Who doesn't love a spy thriller? Add a few KGB spies living in Virginia with a next-door neighbor working for the FBI and place it during the height of the Cold War and that my friends is quality television at its best. The Americans might not have been the most critically acclaimed masterpiece that FX has drawn up over the years but that doesn't make it less of a masterpiece.
Over the course of six seasons, it was a rating behemoth, helping one of the lead stars, Matthew Rhys, win a Primetime Emmy Award. While it might have had a legion of fans, there are still things that many fans are still unaware of about the show.
10 The Show's Creator Worked For The CIA
Not very many writers working on television shows have the background Joseph Weisberg has. After graduating from college, Weisberg joined the CIA, where he served for over four years. After leaving the CIA, he became a teacher, before finally taking a job as a writer for TNT's Falling Skies.
Throughout his time as a writer for TV shows, Weisberg has created quite a name for himself for his captivating storytelling but it was actually his experience working at the CIA that helped him create the award-winning The Americans for FX.
9 Matthew Rhys Is Neither American Nor Russian
Some stars are just masters of disguise at how they can turn themselves into someone completely different on a whim. Some are even able to master completely different accents to sell their role. Matthew Rhys who plays a Soviet spy in the series is neither American nor Russian.
In fact, the actor is Welsh, growing up in Cardiff, Wales until moving stateside to be an actor. He even has a pretty heavy accent of his own, which makes the feat all the more unbelievable at just how authentic his American accent sounded.
8 The Showrunners Have No Idea What Is Being Said Onscreen
Since the show has many scenes that deal with Russian being spoken onscreen by the actors and actresses playing their roles, fans might think the showrunners understand what they are hearing. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the showrunners write the Russian dialogue in English before having it translated into Russian.
So, when the scenes are taking place, there is no clear way to know if the characters are speaking correctly until after the scene is finished. If this sounds like a confusing, convoluted way to produce a TV show, it's because it is.
7 The Show Is Partly Based Off Of A True Story
It might sound like something straight out of a James Bond film but, the reality is that in 2010 real-life Soviet spies were found living under everyday Americans' noses, posing as next-door neighbors and car-pooling moms. When the United States uncovered this spy ring, they learned that these spies had uncovered top-secret documents and sent it back home to the Kremlin.
These spies were never tried, instead, the United States government traded them with Russia for Americans Russia was holding prisoners. It is this case that The Americans is inspired by.
6 Felicity Wig Onset
For those familiar with Keri Russell's career, many will remember the late '90s early 2000s WB TV show Felicity. It was about a girl who had a serious crush on a guy that didn't know she existed only for him to move away to college and her to follow him in the hope of finally finding a connection with him.
Well, that girl, on that television show, was Keri Russell. Surprisingly enough, The Americans have a wig that resembles her hair on the show. Sadly, the wig was never used in an episode.
5 Keri Russell Was Pregnant With Son During Filming
The story of how Keri Russell who plays Elizabeth Jennings on the show managed to hide her baby bump while filming season 4 is nothing short of Hollywood magic. Russell's character on the show wasn't pregnant, so it posed quite a conundrum for the director.
However, the filmmakers got away with it by shooting most of the season in the winter months, so that Russell would be wearing heavy coats and sweaters. By the end of filming, she was noticeably pregnant, so instead of using coats to hide the pregnancy, they turned to CGI to cover her growing stomach.
4 All The Russian Characters On The Show Are Played By Actors Who Are Fluent In Russian
Some actors or actresses can just wing their lines when they are speaking in a foreign tongue but not on The Americans. With all the Russian spoken on the show, it would have taken weeks if not months for the actors to learn their lines to pronounce it accurately.
Thankfully, that wasn't a problem as all of the characters who played Russian characters on the show could speak Russian fluently. Even though, it wasn't their native language. Turns out, these actors were not just cunningly talented rehearsing their roles, they are calculatingly smart as well.
3 The Actor Who Played Agent Chris Amador Knew His Fate
When it comes to television series, the actors or actresses playing the parts usually don't know their character's fate until right before filming for the upcoming season begins. But there are a few exceptions to this rule, as some actors know that their character doesn't have long onscreen.
As for FBI agent Chris Amador, the actor who played the part Maximiliano Hernández was one of the unlucky ones, learning just a few episodes before being killed off that his character wasn't going to make it to next season.
2 Props Have Multiple Roles
When it comes to props used on TV shows and movies, they usually are expendable unless they might hold some value for the actors or actresses playing the role. In really popular productions certain props can even be found in museums. However, that is not the case for some of The Americans' props as multiple ones were used and reused by multiple characters.
In a few instances, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys shared everything from wigs to glasses throughout their time on the show. In fact, this was commonplace for many of the props on The Americans.
1 The Garage Scene With Stan And The Jennings' Family Went Through Multiple Drafts
Sometimes the writers just know all the moving pieces of where they are going to place each character in the end. Some even backtrack, writing the ending before anything else.
However, when it comes to the scene in The Americans where the Jennings' family is trying to flee only to be confronted by their former friend Stan in their garage, it was a confrontation that went through multiple rewrites even while the scene was taking place. In fact, some parts of the scene are even moved around in different places to make it that much more epic.
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