Anachronism Stew / Archer

Malory: What year do you think this is?
Archer: I, uh— yeah, exactly. Good question.

Archer, according to Word of God, is deliberately an Anachronism Stew because they wanted a Mad Men feel, but also wanted cell phones so characters wouldn't have to find a payphone to call someone. The show subsequently contains cars from the '50s to the '70s; computers from the '80s that are capable of internet access, reel-to-reel mainframes and dot-matrix printers; décor, clothing and hairstyles from the '60s; and modern cell phones, pop culture references and racial and gender treatment. Some fans have managed to ascertain (based off Archer's stated birth date) that the time period is, at its most coherent, a very strange alternate version of The '70s or The '80s.

• Archer's age in the pilot is given as 35. His birth in Nazi-occupied Tangiers, Morocco, during an OSS operation just before the US entered World War II and a statement that Archer was five when Malory returned from the war indicate that he was born in 1940 and the pilot takes place in 1975. However, he's also shown as being around ten or younger while being read a telegram from Malory about Operation Ajax, conducted in 1953, and is stated to be six when Malory was part of the Guatemalan coup d'etat in 1954, changing his birthdate to 1948. He's also shown as a teenager in a setting that can't be any later than the late 1940s, which could push his birthdate as far back as 1927. This leads into Multiple-Choice Past, especially considering that in some episodes, Mallory is shown raising Wee Baby Seamus in the same way she would have raised Archer if she was present during his infant years, and in other episodes, Malory was completely absent from Archer's life from when he was a few days old to around five.
• Vehicles generally align with the show's stylistic timeframe, especially in earlier seasons:
  • Police cars in New York are 1963 Ford Galaxies but have the modern "blue on white" livery that the NYPD has used since the early '70s, license plates are the "Empire Gold" pattern — black band and orange NEW YORK at the top, orange background and black letters in the middle and EMPIRE STATE at the bottom — issued from April 2010 to May 2020.
  • Cadillacs are all 1967 models, while Lincoln limos are 1966 Continentals, but also appear with 1974 Mark IV Continentals.
  • Practically all airliners seen in the series are Boeing 707s. While the 707 was still in widespread passenger service as recently as the early to mid Eighties, the overwhelming predominance of 707s heavily suggests The '60s or early Seventies. In particular, "Pipeline Fever" shows a 707 (or possibly the 720 short-haul version) on a New York-New Orleans flight where by the mid Seventies a more fuel efficient short-haul type such as a Boeing 727 or 737 or a Douglas DC-9 would have been much more likely, while "The Papal Chase" shows a 707 on a New York-Rome flight where a higher-capacity widebody such as a Boeing 747, Douglas DC-10 or Lockheed L-1011 would have been more likely by the late Seventies.
  • A 747 is seen in the background in "Diversity Hire," implying that the episode takes place no earlier than the type's service entry date of 1970.
  • "Lowjacked" takes place on an airplane not unlike an Airbus A380, which began production in 2003.
  • "Sky Tunt", Cheryl's private jet sent out to pick Archer up from Vegas in "Nellis", is a Boeing 737 Classic, built from 1981 to 2000.
  • Beginning from season 11, the show makes increasingly noticeable use of blatantly modern vehicles. As of season 12, the newest car in the entire show is this 2012 Toyota Yaris that appears for a few seconds in traffic during the car chase in "Caught Napping".
• This mention of comedian Dane Cook, who was born in 1972 and did not even begin doing local stand-up comedy until 1990. He did not become a major comedian until the early-2000's:
  Cyril: Shouldn't I learn Karate or something?
  Archer: Karate? The Dane Cook of martial arts?!
  • Later in that conversation Krav Maga is mentioned. The martial art has only recently become known internationally but was created and began being taught in Israel sometime in the late '40s.
