While investigating the endless crime in Riverdale, our research took us one step even further. Together, we have now studied these characters more intensely than anything else throughout our combined years of schooling and have uncovered a treasure trove of information about the history of the Archie Comics universe and the journey to the Riverdale series we all know and love. Let’s dive in, shall we?
ARCHIE COMICS: A HISTORY
Since the 1940s, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead have been a staple of American pop culture. The characters have become as recognizable as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Superman. Say the name Archie Andrews, and we guarantee most will recall fond memories growing up reading the comic books or middle school years obsessing over Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The Betty vs. Veronica debate is still a hot topic among fans across the country. The legacy is timeless. But how did a gangly, freckled, red-haired teenager become an American icon?
It all started with three men. Back in 1939, Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater founded a company with the primary goal of publishing superhero comics. The company was named MLJ Magazines and published comics such as The Shield. Goldwater wanted to publish something more mainstream that featured non-superhero characters to appeal to the masses. In 1941, Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones were introduced to the world. The characters first appeared in the twenty-second issue of Pep Comics in 1941, written by Bob Montana and Vic Bloom.
An overnight success, MLJ published more and more Archie comics, eventually stopping the superhero characters completely. Within a few years, the company officially changed its name to Archie Comics, marking the start of an era.
Part of Archie’s appeal was due to Americans longing for an escape. In a time of war, Riverdale was a reminder of what Americans were fighting for: an idyllic town that represented the tranquility and hope of what America could be.
If they could only see the town now!
Archie Andrews was a normal teenager dealing with the ups and downs of high school and everyday life. People couldn’t get enough.
Artist Dan DeCarlo entered the scene and modernized the look of the Archie characters in the late 1950s, defining the Archie and Gang we know and love today. After the death of Bob Montana, DeCarlo took over as chief artist and went on to create Josie and the Pussycats.
After the deaths of Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater, Louis’s son, Michael, and John’s son Richard took over the company in the 1980s. Richard Goldwater died in 2007 and his half brother Jon took over as CEO of Archie Comics. It was then that big changes started to be made.
Jon Goldwater had a mission. He wanted to take the Archie comics and bring them into the new millennium. Instead of living in the nostalgia of the past, Goldwater wanted to set Riverdale in the present day by modernizing the characters again. Throughout his run, the risks he took paid off. Goldwater introduced zombies, homosexual characters, disabled characters, sci-fi, and witchcraft, among other things, into the world of Riverdale and forever changed the franchise.
DEVELOPING THE SHOW
For years, television and film executives attempted to bring the beloved Archie gang to the screen. Before Riverdale, there were countless failed pilots, pitches, and even a made-for-TV movie that featured Jughead rapping—pretty tragic.
Enter Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
A longtime Archie fan, Roberto grew up loving comics. In fact, he first came to the attention of Archie Comics when the company issued him a cease and desist letter over a play that he wrote entitled Archie’s Weird Fantasy, in which the character of Archie moves to New York City and comes out of the closet. Understandably, the company took issue with how far the play had Archie stray from his traditional image. Eventually, the play took on the title Golden Age, and the character of Archie was changed to Buddy Baxter. It went on to receive glowing reviews from major publications like The New York Times, and in turn, Marvel Comics hired him to create a new Fantastic Four series.
Roberto continued to write and produce and went on to work on numerous projects, ranging from Glee to Carrie, American Psycho: The Musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and Supergirl. We are personally most excited for his latest project as book writer for the upcoming Magic Mike musical. If the gratuitous shirtless scenes on Riverdale are any indication of what to expect, we can only imagine that audiences are in for a treat!
In 2013, Roberto created Afterlife with Archie, which depicted Archie and the gang in a whole new world—in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. This was notably the first Archie comic directed toward a more mature audience. The first eight issues sold out instantly and led to Roberto becoming the chief creative officer of Archie Comics, a position created for him to bring in new writers and develop fresh, exciting concepts for the Riverdale characters. It was when he was in this position that Riverdale, the TV show, was born. Roberto wrote the pilot in 2014 and brought on Greg Berlanti as a co–executive producer.
The show was pitched as the Riverdale everyone knows and loves but with much darker elements. Roberto combined elements of mystery, noir, and modern teen-soap drama to juxtapose our all-American gang against much more sinister story lines. He knew there needed to be a sharp edge to the show from the very beginning. It was also his idea to focus on the town itself rather than the characters. He wanted to explore how the characters would respond to the great evils that would come their way if the town were the root of the darkness. His idea was for a much more subversive, previously unseen take on the world of Archie.
Fox originally agreed to be the network for the show, but they ended up passing. After the show was shopped around networks for two years, Roberto’s Riverdale finally landed at the CW. The green light was given, and the pilot quickly went into production.
PRODUCTION
The show films in Vancouver for eight to ten months throughout the year. A soundstage was constructed and hosts a number of sets used to film the world of Riverdale. Exteriors are shot in various locations throughout the city.
Stars! They’re just like us! Most often, the cast takes a van to set together from downtown Vancouver. On their way, they always make sure to swing through the Starbucks drive-thru. While the staff is now accustomed to having them as customers, you can only imagine their initial surprise when the entire cast of Riverdale pulled up to the window.
CASTING
Casting the iconic Archie characters was no easy task. The initial character breakdown for the pilot already saw a departure from the traditional all-American characters. It depicted Betty as a pill-popping perfectionist, an emo heartthrob version of Jughead, a Latina Veronica Lodge desperate to reinvent herself, and an Archie Andrews skirting the fine line between his music and sports.
It took six months to cast the pilot. Cole Sprouse of Disney Channel fame was first approached to play Archie. But after reading the script, the star connected more to Jughead’s outsider status. It was a role different from any he’d played before, so he jumped at the chance. For many of the young leads, Riverdale was their first big job. Camila Mendes, who plays Veronica Lodge, graduated from NYU’s Tisch School mere weeks before she booked the job. Lili Reinhart got the part of Betty off a self-taped audition she recorded on a break from her job at Pier 1 Imports. She had previously worked in small roles but never a role of this size.
Finding Archie Andrews was the most challenging. After an extensive search, KJ Apa emerged as the only choice for the show’s main character. He was cast three days before the network was due to test Archies for the studio. Apa is originally from New Zealand and not a natural redhead. Riverdale is his first US-based role.
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