The Flash (1990 TV series)

The Flash is a 1990 American television series that starred John Wesley Shipp as the superhero, the Flash (created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert), and co-starred Amanda Pays. The series was developed from the DC Comics characters by the writing team of Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, and produced by their company, Pet Fly Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. Composer Danny Elfman wrote the show’s title theme, and Stan Winston Studios built the costume.

Production
The Flash's costume was designed and created by Robert Short, based upon the Barry Allen-era costume of the comics, but modernized. Each episode cost around $1.6 million to produce.

Executive producers Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo later wrote several issues of the comic book series The Flash: Fastest Man Alive (2007), which focused on Bart Allen, Barry's grandson. Another regular writer on the show was Howard Chaykin, who had written and illustrated many comic book series prior to the television series, and afterward.

Recurring roles and guest stars
Other guest stars in minor roles include Jonathan Brandis as Terry Cohan, Bryan Cranston as Phillip Moses, Mark Dacascos as Osako, Robert O'Reilly as Victor Kelso, and Sven-Ole Thorsen as the android assassin Omega.

Pilot
The series' pilot episode features an accident in which Central City Police forensic scientist Barry Allen's crime lab is struck by lightning. Allen's electrified body is flung into and shatters a cabinet of chemicals, which are both electrified and forced to interact with each other and with his physiology when they come into physical contact with his body. He soon discovers, with the help of S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Tina McGee, that the accident has changed his body's metabolism and as a result he has gained the ability to move at superhuman speed. To avenge the murder of his brother, motorcycle police officer Jay (Tim Thomerson), Barry demands that Tina modify a red S.T.A.R. Labs prototype deep sea diving suit, designed to withstand tremendous pressures, into his costume, to which she reluctantly complies. Thus, Barry Allen becomes the Flash.

Film and television veteran Robert Shayne appeared in several episodes as the blind newsstand owner where Barry bought his papers. Shayne has achieved a level of stardom years earlier as Inspector Henderson on The Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves. Shayne was by this time blind in real life and learned his lines by rehearsing with his wife until he memorized them.

Rogues gallery
The series initially had a dark and gritty tone, and focused on having the Flash confront decidedly human villains, like corrupt officials and mobsters. Midway through the show's run, however, a few of the Flash's familiar "Rogues Gallery" of colorful super-villains began making appearances.

The most famous Rogues in the series were the Trickster, played by Mark Hamill, and his sidekick, Prank, played by Corinne Bohrer.

Captain Cold, played by Michael Champion, and the Mirror Master, played by David Cassidy as a disgraced expert in holograms, also appeared in their own episodes. Although the series included DC characters, the interpretations were radically different from the source material, with the exception of Hamill's Trickster, though even he was altered somewhat - turned from a con-man and a largely benign criminal into a delusional mass murderer. Captain Cold, for instance, was turned into an albino hitman who murdered his victims by literally freezing them to death; while the Mirror Master was little more than a common thug with a nickname and advanced hologram technology.

List of episodes
Several episodes were edited as three TV movies and released on VHS:
 * The Flash (1990). The 2-hour pilot episode.
 * The Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster (1991). Formed by the episodes “The Trickster” and “The Trial of the Trickster”.
 * The Flash III: Deadly Nightshade (1991). Formed by the episodes “Ghost in the Machine” and “The Deadly Nightshade”.

Cancellation
Ultimately, the big-name appearances were too little too late to save the show, which struggled with a high per-episode price tag and stiff competition from NBC and Fox's strong Thursday night lineups. With the series' second episode, the one-hour program was shifted to the 8:30pm slot to avoid the media blitz caused by The Simpsons scheduled opposite The Cosby Show at 8:00. The unusual 8:30 slot did not work and the series floundered when moved to 9pm. The remaining episodes aired on Saturday nights where it faced cancellation after a single season. A brief attempt at rerunning the series in the summer on Fridays in hopes of finding an audience and reversing the cancellation also failed. Had the show continued, it was revealed the second season would have opened with the Flash's rogues teaming up to take down the hero.

Comic book
A comic book tie-in special based on the TV series was published by DC Comics in 1991 titled The Flash TV Special #1, running at 76 pages. It features two stories, one written by John Byrne with art by Javier Saltares, and the second written by then-writer of the ongoing Flash title, Mark Waid featuring a thief Kid Flash; plus a behind-the-scenes look on the making of the TV series with photos.

Video game
A video game was released for Game Boy in 1991 by THQ, and was based on the TV series. It was released in the US and had a password system. A second game was programmed by Probe and released only in Europe for the Master System in 1993.

Soundtrack
In 2010, a limited-edition two-disc soundtrack was released by La-La Land Records, featuring Danny Elfman's main theme and the scores by series composer Shirley Walker for the pilot and the episodes "Captain Cold," "The Trickster," "Watching the Detectives," "Ghost in the Machine," "Done With Mirrors," "Fast Forward" and "Trial of the Trickster."