99 Fun Facts About Riverdale

Which Twin Peaks star plays Betty's mother, Alice Cooper, in Riverdale?

Mädchen Amick was back on screen as her Twin Peaks waitress straight after Riverdale's first season, reprising the role in the 2017 revival of the show.

On which US network did Riverdale premiere on January 26, 2017?

The CW was the project's second home: Fox landed it first, in 2014, with a script by the comics company's creative chief, then declined to go ahead, and it moved networks the next year.

Who plays Archie Andrews?

KJ Apa, an 18-year-old New Zealander, won the part at the end of a four-month worldwide talent search, as one of the last actors to audition.

Which actress plays Veronica Lodge?

Camila Mendes was still a student when she won the part: she juggled the auditions with her last classes at New York University, and by the week she graduated the show had been picked up.

Which writer developed Riverdale for television?

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the chief creative officer of Archie Comics, meant every wild turn of the show: his cast say the absurdity was the point, and that he laughed at table reads whenever something ridiculous happened.

In which Canadian city was Riverdale filmed?

Vancouver is where the show built a working replica of its diner, so convincing that a trucker once pulled his 18-wheeler in, thinking it was open for business.

Whose supposed drowning the summer before school starts drives the mystery of Riverdale's first season?

Jason Blossom had not drowned at all: he was alive for a week after his supposed boating accident on the Fourth of July, and died of a gunshot.

Who is exposed as the murderer at the heart of Riverdale's first season?

Clifford Blossom is caught by a video on a thumb drive hidden in a varsity jacket; when the police arrive to arrest him, they find him hanged among the barrels of the family syrup business.

With whom does Archie have a secret affair in the early episodes of season one?

Miss Grundy, the music teacher, is not who she says she is: Betty and Veronica search her car and find a gun and an ID in the name of Jennifer Gibson.

What is the name of the school newspaper Betty revives, later run with Jughead?

The Blue and Gold had lain dormant until Betty revived it to dig into the summer's big mystery, sending Jughead off first to interview the scouts who had found Cheryl by the water.

What family secret do Betty and Alice uncover when they catch Hal destroying evidence in season one?

The Coopers are Blossoms by blood: Betty's great-grandfather was not just murdered by a Blossom, he was one, and afterwards his side of the family cut all ties and took a new name.

In Riverdale's first-season finale, where does a grieving Cheryl try to end her life before her friends save her?

Sweetwater River is frozen solid when Cheryl walks out onto it; the ice gives way beneath her, and Archie has to smash through it with his bare fist to pull her out.

Riverdale's second season opens with Archie rushing which character to hospital after a shooting?

Fred Andrews is shot by a masked gunman in front of his son; because the man never went for the money, Betty and Jughead begin to suspect it was no robbery at all.

What is the name of the masked shooter who terrorises Riverdale throughout season two?

The Black Hood announces himself in a letter to the Coopers, vowing to target the town's sinners; a later letter dares everyone to stay sinless for 48 hours or see him strike again.

Which character reveals himself to Betty and Alice as the man behind the mask in Riverdale's second season?

Hal Cooper sits his wife and daughter down to watch his old home movies before confessing, yet insists he was not the gunman at the mayoral debate, so a second masked shooter is still at large.

Which Stephen King story is the basis for Riverdale's season-two musical episode?

Carrie: The Musical is in rehearsal when a threatening letter forces a change of leading lady; on opening night the curtain rises to reveal her replacement murdered on stage.

Which actor took over the role of Reggie Mantle in season two after Ross Butler left for 13 Reasons Why?

Charles Melton kept the part for the rest of the run, but Ross Butler did come back once: in the 100th episode the two Reggies meet, with Butler billed as Reggie Prime.

Which actor plays Hiram Lodge, Veronica's gangster father, in Riverdale?

Mark Consuelos made the role a family business: his wife, Kelly Ripa, guest-starred as Hiram's mistress, and their son Michael played the teenage Hiram in a flashback.

What is the name of the Riverdale gang that Jughead's father once led?

The Southside Serpents stay in the family: Jughead is invited to join at the end of season one and rises to wear the crown himself, before Toni Topaz takes over as their queen.