• The Soviet Union still exists, but the non-Russian republics are apparently independent and Germany is reunited (at least according to the map seen in the control room in season two), although Archer mentions the Stasi in season one. This possibly means that the show occurs in an Alternate History or Multiple-Choice Past^note Germany reunited in October 1990 but the USSR became a multi-party state ruled by a President in March of that year, with satellite republics declaring independence from March 1990 to December 1991; the Soviet Union announced its own dissolution on Christmas day 1991. The Lubyanka◊ has its symmetrical post-1983 façade◊ and is still KGB headquarters, and Leningrad is (again) referred to as St. Petersburg.
  • The KGB, which disbanded in 1991, is still around and serves as Russia's primary intelligence service.
  • There’s a picture of Stalin on Jakov’s wall, which would be extremely unusual after 1956.
• The Soviet soldiers in "White Nights" use (actual) AK-47s, with milled receivers. The AK-47 was replaced by the AKM, which has a cheaper stamped receiver around 1959, which was in turn nominally replaced by the 5.45x39mm AK-74 beginning in 1974, though it wasn't in full service until the the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980, and 7.62x39 rifles remain in service in large quantities in Russia.
• Lana carries twin TEC9s, which were produced form 1985 to 2001.
• Archer is stuck at the Casino de Montréal, which was built as the French and Quebéc Pavillions for Expo 67, and opened as the casino in 1993.
• Woodhouse and his squadron mates are World War I veterans, which, today, would make them at least 115 - not impossible, but extremely unlikely - but seem to be in their 70s or 80s, while Malory is a World War II veteran but is in her 50s or probably 60s.
  • In Real Life the last veteran of World War I passed away in February of 2012. (Most of the characters' backstories and ages also contradict an Alternate History contemporary setting, but Woodhouse is perhaps the strongest argument for the setting still being earlier than The '90s, despite all the modern references).
    • Woodhouse estimates the interest and exchange of his squadron's tontine — a principle of ₤1,200 held at 10% interest — at $1,000,000 US. This would be correct for the mid-'80s. Today, it would be closer to $60,000,000.
  • The season premiere of Dreamland gives a rare concrete date, namely Woodhouse's birth year and a possible current date. June 28th, 1894. Putting him in his mid 20's during the war. And though the last two numbers are blocked, his date of death is a 19XX.
  • Archer meets Kintaru Sato, a Japanese holdout in the season six premiere, and references a The Six Million Dollar Man episode, "The Last Kamikaze," that first aired in 1975. The last confirmed holdout was found in 1974, with rumors of more persisting for the next two decades. Like Malory and Ron, this would make Sato at least 90 years old today, despite appearing 70 at the most.
• Burt Reynolds appears with silver hair, like he had at the time of the episode's production.
• Zima was marketed in the US from 1993 to 2008.
• Flashbacks to Lana's college years have a '60's-'70's hippie aesthetic, complete with Lana sporting bell bottom jeans and a huge afro.
• In one episode, Archer references the character Wolverine and asks if anyone else at ISIS reads X-Men. X-Men was first published in 1963, while Wolverine didn't debut until 1974.
  • In a later episode, Pam and Archer have a conversation where they mention the Marvel Comics superheroes Cypher and Gambit. The two characters were created in 1984 and 1990, respectively.
  • In "Un Chien Tangerine," Archer references Nightcrawler, who debuted in 1975.
• In the Season 4 premier, Archer mentions the old Shazam! (1974) live-action show, which ran from 1974-1977. He also mentions She-Hulk, who debuted in 1980.
• In "Honeypot," Archer briefly talks about The Incredible Hulk, a character created in 1962.
• The president of Turkmenistan is explicitly identified as the then-current leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, but with several of the Bunny-Ears Lawyer traits of his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who served as head of state from 1985-2006.
• The moon landing has already happened and NASA is staffed primarily with ex-Nazis. The Moon landing happened in July 1969, while the Nazis recruited by the US government post-World War II retired or died in the 1970s-1990s.
• Archer is enemies with Shining Path, which was founded in 1980, and the Stasi, which existed from 1950 to 1990.
• Bearer-bonds are still issued. Because of their ease of use for money laundering (they have no registered owner and therefore leave no paper trail), issuance of new bearer bonds was ended by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.
