The Americans S:4 | E:11 Dinner For Seven | Slate TV Club
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Slate Podcasts
3.6 • 724 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2016
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Spy craft consultant (and author) H. Keith Melton joins June Thomas and show runners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg to discuss his collection of authentic KGB spy gear, and how he advises the show on everything from lock picking techniques, to what type of camera the characters should be using.
Note: This podcast contains spoilers and is meant to be enjoyed after you watch the episode. New episodes air Wednesdays at 10pm on FX.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening ad-free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:03.2 | The following podcast contains spoilers. |
| 0:06.2 | We strongly recommend you watch the episode of The Americans |
| 0:08.7 | we're discussing before listening to the podcast. |
| 0:11.7 | New episodes air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX. |
| 0:17.5 | Once an illegal is in position in an operational country, it becomes a great problem to train them in new technology. |
| 0:26.8 | Because an illegal spy is probably the most valuable resource that an intelligence service could ever have, and they need to protect them at all costs. |
| 1:08.5 | Music and they need to protect them at all costs. Hello and welcome to Slate's TV Club Insider podcast for Season 4 of the Americans, where today we'll be discussing episode 11, Dinner for 7. |
| 1:36.0 | I'm June Thomas, a writer and editor at Slate, and I'm the host of this podcast, which takes you behind the scenes of the show. I'm in Slate's New York studio with Joe Weisberg, the creator of the show. Hello, Joe. June. And his co-show runner and co-executive producer, Joel Fields. Hi, Joel. Hey, June. And today we're going to be talking with H. Keith Melton, a writer and collector who specializes in the history and evolution of spy tech and who has served as a consultant on the show. |
| 1:37.3 | Hi, Keith. Thanks for joining us. |
| 1:38.9 | It's pleasure to talk with you. |
| 1:39.9 | Good. |
| 1:41.7 | Can I add something to the intro? |
| 1:44.6 | I don't want to seem like that wasn't a great intro. I've got to say something more about Keith. |
| 1:56.1 | Keith is, I think, probably undoubtedly in the entire world, the greatest expert on intelligence, on the KGB, and on illegals. |
| 1:59.4 | Nobody anywhere knows more than him. He also happens to have this incredible collection of memorabilia of pieces, of tradecraft things, of items, of everything the KGB has ever used. |
| 2:10.9 | And all our stuff in the show that we use comes from him. |
| 2:13.6 | But it's really his head, which contains more information about tradecraft intelligence and all these topics than anybody. |
| 2:20.7 | But I'm going to jump in and give you an example. |
| 2:23.2 | Okay. |
| 2:23.8 | So when we were working on the story about Kimberly Breeland and her father who worked at the Afghan task force in the CIA and playing out that whole story. We wanted to figure |
| 2:35.5 | out what kind of recorder would go into the briefcase. And we have several emails and phone calls |
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