What is the name of the vigilante group Archie founds in season two to protect Riverdale High students?

The Red Circle is Archie's answer to a gun attack on two classmates in a parked car, and it soon turns the gunman's own weapon, fear, against him with a video calling him out.

What is the street name of the drug that floods Riverdale in season two?

Jingle Jangle is traced to a supplier known only as the Sugarman, whom the season's masked killer dares Betty to unmask; Jughead prefers to call the stuff "little straws of death".

Under what name did Riverdale's parents play Gryphons and Gargoyles as teenagers in the early 1990s?

The Midnight Club was a band of the town's future parents, hooked on the game until their principal turned up dead; they swore never to speak of it, and a quarter of a century later their children start to play.

Which cult starts indoctrinating Riverdale residents in season three?

The Farm promises its followers healing, but Betty finds its real business in a freezer: the cult has been operating on its own members to harvest their organs.

Who is unmasked in Riverdale's season-three finale as the mastermind behind the Gargoyle King?

Penelope Blossom gathers the four friends at a hunting lodge for one last deadly quest; the figure in the Gargoyle King's costume turns out to be Chic, whom everyone had believed dead.

Riverdale's season-three flashback episode pays homage to which 1985 John Hughes film?

The Breakfast Club is the model: the town's parents meet as strangers in a 1992 detention, and they are played by the actors who normally play their teenage children.

Which musical does Riverdale High stage in season three, with Cheryl as its queen bee?

Heathers: The Musical casts Cheryl as queen bee Heather Chandler, and the cult that has moved into town is paying for it, which earns one of its members a co-director's chair.

Which animal mauls Archie while he hides out alone in the wilderness in Riverdale's third season?

A bear attacks him on a forest trail, and he staggers back to his cabin to radio for help; the wounds send him into a string of feverish hallucinations before rangers find him.

Which Beverly Hills, 90210 star played Archie's father in Riverdale?

Luke Perry died during the third season, and the fourth opened with a farewell to his character; his 90210 co-star Shannen Doherty took a guest part in it.

In Riverdale's fourth season, Jughead transfers to which elite boarding school?

Stonewall Prep comes calling through a teacher, Mr. Chipping, who offers Jughead a place; he turns it down at first, and when he does go his first day does not go as planned.

Which series of mystery novels does Jughead compete to ghostwrite in Riverdale's fourth season?

The Baxter Brothers were Jughead's childhood favourites, a birthday present from his father every year; at his new school he learns that they have always been written by a line of ghostwriters.

What does the anonymous 'Voyeur' of season four leave on Riverdale doorsteps?

Videotapes turn up on doorsteps all over town, and each holds the same unnerving thing: hours of footage of the family's own house being watched from outside, with no message at all.

Why was Riverdale's fourth season cut short at 19 episodes?

The COVID-19 pandemic halted filming in March 2020 with three episodes unshot; their stories, the senior prom among them, were held over to open the following season.

After its seven-year time jump, what is Riverdale on the verge of becoming?

A ghost town suits Hiram Lodge, who has the place in his grip and is working to dissolve it altogether; Archie's homecoming turns into a campaign to save it.

After Riverdale's seven-year time jump, what is Betty's job?

FBI agent is where Betty's teenage sleuthing was always heading: back in season four she had joined the Bureau's junior training programme and outshone everyone in it.

What does Archie decide to do when his class graduates from Riverdale High in season five?

Join the Army is his answer to feeling lost without his father; he tells his friends afterwards, and it is seven years before the town sees him again.

Which character, introduced in Riverdale's fifth season, takes over the town diner from her grandfather?

Tabitha Tate arrives with a business plan: she means to take over her grandfather's shop and turn it into a franchise, even as the town around it struggles to survive.

What is the sinister parallel town where Riverdale's sixth season opens with a five-episode event?

Rivervale looks like home until the rules give way: its five chapters bring a vengeful weeping ghost out of folklore and a mysterious stranger who hands the gang a set of ultimatums.

Which Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star reprised her role in Riverdale's sixth season?

Kiernan Shipka's teenage witch is summoned by Cheryl to help with a spell, at last giving fans the crossover that her own show's cancellation had ruled out.

Who is the immortal villain of Riverdale's sixth season, seeking revenge on the descendants of the town's founders?