• Archer mentions having seen Top Gun as a young man. The film was released in 1986.
  • "The Man From Jupiter" reveals Archer saw Smokey and the Bandit as a child. It was released in 1977.
• Rap music is already around and popular, as evidenced by the Running Gag featuring a song called "Mulatto Butts" and several references in "Midnight Ron."
• Krieger is explicitly stated to be a fan of the band Rush, who didn't form until 1968, and his van murals are based off the albums Caress of Steel (1975), Fly by Night (1975), Hemispheres (1979) and Exit: Stage Left... (1981). In season 11, his van is based on Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance (1982).
• In "Drift Problem", a 2002 Citrëon Jumper is in the background when Cheryl drives Malory to the drift race.
• The RCMP officers in "The Limited" ask the passengers to have their passports ready, and Sterling is stranded in Montréal because he burnt his passport in "Midnight Ron." Passport checks on the Canada-US border were required starting in 2008. The RCMP also use Webley Mk. IV revolvers in .38 S&W. The RCMP never issued Webley Mk IV revolvers, instead using Colt New Service revolvers ^note chambered in .45 Colt, .45 ACP and .455 Webley, depending on the region in which it was issued from its formation in 1920 from a merger of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, the Dominion Police and the Canadian Military Police Corps, which were replaced in the 1950s with Smith and Wesson Model 10 revolvers, which were replaced by SIG Sauer P226 and Smith and Wesson 5946 semiautomatic pistols in the late '80s.
  • The RCMP officers also wear Red Serge during a routine border check. The iconic Red Serge became Review Order (dress uniform) in 1920, and was replaced in operational wear by a brown tunic.
• "Space Race" has a multinational crew on a space station; the first station with multinational crews was the Soviet-launched Mir, which hosted the first astronaut from outside the Warsaw Pact in 1988, and received its first Space Shuttle^note maiden flight 1981 in 1995. The space station itself feels like something out of a science fiction novel and is more advanced than anything currently in orbit. Archer also jokes about Cyril destroying Alderaan, indicating that the show is set sometime after 1977.
• While the ISIS staff can be decidedly offensive at times, chances are their behavior towards Lana and Ray would be a lot different in the actual '50's or '60's.
• Ray is licensed to perform marriages but cannot get married himself. New York legalized same-sex marriage in mid-2011, just several months after that episode aired.
• North Korea can't make its own weapons-grade uranium; enrichment technology was introduced in that country in the mid '90s.
• Both "The Limited" and "Midnight Ron" show the current Canadian Maple Leaf flag, which replaced the Canadian Red Ensign in 1965.
• In "The Papal Chase," the Pope is Italian, this would place the episode sometime between the death of Dutch-born Pope Adrian VI in 1523 and the death of John Paul I in 1978 (given the Pope's role and appearance in the episode, this does leave the possibility of an Alternate History where either John Paul II, Benedict XVI or even Francis' place is taken by an Italian counterpart, although by the time Francis assumed the Papacy — which was also shortly before the episode aired — there had been no surviving World War I veterans for over a year).
  • In the same episode, Mallory mentions that she took Krieger to see The Wiz, both the Broadway musical and the film. The musical was on Broadway in the 1975 season, and the film was released in 1978.
  • Also in this episode, Archer mentions watching Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil, which aired from 2005 to 2007. ^note This is likely meant to be a reference to the fact that H.Jon Benjamin, who voices Archer, stars in both shows.
• In "Midnight Ron," the Russian tricolor flag can be seen, which contradicts the repeated references to the Soviet Union still existing and general sense of a Cold War setting, as well as multiple appearances of the Soviet hammer and sickle flag, but is consistent with the wall maps seen elsewhere in the series showing current international boundaries, yet in the following episode, "Viscous Coupling," Katya has a Soviet hammer and sickle flag on her office wall.
• In "Once Bitten," Malory makes a reference to the Soviet T-72 main battle tank, which entered production in 1970, in a plotline in which Turkmenistan and Russia are separate countries, which implies a post-1991 setting, though the T-72 is still in both production and frontline service.
