46 Fun Facts About Archer

Who created Archer?

Adam Reed wrote nearly every episode of the first ten seasons himself, working at his kitchen table rather than in a writers' room.

Who voices Sterling Archer?

H. Jon Benjamin never auditioned: he was offered the part because the show's creator wanted Archer to sound exactly like Coach McGuirk, his character in Home Movies.

In Archer's early seasons, what does the acronym ISIS stand for?

International Secret Intelligence Service: the agency was simply called ISIS until the end of season five; from season six (2015) the show quietly dropped the name after the real-world terrorist group made the initials notorious.

Which actress voiced Malory Archer until her death in 2021?

Jessica Walter's farewell came in the season 12 finale: Malory retires to a beach beside Ron Cadillac, voiced by Walter's late husband, in a scene pieced together from their old recordings.

The creator of Archer also voices which character in the show?

Ray Gillette fakes paralysis for months, then loses the use of his legs for real when Archer interferes with a spacecraft landing.

In 2017, Archer moved from FX to which sibling network?

FXX was being built up as the company's home for animation, so Archer joined The Simpsons repeats there from season eight; the move had first been announced for season seven and quietly put off.

What was Archer: Into the Cold, which aired in December 2023?

The series finale was announced as a three-part special two days after season 14 ended with what had been billed as the last episode; it picks up just after the UN outlaws private spy agencies.

In Archer's early seasons, which rival spy agency is run by Len Trexler?

ODIN meant its job offer for Lana, but Archer took it as his and defected, and his mother drunkenly put out a burn notice on her own son.

What is Sterling Archer's codename?

Duchess was also the name of Malory's late, adored Afghan hound; in the pilot she insists the agency computer chose the codename at random, and Archer does not believe a word of it.

In which country was Sterling Archer born?

Morocco: Malory went into labour in a bar in Tangier, and the owner who helped deliver the baby went on to become the family's valet.

Sterling excelled at which sport at boarding school before a gunshot wound ended his playing days?

Lacrosse brought him the offer of a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins, but a stalker shot him in the stomach before he could take it up.

Which handgun is Sterling Archer's weapon of choice?

Walther PPK: it is James Bond's pistol, fitting for a character built as a boorish 007; Bond himself only switched to it after a firearms expert told Ian Fleming his old Beretta was a lady's gun.

What does Sterling call the black turtlenecks he insists on wearing during operations?

Tactilenecks are his tactical turtlenecks: he concedes he did not invent the garment, only that he was first to see its tactical potential, and a licensed real-life version later went on sale.

Sterling has a fondness for going undercover under which first name?

Randy is his cover so often that when two colleagues finally complain about it on the way into a job, the fresh alias he comes up with is Rando.

Which real actor, idolised by Sterling Archer, turns up in the series playing himself?

Burt Reynolds voiced himself in the season-three episode 'The Man from Jupiter' (2012), dating Malory to the horror of Sterling, who idolises the star of Smokey and the Bandit.

In Archer, which word gets shouted whenever a remark sounds like innuendo?

Phrasing is, by its creator's own admission, the most economical way of ripping off 'That's what she said'; the show dropped it for a stretch and brought it back in season seven.

How did Lana Kane get her job at ISIS?

Malory recruited her at an animal-rights protest outside a furrier: Lana was about to throw red paint on her fur coat, Malory drew a gun, and Lana alone stood her ground.

Lana Kane usually carries two of which gun in shoulder holsters?

Tec-9s suit her style: she empties them on full auto without stopping to aim, which earned her the nickname 'spray and pray' back in training.

Which of Lana's features do her Archer colleagues mock with nicknames like 'Truckasaurus'?

Her hands get likened to steam shovels and cricket bats, to her mounting frustration; Aisha Tyler, who voices Lana, insists her own are long and delicate.

Lana's parents, Claudette and Lemuel, are academics at which university?

UC Berkeley: her parents thought she was still pursuing the science career she began at Columbia, and only learn she is a spy during a season-six visit with the baby.

In Archer, how did Lana come to be pregnant with Sterling's child?

Sperm he stored during cancer treatment: Lana took it without asking and only tells him once the baby is born, in the Archer Vice finale; he reacts by running off on a six-week bender.

When Archer begins, what is Cyril Figgis's job at ISIS?

Comptroller, the agency's accountant; he also holds a law degree, so when the gang opens a detective agency in season seven he alone qualifies to own it, and it carries his name.

Cheryl Tunt is an heiress to a fortune made in which industry?

Railroads: the office secretary turns out to be a railroad tycoon's descendant, splitting a billion-dollar inheritance with her brother Cecil, which only comes out when kidnappers come after her.

What kind of animal is Babou, the pet Cheryl keeps at her mansion and hates?

An ocelot: Cheryl regrets ever buying him, while Sterling is thrilled to meet a real one. Babou shares his name with the pet ocelot Salvador Dalí paraded around in the 1960s.

In Archer Vice, Cheryl reinvents herself as a country singer under what name?

Cherlene's album was real: FX released it in 2014, sung by Jessy Lynn Martens, who was first hired to play fiddle and mandolin and had to sound like Judy Greer's Cheryl.

