Luke Perry is back on a teen drama — but this time he’s the veteran in the room.
The 50-year-old actor, best known as heartthrob Dylan McKay on the popular ’90s teen soap “Beverly Hills, 90210,” is starring as Archie Andrews’ dad, Fred, in “Riverdale,” premiering Thursday at 9 p.m. on The CW. Though the series is based on the characters from Archie Comics, this is no Saturday-morning cartoon.
As the 13-episode first season opens, the town of Riverdale is reeling from the mysterious death of the high school’s golden boy Jason Blossom. The summer’s tragic events have made Archie (19-year-old New Zealander KJ Apa) decide to pursue a career in music rather than join the family construction business — leaving Fred, a townie and single dad, “heartbroken.”
“It’s so great for me to be able to play a guy who’s a committed father, who wants the best thing for his kid,” Perry tells The Post. “There’s no sports car, there’s no dangerousness to this guy . . . He just wants to keep whatever of his family he can together, and those are noble ambitions.”
Seated in a bar at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., Perry wears a white T-shirt and jeans, bifocals balanced atop his nose and flecks of gray hair visibly dotting his beard. Much millennial angst ensued when Perry donned the cover of AARP magazine last year, but he seems to have comfortably slipped into the elder statesman role, proudly showing off Penny, his four-month-old boxer rescue dog, to his co-stars at the bar. His advice to the mostly younger cast, many in their first major roles, is to set a good tone on set.
“I say ‘You guys got to do the same thing we did [on ‘90210’], just concentrate on your work. Don’t think about any of the other s--t, the magazine covers, the this, the that — all that goes away if you don’t do your work,’” he says.
Those young co-stars include Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Veronica (Camila Mendes), the former carrying around an unrequited crush for her friend Archie, the latter the new student in town from New York who sets off an awkward love-friendship triangle. There’s Josie (Ashleigh Murray) and her band the Pussycats, Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Jason’s surviving twin, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), who’s hiding secrets about what really happened the night her brother died.
As is de rigueur in a CW series, the entire cast is an attractive bunch. Ms. Grundy, a dowdy white-haired woman in the comics, is now a hot young teacher (played by Sarah Habel) who carries on a forbidden summer fling with Archie. Mädchen Amick (“Twin Peaks”) plays Betty’s overbearing mother, Alice, while Marisol Nichols (“24”) is Veronica’s mother, Hermione (there’s a hint of Fred’s romantic history with both). In a bit of nostalgia dream-casting, Molly Ringwald portrays Archie’s mom, who is separated from his dad.
“When I was growing up, everyone wanted to be dancing with Molly Ringwald, and guess what, I’ll be doing it,” Perry says.
The actor, who also grew up reading the Archie comics, was initially skeptical of doing the TV series, but was won over by the dark, subversive take — which he acknowledges could be controversial to longtime Archie fans.
“On some level I hope so, because it seems like only controversy gets attention,” he says. “We’re just working on character development and telling good stories and if we happen to shock some people along the way, that’s OK.”
“Riverdale” Series premiere 9 p.m. Thursday on The CW
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