Fictional town
Town in New York, The United States of America
Riverdale
is a
fictional town
in the United States where most of the characters live and appear in
Archie Comics
. Conflicting details on its geographic location have been given over the years. It is located near the fictional town of Greendale, home of
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
comic book series. In the television series
Riverdale
, it is located near Greendale related to the television series
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
.
Overview
[
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]
Riverdale is the setting of the stories in the Archie Comics universe. It is usually depicted as a medium-sized town (possibly a suburb of a bigger city), with all the usual amenities of shopping malls, restaurants, and parks. In the first Archie stories in the 1940s, it was identified as
Riverdale, New York
, a real neighborhood in
The Bronx
. In
Jackpot Comics
#5 (Spring 1942), a story written by
Bob Montana
has the gang going on a river trip. One panel says "...the good ship 'Peter Stuyvesant' settles into the
Hudson
, as Riverdale High clambers aboard for a happy trip to
Bear Mountain
." Riverdale has been shown to have beaches, lakes, rivers, deserts, farmland, woodland, mountains, plains, a transit system, and four distinct seasons with changes in climate.
Archie Comics publisher
John L. Goldwater
and initial
Archie
artist
Bob Montana
differed on the inspiration for Riverdale, with Goldwater saying it was based on his hometown of
Hiawatha, Kansas
, and Montana saying the town's high school was based on his own in
Haverhill, Massachusetts
, where as in the comics a replica of
Auguste Rodin
's famous statue
The Thinker
stands.
[1]
[2]
In one issue
[
volume & issue needed
]
of
Archie and Jughead Digest
, when one of the readers asked in a letter, "Where is Riverdale located?", the editor replied, "Riverdale is more of a state of mind than an actual physical location. It could be anywhere that kind people live and just have fun, like Archie and his friends. It could be in the Midwest, or along the Eastern Seaboard, or even a town in Canada, Mexico, or England."
Riverdale High School
[
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]
Riverdale High School is the local educational institution of Riverdale where Archie and his friends attend the 11th grade. Its school colors are blue and gold, and its school newspaper is the
Blue and Gold
.
Only a few of Riverdale High's staff appear regularly in the comics; these include the school principal
Mr. Weatherbee
, homeroom teacher
Miss Grundy
, chemistry teacher
Mr. Flutesnoot
, history teacher Miss Haggly, physical education teachers Coach Kleats and
Coach Clayton
, cafeteria cook
Miss Beazley
, custodian
Mr. Svenson
, secretary Miss Phlips, and superintendent of schools Mr. Hassle.
in the TV show, the staff frequently shown/mentioned in Riverdale are
Mr. Weatherbee
(principal),
Miss Grundy
(former, deceased music teacher),
Coach Clayton
(football coach) and
Mr. Svenson
(caretaker)
In the five-issue miniseries
Faculty Funnies
(cover-dated June 1989 – May 1990) by writer
George Gladir
and penciler
Stan Goldberg
, faculty members Mr. Weatherbee, Mr. Flutesnoot, Miss Grundy and Coach Clayton secretly become the superhero team the Awesome Foursome after a lab accident involving Archie's science project. They lose their powers after putting out a chemical fire.
[3]
[4]
The series
Archie at Riverdale High
ran 113 issues (August 1972 – February 1987).
[5]
This was followed by
Riverdale High
, which ran six issues (August?June 1990). After a brief hiatus, it was retitled
Archie's Riverdale High
and then canceled with issue #8 (August?October 1991).
[6]
[7]
Places
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]
Places in Riverdale besides the high school include the following:
- Pop Tate
's Chocklit Shoppe, the soda shop frequented by the teenaged cast.
- Pickens Park, the community park named for the fictional Civil War hero General Pickens.
- The Lodge Mansion, the large and luxurious home of wealthy
Veronica Lodge
and her parents.
- Homes of other members of the gang, including the Andrews residence, Jones residence and Cooper residence.
- Dilton Doiley
's science lab, a home-based setup where Dilton invents and conducts experiments.
- Chuck Clayton
's studio, where Chuck draws his cartoons at home.
- The beach, where Archie and the gang spend much of their time in the summer.
- The Riverdale Mall, a source of shopping and entertainment, particularly for the girls.
- The Blossom Mansion, the larger and luxurious home where wealthy
Cheryl Blossom
and her family live.
- Riverdale High, where all the teens go to school, and where all the dances and some parties are hosted, like homecoming.
Nearby towns
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]
Some nearby towns include Greendale and Midvale. Greendale is the home of
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
, who once lived in Riverdale but eventually moved. Characters who appear in
Josie and the Pussycats
come from Midvale.
Riverdale High School's main scholastic and athletic rival is Central High School, located in another nearby community. Central High seems to consist of nothing but villainous types. The males are generally thuggish, conniving brutes, and the females are usually lecherous, scheming vamps. In most of their encounters, Central students seldom compete without using unsportsmanlike conduct, if not out-and-out cheating. The coaches and teachers often are not only aware of this skullduggery, but encourage it. In most cases, Central's team colors are bright red and silver-white.
In the fourth season of the iconic show, Stonewall Prep is heavily mentioned as one of the nearby rival schools. Student often dress in rabbit memorabilia and carry fake looking axes to intimidate unwanted newcomers. In a rather charming episode, Betty and Jughead have relations in Jughead's dorm during the winter months. As Jughead courageously ventures outside their cozy abode to buy them an extravagant meal of vending machine memorabilia, he is nearly attacked by one of these bunny loving students.
Pembrooke Academy is a private school attended by siblings
Cheryl
and
Jason Blossom
and their snobbish friends
Bunny and Cedric
. They look down on Riverdale students as "townies" and will not (except for the Blossom twins) willingly associate with them. Other schools that have been featured as Riverdale rival schools include Hadley High and Southside High. In one comic,
[
volume & issue needed
]
a letter sent to Riverdale has "U." where the state should be, and a ZIP code of 10543 (which in real life is Mamaroneck, New York, the home of Michael Silberkleit, an Archie Comics editor).
[
citation needed
]
Related media
[
edit
]
- In the pilot of the 2017 series
Riverdale
, the town is described as being located in "Rockland County." Only one county in the US has that name,
Rockland County, New York
, close to Archie Comics' headquarters in
Pelham, New York
.
[8]
Whereas the real Rockland County has a heavily suburban character and is only about 40 miles from New York City, the TV version of Riverdale is much more isolated, is not home to anyone who regularly commutes to New York, and features several plots that depend on the town being located close to the Canadian border. This suggests that the fictional Rockland County on the show is not the same as its real-life counterpart and is instead in far
Upstate New York
.
Cultural references
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]
See also
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Harvey, R. C.
(July 28, 2011).
"John Goldwater, the Comics Code Authority, and Archie"
.
The Comics Journal
.
Archived
from the original on April 16, 2014.
- ^
Andrea Shea (May 30, 2015).
"A Search For The Real Life Archie, Betty, And Friends Began In Haverhill"
.
WBUR
. Retrieved
May 16,
2020
.
- ^
Faculty Funnies
at the
Grand Comics Database
.
- ^
"Did You Know?"
. Archie Comics. Archived from
the original
on October 25, 2009.
- ^
Archie at Riverdale High
at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^
Riverdale High
and
Archie's Riverdale High
at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^
"Did You Know?"
. Archie Comics. May 2000. Archived from
the original
on October 25, 2009.
- ^
"The River's Edge".
Riverdale
. Season 1. Episode 1. January 26, 2017.
Netflix
.
External links
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]
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