In fact everything in the series was well thought out, complementing the whole. The main characters were well conceived and likeable so that the audience cared what happened to them. Virtually all the stories have a feel of quality about them, not just because they had witty dialogue and clever ideas but because the producers and writers really thought about the consequences, the repercussions and practicalities of their fantasy concepts addressing them within the adventures. Just as eighties comics were waking up to violent, uncertain, media-saturated modern urban life so did The Flash.
The Situation
Central City, a typical US metropolis not a million miles away from
Gotham, blighted by violence and corruption. But for police forensic scientist
Barry Allen, life is pretty good. He has a beautiful girlfriend, is popular
amongst his colleagues and is doing a job he enjoys. Only his retired cop
father's attitude that 'real' policework is done on the street rather than
in a laboratory causes him any real upset. All that changes one night when
he is struck by lightning and covered in a random cocktail of chemicals.
When he recovers he finds himself suddenly erupting without warning into
high speed action. For instance he starts running for a bus and suddenly
finds himself in the ocean at a beach many miles away. Not only that but
his clothes have burnt up! Naturally concerned by this he seeks out help
and soon finds himself at the mysterious S.T.A.R. Lab where he first meets
the beautiful Dr Tina McGee. She reveals that she and her husband had been
working on a project to enhance human ability in a way surprisingly similar
to Barry's new condition. Sadly her husband died while experimenting on
himself. At first Barry is anxious to become normal and Tina promises to
help him. Before long however Barry learns to control his powers. Suddenly
his life takes a second fateful turn when his beloved older brother Jesse
is killed by a biker gang that has been terrorising Central City. Dressed
in an experimental suit designed withstand the massive friction heat that
super-speed creates; disguised by a mask; Barry goes out for revenge. Along
the way he chooses a name, The Flash. With Tina's reluctant help he is
able to defeat the bikers' meglomaniac ruler Pike. The experience convinces
him that he should use his powers to fight the dark underbelly of the city.
In a series of adventures Barry learns the hard way about the realities
of being a hero. Tina helps him out at S.T.A.R. Lab while Julio, unaware
of his secret identity as the Flash, aids him in the forensic lab. At first
the Flash is regarded as a myth by the citizens of Central City but slowly
the sightings and his reputation builds up. For a while he becomes a controversial
figure and a cause celebre until eventually at the end of the series he
is recognised as the City's own guardian angel.
Production
Originally Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, the producers of The Flash,
envisaged a very different series that owed something to the best selling
Dark Knight Returns. Set in the near future, an older Barry Allen would
be thawed out from suspended animation only to discover a USA where superheroes
had been outlawed and mostly wiped out. He would create a resistance group
made up of the children of his old costumed allies and battle the corrupt
authorities. Interestingly elements of this storyline resurfaced in the
marvellous 'alternative future' story Fast Forward where his old enemy
Pike rules a future version of Central City. This first draft was then
amended to a more traditional format that combined the comic book histories
of the second and third incarnations of the Flash. The producers persuaded
NBC to sink $10 million dollars into the pilot, most of it going on major
new standing sets of the Gotham-esque Central City and the impressive visual
effects. It was they who argued that audiences brought up on the Superman
and Batman movies were not going to expect anything less from a new TV
hero. As a result The Flash became the most expensive programme
on TV at over $1 million an episode. In the early weeks of the show Bilson
and De Meo were not only producing but taking on a fair proportion of the
writing as well because the writers they had commissioned were either TV
veterans not use to superhero stories or comicbook writers who had no experience
of writing for TV, so they presented unsuitable stories that had too many
characters and sets. Despite a great deal of rewriting the pair were only
credited on screen for the pilot, the debut story Out of Control and shared
the credit for Honour Among Thieves. Amongst the impressive array of opticals,
modelwork and physical stunts, the crucial speed scenes were achieved by
several methods. Steadicam for shots from the Flash's point of view, time
lapse photography, adding motion blurs with CGI or simply turning on a
huge electric fan to ruffle actor's hair as the Flash leaves off-camera.
Composer Danny Elfman (Batman, Nightmare Before Christmas)
supplied the stirring orchestral theme music.
