk in and instead gets a dumpy hobo. I've been playing Lana long enough now that I just go in with an open mind and Adam & I are pretty in-sync comedically. We just screw around until we find the funniest way to say a line. We do a fair amount of improving and playing around, I just go in ready to have a good time. That's about all the preperation that I do. I wish I had some grand Brandoesque method for you but I usually just get up, drink caffenated beverage, try not to spit in microphone is generally my method.
IR: How'd you come to be cast in Archer?
AT: My agent called and said "They want to offer you this show." It's the best way to get a show, someone calling and asking if you want to do it. I'm a huge fan of Adam (Reed - Archer's creator) from Sealab 2021. Loved the show, didn't know him, but LOVED that show. We clipped it a couple of time on Talk Soup, I just loved it so much. So they sent the script and I didn't know who Adam was so I IMDB'd him, saw Sealab, and said, "DONE! I'm doing it!" So I didn't know Frisky Dingo, I never had seen it, so it was really (a) on the strength of Sealab 2021 and (b) the most kickass pilot script in the whole world. I laughed out loud many times reading it. It's really rare when you read like 100 scripts that you actually laugh at something on the page but I thought it was the most stupendous piece of writing ever.
IR: You have alot of great lines on the show.
AT: Yeah I get very lucky.
IR: Everytime you say, "Yuuuuuuup" it just breaks me LAUGH.
AT: Thanks. A fan actually just made like a call-out page for it which is audio samples of everytime Lana says "Yup" on the show. It's definetly turning into a catch phrase. I've never had a catch phrase so it makes me feel special.
IR: What is happening with Lana in the season finale?
AT: I don't know if I'm supposed to even tell you.
IR: Oh it's okay. You can tell me everything.
AT: Oh I can? Just like my college boyfriend, "Please do! Please tell me everything!" Well in the last episode Archer and I were in Paris and I was hopefully going to get a job with ODIN (a rival spy agency) and found my boyfriend Cyril "balls-deep" in a French chick. So Lana is going to be full of her customary boiling rage which is simmering right below the surface. There's going to be some fall out from Cyril's crazy compulsive cheating and also pointing out Cyril's disgusting sloppy seconds. Archer's also dealing with some of his mommy issues.
What's great is now ISIS has this competitive agency, we finally have our nemesis. The best part of a nemesis is that you alternately love them and hate them. I think it's going to be both competitve, murderess, and we'll all clearly sleep with each other which what we international spies do when we aren't out killing people with a kung-fu grip...we're sleeping with random slutty secretaries. The season finale is going to be awesome and it's going to set up all the killer dynamics for next season.
IR: Are you excited about getting picked up for next season?
AT: I was actually on a business call. We had been waiting for awhile - there's been alot of great reviews, more and more people are coming to it, we're so proud of it, but we just hadn't heard yet. So I was on this call and Adam tweets me that the show got picked up and I just hung up on the person I was talking with to call Adam. I was like, "I gotta go...CLICK." And then we gloated how about how the show got picked up and how happy we were. And then we gloated because we are going to Comic-Con. I danced all around my office like a leprechaun around a tiny Stonehenge because I've been waiting my whole life to go to Comic-Con. I can not fucking wait!
IR: Comic-Con is something. MAD HOUSE!
AT: I'm so excited. Other girls dream when they are little of being ballerinas or astronauts. I dreamed about being around surrounded by thousands of sweaty nerds. I cannot wait to go. There is a tiny, sweaty nerd trapped inside my body and he cannot wait to go to Comic-Con.
IR: You just said you have a tiny, sweaty nerd inside you.
AT: He's a happy guy! I keep him fed and he gets to play XBox.
IR: So where would you like to see Lana go in the second season? Will she find a guy after being cheated on by Cyril?
AT: I don't think that Lana needs a guy. I think Lana is going to play the field. There is some awesome stuff, now that I'm thinking about it, in the season finale. Lana is really going to pull out the guns. Even though Archer is a super-douche he's much more Lana's equal then Cyril is. The reason she was dating Cyril, despite the fact that he is supposed to be well hung, is because he was a guy she thought wasn't going to bother her. He's a nice guy, he's going to shut up when I tell him to shut up, he'll make me dinner when I get home, and he's not going to get in my way. He really did turn out to be a burden. You're going to see that Lana is going to go commando, focusing on spying and sleeping with other hot spies. She's going to drop the zero and get with the hero.