• Madison Square Garden, built in 1968, is shown in New York.
• Among the technical drawings seen in the background of the opening credits is a schematic of a Soviet MiG-31 "Foxhound" interceptor (first flight 1975, service entry 1981). Another drawing is a ChryslerCorp blueprint-style sales brochure for the 1965 Imperial Crown coupe.
• The burn notice telex printout in "Job Offer" indicates that the DGFI (Bangladeshi Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, formed in 1972), CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service, formed in 1984), SAPO (Swedish Säkerhetspolisen, formed in 1989), TC2 (Vietnamese Tổng cục Tình báo, officially established in 1990 but probably in de facto existence earlier), KAPO (Estonian Internal Security Service, re-established after Estonia regained independence from the USSR in 1991), ABIN (Agência Brasileira de Inteligência, formed in 1999), and the CNI (Spanish Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, formed in 2002) already exist.
• The "Whisper Drive" submarine propulsion system (itself presumably a Shout-Out to the 1984 novel and 1990 film The Hunt for Red October) mentioned in "Diversity Hire" is explicitly stated in schematics seen onscreen to be installed in a modified Russian (or possibly Soviet in-universe) Borei-class (Project 935) submarine. In Real Life, the first Borei-class submarine, RFS Yuri Dolgorukiy K-535, was laid down in 1996, launched in 2008 and commissioned in 2013.
• Also in "Diversity Hire," Conway says that the Chinese will pay "five times" as much as "those broke-ass Cubans," which implies a recent (i.e. at least The '90s, if not later) setting, after China's emergence as a major economic power and Cuba's loss of Soviet patronage.
• Additionally, the entire plot of "Diversity Hire" is kicked off when Mallory hires a new black employee so that ISIS can benefit from government tax incentives. She is presumably referencing the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which wasn't created until 1996.
• In "The Wind Cries Mary," Archer uses a USB flash drive, which was invented in 1999.
• In Archer Vice: A Debt of Honor Ron mentions trying reefer in 1940, 74 years before the episode aired, but he appears to be in his sixties like Malory and was shown in season four to have served in World War II.
• In "Swiss Miss," Anka is seen playing a handheld videogame of some kind, suggesting the episode takes place at least as recently as The '80s. Of course, the same episode features (presumably) Spanish terrorists heavily implied to be Communist-aligned as the main antagonists, which strongly suggests that the episode doesn't take place any later than The '80s.
  • Likewise, Mallory has everyone smuggle as much Swiss absinthe as they can carry. Absinthe production was banned in Switzerland from 1910 to 2005.
• The primary sidearm of the Soviet Union appears to be the Tokarev TT-33. The Tokarev was phased out of service and replaced by the Makarov PM in 1952. Russian production of the Tokarev ended in 1954, though is still in service (and production) with former republics, clients and satellite states, such as North Korea.
• In "Palace Intrigue", Lana asks Archer if he's ever seen The Thomas Crown Affair. Based on the context (the high value of fine art), it is clear she means the 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan (about art theft) and not the 1968 original with Steve McQueen (actor) (about a bank robbery), though confusingly Lana implies that McQueen starred in the remake, or that the original was about art theft, not a bank robbery.
• In "Pipeline Fever," the alligator attack that Archer mentions as happening "two years ago" really occurred in 1989.
• In "Placebo Effect," Krieger is revealed to be one of the The Boys from Brazil. The novelization was published in 1975, and the film released in 1978, though it's possible that in-universe the book is Very Loosely Based on a True Story, or a work of fiction and just used as a comparison by Pam.
• In "Double Trouble," we see Manhattan from Barry's traffic-jammed cab on the Brooklyn Bridge. We do not see the World Trade Center in the skyline, placing the time period either after 2001 or before completion or near completion of WTC 1 in 1970. On the other hand, the depiction of the Brooklyn Bridge is a somewhat poor representation of the real bridge.
• In "House Call", Archer switches a lever opening a secret passageway, addressing it as an obvious Scooby-Doo trope. Scooby-Doo premiered in 1969.
