The Americans is a period spy drama television series set in the United States.¹⁾

Joe Weisberg developed it for the FX television network.²⁾

The series takes place during the Cold War. It tells the narrative of Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB intelligence officials posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church, Virginia, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., with their children, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Matthew Rhys) (Keidrich Sellati).³⁾

The show also delves into the rivalry between the FBI office in Washington and the KGB Rezidentura there.⁴⁾

It follows both sides' agents, notably Jennings' neighbor Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent engaged in counterintelligence.⁵⁾

The series begins in the aftermath of President Ronald Reagan's inauguration in January 1981. It comes to an end in December 1987, just before the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.⁶⁾

On January 30, 2013, The Americans premiered in the United States. The series came to an end on May 30, 2018. It was cancelled after six seasons.⁷⁾

The last season of the show garnered Rhys a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.⁸⁾

Weisberg and co-writer Joel Fields received the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.⁹⁾

It was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Drama.¹⁰⁾

Margo Martindale received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series twice, for her roles in the third and fourth seasons, respectively.¹¹⁾

It was also one of the few drama series to win two Peabody Awards during its tenure.¹²⁾

According to the show's creator, the series is mainly about a marriage. The series, according to Joel Fields, the other senior executive producer on the writing team, works on several layers of reality.¹³⁾

After leaving the CIA, Weisberg released An Ordinary Spy in 2007, a novel about a spy who is finishing up his training in Virginia before being moved overseas.¹⁴⁾

Following the publication of Weisberg's novel, executive producer Graham Yost found that the author had also written a pilot for a prospective spy series. Weisberg was captivated by the stories he'd heard from agents who had worked as spies overseas while raising their families. He wanted to transfer that notion to television, with the idea of a spy family rather than just one guy.¹⁵⁾

Weisberg was captivated by the stories he had heard from agents who had worked as spies overseas while raising their families. He wanted to transfer that notion to television, with the idea of a spy family rather than just one guy. Yost read the pilot and thought it was “annoyingly excellent”, so he decided to develop the program.¹⁶⁾

Weisberg claims that the CIA unwittingly inspired him to create a spy series. The work at the CIA, which Weisberg subsequently acknowledged as a mistake, aided him in developing various scenarios for the series. Some narrative lines are based on true-life stories, and he incorporates strategies and procedures he acquired throughout his training.¹⁷⁾