Sterling Archer

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Sterling Archer
Barry Dylan (throttle)
  • Lana Kane (ex-girlfriend)
    • ChildrenAbbiejean Malory "A.J." Kane-Archer (daughter)
    NationalityAmerican
    Borndate unspecified
    Tangier, Morocco

    Sterling Malory Archer, almost exclusively referred to by his surname Archer, is a

    pilot episode, "Mole Hunt
    ", on September 17, 2009.

    Inspired by

    secret agent of the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a fictional New York-based intelligence service headed by his mother Malory (Jessica Walter). His narcissism
    , sharp sense of humor, and complex relationships with his co-workers serve as important aspects of his character. Archer's subsequent years see him take on different occupations and personae as the show experiments with new ideas, character arcs and self-contained narratives.

    The characterization of Archer, and Benjamin's performance of the character, have been well received by the media. Benjamin has received numerous accolades, including a

    Annie Award
    nomination, for outstanding achievement in voice acting.

    Attributes

    Background

    Archer was born in Tangier as the only child of Malory Archer (Jessica Walter), the retired agent-turned-director of the New York-based International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS). Due to Malory's involvement in espionage throughout World War II, Archer was raised until age 5 by his servant, Woodhouse.[1] The whereabouts of his biological father are unknown barring a fake identity conceived by Malory,[2] though he briefly appears as a faceless figure in a dream sequence in the season four episode "Once Bitten", as Archer hallucinates from a cobra bite.[3][4] Archer spent his youth at a boarding school, where he excelled at lacrosse.[5][6] As a result, Archer was offered an athletic scholarship to Johns Hopkins University, but the offer fell through after he was shot in the abdomen.[4] Although not explicitly stated, a background photo in season two's "Placebo Effect" hints Archer may have instead graduated from Georgetown University.[7] Archer has a fondness for the name Randy and has often gone undercover using the name as part of his disguise.

    Personality

    The comic efficacy of Archer's personality lies in his

    Katya Kazanova (later revived as a cyborg), the death of his possible father Nikolai Jakov, the birth of his daughter, and his relationship with his mother, heavily influence his moral compass and his sense of personal responsibility.[13]

    Archer has complex relationships with many of his coworkers. The turbulence between him and Malory stems from years of childhood neglect,

    Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), and gets an erection after thinking about her death.[18] Archer's relationship with Lana is likewise tumultuous because of his infidelity and immature behavior. Yet she has a new found compassion for him when he becomes ill with cancer,[19] and by the time their daughter is born, their relationship is such that Archer is "willing to put his money [...] where other people's mouths are in order to protect his family."[20]

    Storylines

    Archer is introduced in the pilot episode "Mole Hunt", as a special agent for the intelligence agency International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS). He attempts to make amends with a resistant ex-girlfriend, Lana Kane, who ended their relationship six months prior because of an affair. The situation is further exacerbated by Cyril Figgis, who is Lana's companion at the time.[18] Concurrently, he had a brief relationship with secretary Cheryl Tunt.[18] Lana's drive to get revenge on Archer for cheating on her is fairly evident throughout the initial half of the first season, even going as far as to shoot him on multiple occasions.[21][22] Unbeknownst to Archer, Malory has been keeping in contact with Nikolai Jakov and Len Trexler, one of whom—despite serving for rivaling agencies—could possibly be his real father.[21] By "Dial M for Mother", he becomes suspicious of Malory's sly tactics, which prompts her to affirm that the identity of Archer's biological father is unknown.[2]

    Much of the second season of Archer is devoted to the character identifying his real father. Archer travels to Russia to find out whether Jakov is his biological father, only to be stranded and kidnapped by agents of the Soviet Committee for State Security (

    anticancer drugs in lieu of the sucrose pills and Zima solution.[27]
    In the same episode, it is revealed that Archer filmed his massacre of the Irish gang and edited it into a movie called, "Terms Of Enrampagement".

