Archie: Return to Riverdale and all the images you see in this recap are owned by NBC

Directed by Dick Lowry

I was given my first Archie Double Digest by my grandma as reading material for a field trip I was taking in Middle School.  Seems apropos considering I had discovered Calvin and Hobbes on her book shelf, and sure enough I was hooked right away.  Now this was ALSO a time in my life where I didn’t have disposable income, so I couldn’t get as many books as I had hoped, but those characters are still endearing to me to this day and I’ll try to catch up on them every once in a while.  A somewhat foolish endeavor considering how dense the continuity is and the breadth of the content there is out there, but it’s certainly better than trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Marvel or DC at any given time.  Now were on the cusp of the CW series Riverdale which I will absolutely be recapping even if the trailers haven’t inspired a whole lot of hope for me.  Seriously, WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT’S GONNA BE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, AND WHY IS MISS GRUNDY A HOT TWENTY FIVE YEAR OLD MUSIC TEACHER!?  That’s all for another day however, as I have something else to show you right now!  Did you know that the CW series isn’t the first time that Archie has been in Live Action!?  In 1990, NBC premiered a Made for TV movie called Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again which was shortened to Archie: Return to Riverdale when it was released on VHS.  I just so happened to find this thing in a Goodwill about a month ago, as if by fate.  Like this was in my destiny or something!  Is it any good?  Well let’s find out!!

The movie takes place fifteen years after the events of… let’s say MOST of the books.  For the most part, Archie is a high school student , and while there are plenty of books out there about him AFTER high school such as the reboot of Life with Archie also known as Archie: The Married Life, if you go to the grocery store and pick up a Double Digest, the dude is gonna be racing to his math class and drinking milkshakes at Pop’s Diner.   We basically get a montage of the three main characters in this, Veronica Lodge (Karen Kopis), Betty Cooper (Lauren Holly), and of course Archie Andrews (Christopher Rich), who are all preparing for their fifteen year high school reunion; the former two by the way are PARTICULARLY excited to see the latter despite Betty already having a boyfriend and Veronica having been recently divorced.  Could you blame them?  I mean, look at the guy!

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