Families of Archie's Gang


The following is a list of members of the families of Archie's Gang appearing in Archie Comics. Primarily featured are the parents of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and Jughead Jones.

The Andrews family

Fred Andrews

Frederick "Fred" Andrews is the father of Archie Andrews and the son of Archie's grandfather Artie Andrews. Apart from Hiram Lodge, he and his wife Mary appear more in the comics than any other parents in Archie Comics. Archie often calls him "Pop." He was somewhat overweight, and his wife often makes him go on a diet, which he dislikes. He has also lost most of his black hair. Thinning-haired, amply-contoured gentlemen appear to be common in Archie Comics.
He works as a businessman. Although the specifics of his job are not clear, it involves an aspect of industrial automotive sales. He sometimes claims to have more skills than he has. He was conservative, has old-fashioned ideals, and is bothered by the changes in the new generation, which he must endure due to his having a teenage son. However, beneath this lies a very soft heart and he occasionally displays a sense of humor towards Archie. The two of them are close and share many father/son activities. He was portrayed by Luke Perry in the CW series Riverdale. In the show, he was at first disapproving of Archie's interest in music instead of sports, but soon learned to accept it.
Luke Perry died of a stroke in March 2019 and as a result of his death, Fred was killed off-screen by a speeding car while helping someone else who had a flat tire.

Mary Andrews

Mary Andrews is a middle-aged, pleasant-mannered, red-haired woman and Archie's typical American suburban mother. In earlier years, she was portrayed with white hair and a plump figure, but given a more youthful appearance in later years as with most of the parents of the Archie characters.
Though her husband Fred was the breadwinner in earlier decades, she took a job at a real estate agency in later years. She is often the only one who can keep order among the family. Still, she is more tolerant than her husband, and she and Archie have a typical mother/son relationship. Although she is a disciplinarian and her son is always getting into trouble, she never seems to lose her temper with him. Molly Ringwald portrays Mary in the CW series Riverdale. This version of the character is separated from Fred and resides in Chicago.

Artie Andrews

Archie's paternal grandfather appeared sporadically for years before receiving the name Artie Andrews. Sometimes his hair is white, sometimes it is orange, and sometimes it has only partly lost its color. However, his hair almost always has the same crisscross pattern as Archie. He got his name in Archie Digest #239 in October 2007. Mr. Lodge showed him and Archie a classic car that looked like Archie's original jalopy. It was the car Artie had as a teenager when he looked and dressed like Archie from the 1940s. His girlfriend Bernice was nearly identical to Betty as a teenager, so when Artie said he married her, Veronica was displeased. His best friend as a teenager was Curly, who looked a lot like Jughead. In Riverdale, he died in Fred's junior year as shown in a flashback episode.

Spotty

Spotty is Little Archie's brown dog with black spots. He appeared primarily in "Little Archie", as an honorary member of the gang, so he has been known to tag along with them on their adventures. He has a close relationship with Little Archie, who often worries about him being in danger.
Spotty has made a few appearances in the main continuity, usually shown as an older, less active dog. His most recent appearance in mainstream continuity was Archie's Double Digest #196 in 2009.

Vegas

Archie is featured with his dog, Vegas, in several Archie Comics issues. Vegas is a caramel-colored pup with a red collar.

The Cooper family

Hal Cooper

In the first Archie appearance, Betty's father is called J. B. Cooper. In one frame, he calls a portrait of his to be "in Lodge uniform". This implies that he belonged to a fraternal order ; later in the same story, he is shown to be present when a high-wire act in which Archie was involved goes wrong. He is shown wearing said lodge uniform. J. B. Cooper is also shown to be quite a bit older than his later avatars.
In later stories, Betty's father is shown working as a druggist and is called Hal Cooper. Although he has only a middle-class income, he is a good provider for his family. He is also a highly respected citizen, very civic-minded, and serves on the town council. He is a somewhat rotund fellow and, for a time, his hair was white and thinning. By the 1990s, he was given light brown hair with early signs of baldness. In some early stories he was seen smoking a pipe, but it has been deleted where such stories have been reprinted.
He once believed in gender stereotypes, but in later years, he and Betty are seen sharing many activities, and he appears to be the one who introduced her to sports. Though he is sometimes frustrated with his daughter's antics, such as her obsession with Archie, he loves her very much and is proud of her achievements. Even so, he is often perplexed by the female nature, especially since his son Chic moved out and he became the only male in the Cooper household. He doesn't approve of Archie's occasional inconsideration of Betty's feelings.
Lochlyn Munro portrays Hal in the TV series Riverdale. While he is initially portrayed as a respectable, civic-minded family provider, he is later revealed to be a controlling, vengeful persona. In the Season 1 finale, it is revealed that Hal made his then-girlfriend Alice give up her baby son for adoption while they were in high school. He has a long-standing hatred for the Blossom family, which he says is because his grandfather was murdered by a member of the Blossom family and the Blossoms stole the maple syrup business away from the Cooper family. He is enraged when his daughter Polly starts dating the Blossom's eldest son, Jason. When Polly becomes pregnant and Jason is murdered, he sends Polly to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and blames Polly's departure on a mental breakdown spawned by Jason's abusive nature. He later steals Sheriff Keller's files on the murder as a way to clear him from suspicion. In the penultimate Season 1 episode, Hal reveals to a shocked Alice and Betty that his grandfather and the Blossom's grandfather were brothers and that he tried to keep Polly and Jason apart because they are third cousins. Although Alice initially kicks Hal out of the house in the middle of Season 1 after finding out he tried to get Polly to get an abortion, he moves back in with the family in the season finale.
It is later revealed in the Season 2 penultimate episode that Hal is the Black Hood, a serial killer who has targeted "sinners" in Riverdale since the end of Season 1. He ended up killing 4 people including Midge Klump, Ms. Grundy, Robert Phillips, and Dr. Masters. Hal claimed he wanted to "cleanse the town" after being brainwashed as a child by his parents, who made him think such thoughts after his father massacred a family of four. After failing to kill Alice, he was arrested and sent to jail.