Percival Pickens bought his immortality in a deal with the Devil; he slips into town through a rift opened by an explosion and passes himself off as the heir of a founding father.

What superpower does Archie gain in Riverdale's sixth season after surviving a bomb explosion?

Invulnerability comes with one catch: palladium works on Archie like kryptonite, so he has to build up a tolerance to the metal before he can face the season's villain.

When Riverdale's gang wake up in the 1950s, which film star's death is fresh news?

James Dean's fatal crash in 1955 has Archie's mother so shaken that she takes away his car keys, and the new girl Veronica, a Hollywood starlet, boasts that she knew the actor personally.

In Riverdale's finale, an aged Betty dies and walks, a teenager again, into which place in the afterlife?

Pop's has long since closed when the 86-year-old Betty is driven back for a last look; she dies in the car outside, then steps out young again into a diner full of her friends.

Which Riverdale character was described as the first openly gay character in the comics' history?

Kevin Keller arrived in the comics in 2010 as the new boy Veronica sets her sights on; he bonds with Jughead over their love of food and explains to him that he is gay.

Which spin-off, starring Lucy Hale in New York, took Ashleigh Murray's Josie McCoy away from Riverdale?

Katy Keene was launched with a crossover that aired the night before its premiere, yet it lasted only one season of 13 episodes, while the parent show ran for three more years.

Why are Riverdale's chapters named after old movies?

To hint at what happens in the episode: the showrunner says each title is picked from a list of provocative film names only once the story is worked out, so the film and the chapter share a theme.

Which streaming service showed Riverdale outside the US, releasing each episode within a day of its broadcast?

Netflix billed it as an original abroad, and at home its summer run of the first season sent so many new viewers to the broadcast network that the show became a genuine hit in its second.

Which change to Jughead, compared with his portrayal in recent comics, drew criticism of Riverdale?

Made him straight rather than asexual: Chip Zdarsky's comics had written Jughead as asexual, and Cole Sprouse says he argued for that on screen before the show paired the character with Betty.

In Riverdale's third season, Archie tells a fellow inmate he has never known the "epic highs and lows" of what?

High school football is his reply to a boy who says he dropped out in fourth grade to run drugs for his family; Archie's remedy is to organise a game in the detention-centre yard.

Which rock musical's songs do Riverdale's students perform in protest against their principal in season four?

Hedwig and the Angry Inch becomes an act of defiance: when Mr. Honey bans one number from the school variety show, the gang rally against him by each performing a song from it.

Which former Disney Channel star of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody plays Jughead Jones in Riverdale?

Cole Sprouse dyed his naturally dirty-blonde hair black for the part. As a child he also played Ross's son Ben on Friends.

Which wild animal mauls Archie Andrews while he hides out in a cabin in Riverdale season three?

A bear leaves Archie bloodied and hallucinating, and park rangers eventually find him unresponsive.

Riverdale's opening credits pay homage to which eerie small-town murder mystery of the early 1990s?

Twin Peaks, co-created by David Lynch, also lent Riverdale a cast member: Mädchen Amick, who plays Betty's mother Alice, was its waitress Shelly Johnson.

Shannon Purser, Riverdale's Ethel Muggs, first found fame as doomed best friend Barb in which series?

Stranger Things killed Barb off in its third episode, yet the role still earned Purser an Emmy nomination.

The actor who plays Archie in Riverdale began in the soap Shortland Street in which country?

New Zealand is home: the Auckland-born star, whose father is a Samoan chief, won the part after a four-month worldwide talent search.

Josie McCoy fronts which Riverdale band with bassist Valerie Brown and drummer Melody Valentine?

The Pussycats split up after Josie secretly decides to go solo. Her musician father named her after the singer Josephine Baker.

Which 1969 chart-topper by cartoon band The Archies is covered in Riverdale's first season?

Sugar, Sugar topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1969. Riverdale's version, sung by Josie's band, was retitled Candy Girl.

Which Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star of Luke Perry played a stranded motorist in Riverdale's tribute to him?

Shannen Doherty played the woman Archie's father died saving, pushing her clear of a speeding car. She and Perry were long-time friends.

