Adult characters play part in Riverdale’s success
LOS ANGELES — The third season of the comic book-inspired Riverdale, launching tonight, again follows a different, dark and twisted version of Archie Andrews and the gang than the one introduced in 1941 with Pep Comics.
The CW production is a far cry from the malt shop days of the original comics, as it is filled with murder, sex, gangs, blackmail and all the other evils that tend to pop up in nighttime soap operas.
What makes the wicked ways different is most of the darker moments happen to Riverdale teens Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Veronica (Camila Mendes). But, the parents of the teens have had to face their own major problems. It’s been up to the veteran actors who play the parents — Robin Givens, Marisol Nichols, Madchen Amick, Nathalie Boltt, Martin Cummins, Skeet Ulrich, Luke Perry, Mark Consuelos and Lochlyn Munro — to deal with the adult worries and woes of their characters.
Riverdale deals more teen angst than Dawson’s Creek and The O.C., but executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa says the show works because of the parents.
“Probably the single biggest challenge for Riverdale is that the show is a show about a town. Even from the beginning, it was important that we not call the show Archie, which is what the comic book has been called for 80 years,” Aguirre-Sacasa says. “So we named the show Riverdale. I always say that the show wouldn’t work without the parents because of that shared history.
“When scripts come out and you ask the grownups is there ever something that they say no to or they don’t want to do, I have to say all I get is enthusiasm and fearlessness from this group.”
Givens is definitely excited about her role on the series, playing Riverdale mayor Sierra McCoy and mother to Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) of Josie and the Pussycats fame. The 53-year-old New Yorker was in her early 20s when she became a star through the network comedy Head of the Class.
“I think one of the most interesting times I’ve had on the set, we were waiting, and it was myself and Luke [Perry] and Mari [Nichols] sitting around. And you are waiting for lighting. There’s a major setup,” Given says. “And we were talking, and we were showing pictures of our kids on our phones, and we said: ‘How did this happen?’ Remember? How did this happen? We were them. It was an interesting moment.
“What is most interesting is that most of us are parents, too, and you judge time by your kids. You feel the same but one day you realize that you are asking: ‘Did you do your homework?’ and you are having to look up at them.”
Riverdale has only been around for two seasons, but a lot has happened. The one big mainstay of soap operas that has not occurred so far is a wedding episode. That could change this year with Givens’ character.
It’s that kind of potential story that makes Givens so happy she joined the madness that is Riverdale. That the team thinks of big storylines for the veteran actors is proof to Givens that the series isn’t just about teens.
“Part of what I think is the brilliance of the show is that I grew up with Archie Comics. But there are a lot of kids who stop me in the airport that don’t even know about it,” Givens says. “People my age reminisce about this time and then there is a new audience just meeting these characters for the first time.”
The third season of Riverdale begins with jury deliberations in the murder trial of Archie.