IR: What's coming up for you? Any Balls of Fury comedies coming out?
AT: Got lots coming out. I'm on tour right now, I did a Comedy Central special which is out on DVD right now which is on sale at Amazon, my website, digial download.
IR: Got to get the site plugs in.
AT: Course! I'm working on a new comedy special right now which is written and killing. So I'm touring with that getting that material ready to tape the new special hopefully this fall. I'm working on a new book on gaming, because I love it so much. AND I'm working on two new television projects which hopefully I'll be able to talk more about soon.
IR: Feel free to add me on XBox anytime so I can SCHOOL YOU.
AT: HAH! Bring it! I don't play as much as I like because there is like this mass of fans waiting to curse at me everytime I get online. I also don't look forward to getting teabagged by a 7-year-old, that's not my idea of a good time.
IR: Yeah...that happens to me alot.
AT: (laughs ALOT at Irish Rican).
IR: I login and they kill me and yell, "What's wrong with you, asshole?"
AT: Exactly! "Take that fucker!" Does your mother know that you talk like that? OH! And I forgot to mention that I did a voice for Halo Reach which is coming out this fall.
IR: You are?
AT: Yeah. Pretty much the greatest day of my life after I got married. After my wedding day. Um, sometimes it may be equal to my wedding day. Although my husband will kill me if I say that.
IR: Is he reading Ain't It Cool News?
AT: Yeah. He's almost as nerdy as I am.
IR: Well then, you're screwed.
AT: So I recorded a couple week ago and I can't wait for it to come out so I can shoot myself in the face.
IR: Are you a soldier? What did you do the voice for?
AT: I can't tell you! I am playing a good character, I'm a good guy. I'm a Marine of some kind.
IR: Well now I'm looking forward to shooting you in the face too.
You can follow Aisha on Twitter, Facebook, and she says she's still on something called 'MySpace'. Archer's season finale airs on FX March 18th at 10PM.
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This show has been consistently funny!
I still think they're covering for a censor with that Johnny Bench joke. Why else would you say his name after someone just fingered themselves - if you're not referencing his big hands/fingers??? -
Mar 18, 2010 12:41:17 PM CDT
All of you assholes should watch this show
by battle_royale_with_cheese
Because if Archer doesn't qualify as cool, I'll turn in my Agent Flint Lighter.
Seriously, awesome show. FX should schedule this back to back with It's Always Sunny... -
At least 70% of the laughs in Frisky Dingo for me were from Reed's line readings. Get back in the booth and record a major character, man! As sad as I am about missing out on more Frisky Dingo, at least they seem to be finding more success with (the slightly less funny) Archer.
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Archer's arch-nemesis is Molotov Cocktease???
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is the brown ang jolie.
too bad she has to open her mouth and ruin it.
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(first 3 seasons of) Family Guy!
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irish rican, you are mad. mad i tell you! BOHOHAHA!! seriously though.mad.
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I didn't know who she was so I just googled here and DAMN, she be hawwwt! She could play Lana Kane if they did a live version of Archer. Ummm, Lana Kane nude on the laser platform.
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A subpar GET SMART and AUSTIN POWERS, no one has heard of it and the ratings keep getting lower. It's flash animation that belongs on You Tube for three or four minute forgotten little segments. So much derivative junk, like this and AMERICAN DAD.
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Or has Irish Rican posted stories before but this is just the first time I've noticed?
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Every episode is fucking hilarious. "Mother, Woodhouse thinks he's people." Seriously, the funniest/best new animated show in a long time. So glad it got picked up.
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I have to agree - Archer isn't as funny as Frisky Dingo but it's good that Adam Reed has work and is getting a bit more recognition. Ditto for H. Jon Benjamin who always cracked me up on Dr. Katz (and everything else he does really).
Maybe there's some hope that Frisky Dingo could return? -
Is the perfect person to play Storm in any future X-men movies. Put white hair on her and it's uncanny!
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That would be excellent but I doubt it. If I remember the story correctly, Reed was burned out on Dingo and the Cartoon Network scene and started putting together Archer for FX, intending to do both shows once he'd had a break. CN basically said, "Well 'em then" and canceled the show, and 70/30 Productions went out of business last January. Not sure where the rights are but CN probably still has them. Hell, I'd settle for a comic book series at this point, I just want my Killface fix.
