Archer (2009 TV series)
Archer is an American adult animated sitcom created by Adam Reed for FX that aired from September 17, 2009, to December 17, 2023. The show follows the exploits of bumbling, volatile secret agent Sterling Archer and his dysfunctional colleagues. The show's primary setting is an anachronistic parody of Cold War-era espionage thrillers, with some individual seasons switching to milieus such as the Latin American drug trade, 1940s film noir, the interwar South Pacific, and retro-futuristic space opera.
Reed conceived Archer shortly after the cancellation of his Adult Swim comedy Frisky Dingo. His experience vacationing in Spain and interest in adventure-oriented comedies shaped his vision of the show. Its hallmarks include reference-heavy jokes, rapid-fire dialogue, and meta-comedy. Archer was produced in a limited animation style that draws visually from mid-twentieth-century comic art. Actors recorded their lines individually, and the show regularly employed a recurring cast for supporting roles. Archer moved to FX's sibling network FXX in 2017, and 145 episodes were broadcast. The fourteenth and final season premiered on August 30, 2023. Following the series' cancellation, a three-part series finale, Archer: Into the Cold, aired on December 17, 2023.
Archer received positive reviews from critics and won awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards and four Critics Choice Awards. It also received 15 Annie Award nominations, among others, for outstanding achievement in animation, writing, direction, and voice acting. Various forms of licensed media have been spawned as a result of the show's sustained success.
Characters and settings
Archer follows the exploits of eight dysfunctional secret agents and support staff of the International Secret Intelligence Service, a fictional New York–based intelligence agency. They are Sterling Archer, the show's narcissistic, philandering protagonist; Malory Archer, retired agent-turned-ISIS director and Sterling's abusive mother; Lana Kane, Sterling's on-and-off lover and mother of his daughter Abbiejean, and by far the most qualified ISIS field agent; Ray Gillette, the agency's openly gay bomb specialist; Pam Poovey, the foolish but exceptionally skilled human resources supervisor-turned-agent; Cyril Figgis, the mild-mannered, often ridiculed accountant-turned-agent; Cheryl Tunt, Malory's neurotic personal assistant; and Dr. Algernop Krieger, the agency's bizarre, morally bankrupt scientist with little regard for the well-being of his test subjects.The show features an array of supporting characters, several of whom gained expanded roles in subsequent episodes. Major supporting roles in Archer include Len Trexler, the head of rival spy agency ODIN ; Slater, an arms dealer and undercover agent for the CIA; Katya Kazanova, head of the KGB and Sterling's former love interest; Fabian Kingsworth, the powerful CEO of spy conglomerate IIA ; Zara Khan, an Interpol agent who joins the agency as Sterling's new partner; and Barry Dylan, Sterling's nemesis who, after seeking redemption, forges an alliance.
Events in Archer early seasons transpire in an anachronistic, Cold War–esque universe. The real-time history is therefore frequently referenced despite the comedy's ambiguous timeline. This method of plot structure allowed producers the discretion to source elements they felt best fit the in-canon universe. In the show's middle seasons, Archer eschews its spy premise to advance Sterling's character arc. Each season has a unique mythology of events highlighting the group's incompetence during their exploits. The main storyline climaxes when Sterling falls into a coma. From seasons eight to ten, Archer is reimagined in three self-contained universes, coinciding with a deeper exploration of Sterling's psyche.
Episodes
Syndication and streaming
The cable television network Comedy Central previously owned exclusive US broadcast syndication rights for Archer. Comedy Central began airing the series on their network on March 2, 2015, in one-hour program time slots. In Canada, the show is syndicated nationally on Adult Swim, and new episodes are aired in tandem with the American broadcast. Endemol Shine International distributes Archer internationally.In 2014, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu purchased online streaming rights to Archer as part of multiyear licensing agreements with 20th Television. Beginning in 2018, Hulu retains exclusive streaming rights to the show in the United States via a new licensing agreement with 20th Century Fox.
The series is available on Tubi as of September 1, 2025.
