Interview: Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, Producers of the Cold War Spy Series 'The Americans'

Breitbart News ^ | 5/4/14 | Kerry Picket

[paltz]

In the hit FX show The Americans, viewers are transported back to the height of the Cold War, with Soviet and Russian spies plying their deadly craft among the unknowing civilians in Washington, D.C. and suburban Northern Virginia.

It's one of the best spy series to come around in a while. The most unique aspect is that the main protagonists are KGB agents who covertly came to the U.S. in their teens, started a family and are trained to blend in with American life.

[Southack]

It must kill the writers and producers that they made the Russians look good just when 0bama wants them to look bad.

[max americana]

One of the set managers is a bud of mine and moved to the production after Sons of Anarchy final season which they’re finishing up right now..

[wetphoenix]

I might be wrong but KGB are a bad guys in this show for sure.

[RginTN]

Dropped this show last year. Couldn’t stand the FBI or the Russians. Only cared that they didn’t off the kids.

Darn shame the only people not flawed were the kids.

[jocon307]

Thanks for posting this, very interesting. We love the show. And no, the Russians aren’t good guys by any means. But I do kind of like the Russian boss at the embassy or whatever it is.

[Vendome]

Luv “The Americans”!!!

Very period. They totally nail the early 80’s.

Very much what was going on and still is.

They delve into tech we take for granted but, was very cutting edge then.

Everything from suitcase modems, which transmitted at 300-600 baud.

Arpanet and other communications tech that we use in their evolutionary phase.

The Russians had nothing on us and couldn’t understand just what the he’ll we were developing.

Further, I love how they wrestle with their national identity and the American traditions of faith, hope, charity and our largely Christian faith.

As well, the freedoms to choose whatever we wish of our actions and evolving culture of juxtaposed Americanism with that of individualism and scepticism of our government.

[riverdawg]

I lived in the DC area in the early 1980s and had several friends who worked in the intelligence community. The show “gets” that era - the fashion, the technology, the entire “look and feel” of that period. Most, but not all, of the story lines are based in reality. For example, in a recent episode it was said that the U.S. program to plant fake blueprints for high-tech parts for the Soviets to steal resulted in the deaths of 160 Russian submariners. While the program was real, and caused the Soviets to waste billions of rubles, I never heard at the time or read subsequently that the program caused a submarine accident.

[Southack]

We also arranged for the ruskies to purchase sabotaged pipeline and oil drilling parts.

Reagan hit them in multiple ways, and hit them hard.

[riverdawg]

“We also arranged for the ruskies to purchase sabotaged pipeline and oil drilling parts.”

Yes, that's the “real program” I mentioned, but I never heard or read that this program caused the death of 160 Russian submariners. That's the “historical license” with the facts that the recent episode of “The Americans” took. I'm not criticizing the show for doing so, but the truth back then was often much more interesting than most fictionalized accounts.

[discostu]

Some members of the KGB are bad guys, but not all. It’s realistic in that, everybody is the hero of their own epic, except for the deeply screwed up people everybody is doing what they think is the right thing, or at least the thing they should be doing.

[discostu]

People are flawed, that’s good storytelling. Even the kids are flawed, though that didn’t start coming out until this season.

[Vendome]

We sent them all kinds of crap that didn’t work.

[riverdawg]

“We sent them all kinds of crap that didn’t work.”

Yes, but not a defective propeller that killed 160 submariners (as far as I know).

[RginTN]

Right but I don’t have to watch such characters. I knew when I wished the Russians & FBI would all be offed that was it for me. At least 24 had characters I didn’t want to see offed.

[Vendome]

Yeah, it sounds good but, I don’t recall anything like that.

We did give them some programming that led to a pipeline blowing up and setting them back but, it happened out in the middle of nowhere and no one died.

Sounds sexier to say some Reds died on a sub.

[discostu]

That’s funny, I watched the first half of the first ep of 24 decided I didn’t like any of the characters and didn’t care if they lived or died and never watched another minute. Everybody’s got their prefs.

[RginTN]

Well after watching 24 the only characters I didn’t want offed were Jack and Chloe.

[Koblenz]

In that episode, the guy at the Soviet embassy says the USSR used the propeller on the wrong size sub, and that's what caused the sub to crash.

For a good historical movie on espionage in the 1980s, see Farewell (it's about 20% in English, 30% in Russian and 50% in French, and it therefore has a lot of subtitles).

[riverdawg]

“In that episode, the guy at the Soviet embassy says the USSR used the propeller on the wrong size sub, and that's what caused the sub to crash.”

Yes, thanks for the correction. In any case, I don't know of anything remotely similar that actually occurred as a result of the real US disinformation program. Mostly what happened is that the Soviets spent a lot of money trying to build stuff based on faulty blueprints, which was the programs main objective.

“For a good historical movie on espionage in the 1980s, see Farewell (it's about 20% in English, 30% in Russian and 50% in French, and it therefore has a lot of subtitles)”

I rented “The Farewell Affair” a couple of years ago. I was vaguely familiar with the true saga of Vladimir Vetrov, around which the film was based. Like the TV show, “The Americans”, the film's basis in reality was close enough for me to enjoy it as an “historical drama” even though the film takes considerable liberty with some facts and details.