Characters
Barry Allen (John Wesley Shipp)
Barry is a good man. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination
but certainly ideal hero material. Naturally he is fit and very good looking,
In fact occasionally a character comments he doesn't look much like a scientist.
He is intelligent, brave, humorous, kind to animals and compassionate but
often headstrong, stubborn and occasionally childish. Probably his greatest
weakness is a deep seated feeling of inadequacy because his father never
really appreciated his work, treating him as a phoney policeman compared
to himself and his all-action elder brother. It is partly this weakness
that drives Barry to become the Flash and throughout the series there is
the edge that Barry is more interested in fighting than in real justice,
that he is living out a fantasy. Undoubtedly there is a lot of repressed
anger in Barry and sometimes he can burst into sudden fits of temper during
an argument. He treads a line between responsibility and vigilanteism.
The fact that his costume contains large sculptured muscles indicates that
his Flash persona is more ostentatiously macho than Barry's normal character.
From early in the making of the series it was found that the less the
Flash spoke the better because long dialogue scenes lost impact when one
of the speakers was wearing an outlandish costume. There is a sense that
once Barry dons the costume he becomes darker and more focused on the immediate
problem at the cost of shedding some of his personality. Consequently he
doesn't joke too much when he is 'working'. But Barry is also driven by
a passion to do good, to right wrongs and his basically decent nature prevents
him from becoming a monster. Unfortunately this also leads to him becoming
something of a martyr to his powers. For quite a while he is in danger
of burning himself out while trying to be everywhere at once simply because
he is faster than any police or fire service. In his personal life he enjoys
a strong platonic relationship with Tina that privately he would like to
go further but also dates a succession of sexy women in various stories
who are all attracted by his nice guy persona. But the one who makes the
biggest impact was tough private eye Megan Jones with whom he has an on/off
relationship through several stories.
Christina McGee (Amanda Pays)
A brilliant, glamorous scientist who is one of the leading lights of
S.T.A.R. Lab's Central City establishment. She acts as Barry's Girl Friday,
usually on hand with support and knowhow. Originally from England, she
came to the USA to study. Whilst there, she fell in love with David who
became her husband. After being widowed she carried on their work. Tina
is smart, resourceful, compassionate and can demonstrate a great sense
of humour on occasion. Before the pilot story she appears to have thrown
herself into her work but once Barry enters her life she appears to enjoy
a fair amount of social life. The stories frequently feature the pair at
dinners, parties etc. Not surprisingly others comment how lucky Barry is
to have a beautiful doctor who makes house calls. But because of the death
of her husband she's unwilling to get emotionally involved with another
man so her and Barry's relationship becomes one of friendship, though those
sparks fly and provide a bit of will they/won't they tension to the series.
If a second season had been made perhaps things would have become more
serious. However she rarely seems to resent Barry seeing other women. Helping
Barry in his adventures opens up a new exciting world to Tina and after
some token reluctance she dives in with enthusiasm. But she always remains
the voice of reason, telling Barry when he should slow down or reign in
his anger. Usually she provides him with information and computer expertise
but occasionally she becomes involved directly in the action and has saved
his life on more than one occasion. Sometimes she resents the way the Flash
interrupts her life and can feel taken for granted. An interesting glimpse
into the depths of her caring character emerges in "Fast Forward" when
the alternative Tina is running a free hospital for the poor in the slums
of Pike City.
Julio Mendez (Alex Desert)
Julio is Barry's partner in the crime lab as well as being his best
friend. He is a relaxed guy, something of a joker although his forensic
abilities are equal to those of the more studious Barry. An escapee from
the ghetto he nevertheless has strong roots there and keeps in touch with
his old friends. He is always ready with a sympathetic ear although his
advice can be flip: "Woah, girl trouble? Listen to Dr Lovethang. You're
not supposed to know what's happening. But look at it this way. At least
you're not sublimating your sex drive with food anymore!" Something of
a party dude when not at work, he and his girlfriend Sabrina seem to take
it as their mission to matchmake Barry with an eligible young woman. This
sub-plot mines a rich vein of humour as Barry's dates frequently turn out
to somewhat flaky. The other running gag is that Julio keeps glimpsing
Barry's powers but usually dismissing the evidence of his eyes. Although
his friend hates keeping Julio in dark about his secret identity he feels
he has to in order to protect him. Only in "Beat the Clock" does Julio's
cool veneer change when his childhood friend is on a murder charge. Julio
becomes frustrated and angry at his lack of power to help his buddy but
thankfully the Flash is on hand to find the real culprit.
