Posts Tagged adult swim
Archer: A Brief Reaction
Posted by admin in Animation, episodic TV on January 17, 2010
Archer on FX
I think it would be better to see more than just two episodes of FX’s new animated comedy/adventure series, Archer, before making a full analysis of the show. But after only two episodes (the show premiered at 10 PM with two episodes on January 14), I find myself giving it a Season Pass status on my Tivo and looking forward to the next new episode. The show’s premise as defined at the website is “an animated, half-hour comedy set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a spy agency where espionage and global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other.”
The animation is incredibly rudimentary, possibly in an effort to emulate the vibe of a great many of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim shows. In fact, the show’s creator, Adam Reed (according to Wikipedia) has been an actor/writer/director/producer on Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo at Cartoon Network. But I could care less about the animation–the appeal to this show is partially its writing, but mostly the voice casting. Fans of 2003’s Arrested Development will be pleased to see Jessica Walters cast in the show, she plays the head of ISIS, as well as Archer’s mother. Walters plays the character almost as acerbic, witty and dysfunctional as her character on Arrested Development. As a fan long ago of Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, I was pleasantly surprised to find that H. Jon Benjamin (best known as Ben Katz [the doctor's unambitious, quirky son]) was cast in the lead role of Archer.
In the episode’s premiere (described here), Archer is training another series cast regular, Cyril, on how to be a spy. Cyril asks if he will be taught karate as part of training, leading to my favorite bit of dialogue so far, when Archer responds: “Karate: : The Dane Cook of martial arts?”
It’s a quirky and great show so far, but be advised, to say the show features adult themes and language is an understatement.
Frank Conniff on Cinematic Titanic, Cartoon Dump
To be able to score another interview with one of the Cinematic Titanic crew after having the good fortune to interview Mary Jo Pehl was not something I had expected. But right after Pehl expressed interest, so did Frank Conniff. Conniff, another original MST3K cast member and writer, was best known as TV’s Frank on the show. After MST3K ended, Conniff diversified into various TV projects, including work on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Invader Zim. In addition to his current involvement with Cinematic Titanic, he serves as host and performer for Cartoon Dump, a monthly show at Hollywood’s Steve Allen Theatre that aims to feature “live comedy, great music and hilariously bad animation“. We got to talk about both new projects briefly this week. My thanks to Conniff for his time, and to Josh Opitz for arranging both Cinematic Titanic interviews.
Tim O’Shea: You recently wrote about Skidoo (the Otto Preminger film with Groucho Marx as a gangster named “God”). I have seen the film as well and I wonder would that be a film that the Cinematic Titanic gang might like to tackle? Or is it just so weird on its own merits that to mock it would dilute the potency of its sheer badness?
Frank Conniff: I don’t think we could ever get the rights to “Skidoo.”
On the one hand, it would be a fun film to riff on, but on the other hand, it is, as you say, bad on its own merits and maybe it doesn’t need the Cinematic Titanic treatment to be enjoyed.