After 14 seasons on TV, Archer finally comes to a close next week, with the long-running spy comedy ending its shockingly consistent run of profane jokes, high-energy action, obscure references, and Kenny Loggins musical stings with a three-episode finale event, Archer: Into The Cold, on December 17 on FX and FXX (and Hulu). Ahead of the release of the sendoff, we talked to four members of the show’s cast—H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Amber Nash, and Chris Parnell—about their legendary tenure on the series. We asked each of them to tell us about their favorite Archer memories, their go-to episodes—and which of the show’s controversial genre-hopping “coma seasons” they enjoyed jumping into the most.
[This piece has been assembled from multiple interviews with the cast of Archer.]
What’s your first memory of working on Archer?
Aisha Tyler (Lana Kane): I got offered the show, and I flew to Atlanta to do the pilot. I was a big fan of [Archer creator Adam Reed and Matt Thompson’s previous show] Sealab 2021. But I remember reading the pilot and thinking, “This show is way too smart, and way too dirty, to ever make it on the air. It’s never gonna go. But I’m going to go and meet the Sealab guys, so it’s going to be worth it. That’s going to be a great experience.”
And it was a great experience! Adam picked me up in his car, and drove me around town and took me down to the studio. And I don’t know if you know anything about audio studios, but there’s typically all these great snacks. So I filled my pockets with Snickers bars, because I was like, “I’m never seeing these clowns again!”
And I don’t know anything about anything. This is obviously the greatest show on Earth. But Hollywood’s great at making bad stuff, and bad at making great stuff. So I was just sure it was never going to happen. And now it’s been 14 seasons.
Amber Nash (Pam Poovey): I went in to record some extras, some DVD extras, because those were a thing back then, for [Reed and Thompson’s earlier Adult Swim show] Frisky Dingo. And they were like, “Hey, we’ve got this other project we want you to look at.” And it was Pam’s head, which I’d never seen before, on a monitor. And she was delivering one of my lines that I had recorded for Frisky Dingo, because they just wanted to see what my voice sounded like, coming out of Pam’s head. And I remember being like, “Guys. I don’t have a job. I’ll do anything you want me to do.”
Chris Parnell (Cyril Figgis): I was living in a condo, shortly after I’d moved back from New York. And I was auditioning for the part of the interrogator in the pilot, the Russian, or some Eastern-European-accented fellow. I think I auditioned for that first, and obviously didn’t get it. And I think I sort of thought, “Oh, well, that was my shot at whatever this is.” All I knew is it was a really good script, good writing. But you can never really see how anything’s going to go. And then, at a certain point, I got the call that they wanted me to play Cyril as a series regular. It was pretty exciting.
H. Jon Benjamin (Sterling Archer): Recording the pilot, I believe I was in Arizona, visiting my parents. And I remember being slightly put off, which I usually am about doing anything, because I had to go find this studio in the middle of Tucson. I believe it coincided with me visiting my parents, and it needed to get it done.
I knew very little about the show. And whether that’s my fault, it might be on me—as in, I didn’t read the script. [Laughs] And then I think later had heard that Matt and Adam and [executive producer] Casey Willis had done a lot of work to get me the job that I was not privy to. They had made a demo of a character called Coach McGuirk from a show called Home Movies that they were fans of, to say, “We should hire this guy.” I’m very happy they did that, because it did end up getting me the job—they had animated two clips of McGuirk to pitch me as the lead.
I definitely remember going in there and saying, “I assume you want a British accent, for a spy,” so I remember not knowing exactly what I was going to do. And they were like, “No, no, no, we already sold the show with you, doing your voice, so don’t do a different voice.”
What’s your favorite episode of the show?
Aisha Tyler: There’s some scientific rule about memory, and about how you remember things from your childhood more clearly than you remember things that just happened recently. So all my favorite episodes are from the first few seasons, when the show was really new and there weren’t that many episodes, you know? I think that “Skytanic” is probably my favorite one. And I also really like “Skorpio,” because that’s the two-man threesome on the mega-yacht, where Lana’s boobs are, like, enshrined on the wall in chocolate. Everything was so shocking, back then. Everything was so dramatic!
Amber Nash: There’s so many. But I think “Southbound And Down,” because it was the first time that we really saw Archer and Pam as a duo. And I found it to be so much fun; their chemistry is so fun. Like, it’s just so great when they kind of fuck around with each other, and that they’re friends. At the end of the day, they’re probably the best friends on the show. So that’s my favorite.
Chris Parnell: I’ve always liked the episodes where Cyril is acting as an agent and is being very capable. There are a couple of episodes like that, and it’s just very satisfying whenever he’s able to be good at something. A little heroic, y’know? I don’t remember the names of the episodes, but there’s one where they’re in a South American country. And then, when Archer was in a coma, Cyril got to be the agent, be the man. That was fun.