Supporting Characters
Most of the series' semi-regulars are caricatures of the sort of people
found in Hollywood thrillers but they are all enlivened by the spirited,
warm hearted performances of the actors. Lt. Warren Garfield (Mike Genovese)
is Barry and Julio's tough but fair boss at the police station. A somewhat
grouchy character he nevertheless stands up for his men in times of crisis.
Officers Bellows (Vito D'Ambrosio) and Murphy (Biff Manard) usually provide
some comic relief in an episode but they also act as a Greek chorus, commenting
on the plot and representing what the average man thinks about the Flash.
Bellows sees the Scarlet Speedster in the pilot but Murphy refuses to believe
him until nearly the end of season. Along the way Bellows suspects that
his partner actually is the Flash, Murphy tries his hand at fiction and
the pair become shopkeepers in the alternative future episode. Frohieght
(Dick Miller) is a small time crook and successful police informant. Apparently
he has been providing the word on the street since the fifties so it is
quite amazing he has lived long enough to help Barry.
Notable Stories
"Out of Control" got the series off to a flying start with a high octane,
outlandish plot filled with action and character development. A killer
is leaving disfigured victims in the streets. Meanwhile Carl, an old flame
of Tina's arrives in town, putting Barry's nose out of joint. Worse still
these two elements are intimately linked because Carl turns out to be a
mad scientists whose genetic experiments are creating strange mutants including
a werewolf! This episode features a way out cliffhanger straight out of
Flash Gordon with the Flash trapped in a giant vacuum chamber, not
to mention some impressive prosthetic make-up on the various monsters.
We also learn more about Tina's past as well as getting to see her out
of the lab as she is dated by Carl. Directionwise the timing is perfect
with incident and dialogue stacking so smoothly together it is almost impossible
to imagine it being produced any better.
"Watching the Detectives" introduces the sassy Megan Lockhart, a private
eye hired by a mobster who learns the Flash's true identity. As a result
Barry is blackmailed into becoming the gangster's enforcer until he can
turn the tables with the aid of Megan who has been having second thoughts
about her mercenary approach to life. An episode which is much more than
it appears and probably the most realistic in exploring how a superpowered
man could live in the real world. Barry is still learning how to be the
Flash, his family is put in danger by his night-time heroics, while at
the climax his opponent laughs at him for going about in a red costume.
It also features a cleverly thought out sequence where Barry uses his power
to rig all the games at an illegal casino. Megan is an unusually strong
female character, her hardboiled dialogue is amusing and it was only natural
that she would be brought back in two future stories.
"Beat the Clock" is the most innovative story in the season because
it is set in real time. Barry has forty-five minutes, the length of an
episode, to prove that a famous jazz trumpeter is innocent of his wife's
murder before he is executed. A very nerve racking episode that also adds
a lot of background to Julio, lifting him out of his comic relief pigeonhole.
Probably the most popular episode was "The Trickster" which presented
the Flash with his first genuine supervillain but with the twist that his
enemy was a multiple personality sufferer who was 'playing' at being a
superfoe. Insane magician James Jesse is inspired by the Flash after Barry
stops him from sawing Megan Lockhart in half with a chainsaw. Now convinced
that Megan is really his sidekick Prank, Jesse becomes the Trickster and
wages a crazy, comicbook war on Central City. There is a similarity with
The Joker in his style but the Trickster is not a mere clone but a hugely
entertaining character in his own right. Eventually Barry realises he must
fight the Trickster with his own melodramatic idiom and challenges him
to a final battle at the Police Charity Ball. All this fantasy adventure
is supported by that TV rarity, an entertaining romantic sub-plot in which
Barry and Megan become lovers and Tina feels sidelined. This leads to some
great one liners, for example Julio's comment, "What's this? Last night
it was Tina, today it's Megan. Who are you? Barry's evil twin?" quickly
followed by, "I hate to kick a man who's doing such a good job of it
himself..." It was obvious that such a popular bad guy should return
and so he did in "Trial of the Trickster" which brought the season to a
satisfying conclusion not only by staging a rematch between the enemies
but continuing the Barry/Megan affair. By the time of this story the Trickster
has become a media personality right down to appearances on T-shirts. Once
more the Flash puts him back in jail but it is clear that this would not
be the last time. In fact if a second season had been commissioned one
of the stories would have definitely been a Trickster/Mirror Master team
up.
