112 Fun Facts About The Americans

What became a running trademark of the spies in The Americans?

Wigs are the Jenningses' signature: the critics' consensus on season 2 praised more excitement 'and wigs', and one season 5 recap was headlined simply 'New Wigs, New Family'.

In The Americans' pilot, what does Philip propose that Elizabeth flatly rejects?

Switching sides is Philip's plan: hand their captive to the FBI and stay for good as real Americans. Elizabeth refuses outright, and the argument sets the two spies against each other.

Which Phil Collins hit plays as Philip and Elizabeth drive off to dispose of a body in The Americans' pilot?

In the Air Tonight carries the couple from the killing to a reconciliation in their car, a cue so tied to Miami Vice's 1984 pilot that Vulture's reviewer admitted laughing out loud.

In season 3 of The Americans, what does Philip remove for Elizabeth with a pair of pliers?

A damaged tooth, hurt in a fight with FBI agents, turns too painful to ignore, so Philip does the dentistry himself at home, in the laundry room.

In which Virginia suburb do the Jenningses live?

Falls Church, Virginia, is the Jenningses' quiet suburban base, and in the pilot an FBI counter-intelligence agent moves in as their neighbour, putting the man hunting them on their own street.

What cover business do Philip and Elizabeth run?

Their cover is a travel agency, Dupont Circle Travel; by the final season Philip has quit spying to run it full time as it loses money.

Which sport do Philip and his FBI neighbour regularly play together in The Americans?

Racquetball is where the spy and the FBI man hunting him become friends; one early game breaks off when Stan's pager goes and he hurries away to a secret meeting.

Who plays FBI agent Stan Beeman in The Americans?

Noah Emmerich almost turned the part down because he was done with guns and badges; a director friend had to tell him he would be crazy to refuse.

In The Americans' pilot, what does Philip try on in a store before breaking into a line dance?

Cowboy boots: Philip boot-scoots to Juice Newton's 'Queen of Hearts' while his daughter cringes, an early hint that he enjoys American life far more than Elizabeth does.

What ceremony do Philip and Elizabeth secretly go through in season 5 of The Americans?

A Russian Orthodox wedding: after years on a forged licence from their spy bosses, Philip takes Elizabeth to a hideout where a priest weds them under their real names.

In The Americans' pilot, what does Philip use on the man who leered at his young daughter?

A barbecue fork: disguised, Philip finds the man grilling in his back yard, comes close to killing him with it and warns him to stay away from little girls.

Which arms-control agreement is about to be signed as The Americans reaches its finale?

The INF Treaty, signed at the December 1987 Washington summit, hangs over the final season: Soviet hardliners plot against Gorbachev's negotiator, and Elizabeth must decide whether to help them.

How did FX choose to end The Americans when it renewed the show in 2016?

Two final seasons, ordered together as 13 episodes and then 10, gave the writers a fixed finish line two years away; the show ended on 75 episodes.

Which Fleetwood Mac song plays over the opening chase in The Americans' pilot?

Tusk powers the chase, but the kidnappers still miss the ship that was to carry their captive to Russia and must hide him in the trunk of the family car.

What is the title of The Americans' series finale?

START settles the spy story with words rather than bullets: nobody dies in the finale, yet the Jennings family is torn apart all the same.

Which U2 song plays over the Jenningses' final train journey in The Americans?

With or Without You risked cliché, reviewers at The A.V. Club and Collider admitted, yet both came away won over by how the finale used it.

Where does Stan finally confront the Jenningses in The Americans' finale?

In a parking garage, Stan draws his gun on the fleeing family, hears them out, and then steps aside to let them drive away.

What last American meal do Philip, Elizabeth and Paige eat in the finale?

Their last American meal is at a McDonald's on the drive north; on the train they then sit apart as strangers.

To which city is the Jenningses' escape train heading in The Americans' finale?

Montreal is the destination; at the Rouses Point crossing, border agents carrying sketches of the wanted spies check the disguised pair and still wave them through.

