Archie Andrews, fifteen years after graduating from Riverdale High, has become a successful lawyer and is preparing to marry his fiancée, Pam, and move to "the big city". Before doing that, however, he returns home to Riverdale for his high school reunion and in an attempt to save his friend Pop Tate's diner.
Archie and company are all now in their early thirties:
Betty, a grade school teacher, has had problems finding permanent employment, and may or may not have relationship issues.
Veronica, having lived in France since graduation, has been married (and divorced) four times to very wealthy men.
Jughead, now a successful psychiatrist, is also divorced (although only once), and now has sole custody of a son named Jordan. Due to the divorce and other failed relationships, Jughead carries emotional baggage that manifests itself in a terrible fear of women. A running gag in the movie is Jughead's desperation to avoid seeing Big Ethel during his visit to Riverdale. This is played for laughs at the end when at the reunion it turns out that Big Ethel is no longer the gangly, awkward teenager she once was but is now a striking beauty and still has a crush on Jughead.
Moose and Midge have gotten married and become chiropractors. They also have a son, Max, who hits it off with Jordan.
Reggie is a successful gym owner and owns a car lot.
When Archie sees Betty and Veronica for the first time in fifteen years, all his old feelings for them come flooding back, threatening his engagement—and it does not help that the girls renew their pursuit of Archie, heedless of the fact that he has a fiancée. Meanwhile, Archie also tries to keep Reggie, helped along by an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge, from evicting Pop Tate from his soda shop, under the pretext of expanding his gym. Hiram Lodge does not want Archie near Veronica and still thinks they are wrong for each other. Archie ultimately saves the Chock'lit Shoppe, though he loses Pam to Robert, whom Betty dumps after growing sick of his bullying, and decides to stay in Riverdale. Veronica, Betty, and Jughead decide to move back to Riverdale as well. Reggie sees the error of his ways and reconciles with his friends as they take a group photo along with Jordan by Pops.
Cast
Almost all of the characters in the movie are regular or recurring characters in the originating comics:
The movie was made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Archie as well as serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential ongoing TV series.[2]Evan Katz when offered the writing job had very limited knowledge of the comics only having the vaguest recollection of reading what was available at a barbershop some years back, but eventually found a way of sustaining the two hour runtime by focusing on the love triangle between Archie, Betty, and Veronica and exploring the personal problems of the characters as that's what worked in the original comics.[2]
Michael Silberkleit, the then publisher and chairman of Archie Comics, said there had been attempts at making a live actionArchie for years but other properties were deemed "hotter" and it was only during the late 80s when there was movement back to nostalgia and away from violence that the opportunity presented itself.[3] At the same time as development on the film, there were also negotiations with Warner Bros. for a theatrical film version of Archie to be directed by Archie fan Joel Schumacher, as well as plans for an Archiefast-food restaurant specializing in healthy, low cholesterol, low-fat food.[3][4]
Silberkleit described the show and potential series as being in the vein of the The Big Chill tackling adult problems of the now 30 year old characters while still maintaining the innocence of the source material.[4]
The NBC movie, broadcast during the May sweeps period, was seen as a pilot for a possible series.[6] It received mixed reviews,[7] though was well received by some critics, who especially praised the casting and performances from the actors.[6][7]
Comic book version
Archie Comics published a one-shot comic book adaptation of the TV movie which coincided with its premiere. Stan Goldberg and Mike Esposito (two artists who worked on many of the regular Archie issues) drew the sections of the book featuring the characters in flashback as teens, while Gene Colan drew the characters as adults, in a realistic style and more "serious" look akin to Rex Morgan, M.D., and John Byrne drew the cover. The comic also shows a flashback to the incident where Archie and Betty were alone in a motel room together (from Betty and Me #40, February 1972). Back Issue! described the one-shot as "an offbeat, impressive package".[6]
The film was released on VHS in January 9, 1997[5] from New Horizons Home Video, with the movie re-titled as Archie: Return to Riverdale. In Australia, it was released on VHS as Archie's Weekend Reunion.
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