• In "A Going Concern," Archer uses the phrase "drill, baby, drill." This phrase became popularized after Michael Steele used it at the 2008 Republican Convention.
• In "Palace Intrigue Part II," Cyril is called "Michael Du-cockless," referencing Michael Dukakis' infamous tank photograph taken on September 13, 1988.
• Malory mentions Archer wanting to meet Mr. Green Jeans (from Captain Kangaroo) as a child while Archer mentions Captain Kangaroo by name in a video conference with the Captain-Regent of San Marino in "The Rock". Captain Kangaroo aired between 1955 and 1984 (with a short-lived reboot airing in the late 90s).
• In "Holdout," the cargo plane Archer drops from is a C-47/DC-3, which is still used in certain regions, but has the D-Day black-and-white friendly aircraft identifying stripes. This paint scheme was ordered removed from all aircraft by the end of 1944 and the aircraft would have long since been repainted, especially given its use by a (real) CIA front used for agent delivery.
• All the climbing equipment in "The Archer Sanction" is fairly modern, say '80s at the earliest.
• There are several Star Wars references. Vader overthrowing Palpatine is mentioned, suggesting a time date of 1983 or later. It's true that Palpatine's real name wasn't known to the general public until 1999's Episode I (though it did appear in Expanded Universe stories prior to that), but that observation is probably just splitting hairs.
  • Pam calls Krieger "clone wars" (zing!) during a Snark-to-Snark Combat. Though the wars are referenced in the original trilogy, it was not a common term until after 2002's Episode II and 2003's Star Wars: Clone Wars.
• The Formula One racers seen at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix are of a style used from the early to mid-sixties.
• Stargate gets a reference at one point, the film came out in 1994.
• An app on cellphones is mentioned, called Snacklesnap, "where you take artsy photos of your food and share it with people." It's an obvious parody of Instagram and/or Pinterest (though the name also seems to reference Snapchat), both of which launched in 2010, while Snapchat launched in 2011.
• In "Smuggler's Blues", Archer lists off a number of US-sponsored coups against democratically-elected governments, such as that in Guatemala (1982), implying them to be relatively recent before finishing off his list by mentioning the mujahadeen as currently active in Afghanistan.
• A truly bizarre juxtaposition in Archer Vice: Baby Shower involves the mention of Krieger using cryptocurrency, which the world was introduced to in 2009...on computers that look ridiculously ancient by today's standards and appear to just consist of green text on a black background.
• In Reignition Sequence, Cheryl compares Lana to Groot. While Groot debuted in an obscure story in 1960, his entrance into mainstream pop culture didn't occur until around 2014.
• In Archub Y Morfilod, Cyril, Krieger, Pam and Cheryl have an argument about whether M*A*S*H had any black characters. Cyril points out Captain Spearchucker Jones, mentioning that it was "not that long ago". Captain Jones appeared in five episodes in the first season, which aired in 1972 (though the show did have other black characters). In the same argument, Trapper John, M.D. is mentioned. Trapper John, M.D. aired from 1979 to 1986.
• In "Pocket Listing", Lana refers to Slater as "Wile-E Coyote with Predator Drones". Predators did not enter service until the late-1990's, and were not considered a major part of U.S. military and espionage until several years after that. While we're at it: Wile-E Coyote; 1948-present.
• According to IMDB, "TV's Michael Gray", of Shazam! (1974), has been in retirement from acting since 1976 yet Archer instantly recognizes his name. Moments before Archer mistakes TV's Michael Gray for Slim Goodbody. Mr. Goodbody: Created in 1975, last seen in 2014.
• Malory references Kickstarter twice in Drastic Voyage Part 2. Kickstarter launched in April 2009.
• In "Live and Let Dine", Cheryl books a reservation at an exclusive restaurant by — based on Casteau's side of the conversation — claiming to be a Kennedy, though to Casteau's relief not related through Ted Kennedy. This and a later line of dialogue imply Ted Kennedy is still alive. Ted Kennedy passed away in 2009.