Pam Poovey grew up on her father's dairy farm in which state?

Wisconsin: the family dairy is Poovey Farms, and she goes back in season six for her sister Edie's wedding to a man Pam once had a crush on, with Archer as her date.

How did Pam finance her college education?

Bare-knuckle street fights paid for college and left her with a startling tolerance for pain: when kidnappers beat her in season two, she shrugs it off and keeps insulting them.

Which poet wrote 'The Destruction of Sennacherib', the poem Pam has tattooed across her back?

Lord Byron's 1815 poem has an Assyrian army struck dead overnight; Pam wears its third stanza, and when she bares it in season two and asks who wants a piece of her, nobody does.

Ray reveals he won an Olympic bronze medal in which event?

Men's giant slalom: Ray protests that bronze means third in the world, Archer insists third is last, and once alone Ray admits it actually was a huge disappointment.

In Archer, what is the name of Sterling's long-suffering British valet?

Woodhouse hides a fearsome past: as an officer's servant in the First World War he avenged his captain's death by killing some fifty German soldiers with a knife, and he holds the Victoria Cross.

Archer's second season suggests Dr. Krieger may be a clone of whom, in a nod to The Boys from Brazil?

Adolf Hitler: in The Boys from Brazil it is Mengele who breeds the clones. Krieger, raised in Brazil by a fugitive Nazi scientist, protests that a clone of Hitler would surely look like Hitler.

In Archer, Dr. Krieger is an obsessive fan of which Canadian rock band?

Rush albums give each of Krieger's vans its name and mural, 'Van By Night' among them, and he keeps a drum kit at home to master 'YYZ', conceding only that Neil Peart stands alone.

In Archer, what is Krieger's girlfriend Mitsuko Miyazumi?

A hologram, and a convincing one: Archer claims she is so real that New York State was ready to let Krieger marry her. Judy Greer, who voices Cheryl, plays her too.

In Archer, which organization rebuilds Barry Dylan as a cyborg?

The KGB picked him up after Archer, whom he had been sent to rescue, let him fall from a fire escape; rebuilt as a bionic man, his first job was to kill the agent who had defected for Archer.

In season five, Archer Vice, what are the former ISIS staff trying to sell?

A ton of cocaine turns up behind an office wall once the FBI shuts ISIS down, and the gang prove hopeless dealers: Pam gets hooked on the very first job and eats her way through much of the stock.

In Archer, who shoots Sterling at the end of season seven, leaving him in a three-year coma?

Veronica Deane, the Hollywood actress the Figgis Agency was working for, shot Sterling in the season-seven finale, leaving him face down in her pool; seasons eight to ten play out inside his coma.

Season eight, Archer Dreamland, reimagines the cast in what setting?

A 1940s film noir Los Angeles: it is 1947, private eye Sterling is hunting his partner's killer, and he lands between the city's rival crime bosses, one of whom is his own mother, known simply as 'Mother'.

In Archer: Danger Island, what does Lucky Yates voice in place of Dr. Krieger?

A wisecracking parrot: Crackers, a scarlet macaw, is pilot Archer's sidekick. Pam even tells the camera the idol they are after is 'not a gold monkey', a wink at Tales of the Gold Monkey, the 1980s show the season borrows from.

In Archer: 1999, Sterling and Lana are co-captains of a salvage spaceship with what name?

M/V Seamus shares its name with the Wee Baby Seamus, the child Sterling ends up paying support for after a paternity test goes against him, even though the boy turns out not to be his.

Archer's season four premiere 'Fugue and Riffs' is a crossover with which other animated series?

Bob's Burgers: an amnesiac Sterling has grown a moustache, married Linda and is flipping burgers as 'Bob', a gag that works because one actor voices both leads.

In Archer's first season, Sterling tells Lana to call which 1980s soundtrack star, starting a long-running gag?

Kenny Loggins: 'Call Kenny Loggins, 'cause you're in the danger zone' is Sterling's Top Gun gag; Loggins played himself at Lana's baby shower in Archer Vice, only for Lana to reveal she never got the reference.

Archer's animation studio, Floyd County Productions, is based in which US city?

Atlanta: the studio's artists build each character from photographs of real people posing in costume, and the models are mostly not the voice actors.

Archer's creator conceived the show shortly after the cancellation of which Adult Swim comedy?

Frisky Dingo was cancelled in 2008 after two seasons, the second series he and partner Matt Thompson had lost after Sealab 2021; the spy comedy that came next ran for fourteen.

Archer's creator dreamed up his spy hero during a 1,000-kilometre walk across which country?

Spain: halfway along the Vía de la Plata he rested in Salamanca and spent three days on the Plaza Mayor, too shy to greet the women around him, imagining a man who would have sauntered straight over.

How did FX first air Archer's pilot, months before the series officially began?

As an unannounced sneak peek: on 17 September 2009 the pilot simply followed the season premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in a slot the listings marked 'To Be Announced'; the series proper began in January.

In Archer, which Soviet spymaster is Malory's old flame and a possible father of Sterling?

Nikolai Jakov may be Sterling's father, but nobody ever finds out: soon after he defects, Barry blows him up at an ISIS safe house, leaving no DNA to test.