What shocks Philip and Elizabeth as the train leaves the United States?

They see Paige standing alone on the platform, having slipped off the train; she returns to Claudia's abandoned safe house and pours a vodka.

Which Dire Straits song plays as the Jenningses gather their disguises to flee in The Americans' finale?

Brothers in Arms plays as the family collects disguises and passports; soon after, they phone Henry for a goodbye he cannot know is final.

Whom does Philip warn Stan about before leaving?

Renee, Stan's new wife, may be a Soviet plant, Philip warns him in their last conversation; the series ends without ever saying whether he was right.

What passports do the Jenningses use to escape?

Canadian passports carry the disguised Jenningses through the border check; first they stop to bury every trace of their American identities in a small hole.

Who is arrested by the FBI in the final episodes after picking up a dead drop?

Oleg Burov is arrested by the FBI after retrieving a dead drop; he came to the US without diplomatic cover, so he faces prison rather than expulsion.

In season 2 of The Americans, propeller plans stolen by the Jenningses turn out to be decoys that doom what?

A Soviet submarine sinks because the propeller plans the Jenningses stole were planted decoys; learning of it leaves Philip demoralized about what his own success has cost.

The Americans' pilot director Gavin O'Connor also made which 2011 film about brothers in a mixed martial arts tournament?

Warrior, like several of O'Connor's earlier films, features the actor who plays Stan; it was O'Connor who phoned his reluctant friend to say he would be crazy to pass on the series.

Whom do the Jenningses kidnap in The Americans' pilot?

A KGB defector, Timoshev, is the target; he had raped Elizabeth during her training, and when Philip learns of it he kills the man in their garage.

What does Stan borrow from Philip in the pilot that lets him see the Jenningses' car?

Jumper cables bring Stan face to face with the Jenningses' car, which matches the one used in the kidnapping; later he sneaks back at night to search its trunk and finds nothing.

Which computer network is Philip ordered to bug in season 2 of The Americans?

ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet, has to be explained to Philip: posing as a journalist, he quizzes a computer scientist, then breaks into the university with a hard-drinking reporter as his helper.

What is Elizabeth's Russian birth name?

Nadezhda is the name she can reclaim only in the finale, when she goes home to a country she left more than twenty years earlier and no longer knows.

What is Philip's Russian name in The Americans?

Philip was born Mikhail, called Mischa; he later learns that Irina bore him a son, also named Mischa, back in the USSR.

Where does Elizabeth take Paige for a secret meeting with her Russian grandmother in season 3 of The Americans?

West Berlin: the two expect to cross into East Germany, but Elizabeth's mother is brought to their hotel room instead, and Paige finally meets her grandmother.

Who paired off Philip and Elizabeth in The Americans?

A general paired them off: the two trainees met as strangers, were handed a shared cover as husband and wife and sent to America, where Elizabeth at first kept Philip at arm's length.

Which KGB recruit was Elizabeth's long-time lover in The Americans?

Gregory Thomas, the activist she recruited and loved before committing to Philip, is the face Elizabeth dreams of on her flight out of America in the finale.

Whose study do the Jenningses bug with a clock in season 1?

They bug Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's study in the episode 'The Clock'; Philip poses as a Swedish intelligence officer to obtain photos of the room.

Under which false identity does Philip romance FBI secretary Martha?

Clark is the alias Philip keeps up for years, even becoming Martha's husband under it; only when her cover collapses in season 4 does he tell her his real name.

Who plays Martha Hanson in The Americans?

Alison Wright plays Martha, the FBI secretary who falls for a man who does not exist and is finally spirited away to Russia when the Bureau closes in.

What is Martha allowed to do in the USSR in season 5?

Adopt an orphan: in the season 5 finale her language tutor, who has spoken with Gabriel, takes her to a Moscow park to meet Olya, a little girl from an orphanage.

Who is Nina Krilova?

