The West’s fantasy meets the far harsher reality. Now if only the Obama Administration would discard fantasy for reality after the manner of Adam Reed and Matt Thompson. But there is no hope of that. “‘Archer’ Drops ISIS: The FX Series Dumps the Spy Org’s Name in Light of Recent Events,” by Marlow Stern, Daily Beast, October 10, 2014:
Archer creator Adam Reed and executive producer Matt Thompson explain why they decided to erase ‘ISIS’ from the show, whose sixth season returns in January.
It seems, on the surface, like a throwaway shot. During the premiere episode of the sixth season of Archer, FX’s outrageously funny animated spy series, spy matriarch Malory Archer (Jessica Walter) is seen speaking on the phone with her juvenile, coddled son. In the background, you can see two movers rolling out a large, circular blue ISIS sign.
You see, for the past five seasons, ISIS (International Secret Intelligence Service) has been the name for the underground, non-government approved, New York City-based spy organization at the heart of the show. In light of recent events, however, the creative team behind the Emmy nominated series—creator Adam Reed along with executive producers Matt Thompson and Casey Willis—made a decision to quietly eliminate the acronym from their show.
“We quietly did,” Reed told The Daily Beast. “We were waiting for it to go away—at least I was. Back in Season 5, FX said, ‘This might be a thing,’ and I thought, ‘Maybe it won’t be? Maybe it’ll be the mole that I’m gonna ignore and nothing will happen.’ We got sort of lucky and could organically make a merger with the CIA, so we went back and retroactively painted out the ISIS logos in parts of the show, and we just don’t talk about it in dialogue.”
A different version of the premiere episode aired in July at San Diego Comic-Con, but the Archer creative team went back and added the scene of the movers rolling out the sign, and re-recorded dialogue of Malory explaining to her agent-son, Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin), that the CIA are now their overlords.
“We won’t say ISIS anymore, and the only visual representation of it will be that sign rolling off the show,” said exec producer Thompson. “It’s just the most awful thing, and we didn’t want to have anything to do with it. There were people online saying that we should address it and say, ‘Oh, I can’t believe these guys have co-opted our name.’ That’s the way South Park would do it, coming after them and saying, ‘These assholes stole our name,’ but that’s not the way the Archer universe works, where it’s all our own creations. In our universe, they don’t exist.”…
James says
Makes sense, I guess. One of the best TV series out there.
nacazo says
Azzlan goes down in flames….
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/10/12/reza-aslan-scoffs-that-you-can-only-be-a-credible-public-atheist-if-youre-a-religious-scholar-with-a-degree/
duh_swami says
ISIS has given all other ISIS including the goddess, a bad name.
I doubt she will change her name over it, but I don’t blame other ISIS who want to avoid negative associations.
epistemology says
That’s right. Only the goddess ISIS is much older. It’s disgusting how our life and our culture are influenced by these barbaric scumbags.
Ayatrollah says
I think they could have kept “Isis”. The group in question is the “Islamic state”. But making sport of Islam and Muslims is touchy business. Better to err on the side of caution. Islamic law trumps all.
Beagle says
General Dempsey said IS had a ‘straight shot into the Baghdad airport’ if Apache Longbows did not prevent an Iraqi unit from being overrun this past weekend.
Ominously, Susan Rice, the most reliable human counterfactual oracle in existence, said Obama’s strategy against IS is fine and ground troops will not be used in any case. Yes, as Kobani is falling and Baghdad is in danger of being encircled and the airport endangered. Rice’s timing, as usual, is impeccable.
If Baghdad does fall, I blame Kristen Stewart’s new movie on Gitmo.
Sounds like time to evacuate the foreign nationals from Baghdad.
Arafat says
OT
Write a comment for this article:
http://dailyprincetonian.com/opinion/2014/10/is-the-center-for-jewish-life-stifling-free-speech-on-campus/
Do not let Max Weiss get away with being a fifth column Jew.
ibn Muslim says
The ISIS image shows the globe with Europe, Middle East and Africa. The Caliphate doesn’t span Asia or Americas, yet.
jp says
I happily await the hijinks involved in the name change in the show universe. Love Archer. Love H Jon Benjamin.