Cheryl Blossom captains which Riverdale High cheerleading squad as its self-proclaimed queen bee?

The River Vixens also count Betty and Veronica as members, and Veronica briefly takes over as captain in season one.

Which nearby town, home to teenage witch Sabrina Spellman, is introduced in Riverdale's second season?

Greendale is where Sabrina lives, and the witch herself finally visits in season six, when Cheryl calls her in to help with a spell.

Which actress, first passed over after a self-taped audition, won the role of Betty Cooper in Riverdale?

Lili Reinhart won it at an in-person casting in Los Angeles. The Cleveland-born actress went on to appear in the film Hustlers while the series was still airing.

Which actress, afraid of open water, still shot her own boat scene as Cheryl Blossom in Riverdale's pilot?

Madelaine Petsch asked for a stunt double, then filmed the scene herself and called it great therapy. Her parents are from South Africa.

Which actor, Billy Loomis in the slasher film Scream, plays Jughead's father FP Jones in Riverdale?

Skeet Ulrich recurred in season one before joining the main cast. On the Scream set he was accidentally stabbed where he had once had heart surgery.

Which star of the teen romance Pretty in Pink plays Archie's mother Mary Andrews in Riverdale?

Molly Ringwald began as an occasional guest, then took a bigger role after the death of Luke Perry, who played Archie's father.

Which sweet product, sold under the family name, built the fortune of Cheryl Blossom's family in Riverdale?

Maple syrup is the Blossom empire, marked each year with a tree-tapping ceremony where Archie once served as Cheryl's escort.

Archie's father runs a company in which trade in Riverdale, having co-founded it with FP Jones?

Construction pays the bills: the firm carries the family name, and FP was thrown out of it for stealing money.

Archie Andrews trains at the El Royale gym in Riverdale's third season to pursue which sport?

Boxing becomes Archie's outlet after juvenile detention, where the warden had him fighting in bouts beneath the prison.

Which Riverdale character, played by Vanessa Morgan, dates Cheryl Blossom and later marries her?

Toni Topaz and Cheryl end the series in California raising a son named Dale, who is played by Vanessa Morgan's own son.

Which older sister of Betty Cooper in Riverdale gives birth to twins named Juniper and Dagwood?

Polly is first found hidden away in a home run by nuns, and her twins are later raised by their grandmother Alice.

What nickname, later shortened to JB, does Jughead's younger sister go by in Riverdale?

Jellybean first appears in season three, played by Trinity Likins, and soon moves back to town with her mother Gladys.

Former gang leader FP Jones is appointed to which job by Mayor Hermione Lodge in Riverdale's third season?

Town sheriff is some turnaround for a man once held on a murder charge. Hermione hands him the badge after hiring him to shoot her husband Hiram.

What is the name of the family mansion that Cheryl Blossom burns down in Riverdale's season one finale?

Thornhill goes up in flames once Cheryl learns her family's secrets, yet years later she is living there again as a recluse.

Veronica Lodge and her mother move into which Riverdale apartment building, the one property not seized?

The Pembrooke survived the scandal only because it was in Hermione's name, and Hiram joins his wife and daughter there after prison.

What is the real first name of Jughead Jones in Riverdale, shared with his father and grandfather?

Forsythe Pendleton Jones III is his full name, making his father FP the second of the line and his grandfather the first.

Which pet, a white sheepdog in the original comics, do Jughead and a rival gang face off over in Riverdale?

Hot Dog has been Jughead's pet since the printed stories, and season three opens with a stand-off against the Ghoulies over him.

Which impostor in Riverdale's second season is at first believed to be the long-lost son of Alice Cooper?

Chic wins the family's trust before he is exposed, and Alice's real son only surfaces at the end of season three.

At which home run by nuns did Alice Cooper give up a baby boy for adoption in Riverdale?

Sisters of Quiet Mercy is also where Betty tracks down her pregnant sister, hidden away there in season one.

In Riverdale's first season, Jughead Jones works and lives in the projection booth of which business?

The Twilight Drive-In closes down early in the season, and Jughead vandalises the booth on his way out.

Betty's mother Alice Cooper edits and co-owns which local newspaper in Riverdale's early seasons?