An embassy clerk turned KGB agent and Stan's informant, Nina is blackmailed by Stan into spying for the FBI, and he then falls for her.

What happens to Nina in season 4 of The Americans?

She is executed in a Soviet prison: an officer tells her the appeal has failed, and she is shot in the back of the head before she can take it in.

Who plays Nina Krilova in The Americans?

Annet Mahendru, the daughter of a Russian mother, speaks six languages, Russian among them, which the show's subtitled embassy scenes put to full use.

Who is Oleg when he first arrives at the Rezidentura?

The Science and Technology officer, a government minister's son, joins the Rezidentura in season 2 and soon falls for Nina.

Who plays Oleg Burov in The Americans?

Costa Ronin plays Oleg, a government minister's privileged son who falls for Nina.

Who is the KGB Rezident played by Lev Gorn in The Americans?

Arkady Ivanovich Zotov runs the KGB station in Washington; by season 6 he is back in Moscow as deputy chief of Directorate S, quietly working to shield Gorbachev from his own service.

Who plays the Jenningses' handler Claudia?

Margo Martindale plays Claudia, who by the final season is steering Elizabeth into a hardliners' plot against Gorbachev.

Which role in The Americans won its actress two guest Emmys?

Claudia, the Jenningses' KGB handler, brought her actress the guest-actress Emmy for seasons three and four; once Gabriel went home to Russia, the role grew into a main part for the final season.

Who plays handler Gabriel?

Frank Langella plays Gabriel, the couple's old handler, who comes back into service in season 3 and goes home to Russia in season 5.

Who plays FBI supervisor Frank Gaad?

Richard Thomas plays Frank Gaad, whose FBI career collapses when his own secretary turns out to have been spying for the KGB.

What does Gaad break in a fit of temper, giving the KGB an opening?

Gaad kicks and damages the FBI's mail robot; the Jenningses bug it at the repair shop, where Elizabeth encounters the bookkeeper Betty.

What does Elizabeth let bookkeeper Betty do after revealing she is a Russian spy?

Overdose on her heart medication: Elizabeth lets Betty swallow the pills rather than die violently, and the old woman uses her last minutes to ask whether this really makes the world better.

Which actress plays Paige Jennings throughout The Americans?

Holly Taylor plays Paige, the daughter who confronts her parents in season 3 about why their family isn't normal and is finally told that they are Soviet spies.

Which Reagan speech plays on television as season 3 of The Americans ends?

The 'Evil Empire' speech of March 8, 1983 gives the finale its title; Elizabeth is drawn to Reagan's words on television just as Philip tries to confess his doubts to her.

In which country is Frank Gaad killed during a botched KGB approach in season 4 of The Americans?

Thailand is where the retired FBI man is on holiday when three KGB officers arrive with a proposal; he bolts, crashes through a glass door and bleeds to death as they apologise.

Whom does Paige tell her parents' secret to?

Pastor Tim hears it from a tearful Paige by phone; the Jenningses and their handlers debate killing him and his wife, then set out to win the couple's trust instead.

Which teenage girl does Philip cultivate in The Americans because of her CIA father?

Kimmy Breland, played by Julia Garner, is the lonely daughter of a senior CIA officer; Philip poses as an older friend to get a bug into her father's briefcase.

What does Gabriel supply to help Philip bond with a teenage contact in season 3 of The Americans?

Afghani marijuana is Gabriel's contribution to an evening alone with the CIA man's daughter; once she passes out, Philip measures her father's briefcase for a bug.

In season 4 of The Americans, Elizabeth befriends Young Hee, who sells which brand of cosmetics?

Mary Kay consultant Young Hee believes she has found a real friend in 'Patty'; Elizabeth is working her to get at her husband Don, and drugs him so he thinks they slept together.

Which disease agent does William hand the Jenningses in season 4's premiere?

In the season 4 premiere William hands over a vial of glanders; Philip finds it unbroken in his pocket after Stan slams him against a wall.