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Your table's ready...
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That show was too fucking good. And those season plans sound great.
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Stuff like "I'd be masturbating right NOW; if I had my stuff." is golden because of him.
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The ID pictures that people are using to end their articles seem to vary from "meh" to something like Irish's here which is obviously very polished and looks comic book pro. I can't make out the signatures. Irish, who drew/colored your promo picture?
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Barnaby Jones. BARNABY JONES! Nap.
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"Yah, is one of them."
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i have to watch this on the toilet as i piss myself laughing so much.
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Mar 18, 2010 6:07:30 PM CDT
Marduck desires not the barren wasteland of your dessicated visc
by industrykiller!
Sealab 2021, everything up until the death of Harry Goss was classic television as far as Im concerned
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Was also great for the most part. If CN have any sense, they'll beg Reed to come back and do more Frisky Dingo. DO IT YOU FOOLS!!
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The first 6 episodes or so are comedy perfection. After that it starts to fall into reused gags and way lower animation quality ( why didn't they use more of the 2020 episodes??? ) Then of course once the Captain died, the show just kind of fizzled. They tried hard to survive and I'll give them props for that, but ultimately he pulled the show. Archer is actually pretty good so far... always manages to get off one ot two really really funny moments. The "R" rated content is kind of silly though.
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my co-worker and i were talking about archer the other day and we thought it was missing a clear-cut antagonist. they need a killface. i'm glad to hear adam & crew think so too. if they can even approach the fucking genius of the character killface with this russian chick, this show will hit the next level. although it does sound derivitive of molotov cocktease, like spyguy pointed out, which could make her really disappointing. i have faith in adam though. i'm as big a fan of sealab as aisha apparently(awesome). loved just about everything in frisky dingo, so i gave archer a shot and haven't regretted it one second. the show hasn't quite found its rhythm yet, but the 30-minute format is new to them still. i have faith in the writers and cast. you're guaranteed two gut-laughs per episode, and i think they can improve on that. i haven't missed an ep yet, and can't wait for next season.
also, dude, irish rican, did you type this on an iphone or something? you had weird word misuse/typos everywhere. clean it up. -
A few observations:
1) Archer ROCKS and I'm soo psyched that its coming back nxt year..do yourself a favor if you're not a regular..WATCH IT!!
2) Just when I thought Aisha Tyler couldn't be any hotter, she says something like this: AT: I'm so excited. Other girls dream when they are little of being ballerinas or astronauts. I dreamed about being around surrounded by thousands of sweaty nerds. I cannot wait to go. There is a tiny, sweaty nerd trapped inside my body and he cannot wait to go to Comic-Con.
So, I thought she was HOT the first time I saw her on Talk Soup. I realized she was REALLY hot when I got a taste of her personality. Now this?? Dare I say she just launched herself into Olivia Munn’s stratosphere with comments like that…
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And Tyler's got looks and personality. Add geekiness as a bonus and you can't ask for much more.
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the CONSTANT callbacks. At least for me. Archer is getting pretty good with them, but Frisky Dingo, it was out of control. Also, I think it's interesting how it's pretty much a consensus that Sealab's introduction of Tornado Shanks was a MISTAKE. It's great listening to the commentaries, where they full out admit this, and even have fans doing commentaries that HATE the episodes. I just love when mistakes like this are made so public, and how important hindsight would have been, to just wait a month, think shit over, and decide NOT replacing Murphy would have been the best idea. Also, would it kill Archer to make a Train Island reference? Lastly, the one thing I love about Archer which hasn't been mentioned here is the editing. This show works so hard to have "smart" cuts, where they repeat a phrase, or have the new scene "end" the phrase from before. I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about. It's such a small touch, but it impresses the hell out of me.
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Are from People, that are too lazy to make a real Cartoon or Life-Action-Show.
As for me, I don't like this new Wannabe-Series, that they could also make as a Flash-Based Webshow. -
Still waiting for her to say something funny. Anything.
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talking about how much she loves sweaty nerds. What are the odds?! Meanwhile, here's a picture of her tall, good-looking attorney husband.
http://balontang.blogspot.com/2009/11/aisha-tyler-and-husband-jeff-tietjens.html -
I hope we get to see Whore Island.
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