    Distraught by his fiancée's death, Archer retreats to

    pirates. Ultimately, the duo are captured by the pirates and put into a dungeon, where Riley, Noah (a doctoral candidate in anthropology who was enslaved by the pirates after they captured his research vessel), and Archer are being harbored. Malory prepares to administer a ransom for the group, but later declines to extort money to the assailants after being insulted by Archer. Now temporarily severed from ties with the International Security Intelligence Service, the group steals a helicopter and escapes from the pirate fortress.[6]

    CIA. At the same time, it is revealed that Archer is the father of Lana Kane's newborn daughter, conceived through in vitro fertilization from semen stored when Archer was being treated for cancer.[28]

    In season six, a reluctant Archer and his co-workers are reinstated as freelance agents working for the CIA on a trial basis. In the first episode, which takes place six weeks after the end of season five, Archer has been residing in Thailand because he was shocked that Lana

    used his sperm to conceive a child without his permission, but then he finally comes home after a mission in Borneo. For the rest of the season, Archer tries (and the most part failing) to be a part of his child's life and in episode eight goes with Lana to meet her parents, who, even though they don't think much of Archer, still consider him part of the family.[29] In the finale, the CIA hires Archer and the others to save the life of a brilliant scientist by shrinking down and destroying a lethal blood clot in his brain. Even though they manage to destroy the blood clot, they ended up killing the doctor when they prematurely regrow while inside him, with the CIA disavowing them and leaving them with nothing.[30]

    Archer convinces the group that they should start a detective agency in Los Angeles, setting up the events of season seven where they are subjected to the machinations of actress Veronica Deane. It eventually resulted with Archer being shot several times by Veronica in the season seven finale, later revealed to have survived but in a coma for three years. Season eight follows Archer in his coma-induced dream where he imagines himself as a Private Detective and all of his co-workers, friends and associates as characters in a 1940s-esque film noir setting known as "Dreamland". Season nine has Archer, remaining in a coma-induced dream, imagined as a co-pilot with Pam, who crash land onto the lush and mysterious Pacific island of Mitimotu. Season ten continues the coma-induced imagination themed setting, this time portraying Archer as the co-captain of the starship M/V Seamus in a "1970s vision of the future" reminiscent of Star Wars and Alien. He finally awakens from his coma after the three seasons to find that three years have passed and now needs a cane to walk.

    Development

    Conception

    And I started reading those, and I had never read them before, and it was like, page one—this guy is a dick! He's a troubled man, and he's incredibly misogynistic. There's one scene—I forget which book it's from, but basically what happens is rape. It's like, 'She protested, but then Bond twisted her hand behind her back and took his reward.' Like, what the shit?!

    Adam Reed[14]

    After the cancellation of the television series Frisky Dingo in 2008, Reed took a year off from work and travelled to Europe and Morocco for leisure. He would often observe the general atmosphere of the environment around him. "I was in Europe and Morocco for most of the year," Reed recalled, "bumming around with a backpack and a scruffy beard, and sitting in cafes writing in my journal, seeing all these wealthy people and beautiful women, walking around, looking all European. I kept thinking about this world that I wasn't invited to going on behind me in these gorgeous buildings. I was like, 'I know there's some awesome cocktail party on the roof of that building, and I am walking around with a Hot Pocket.' So I kept thinking about, y'know, James Bond would totally be at that party, and would not be eating this Hot Pocket."[14]

    Hoping to become innovative in the

    Secret Intelligence Service. "I was spinning my wheels on that," Reed remarked, "and then it clicked when I was watching the James Bond reboot with Judi Dench as M, and then I thought what if M was James Bond's mother, and what a weird dynamic that would be, and what if they were both horrible people."[31]

    FX initially disapproved of Archer's bumbling demeanor, as similar endeavors have previously been done on multiple occasions.[clarification needed] This made it especially difficult on Reed in writing the script for "Mole Hunt", the pilot episode of the series. "It was hard, if a guy's really good looking and apparently rich and has a great apartment and has really great clothes and dates all the girls and could kick your face off, if he's also the smartest guy in the room, you're not going to root for him." Indeed, he would often debate with the executives of FX on the character throughout the first season, but concerns later subsided after Reed asserted that Archer was merely overconfident, and not dumb. "He's just supremely confident and thinks that nothing bad is ever going to happen to him, so in these dangerous situations where he's being an idiot, he's just being willfully obtuse to see what will happen."[32]