How does William Crandall die at the end of season 4?

He infects himself with a virus: cornered by the FBI, William breaks a vial of Lassa into his own hand. Dying in quarantine, he rambles about a spy couple with kids, a clue Stan recalls years later.

Where do the Jenningses dig up William's body in season 5's premiere?

Fort Detrick, the Army's biodefence research base, is where William lies in a sealed metal casket; Hans slips into the grave and cuts his hand, and Elizabeth shoots him on the spot.

Where do the Jenningses finally take the kids on a family trip in season 4?

Epcot was first planned as an alibi: the Centre wanted the family out of town while two people who knew their secret were killed. They finally went once Gabriel gave them a break from new operations.

Which 1983 TV film unsettles the characters about nuclear war in season 4?

The Day After, ABC's film of a nuclear strike on Kansas, was screened in advance for the president, who wrote in his diary that it left him 'greatly depressed'; in the show nearly every character sits down to watch.

Which televised event are Paige and Matthew watching at Stan's house as season 4 ends?

Super Bowl XVIII, in January 1984, saw Washington's own team lose heavily to the Raiders; Paige and Matthew kiss during the game, and a furious Philip tells her never to see the FBI man's son again.

Which self-help programme do Philip and Stan's ex-wife Sandra both attend?

EST, the Erhard Seminars Training craze, draws in Sandra first; Stan tries a seminar to win her back and finds it stupid, while Philip keeps returning on his own and ends up confiding in her.

In season 5, what cover identities do the Jenningses use to work the Morozov family?

An airline pilot and a flight attendant, Brad and Dee Eckert, are the cover; their 'adopted son' Tuan, a young Vietnamese agent, befriends the defector's lonely boy at school to get the family through the door.

What crop does Elizabeth learn the US programme in Topeka is really trying to breed?

The program is breeding pest-resistant wheat, not pests to wreck Soviet crops as the Centre assumed; Philip is crushed by guilt over a needless killing.

Whom do the Jenningses execute in season 5's "Dyatkovo"?

A suspected Nazi collaborator and her husband are shot at home near Boston: Anna admits at gunpoint that she carried out executions after the Germans killed her family, and Elizabeth fires when Philip cannot.

How do the Jenningses dispose of Annelise's body in season 3?

In a suitcase: after Yousaf strangles Annelise, Philip promises to make the problem go away, and the Jenningses break her bones so that the body will fit.

What is the "Dead Hand" that gives season 6's premiere its title?

A Soviet doomsday device, Dead Hand would launch a nuclear counterstrike automatically if the leadership were wiped out; in the show, generals plot to oust Gorbachev if he bargains it away.

Which song opens season 6 of The Americans, three years on?

Don't Dream It's Over, by Crowded House, plays over the opening montage, which jumps three years to autumn 1987: Philip has left spying for office life, while an exhausted Elizabeth carries on alone.

What has Henry become by season 6?

A hockey player at boarding school: Henry stars for St. Edward's in New Hampshire by 1987. In the season 5 finale Philip had told him he could not go, because his parents secretly meant to move the family to the USSR.

Whom does Elizabeth kill in "Jennings, Elizabeth" to protect Gorbachev's negotiator?

Tatiana had been sent as her replacement to assassinate Nesterenko.

What does Philip do to Marilyn's body after she is shot dead in "Harvest"?

Cuts off the head and hands: Philip uses an axe so that Marilyn, shot by the FBI as she drove the getaway van in Chicago, can never be identified; Elizabeth throws them into the water in a bag.

What does dying artist Erica Haskard make her nurse, Elizabeth in disguise, take up in season 6?

Drawing: Erica makes the nurse she knows as Stephanie sketch the dark parts of a mug and keeps setting her homework, though Elizabeth had told her she was not into art.

Which real spy case partly inspired Weisberg to write The Americans?

The FBI's Illegals Program arrests of 2010 exposed Russian sleeper agents living as ordinary Americans; Weisberg moved the idea back to the early 1980s because the two countries no longer seemed like real enemies.

