It’s not often that I get a PR pitch from a network asking me not to write about a new show it’s debuting. But last week FX wrote to say that it was sneak-peeking the first episode of its animated spy comedy Archer (starring the voices of H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler and Jessica Walter), and requested that critics not mention the preview until after it aired. One of the reasons the release cited was that, unlike Fox’s sneak-peek of Glee, FX would be spending no money on promotion for the preview. Which for some reason meant they wanted no free publicity, either.
OK. Whatever works for you, FX—it’s a busy season anyway, and I’ll hold off reviewing the series until it actually premieres next year. Word did get out anyway, though (FX figured the viral buzz would make the show seem more exclusive), and those who watched saw an extremely raunchy but funny spy spoof with a lot of potential. I still have a hard time, though, picturing Benjamin’s voice coming out of a buff agent rather than the lumpy coach from Home Movies.