• The term "selfie," which became widely used sometime in the early 2010s, is used in "Drastic Voyage Part 1."
• In Nellis, when the crew get shot down and land at Area 51 and a Lieutenant Colonel doesn't believe Archer's cover story but he knows he has Q-Clearance, Archer then proceeds to threaten him by saying the CIA will involuntarily use him as a test subject for the project MK ULTRA. The project was discontinued in 1973 (although a CIA veteran by the name of Victor Marchetti claimed that they didn't stop in 1973 and it likely continued). The above isn't helped by the fact that Slater in the episode Liquid Lunch implied it was discontinued and the experiment happened in the past, while Archer's threat in Nellis implied it is still taking place in the present, though he was bluffing, so it's likely he didn't know the truth.
• Cyril mentions being part of a Warhammer guild while in San Marcos as dictator, and he claims that this is part of the reason why he could make such a military turnaround for the San Marcan army. Warhammer first appeared in 1983, while its more popular science-fiction counterpart Warhammer 40,000 (which might come to mind more quickly when one hears the word "Warhammer") came out in 1987.
• "You know, the FRESHMAKER!" "The Freshmaker" was the 80s-90s slogan for Mentos.
• In "Movie Star," Pam mentions a time she got distracted by Joe Frazier almost drowning on The Superstars and left porn in her VCR. The incident (in which the boxer tried to swim in an athletic competition despite not knowing how to swim) occurred in February 1973 (while devices which record video on cassettes were introduced in 1956, the Philips "VCR" format was introduced in 1972, making it possible to own a VCR when Joe Frazier nearly drowned).
• In "Blood Test," Malory reveals that Woodhouse shot William S. Burroughs' wife in Mexico. The flashback shows him holding a Colt Python. Burroughs' wife died in 1951, but Colt introduced the Python in 1955.
• Per "Deadly Velvet: Part 2," John Huston is still alive. He died in 1987.
• In "Legs," Krieger claims the door to his lab was built from metal from the German "pocket battleship" (later heavy cruiser) Admiral Graf Spee, scuttled off Uruguay in December 1939. Salvage operations on the Graf Spee began in 2004.
• In "The Limited", Kenny shouts "extraordinary rendition" when boarding the train (he had been extradited by the Canadian government, for the record). The first known case of extraordinary rendition occurred in September 1987.
• In "Arrival/Departure", when Mallory is describing what's going to happen now that the San Marcos government has officially collapsed, she claims she's "Witnessed coups from Angola to Zanzibar". The Angolan civil war started in 1967 and ended in 2002 while the Zanzibar revolution happened in 1978.
• In "Placebo Effect", Archer ties up a bunch of Irish mobsters and Honduran janitors and pretends to play a game of Family Feud to find out the mobsters' boss; that show debuted in 1976, with revivals in 1988 and 1999.
• In Archer Dreamland, set in 1947, Lana sings "Fever". Fever was written and first performed in 1956. However, the season is a coma dream by Archer.
• In "Bloody Ferlin", Archer mentions that whoever is in the armory could be "building a Gundam suit with bazookas for hands." The first Gundam series was created in 1979, but the franchise was Japanese-only until the English dub of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing premiered in 2000.
• In "Papal Chase", Cheryl mentions Bishop, the android from Aliens, which came out in 1986. In "El Contador" and "The Wind Cries Mary", Archer mentions Predator, which came out in 1987.
• In "The Wind Cries Mary", Malory lists Lutèce as one of the restaurants the staff are forbidden to have lunch at. Lutèce opened in 1961 and closed in 2004.
• In "Shots", Archer claims to have blown the whistle on Charles Van Doren cheating on 21, which occurred in the 1956 season, but the scandal broke when the evidence came to light in mid-1958.
• In "London Time", Lana calls Archer "Max Eisenhardt", which Archer identifies as Magneto, but Magneto only took this name in "X-Men: Magneto Testament", published in 2008. Before that, he was known as Erik Lensheer.

---