Whose smuggled KGB notes were among Weisberg's research materials?

Vasili Mitrokhin's notes were handwritten copies of secret files he made as a KGB archivist, which reached the West when he defected to Britain in 1992; Weisberg mined them for the show.

Which producer read Weisberg's pilot script and helped develop The Americans?

Graham Yost had just read Weisberg's novel when he learned the author had also written a pilot; he found the script 'annoyingly good' and attached himself to it as a producer.

Whose idea was it to cast Keri Russell in The Americans?

FX president John Landgraf's was the light-bulb moment: Weisberg had no one in mind for the leads until Landgraf said her name, and a DreamWorks casting head then spotted Matthew Rhys in a play.

Where was The Americans mostly filmed?

The show was filmed mostly in New York City, with Brooklyn streets and other outer-borough locations standing in for the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

Which storm delayed early filming of season 1?

Hurricane Sandy flooded the show's studio in late 2012 and pushed back the shoot; filming on the rest of the first season got going that November.

Which co-showrunner did FX pair with Weisberg?

Joel Fields was FX's suggestion as a second showrunner and head writer after Weisberg had written the first two episodes; the pair went on to write the series finale together and win an Emmy for it.

Which member of The Who wrote a song for "Yousaf", an episode of The Americans?

Pete Townshend wrote "It Must Be Done" with the show's composer after the two spent a couple of months trading musical ideas; it plays over a scene billed as 'sex and murder'.

Which Peter Gabriel song plays over the closing montage of the season 1 finale of The Americans?

Games Without Frontiers plays as the season ends on its loose threads: Martha slips on her wedding ring, and Paige, suspicious of her mother, goes poking around the laundry room.

Nathan Barr, the composer of The Americans, also scored which HBO supernatural drama?

True Blood kept Nathan Barr as its composer for all seven seasons; he had started out in Hollywood as an assistant to Hans Zimmer before striking out on his own.

Which honour did The Americans win twice?

A Peabody Award came first for 2014; the jurors then gave what they called a rare second Peabody for 2018, for ending one of TV's best dramas with one of its best finales.

Which Golden Globe did The Americans win for its final season?

Best Television Series – Drama was the show's only Golden Globe, and it came in January 2019, months after the series had ended; Rhys and Russell were both nominated that night and lost.

Which car does Philip buy himself in season 2 of The Americans?

A Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 comes home from the dealership with Philip and Henry, a sign of how taken he is with the American life he is meant to be fighting; Elizabeth is not pleased.

In season 5, the Jenningses are surprised to learn that Henry is excelling in which school subject?

Mathematics: a teacher tells the delighted Jenningses that Henry belongs in an advanced class; they had rarely seen him study, and Henry resents how amazed they are.

Which 1990s WB series won Russell a Golden Globe?

Felicity won Keri Russell the 1999 Golden Globe for playing a student who drops her plans for pre-med at Stanford to follow her high-school crush to a university across the country.

On which Disney Channel show did Russell start out at 15?

The Mickey Mouse Club's 1990s revival took on Keri Russell in 1991 and proved a launch pad: the Mouseketeers she worked beside included Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling.

What is true of Russell and Rhys off screen?

They became a couple during the show, about a year into its run: the actors playing two spies who pose as husband and wife fell for each other for real, and later had a son.

Where was Rhys born?

Cardiff, Wales, is Matthew Rhys's home city; he left it for London in 1993 to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Which ABC family drama made Rhys's name in America before The Americans?

Brothers & Sisters had the British actor playing an American, lawyer Kevin Walker, for five seasons before he played a Russian passing as one.

Which Spielberg film cast Rhys as Daniel Ellsberg?

The Post cast Rhys as Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who secretly photocopied the Pentagon Papers and leaked them to the press in 1971, setting off the newsroom battle the film follows.

The actor who plays Stan Beeman is best known for which Jim Carrey film?

