The Flash

This is the show that should have been a huge hit for DC Comics. The Flash starring John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen ran from September 20, 1990 to July 19, 1991 on CBS. The special effects were top notch. As well as the acting, writing and directing. So what happened? My guess is that it was too expensive for them to produce given the special effects that it took to make it seem that the Flash was running at super speed. The 2 hour pilot looked good enough that it could have been release to movie theaters. It was one of the most expensive pilots ever made for television. In the pilot just as in the comic book mild mannered police scientist Barry Allen is working late in his Central City Police Dept. crime lab when a bolt of lightning smashes through and causes him to be soaked in chemicals. The chemicals cause his metabolism to speed up and he is able to run faster then the speed of light. He is so fast he is invisible to the naked eye. In the series Barry is single and not dating anyone. In the comic book he was dating Iris West who he later married. At first he tried to return to normal with the help of fellow scientist Tina McGee played by Amanda Pays. Later he decides if he can’t become normal again then he will use his powers to fight crime. Tina helps him and is the only one who knows that Barry is the Flash.
At first in the series the other characters in the show treat the Flash as an urban myth. As the show went on he started helping the police in a more public manner. Some officials didn’t like the help of a super powered vigilante but they usually were shown to be corrupt individuals. The writers of the series were either comic book fans or they really did their homework. There were many inside jokes like a character telling they were going to the Infantino Building on Fox Street. Infantino and Fox were two names of comic book creators who had worked on the comic book for awhile. As the series went on you could see the cost cutting moves that were made in the special effects. Near the end of the series Flash was rarely see running. He was usually only shown starting to run of slowing down to a stop. In one way it brought back the feeling that Batman had when it was on. It used the same villains from the comic book and got famous guest villains like David Cassidy as Mirror Master and Mark Hamill as the Trickster. In many ways this is the closest that any TV series has come to producing a show that looked like book that it was based on. In the end the show lasted 10 months and that was most likely to get out of it the money that was put into it. I don’t believe it was a ratings disaster. I think that it was canceled because of economics. John Wesley Shipp seemed doomed to be typecast thanks to that red suit. Thankfully he was cast as Dawson’s Dad in the hit show Dawson’s Creek. The Flash series also marked the last screen appearance of Robert Shayne who had played Inspector Henderson in the Adventures of Superman in the 1950’s. He was a blind newspaper sales men on the street corner who knew Barry Allen and would give him information that he could use as The Flash. Since Superman and Batman made successful transitions from TV to the movies and Wonder Woman looks like she will too, I hope they will do the same for The Flash.
The above TV Guide cover was used as that is the only one that the Flash was on.