H. Jon Benjamin: If you press me … are you pressing me?
AVC: I’m pressing you. Give me the damn answer.
H. Jon Benjamin: Thank you. You’re turning me on, William. That’s how easy it is for me. There’s so many great episodes of Archer, but the most impressed I am is with the pilot. I think it’s one of the best comedy pilots ever made. It’s a great pilot of television, I’ve re-watched it many times. There’s obviously a lot of the show that develops that made it much richer and better, with the use of the additional characters that they built—Pam, Lucky [Yates], playing Dr. Krieger, and even Judy [Greer] are very minimally used in the pilot. So I don’t want to take away from them, and say my favorite episode is the one I’m most in. But I just thought it was a really smart, well-written piece of television. So I’ll say the pilot.
Do you have a favorite memory from making the show?
Aisha Tyler: When we did Archer Live!, we went on tour and did these live readings all over the country, and we got to spend a lot of time together as a cast. Because we typically don’t get to do that. We’re spread all across the United States, some in New York, some in Atlanta, some in L.A. And we all record separately—it’s a testament to the incredible kind of artistry of the people that make the show that it feels so connective, like we’re all in the same room together, because we never record together. So we really have very little time as a cast.
So that tour was great, because we got all this social time together, and we got to be the characters in each other’s presence. Those felt like halcyon days—it felt like summer camp. Jessica [Walter, who died in 2021] was such a wonderful person. And to get to spend all that social time with her—she was a Hollywood legend. And then to get to say terrible, dirty things and scare the crap out of her. It was always such a good time.
Amber Nash: I think it might have been the very first time I went to Comic-Con, and I met everybody for the first time. I met Jon Benjamin, and he immediately started making fun of me. Which was exactly what I expected. He asked me, “Oh, did they fly you coach?” And I was like, “Who the hell is this guy?” He was such an asshole from the very beginning. It’s like having a big brother.
And I remember meeting Aisha—we were all standing, about to sign autographs on the floor. And then this creature, across the floor, is striding through, and the people are just parting, and she’s wearing a white suit, and she’s so striking and beautiful, and I was like, “Who the hell?!” Angels were singing. Aisha was just so striking to meet for the first time.
Chris Parnell: My favorite memories are being at Comic-Con with the rest of the cast, whether it’s being at the hotel we always stayed at in San Diego, doing panels, having dinners, having drinks. Just hanging out together. And feeling lucky that we’re part of this thing that’s gone on for so long, and getting to be in the cast with all these other people that are so talented that we actually like and have fun with. That’s, for me, what it comes back to, the cast, and Adam and Matt and Casey Willis. I just got to meet [series writer] Mark Ganek a couple of weeks ago, a few other people were in town, and we got to have a dinner together. It’s all of that personal interaction we’ve gotten to do.
H. Jon Benjamin: Well, I spent a lot of time alone in a booth. [Laughs] Working with Jessica … It’s hard to talk about that. Jessica and I were the only two actors who were in New York, and we’d record—not together, but I would see her. Developing a relationship with her was pretty great. We weren’t close, or terribly close friends, but seeing her at the tail end of my recording was a good memory.
And overall, Archer was just a really fun show to record. When Adam was involved, Adam and Matt and Casey just made every recording really fun. They’re a great audience, always excited to do the episodes. Never got jaded, throughout the entire course of the show. Every record was just as fun as the last one.
That was pretty special.
How has your understanding of your character changed over 14 seasons?
Aisha Tyler: In a lot of ways, honestly, Lana is exactly the character—and has evolved in exactly the way—that we’d all talked about and expected. She’s really the one mature person in this group of unartful fuck-ups, and she’s always straining against the limits of the people that surround her. She wants to be taken seriously, she wants to do serious work. And she’s surrounded by these people who are deeply unserious, but also strangely effective.
And we always talked, early on, about her desire to run the agency. She’s a successful woman, a career woman. And it’s been really fun to explore the idea of someone doing really dangerous, really reckless work while still trying to maintain this veneer of professionalism. She’s an international spy who went to space and didn’t wear a shirt in zero gravity. She’s got a kid with her ex-boyfriend who’s also her co-worker. She’s kind of living her very best life. If any working woman has it all, it’s Lana Kane.
Amber Nash: Oh, so much. In the beginning, I very much felt Pam was a tertiary character, and the leads were Lana, and Archer, and Malory, and everybody else was going to have a couple of lines per episode. And in the first episode, they introduce Pam in the script as “Pam, the mousy director of H.R.” [Laughs] And there’s nothing mousy about Pam now.
