Anyone remember The Flash? Based on the DC comics character

I just purchased the one and only season of The Flash. The actor who portrayed him, John Wesley Ship was on Dawson's Creek, but has he appeared in any other show?

The Flash should have run five seasons. It was an intellegent and well written show that deserved a longer life.

Are there any other fans out there of this short lived classic?

 

Easily my favourite superhero show, and hugely influential - without it there would be no Lois & Clark or Smallville...

 

An entertaining show, but uneven. In the first half-season, they tried too hard to be a grim and gritty dark-avenger show, emulating the Tim Burton Batman, and were under pressure from the network to avoid supervillains. But as the season went on, they became increasingly light and campy until, by the finale, it was practically on a par with the Adam West Batman for sheer goofiness. The middle of the season, where they managed a comfortable middle ground between those extremes, was the strongest part.

It's noteworthy for its influence on the DC Animated Universe. It was the first superhero show scored by Shirley Walker, who went on to do Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, and Batman Beyond, and it employed a retro/Art Deco design style that B:TAS also embraced. And Mark Hamill's role as the Trickster in this series led directly to his casting as the Joker in B:TAS, the most important and iconic role in his post-Star Wars career. And the Justice League Unlimited episode "Flash and Substance" featured this show's version of the Trickster, voiced by Hamill. (And the Beyond episode "Zeta" was practically a remake of the Flash episode "Alpha.") Personally I consider The Flash to be part of the DCAU.

 

Got the DVDs too. I enoyed it, for the most part, but I hated the muscle suit. I thought the "let's show his super speed by having him clean the lab in 20 seconds" scenes to be pretty stupid. But overall, it was a great deal of fun. And, ya know, Amanda Pays.

 

I own the series on DVD as well but I also I watched it when it was originally on. Can't believe it's been 20 years. I was impressed by the speed effect in the promos leading up to the premiere and the series didn't disappoint. It did feel like a good quality Burton Batman-style show. At first anyway. I noticed a lot of what Christopher is talking about. The show shifted in tone after the pilot and became a bit campier. As for the costume, I liked it. It was better than the simple spandex outfit they could have gone with. And Amanda Pays... Yes, can't for get her.

 

I tried to watch this on TheWB.com a couple months ago, but I only got up to the accident that gave him his powers and then I had to quit for some reason. Then by the time I remembered to go back to it TheWB had pulled it. What I saw of it seemed pretty good, so it is now in my Netflix queue.

 

I found, upon watching the DVDs, that Amanda Pays is best taken in small doses. She was hot, yes, and had a sultry voice, but she was a rather limited performer with pretty much just one level of delivery, and I came to find her monotonous after a while. Probably not so bad if you just get one hour a week as opposed to watching the whole season in a few days.

 

I agree. The show needed more super villians and I always wanted to know how they resolved that cliff hanger at the end of sesaon one. When I found out hey were canceled it was a major let down

 

This along with the DARK SHADOWS revival was a casualty of the GULF WAR what with pre-emptions and being moved about the schedule...at one point it was bizarelly scheduled to START at 8:30 with a sitcom in front of it.

It's best episode was when the FLASH was accidently thrown forward into the future year of 2001. The big enemy was al-queda though...it was a biker gang that now controlled Central City...there was a great use of the reset button and how they used that resent button keyed into Flash's power was pretty cool.

 

Uhh, what cliffhanger? The series concluded with a happy ending, albeit a somewhat contrived one.

Spoiler: Flash finale

Even though the Flash had been brainwashed into joining the Trickster, his reputation seemed to recover easily, to the point that the series ended with Central City erecting a new welcome sign declaring itself the home of the Flash.

 

I remember at the time thinking the premiere episode was actually as good (if not better) than Burton's Batman. I loved the dark and moody tone, and the super-speed scenes were thrilling to watch.

I haven't seen the show in quite a while, but I can only imagine how incredibly cheesy and outdated it must look now.

 

Fun series. Especially enjoyed the two episodes with the 1950's hero Nightshade portrayed by Jason Bernard.

 

I have always felt this series was ahead of its time. If it had been released a few years down the road when the CSI style procedural had taken hold of the television landscape I think it would have thrived.

A superhero CSI type character would have taken off. TV wasn't ready for a 'police scientist' like Barry Allen when this series launched.

 

I really liked the Nightshade episode (with a retired hero who didn't have superpowers).

I have in my head, a superhero team loosely based on the Nightshade character.

 

If that's true they must have not broadcast the final episodes in my area.


They have pre-emted it so many times I could not keep track of it. I have the DVD's and have been watching them. Here all this time I thought the show ended with all the villians teaming up to get him.


Quick Trek Question:
By the way is "Watching the Clock" going to be a trilogy of books? I loved the time police starships in Voyager. If that was the Department of Temporal Investigations?

 

That was one of my favorite episodes also. Was that written by Howard Chaykin? I was reading the credits and noticed he was one of the writers on staff.

 

I always wonder if this show was a victim of bad ratings or the execs at the network didn't understand the genre?

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0794128/

Not as a regular, but I've seen his episodes of CSI: New York & The Closer, as well as The Flash on DVD, thanks to a former poster here.

I got to meet JWS at a scifi con in Plano, TX a few years ago, hell of a nice guy. Before the show, the organizers posted a preview of the photos he would have at his table, all studio promo shots from the series. I asked if there would be any "blue Flash" photos, from 'Twin Streaks'.

The day of the show, the organizers had two stacks of 'Twin Streaks' 8x10s printed out.

When I went to the table to get it signed, JWS completely geeked out, and told the volunteer handlin' the money & stuff all about it, and talked to me about how much fun it was to film the dual role, which led to us talkin' about which episode was my favorite, and a bunch of other stuff about the show.

He asked if I was comin' back for the second day of the con, and told me if I did, I could sit with him at his table. Sadly, I couldn't go back for day two...

Ah, well...

 

I believe the Flash could work today as a TV character because they have more CGI and special effects to be cost effective.

 

That's JWS. Can't believe he's still in the same shape he was when he was the Flash. If it weren't for the grey hair, he'd look almost the same.