Why, yes, that was a circa-1982 commercial for Don Beyer Volvo playing in Wednesday’s episode of “The Americans.”  

About midway through this week’s episode of the FX spy series, as Phillip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) comes home from another treacherous evening of surveilling U.S. government officials, his daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) is watching television and there’s the auto-dealer jingle, “At Don Beyer Volvo …” Then it’s back to “Fantasy Island.”  

It turns out Rep. Don Beyer — familiar to most anyone who’s bought a car in Northern Virginia over the past 30 years and who is now the Democratic congressman representing the region — talked over the phone to series principals Joel Fields and Joseph Weisberg on the afternoon the episode was set to air.  

“Joel and Joe do an incredible job staying true to the time period on ‘The Americans.’ I’d love to visit the set one day and make a cameo myself,” Beyer told HOH.  

The creative team does indeed have a knack for getting the little details of life in early-1980s Washington correct in the FX series about the KGB-spies-next-door played by Rhys and Keri Russell.  

The previous week, the Bard of ESPN, Tony Kornheiser, made a cameo as a bar patron watching a boxing match on television. And in season two, every Gen X-er who grew up in the capital region freaked out when the Jhoon Rhee Taekwondo “Nobody Bothers Me” commercial played in the background.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7PEMGuA6tw  

We can’t wait for what’s next. Perhaps a Minor Threat show? Stay tuned.  

The 114th: CQ Roll Call’s Guide to the New Congress


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