The Register was later bought up by Hiram Lodge as he quietly took over the town's businesses.

Hiram Lodge's arrest for which crimes sends his wife and daughter Veronica from New York to Riverdale?

Fraud and embezzlement put Hiram behind bars, yet he kept running his businesses and criminal empire from his cell.

Which musical series did Riverdale's showrunner write for before scripting its comic crossover with Archie?

Glee hired Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa as a writer and co-producer in 2011, and two months later he was writing the comic Archie Meets Glee.

Which producer behind the Arrowverse superhero shows also made Riverdale through his own production company?

Greg Berlanti founded his company in 2000, and his earlier credits include Dawson's Creek and Everwood.

Which network landed Riverdale in 2014 with a script deal but never went forward with the project?

Fox let the project go, and it moved to a rival network the following year. It had begun life as a pitch for a feature film.

Which comedian did a studio executive suggest as an older Archie in the film pitch that became Riverdale?

Louis C.K. was floated when Warner Bros. asked for a higher-concept idea involving time travel or portals. The film stalled and became a TV series instead.

Which rock musical drives Riverdale's season four musical episode after the principal bans a song from it?

Hedwig and the Angry Inch proves too racy for Mr. Honey, who ends up cancelling the school variety show altogether.

Which One Tree Hill star played cult leader Edgar Evernever in Riverdale's third season?

Chad Michael Murray made his name as Lucas Scott and also played Austin Ames in the romcom A Cinderella Story.

Which star of the films Showgirls and Bound joined Riverdale in its third season as Jughead's mother Gladys?

Gina Gershon had joined the cast by New York Comic Con 2018, together with the young actress playing her on-screen daughter.

Which talk-show host appears as himself in Riverdale's second season as a friend of Hermione Lodge?

Andy Cohen had offered Hermione a place on The Real Housewives of New York City, which she turned down to keep family matters private.

Which teen mystery franchise did Riverdale's showrunner confirm in 2022 shares a universe with the series?

Pretty Little Liars made the link on screen when its reboot mentioned patients being sent to a nun-run home in Riverdale.

Riverdale's aerial view of the town is stock footage also used in which series set in small-town Connecticut?

Gilmore Girls, set in the fictional Stars Hollow, used the same stock aerial shot years before Riverdale borrowed it.

Which NBA team does Reggie Mantle go on to play for in the epilogue of Riverdale's final season?

The Lakers sign Reggie after high school, and he later comes home to coach the school basketball team.

Which precious metal under Hiram Lodge's prison do he and the governor fight over in Riverdale season five?

Palladium also shaped Hiram's past: a flashback reveals that the collapse of the town's old mines left him shining shoes.

Cheryl Blossom's parents are exposed as what in Riverdale's final season, with help from Jughead?

Russian spies is the charge that brings the couple down, in a season where Cheryl's twin brother is alive again and called Julian.

Which private investigator from Miami proves to be Veronica Lodge's half-sister in Riverdale season four?

Hermosa is Hiram's illegitimate daughter, kept hidden for years. Veronica first meets her after Hermosa has helped get their father out of prison.

Which Riverdale scoutmaster turns out to have fired the gunshot heard on the Fourth of July in season one?

Dilton Doiley was leading his scouts in a training exercise, as Jughead uncovers while reporting for the school paper.

Archie's juvenile detention centre in Riverdale season three shares its name with which pair of 1924 killers?

Leopold and Loeb were university students who kidnapped and killed a 14-year-old, hoping to commit the perfect crime.

Where does Jughead's father FP Jones live alone after his family falls apart in Riverdale's first season?

Sunnyside Trailer Park is where police find a gun in his trailer and arrest him for a murder he did not commit.

Jughead's mother and sister live in which city, where he and Archie visit them in Riverdale season three?

Toledo is also where FP heads when he leaves the series, taking his daughter back to her mother.

To which city has Archie's mother Mary moved when Riverdale begins, leaving him to live with his father?

Chicago is also where Archie's father travels to finalise the divorce, only to come home with Mary in tow.

Which power does Cheryl Blossom develop in Riverdale's sixth season after learning she is a witch?

Pyrokinesis comes with a mentor: her childhood crush Heather, who helps her understand and develop the new ability.