The Flash" is the BEST live-action comic book adaptation ever to appear on television! I speak as a 'baby boomer' who grew up on "The Adventures of Superman" in the fifties, endured "Batman" in the sixties, and found "Wonder Woman" a 'mixed bag' in the seventies. "The Flash" is much, much better, and it has always been a tragedy that poor ratings (due largely to shifting time slots and the Gulf War) killed this series after a single season.
But what a season it was!
Produced by fellow 'baby boomers' Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, to capitalize on the success of the Tim Burton "Batman" and visual style of the Warren Beatty "Dick Tracy" (with a theme by the composer of both films, Danny Elfman), the series focused on the adventures of the 'Silver Age' Flash, Barry Allen (played with boyish charm by John Wesley Shipp). A police scientist, Allen is struck by a bolt of lightning in his lab, and doused with an array of chemicals that alters his DNA, mutating him into a being of nearly limitless speed, superhuman regenerative powers, and an appetite for food to maintain his stamina that could keep pizza parlors in business for years! The death of his older brother, Jay (named after the forties' comic book Flash, and played by 'B' movie legend, Tim Thomerson) leads Allen to don a mask and costume, and fight crime, with his secret shared by scientist Tina McGee (Amanda Pays). Then it is literally 'off to the races', as the Flash uses his speed to combat street gangs, vicious killers, and the celebrated 'Rogues' Gallery' of costumed villains 'lifted' from the comic book (The Trickster, Captain Cold, etc.) While the series never attempted to be 'real', it avoided campiness, and respected both the audience and it's comic book roots (with references to legendary "Flash" authors and artists cleverly slipped in). The FX were astonishing (and VERY expensive to create), and still 'hold up' extremely well against the CGI effects of today.
Among the memorable actors who appeared in the series were Mark Hamill (just seven years after the original "Star Wars" trilogy concluded, and developing the 'villainous' skills that would make him the ideal 'Joker' in the animated "Batman" series), Bill ("Lost in Space") Mumy, Dick Miller, Robert Shayne ('Inspector Henderson' in "The Adventures of Superman"), David Cassidy, a pre-stardom Angela Bassett, Richard ("Homicide" and "Law and Order") Belzer, M. Emmet Walsh, and Alex Désert, as Allen's dreadlocks-coiffed sidekick, Julio Mendez.
Each episode of the series was vastly entertaining, with Shipp displaying not only a heroic physique, but a finely-tuned comic timing, and a dazzling smile guaranteed to melt your heart, as well. He made a character in a red 'muscle suit' not only believable, but as ingratiating as Christopher Reeve's 'Superman'.
I could go on and on, but don't take MY word for it...Watch an episode or two...You'll get 'hooked'!
But what a season it was!
Produced by fellow 'baby boomers' Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, to capitalize on the success of the Tim Burton "Batman" and visual style of the Warren Beatty "Dick Tracy" (with a theme by the composer of both films, Danny Elfman), the series focused on the adventures of the 'Silver Age' Flash, Barry Allen (played with boyish charm by John Wesley Shipp). A police scientist, Allen is struck by a bolt of lightning in his lab, and doused with an array of chemicals that alters his DNA, mutating him into a being of nearly limitless speed, superhuman regenerative powers, and an appetite for food to maintain his stamina that could keep pizza parlors in business for years! The death of his older brother, Jay (named after the forties' comic book Flash, and played by 'B' movie legend, Tim Thomerson) leads Allen to don a mask and costume, and fight crime, with his secret shared by scientist Tina McGee (Amanda Pays). Then it is literally 'off to the races', as the Flash uses his speed to combat street gangs, vicious killers, and the celebrated 'Rogues' Gallery' of costumed villains 'lifted' from the comic book (The Trickster, Captain Cold, etc.) While the series never attempted to be 'real', it avoided campiness, and respected both the audience and it's comic book roots (with references to legendary "Flash" authors and artists cleverly slipped in). The FX were astonishing (and VERY expensive to create), and still 'hold up' extremely well against the CGI effects of today.
Among the memorable actors who appeared in the series were Mark Hamill (just seven years after the original "Star Wars" trilogy concluded, and developing the 'villainous' skills that would make him the ideal 'Joker' in the animated "Batman" series), Bill ("Lost in Space") Mumy, Dick Miller, Robert Shayne ('Inspector Henderson' in "The Adventures of Superman"), David Cassidy, a pre-stardom Angela Bassett, Richard ("Homicide" and "Law and Order") Belzer, M. Emmet Walsh, and Alex Désert, as Allen's dreadlocks-coiffed sidekick, Julio Mendez.
Each episode of the series was vastly entertaining, with Shipp displaying not only a heroic physique, but a finely-tuned comic timing, and a dazzling smile guaranteed to melt your heart, as well. He made a character in a red 'muscle suit' not only believable, but as ingratiating as Christopher Reeve's 'Superman'.
I could go on and on, but don't take MY word for it...Watch an episode or two...You'll get 'hooked'!