The Truman Show (1998) cast him as Marlon, Truman's best friend, who like everyone else in Truman's life is secretly an actor playing a part.

The actress who plays Claudia played Mags Bennett on which series?

Justified cast her as Mags Bennett, a Kentucky crime matriarch who poisons a man with her moonshine early in the season and, cornered at its end, drinks a poisoned glass of it herself.

Which Broadway role won the actor who plays Gabriel a 2007 Tony?

Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon won him the 2007 Tony; he had created the part in London's West End and went on to repeat it in the 2008 film.

The actor who plays Frank Gaad is best known as John-Boy on which series?

The Waltons made him a star as John-Boy, the eldest son of a Depression-era mountain family; he left in 1977 after five seasons, and the series ran on for four more.

Julia Garner, a recurring guest in The Americans, went on to win three Emmys for which Netflix crime drama?

Ozark won Julia Garner three supporting actress Emmys as Ruth Langmore, in 2019, 2020 and 2022; she was still turning up in The Americans' final season after Ozark had begun.

Which 2017 Ryan Murphy series cast the actress who plays Martha as a film director's assistant?

Feud: Bette and Joan cast her as Pauline Jameson, assistant to director Robert Aldrich, who hopes to direct a film of her own and runs into the gender barriers of 1960s Hollywood.

The actor behind one of The Americans' KGB officers also played Yevgeny Gromov on which series?

Homeland cast him as Yevgeny Gromov, a Russian military intelligence officer and Carrie Mathison's adversary; the series ends with Carrie living with him in Moscow while secretly spying for Saul.

Dylan Baker earned three Emmy nominations for which legal drama?

The Good Wife kept bringing Dylan Baker back as Colin Sweeney, a wealthy client with a habit of being accused of murdering the women in his life; the guest role earned him nominations in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Which novel did Joe Weisberg publish in 2008, five years before The Americans began?

An Ordinary Spy opened the door to television: a producer who read the novel found out its author had also written a pilot, asked for the script and helped turn it into The Americans.

Which 2022 FX limited series did Joe Weisberg co-create after The Americans?

The Patient stars Steve Carell as a therapist held captive by a patient, a serial killer played by Domhnall Gleeson, who wants to be talked out of his urge to kill.

What has creator Joe Weisberg said The Americans is essentially about?

Weisberg has said the series is essentially about a marriage, with the spying an allegory for the strains of human relationships.

What does the Centre plan for Paige as season 2 ends?

Train her as a second-generation illegal: the Centre wants spies with clean American backgrounds, who can reach places their parents cannot.

Who really killed the Connors family in season 2?

Their son Jared, recruited by the KGB without their knowledge, shot his parents and sister after they objected to his recruitment.

Which FBI man dies after a street fight with Philip in season 1?

Stan's partner Chris Amador tries to arrest Philip outside Martha's apartment and is stabbed with his own knife in the struggle; Philip drives him to a safe house, where he dies of the wound.

What does Stan do to Vlad, the young KGB officer the FBI seizes in season 1?

Stan kills him with a shot to the back of the head once he learns that the hostage the FBI hoped to trade Vlad for is dead; Vlad was a junior embassy man who knew nothing about it.

After she is shot in the season 1 finale of The Americans, what does Elizabeth tell Philip in Russian?

Come home is her plea to a husband who had been living apart from her. Each had tried to take the meeting they feared was a trap; the safer errand she was left with was the one the FBI had staked out.

Which US programme does a colonel tell Philip is technically infeasible in season 1's finale?

The colonel dismisses the Strategic Defense Initiative, Reagan's 'Star Wars' missile shield, as technically infeasible and suggests it may be a ruse to make the USSR waste money.

What becomes of Rob, the Jenningses' fellow KGB agent, after the pilot's kidnapping goes wrong?

He died of his stab wound: the man they were abducting knifed him in the chase, Philip and Elizabeth left him at a hospital, and Philip later phoned to learn he was dead.