And then the show became more of an ensemble, and Pam was getting more lines, and into more stuff, and then she got to go out into the field. And watching the character grow, and she’s so comfortable in her own skin. She’s become a sex-positive, body-positive, kind of like animated icon. Which I never expected. So that’s been really fun to watch grow, and watch this character become a beloved character by fans, and also by the cast and writers. It’s been quite a ride.
Chris Parnell: It’s been so well-written all these years, so you’ll get a new script and see a new aspect of Cyril—actually being a good agent, or his relationship with Lana. So you find things out as the show goes along and as the scripts come along. They’ve always done a great job of keeping Cyril Cyril. He’s gone to quite a few different places, but at the end of the day, he usually comes back to being insecure and put upon, and pathetic on a certain level.
What’s your favorite coma season?
Aisha Tyler: The film-noir season, Dreamlands, because I got to sing. My character was a torch singer, and I remember, before that season started, Matt and Adam were like, “Hey, can you sing?” And I was like, “I can sing.” I used to sing in one of those infernal a-cappella groups in college, and I can sing. I know people always say on their acting resumés that they can ride a horse and have never seen a horse in person. But I was like, “I can sing.” So then we went into the studio, and I sang, and Matt goes, “Oh, you actually can sing.”
I wasn’t lying, dude! He was like, “We had a whole other singer lined up, we were going to pay somebody to come in and cover this for us.” Oh, ye of incredibly little faith.
Amber Nash: I loved season eight, the noir season. I loved that Poovey was kind of nebulous, I loved the storyline with all the women that lived at Poovey’s house. And I felt like I got to do a lot more stretching emotionally, which you don’t really think about when you’re doing voices for an animated show. And I like that Adam didn’t shy away from the darkness, and allowed himself to do a moody animated show. And a lot of fans were like, “No, we hate this season.” But later have said, “Y’know, I appreciate it more now.” So I think that, for me, was pretty daring. It was quite a swing.
Chris Parnell: I like the space one, but that’s just because I love sci-fi. Doing Danger Island, that was certainly the most challenging, to try to pull off the German accent. That took more preparation for sure, learning how to say all these German words and say them as well as possible.
H. Jon Benjamin: I would go with Danger Island. That’s my favorite, out of those.
Why has Archer lasted for 14 seasons?
Aisha Tyler: It’s the smartest, most joyful show on television. There are a lot of intelligent shows, there are a lot of serious shows, there are a lot of funny shows. But this is a show that’s both incredibly literate and incredibly joyful. Adam Reed and I came up with this word in like season three, the show that’s smart and filthy, and we’d say it was “smilthy.” It was a real show for adults. Mature themes, both in the edgiest way, and the most considered way, and with Chaucer quotes, and it was just a show that took its audience seriously, but was also just infused with reckless joy. And I think there’s just not another show like it.
There are shows that are in a similar space, but nothing this fully considered and deeply layered, where you can watch it 15 times and get something different out of it every time. And I also think it’s the most beautifully animated show on television. It’s a work of art, and it never feels lazy. It’ll punch you in the face, but right after that it’s going to give you a gentle kiss on the forehead.
Amber Nash: Because we weren’t afraid to take risks. The coma seasons were a huge risk, going back after the coma seasons, always trying new things. After Adam left [Reed departed the series as its head writer in 2019, although he remains on the show as an actor], how could we possibly go on? Taking that risk. I think that’s why it’s stayed so long. And it’s smart—it’s not just dirty, it’s smart and dirty.
Chris Parnell: People like the characters. They like the relationships. It’s familiar. Even though the scenarios might change, the relationships are kind of always the same. We’ve got a really great cast, and the writing has always been very strong, first with Adam, and then with Mark and the other writers they’ve brought in. When you have good writing, when you have a good concept to start with, and a good cast, who bring so many different things to the show—that’s a lot, but that’s what I think has kept people on board.
H. Jon Benjamin: [Long pause, followed by a laugh] I don’t know. I assume it’s because it became popular.
Adam Reed, who singlehandedly wrote 10 seasons of television by himself. Many people have maybe thought the coma seasons were a little over the top or something, but Adam always kept it fresh. And the writing was always really good, and the characters were always really funny, and then they built up Pam, and Krieger, and Carol/Cheryl to become a bigger part of the show, it worked. The fanbase grew, and people enjoyed it, year to year.
It was very interesting to see it build—the only time we got a sense to see how the show was doing, as part of the critical conversation, and the television landscape, was when we went to Comic-Con. And the first year there was kind of nobody there. A lot of people sort of wandering into the room because there were free snacks or something. But year to year, you could see the rooms getting bigger, more and more fans coming out, and by the third or fourth year, you got the sense the show was catching on. And people really loved it.
I was hoping it wouldn’t end. Maybe people don’t like it anymore? I don’t know.