Interview with the Js on public radio program 1A

[saraqael]

Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg just did a 60 minute interview on the NPR program 'The 1A,' along with International Spy Museum historian, Vince Houghton.

I don't know how long they'll keep the recording available. I thought it was a good interview. I heard a couple tidbits I hadn't heard before.

You can listen to the interview here: https://the1a.org/shows/2018-04-24/stranger-than-fiction-reality-catches-up-to-the-americans

Comments

[wendelah1]

I just listened so the interview is still up.

I wish the interviewers had asked them why they decided to take so much creative licence with what the real illegals did versus what they have the Jennings do on The Americans.

[saraqael]

That is a good question to put to the Js. I assume that a big part of that is just because giving the Jennings such exciting missions simply made for good, entertaining TV. On a meta level, the show is actually about a marriage, not about spying, so the stories were also meant to reflect the emotional journey of a married couples, with all those ups and downs, times of emotional harmony and intimacy vs. stretches of conflict and disunion. Also, how does devoting your life to an ideological cause affect someone's personal and family life? All the spy plots were always just echoing these other emotional stories.

I also imagine that once you got past the superficial excitement of writing about someone living undercover, the day-to-day reality of the actual Illegals was probably rather dull. Go to work, come home, write down anything interesting that you noticed that day, watch some tv, go to bed. Imagine 6 years of scenes like the one of Paige dutifully reciting her professor's comments about weaponry. That show would not last very long.