The explained the padded suit in the 90s series by saying it was a prototype deep sea suit that molded to his body and expanded to help withstand the pressure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QszlMVDrFjc&feature=player_detailpage&t=2635
I remember loving the 90s show at the time, but I tried rewatching it recently and... ugh. I thought the suit looked fine; for me the problem was Shipp just looked WAY too big and buff to be playing The Flash. Hell, he was almost at Swarzenegger levels, which is not exactly the body type you imagine for a character like that. And every time he ran, he looked just about as graceful too (which is to say, not at all).
^No, the suit's sculpted "musculature" made Shipp look more muscular than he really was. As stated above, it was a full-body prosthetic that he had to be glued into piece by piece. Either way, though, I agree -- it didn't suggest a runner's physique.
^Give it a texture a la the MoS suit and give the yellow pieces a metallic gold look, and that classic look could be just right. I'm well aware, and I always thought it was a stupid explanation. Because if there's something that a speedster would be more likely to wear than a muscle suit, it's a diving suit! Thank god, I'm not the only one.
It's not stupid to acknowledge basic physics. The forces involved in running at that speed would be considerable. The comics' Flash is assumed to generate a force field to protect him from burning up due to atmospheric friction; in the show, it was his costume that gave him that protection. (Although they did tend to ignore this later on.) Plus it gave them a justification for why he needed to wear a special outfit in the first place. Personally I would've liked a sleeker design, something that looked high-tech and not so muscley, but the in-story justification was hardly stupid.
It's not giving him a special suit that could withstand his speed that's the issue. It's that they used that explanation as the excuse to give him a Batman '89-style muscle suit. They could have put him in something sleeker and used the same explanation (and it would have been closer to reality, since actual wetsuits are form-fitting). There's a difference between the real-world design and the in-universe explanation used to justify it. My problem is with the former, and the latter doesn't change what it actually is.
Good point about the runner's physique, but I still think what we got was better aesthetically. There weren't many creative options at the time and the only other one I can think of would have been a bright spandex outfit. The tone did change right after the pilot and they did add a little more camp, but I thought it maintained its darker tone well enough from beginning to end. Amanda Pays? They seemed to have had a good working relationship from the beginning with a bit of a budding romance toward the end. That's what I remember anyway. I don't remember anything overly light or comic. Back to the suit... The new one has electric seams that light up and emit electricity when he runs. I can see them wanting to add a little something to update the effects and make them special, but I don't know if this would work in live action.
I am thinking Christopher meant the private detective Megan Lockhart. She learned his secret in one episode and later appeared in both episodes with the Trickster.
Yes, I meant Megan. Tina McGee (Pays) was a regular introduced in the pilot, not a recurring character introduced in the fourth episode.
Amanda Pays is lovely but... Paula Marshall is geometrically "better". I loved Julio's hair, and pictures of him without dreadlocks look wrong, but what's really amazing is that the actor grew up to be Nick Fury.
I would be very happy if we got something close to this. The Flash is one of my favourite New 52 comics and I love this look. Especially the way Francis Manapul draws him.
No kidding. I haven't seen him I anything but he does not have the look I pictured for the Flash. After watching Under The Dome I sort of thought the guy playing Barbie could make a pretty decent Barry Allen.
"Not what I pictured" doesn't matter. Nobody pictured Hugh Jackman for Wolverine or Heath Ledger for the Joker or Idris Elba for Heimdall. All that matters is how he plays the character. For that matter, the last TV Flash we had, John Wesley Shipp, didn't look much like Barry Allen either.
Well, John Wesley Shipp's Flash wasn't very good, so thats probably not a good example (to be fair, it might have been the writers fault more than the actor, but from what I've seen The Flash tv show was not very good). I'm not going to comment on Ledger, but when it comes to Jackman I think even if I'd never seen him before and they announced him as Wolverine, I'd think it was a good choice. This Flash is going to need to be a good actor to be a believeable Flash. Plus he's probably too young to be a forensic scientist, and definately looks too young, but they might not even go that route, and if they do its something I can ignore if its written well enough. Of the live action versions of the Flash I know about (Rod Haase in the Legends of the Superheroes special, John Wesley Shipp in the TV show, Kenny Johnston in the Justice League TV movie/pilot, and Kyle Gallner as Bart Allen in Smallville) only Smallville's Flash was anything above average (although I think we can give the Legends of the Superheroes guy a pass, it was just a small roll on a 70's tv special). The TV show one might have been ok with better writing, and the JLA TV movie one was just bad (but everyone was bad in that TV movie, it wasn't just him). Hopefully this new guy can be the first really good Barry Allen. Even with his current acting record and look I don't think a judgement can be made until we actually see him in action. I'm hoping for the best.