Although Macdonald's Archer has appeared on both television and in the movies, neither medium has proved especially successful in portraying him.

Brian Keith played Archer in the TV series "Archer," and Peter Graves portrayed him in the made-for-TV movie of The Underground Man; but neither seemed quite right for the job. Paul Newman played Archer twice on the large screen, in Harper (1966) and later in The Drowning Pool (1976). Newman's performances probably came closer to capturing the diffident qualities of Macdonald's reluctant hero than did the television projects. Given the popularity of the Macdonald books it is odd that more films were not made.