    All of the main characters on the program were modeled after a select group of local residents of Atlanta. The producers then had them dressed in period clothing. "We just grabbed people around here, and then it was just sort of a fluke that they ended up looking like, to some extent, their real-life counterparts." Archer was designed after an electrician who, according to Adam Reed, was "exactly that handsome and also really nice".[33]

    Casting

    Reed originally wanted to provide the voice of the character, but eventually recognized that his voice would stand out among other professional actors.[34] H. Jon Benjamin—whom Reed was familiar with from his work on various Adult Swim cartoons such as The Venture Bros. and Home Movies—was approached by Reed for the role of Archer while Benjamin was visiting his parents in Tucson, Arizona. Benjamin was given a copy of the pilot script, and later recorded it at a Tucson studio the following week,[35] relating, "So I think I just went in to this—it was in the back of this guy's house or something. He had a makeshift studio. So it felt dirty, but I don't think I read the script prior, didn't get it. I just happen to be visiting my parents and it all happened, so I just went in and read and it worked out well for them, not for my parents."[36] Benjamin was contingent with the role, as he was apprehensive on imitating a spy.[37] The Home Movies actor was a top prerogative for Reed in portraying the character because of his distinctive voice. "One of the reasons I think that you root for him, besides knowing that some of it isn't his fault, he's got this terrible mother and a terrible childhood, is Jon's delivery. It's so disarming that even the most conceited, hurtful, horrible things that Archer says, when Jon puts voice to them, they come across as not so bad."[31]

    Reception

    Benjamin's portrayal of Sterling Archer has attracted positive reviews from critics.

    The character of Archer and Benjamin's voicework has been well received by critics. Dan Kois of Slate ascribed the character's lovability to his impulsive and callow disposition. "He has the wardrobe, sex life, and armaments of an adult superspy, but the soul (and impulse control) of a child."[38] As Newsday writer Verne Gay affirmed, "Sterling Archer [...] is a suave if hard-bitten boozehound who, nonetheless, knows how to handle weaponry and women—sometimes."[39] James Poniewozik of Time defined Archer as the "bluff" and "lunkheaded" star of the series,[40] while USA Today's Whitney Matheson professed that the character is a callous, albeit attractive individual.[41] San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tim Goodman attested that Benjamin's monotonous delivery of his lines was one of the highlights of the show. "Benjamin has a kind of laid-back, half-drunk, half-outraged banter that never fails to amuse," professed the San Francisco Chronicle journalist.[42] Poniewozik echoed similar sentiments, who avouched that the actor evinced Archer's arrogant predilection.[40] To Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, Benjamin delivered a unique inflection and attitude that she described was purely "Archer-ian".[43]

    Critics have generally applauded the storylines that have involved the character.

    Annie Award in the category of Voice Acting in a Television Production—the award was given to Jeff Bennett for his work in the Nickelodeon television series The Penguins of Madagascar.[47]

