Why Skeet Ulrich's FP Jones Left Riverdale

If you thought the young people on "Riverdale" were drama magnets, just wait until you get a load of their parents. The first season of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's delectably ludicrous Archie Comics TV show splits its attention fairly evenly between the soon-to-be adults of The Town With Pep and their elders, and for good reason: In keeping with the series' "Twin Peaks"-esque ethos, Riverdale's grown-ups are sitting on just as many unsettling secrets as their kids. (That and they're in equally desperate need of therapy.)

Just take a look at F.P. Jones (Skeet Ulrich), father of Jughead "Yes, That's His Real Name" Jones (Cole Sprouse). When F.P. shows up in season 1, he's struggling with alcoholism and is estranged from his son, having accumulated a lifetime of emotional baggage that stems from him joining Riverdale's own local gang, the Southside Serpents, after being kicked out of his home as a teenager. On top of that, he's still carrying a torch for his old flame Alice Cooper (who's played, fittingly enough, by "Twin Peaks" alum Mädchen Amick), the mother of Jughead's girlfriend Betty (Lili Reinhart). Also, one of these people may be married to a serial killer, but we've all been there.

To be sure, Ulrich had plenty of meaty material he could sink his teeth into on "Riverdale" in the early going. The fact his role also let him harken back to his (sometimes literally painful) breakout turns in the 1990s teen horror classics "The Craft" and "Scream," with F.P. being a former teen bad boy turned troubled yet soulful father, surely made it that much more rewarding for Ulrich to play. Alas, however, as the show continued to find new ways to top its own absurdity, it seemed to run out of interesting things for F.P. to do, and Ulrich noticed.

Of the many adjectives one could reasonably apply to "Riverdale" as a show, "boring" wouldn't be one of them. It is, after all, a series where a time-traveling character drinks a milkshake out of the Holy Grail at one point, and it's not even the most mind-boggling thing that happens in the same episode. But though the series plunged ahead with gonzo aplomb to its very end, certain supporting characters had a tendency to get lost in the fray, F.P. among them.

Between his association with the Serpents, the drama in his home life, and his romantic tension with Alice, F.P. had plenty on his plate to deal with immediately after season 1's murder mystery was resolved and he spent some time behind bars. (It's a long story.) At the same time, though, Ulrich's younger co-stars started to get more and more of the spotlight to themselves, with the show at large evolving into less of a multigenerational story and more one about young folks having to deal with their own s**t as much as their parents'. Perhaps that's how we wound up with meandering storylines like F.P. becoming Riverdale's sheriff (?) for a while before a disturbing turn of events involving Jughead's little sister Jellybean (Trinity Likins) convinces F.P. he needs to get both her and himself out of town for good.

Ulrich, to his credit, stuck it out until "Riverdale" hastily wrapped these plot threads up on its way to a game-changing seven-year time jump. He didn't beat around the bush when it came to the "why" behind his abrupt departure either. Speaking in an Instagram Live video not long after the news broke he was leaving "Riverdale" in early 2020 (via Variety), Ulrich stated matter of factly: 

"I'm leaving 'Riverdale' because I got bored creatively. How's that? That's the most honest answer." 

Notably, Ulrich's fellow "Riverdale" adult, Marisol Nichols, also left the show at that time, though she might have had very different reasons for doing so (her off-screen life is somehow even wilder than the one led by her Archie-verse counterpart), and Nichols eventually came back in a guest star capacity. F.P., on the other hand, was never seen in the Town With Pep again, leaving his and Alice's love story to remain forever unfulfilled. Leave it to "Riverdale" to break both your brain and your heart all in one go.