Alice Cooper

Betty's mother Alice Cooper appears at first glance to be identical to Archie's mother Mary, except that her hair is light blonde. Betty claims to be a natural blonde, which Veronica disbelieves, but blonde hair appears to be a family trait. Alice Cooper's maiden name was Smith. She and Betty appear to have the closest mother-child relationship in Archie Comics. She is also a friend of Mary Andrews and Hermione Lodge.
A very warm-hearted woman, she is always there for Betty, very proud of her, and is always willing to help with her problems. Still, she hopes that Betty will eventually outgrow her tomboy phase and embrace some of Veronica's more desirable traits. In later years, it is implied that Alice works, but this has not been explored. Even though the Coopers seem to be comfortably Middle Class, she secretly envies the Lodge wealth a little, mainly because she wishes she could afford to buy Betty the nice things the Lodge's buy for Veronica.
Mädchen Amick portrays Alice in the CW series Riverdale. In this version Alice is very strict and controlling with Betty, demanding only perfection from her. It is implied that this behavior started after Betty's older sister, Polly, had a mental breakdown after a bad relationship with Jason Blossom Her controlling behavior goes to extremes when Alice forbids Betty to be friends with Veronica and Archie because they are "rotten." She spies on Archie's family and reads her daughter's diary. Betty eventually told Alice not to use Polly and Jason as an excuse to not let her and Archie be together. She works as a reporter in the local newspaper, but she often publishes yellow journalism, and even publishes Jason Blossom's autopsy, which infuriates Cheryl's mom, Penelope. Alice openly dislikes the Lodge family and tries to shame Hermione in public. Alice's controlling nature is later attributed to her difficult life, with the startling revelation that she grew up on the Southside of Riverdale and was forced to give up her infant son for adoption when she was a teenager by her then-boyfriend Hal, making room for some sympathetic qualities. In Season 2, it was revealed that F.P. Jones was the father of her son, after a brief relationship in high school.

Polly and Chic Cooper

Betty's older sister Polly and brother Chic were introduced in Little Archie in the 1960s as teenagers. Polly mainly appeared in stories about her "older sister" relationship with Little Betty, while Chic mostly appeared in the adventure-based stories as Little Archie's teenage friend who could fill the role of "adult" when the plot needed a character who could drive a car, fight with the villains, etc. For years, they were not canonical characters in the mainstream Archie comics. However, by the 1990s, they had been integrated into the main continuity. Both have strawberry-blonde hair, are currently in their twenties, and are close to each other in age, but are significantly older than Betty. To explain why they rarely appear in the comics, it was established that Polly works as a television news reporter in San Francisco, and Chic works as a secret agent for the United States government. Both occasionally visited their family, though Polly made more appearances. Around 2005, it was revealed that Polly had accepted a job in Riverdale, and she now appears often, mainly in the Betty comic book.
Polly and Chic are portrayed by Tiera Skovbye and Hart Denton, respectively, in the TV series Riverdale. In the show, it is stated that Betty and Polly are the only children of Alice and Hal. The season 1 finale reveals that Alice was pregnant in high school and that she gave a son up for adoption that should now be in his mid-20s. In the show, Polly dates Jason Blossom, whose murder is what the main storyline revolves around through the first season. During the first few episodes, Betty is not allowed to see Polly and is told that Polly is getting help after having a mental breakdown that their parents blame on Jason. It is later revealed that Polly is pregnant with twins and was sent to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, where she eventually breaks out of and is reunited with her family. In the penultimate episode of season 1, it is discovered that Polly and Jason are third cousins. Chic makes his first appearance in the season 2 mid-season premiere. However, it was revealed that Chic was an impostor and not Betty's real brother. It was also revealed that Chic had allegedly murdered Betty's real brother, Charles Smith and that F.P. Jones was the father of Alice's son. In the Season 3 finale episode, Chic, who's now the new Gargoyle King, teams with Hal and Penelope to kill Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead but was defeated by Jughead. In the same episode, Betty and Jughead meet an FBI agent who turns out to be the real Charles Smith and is also both Betty and Jughead's half-brother.