    References

    1. ^ Reed, Adam (February 24, 2011). "The Double Deuce". Archer. Season 02. Episode 05. FX.
    2. ^ a b Reed, Adam (March 18, 2010). "Dial M for Mother". Archer. Season 01. Episode 10. FX.
    3. ^ Handlen, Zack (February 21, 2013). "Archer: "Once Bitten"". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
    4. ^ a b Reed, Adam (February 21, 2013). "Once Bitten". Archer. Season 04. Episode 06. FX.
    5. ^ Reed, Adam (March 16, 2012). "Space Race". Archer. Season 03. Episode 12, 13. FX.
    6. ^ a b Reed, Adam (September 15, 2011). "Heart of Archness". Archer. Season 3. Episode 01, 02, 03. FX.
    7. ^ See Season 2, Episode 9. Archer is depicted at the bottom of the staircase outside Lauinger Library in a graduation photo. Healy Hall is also shown in the background.
    8. ISBN 978-1443444217
      .
    9. ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (April 24, 2012). "Adam Reed walks us through Archer's third season (Part 1 of 3)". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
    10. ^ Hughes, William (April 7, 2016). "Archer lays down some hard truths (and the world's best voicemail prank)". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
    11. ^ Owen, Rob (2009-11-17). "Preview: 'Archer' crude but clever". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
    12. Time, Inc.
      Retrieved June 3, 2012.
    13. ^ a b Tang, Dennis (January 19, 2012). "Archer Creator Adam Reed Talks to GQ—GQ Fixes Archer's Tie Bar". GQ. Condé Nast Publications. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
    14. ^
      Condé Nast Publications
      . Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    15. ^ Thorn, Jesse (January 19, 2012). "Aisha Tyler". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
    16. ^ Lowry, Brian (November 17, 2009). "Archer Review". Variety. Retrieved January 4, 2010.
    17. ^ Ward, Michael (January 13, 2014). "Still More Strangeness and Subtlety in FX's 'Archer'". PopMatters. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
    18. ^ a b c Reed, Adam (January 17, 2010). "Mole Hunt". Archer. Season 01. Episode 01. FX.
    19. ^ "Interview: Aisha Tyler on 'Archer'". Picktainment. March 1, 2012. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
    20. ^ Thurm, Eric (March 28, 2016). "Archer Is the Rare Comedy that Lets Its Characters Evolve—and It's Only Made the Show Better". Slate. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
    21. ^ a b Reed, Adam (February 11, 2010). "Skorpio". Archer. Season 01. Episode 06. FX.
    22. ^ Reed, Adam (February 18, 2010). "Skytanic". Archer. Season 01. Episode 07. FX.
    23. ^ a b Reed, Adam (April 14, 2011). "White Nights". Archer. Season 02. Episode 12. FX.
    24. ^ a b Reed, Adam (April 21, 2011). "Double Trouble". Archer. Season 02. Episode 13. FX.
    25. ^ Reed, Adam (March 11, 2010). "Job Offer". Archer. Season 01. Episode 09. FX.
    26. ^ Reed, Adam (March 17, 2011). "Stage Two". Archer. Season 02. Episode 08. FX.
    27. ^ a b Reed, Adam (March 24, 2011). "Placebo Effect". Archer. Season 02. Episode 09. FX.
    28. ^ Reed, Adam (April 21, 2014). "Archer Vice: Arrival/Departure". Archer. Season 05. Episode 13. FX.
    29. ^ Reed, Adam (February 26, 2015). "The Kanes". Archer. Season 06. Episode 08. FX.
    30. ^ Reed, Adam (April 2, 2015). "Drastic Voyage: Part II". Archer. Season 06. Episode 13. FX.
    31. ^ a b Smith, Julia (January 26, 2011). "Adam Reed, Creator of "Archer": Interview on The Sound of Young America". Maximum Fun. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    32. ^ Faye, Dennis. "Getting Smart". Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    33. ^ Gelman, Vlada (February 24, 2011). "Adam Reed". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    34. ^ Lasker, jake (July 23, 2010). "SDCC 2010: ARCHER Interviews with Judy Greer, Chris Parnell, and Creator Adam Reed". Collider. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    35. ^ Heisler, Steve (February 4, 2011). "H. Jon Benjamin". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    36. ^ "H. Jon Benjamin Talks FX's Archer Season Finale". Rock n' roll Ghost. March 17, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    37. ^ DeSauliner, Jordan (January 19, 2012). "H. JON BENJAMIN TALKS 'ARCHER' SEASON THREE". Rogue. Archived from the original on April 16, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    38. ^ Kois, Dan (February 9, 2012). "Character Studies: Sterling Archer". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    39. ^ Gay, Verne (January 12, 2010). "'Archer': Cartoon spy has trouble with the ladies". Newsday. Cablevision. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    40. ^ a b Poniewozik, James (January 14, 2010). "TV Tonight: Archer". Time. Time, Inc. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    41. Gannett Company
      . Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    42. Hearst Corporation
      . Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    43. Tribune Company. Archived from the original
      on October 3, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
    44. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (September 15, 2011). "Review: 'Archer' - 'Heart of Archness, Part 1': All hail the pirate king!". HitFix. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
    45. Wolfgang's Vault
      . Retrieved June 4, 2012.
    46. ^ "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance 2010". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
    47. ^ "39th Annual Annie Nominations & Winners!". ASIFA-Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 4, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2012.

    External links

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