Production
Development
Before the creation of Archer, Adam Reed worked on animated comedies with executive producer and longtime collaborator Matt Thompson. The pair later became renowned for their work on several Adult Swim television projects, chiefly Sealab 2021 and their follow-up Frisky Dingo, which aired for several years. After the cancellation of Frisky Dingo in 2008, Reed took a vacation to Spain to brainstorm ideas for a new project. His experience traversing the Vía de la Plata, and people-watching in Plaza Mayor in nearby Salamanca, enabled him to conceptualize his vision of Archer. Reed recalled in an interview, "So I sat on the Plaza Mayor for three days—drinking either coffee or beer or gin, depending on the time of day—surrounded by these Spanish women who seemed both unaware and completely aware of their beauty. Occasionally they would glance over—and catch me gaping at them—and just smile at me like, 'I know, right?' And for three days, I couldn't even splutter Buenos dias to any of them—not once. And thus was Sterling Archer born—he would've absolutely sauntered over to a table full of those women and sat down and ordered an entire case of cava or whatever." Nevertheless, he believed developing a sitcom with the theme of global espionage was inevitable given his proclivity for adventure-driven comedy. The James Bond franchise, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, and The Pink Panther franchise were Reed's inspiration as the series, then under the working title Duchess, began taking definite form.By August 18, 2009, following Reed's pitch to FX, the network commissioned six episodes for Archer. FX initially commissioned the project as a companion series for their situational comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but the network ultimately delayed Archer premiere to the following January because of the demanding production schedule, and The League became Philadelphia companion show instead. Despite this, the pilot, "Mole Hunt", aired as a test screening on September 17, 2009, following the season five premiere of Philadelphia. The pilot was not featured in program listings or otherwise promoted by FX; rather the network merely informed select television critics of the broadcast.
FX moved Archer to FXX's broadcast lineup in 2017 as part of an aggressive strategy to increase the network's output of animated programming. FX had planned the move before the show's seventh season, in conjunction with the debut of Cassius and Clay, but momentarily dropped their endeavor after Clay abrupt cancellation. FXX renewed Archer for a twelfth season, which premiered on August 25, 2021. On September 28, 2021, FXX renewed the series for a thirteenth season, which premiered on August 24, 2022. The 14th and final season of Archer premiered on August 30, 2023.
On October 13, 2023, FX announced Archer: Into the Cold, a three-part series finale would air on December 17, 2023; on that date, series executive producer Casey Willis confirmed that the series had been cancelled, with plans having been in place for two further seasons, stating that they "did not have a good handle on how we should go out. And we did not have that much time to figure it out", with Into the Cold having been quickly produced after production on the fourteenth season had ended.
Writing
Scriptwriting an episode consumes three weeks of the production schedule. As the comedy's main writer, Reed typically creates the first draft during pre-production, which he submits to his team of producers and art directors. From there, they analyze the script for each character, cast guest stars, and create basic concept designs, before Reed develops a final script to submit to FXX. The extent of Reed's oversight diminished when FXX expanded Thompson and executive producer Casey Willis' creative responsibilities for new episodes. Starting in season 11, Reed no longer writes the episodes. A typical Archer episode goes through 2 pages of dialogue per minute, doubling a typical sitcom.Early Archer episodes are framed with the standard setup of a workplace comedy, defined by raunchy, reference-heavy humor, rapid-fire dialogue, and interaction-based drama. They parody spy film and routinely mock clichés of the genre. By the end of the fourth season, however, Reed questioned the longevity of the comedy's spy premise and began contemplating a new direction for Archer, impelled by the then-growing associations of ISIS with the identically initialed jihadist group. Late-season episodes experiment with the standard format of an anthology, each with self-contained mythologies of arcs, settings, humor, and personas. Reed said, "Once we started making them, and having a good time making them, 'what are some other things we can do now that the boundaries have sort of been passed?
Cultural references in Archer cover a wide spectrum of society and the human condition, in film, literature, and music for example. Some, chiefly references to literature, are obscure, and the audience often may not notice them in a single viewing. Reed cites his time as a university English major as the primary forebear for the show's literary references. Archer also develops a unique self-referentiality through character-based jokes, catchphrases, and running gags that evolve over multiple episodes. For example, Sterling or another character may yell "phrasing" in response to any sexually suggestive remark. Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times argues that Archer uses "a caustic brand of humor that isn't for everybody but that has brought the show a dedicated fan base."