Probably the two adventures which are closest in style to the eighties
superhero comics, or rather to the best eighties comics, were "Ghost in
the Machine" and "Deadly Nightshade" which form a virtual two parter. In
common with comic strip writers of the period this pair not only dealt
with the dark side of being a superhuman crimefighter, operating outside
the law, but also drew on comics' heritage and mythology from the forties/fifties
golden age. "Ghost in the Machine" begins splendidly in the black and white
fifties, depicting the exploits of an earlier Central City superhero called
Nightshade. Visually Nightshade owes a debt to The Shadow though he uses
a tranquiliser gun rather than blazing, large calibre pistols. He is battling
his arch enemy the Ghost, a evil scientific genius who uses television
signals to cause explosions. Ultimately Nightshade defeats the villain
who is apparently killed within his headquarters. Jumping forward to the
colourful present day, the Ghost is revived and finds himself very at home
amongst the TV revolution. It is up to the Flash and a now middle-aged
Nightshade to stop him.
Months later a new, far more ruthless version of Nightshade is bringing
chaos to Central City in "Deadly Nightshade". With the Flash branded as
dangerous psychotic by association, the original Nightshade comes out of
retirement to clear his name. To their surprise the imposter turns out
to be a millionaire philanthropist, an ironic comment on the Batman/Bruce
Wayne story. He is determined to atone for his gangster father's crimes
by taking on the persona of the man who put his father in jail. The vigilante
quality of superheroism is tackled, not to mention the media and the fact
that the obvious, violent solution is not always the best one because in
real life nothing is as clear cut as it may superficially appear. An amusing
sub plot is the clash between old and new. Nightshade and the Flash's repartee
is hilarious, the latter always rushing in impulsively while his older
ally wheezes behind him but often getting the results first thanks to his
experience. At one point the old Nightshade reminisces about the old days
with Central City's geriatric underworld denizens while a former moll compares
Barry's sculptured costume to one of her husbands when he was naked!
"Done with Mirrors" is packed with delights not least of which is the
Mirror Master himself, armed with lifelike holograms and illusions of all
kinds. Real name Sam Scudder, he is an industrial spy and thief, currently
on the trail of his glamorous ex-partner who double crossed him on their
previous job. She used go to high school with Barry and slinks her way
into his protection. Before long Barry, Tina and her visiting mother from
England are caught in a seedy world of murder and greed as the Mirror Master
aims to steal a super battery and a priceless crystal. If all that criminal
activity was not enough there is the sub-plot of Tina and her art world
mother trying to get along when their lifestyles are poles apart. In fact
their scenes are very reminiscent of Edina and Saffron's in Absolutely
Fabulous. On occasion Tina's mother even refers to her daughter as
sweetie!
"Tina is That You?" has no real justification apart from sheer entertainment
and for being a good showcase for Amanda Pays. When an brainwave experiment
goes wrong, Tina undergoes a dramatic personality change. At first she
behaves as Barry's jealous, possessive fiance, then even worse she joins
a ruthless girl gang and sets about eliminating the Flash. Only by defeating
the sexy Black Rose gang and replaying the experiment is Barry able to
restore the real Tina. Especially funny is Tina's remark to a nurse, "What's
this? Tea? I'm suppose I'm meant to like tea because I'm English, is that
it!" A wonderfully offbeat adventure.
Guest Stars
Usually a series has to be proven success before well known actors
start asking to be on it. But thanks to an imaginative casting policy and
high quality scripts The Flash enjoyed the talents of a host of
cult actors. Tim Thomson (Trancers) was Jesse Allen, Barry's doomed
older brother in the pilot. M. Emmett Walsh, a familiar character from
scores of films and TV played Barry's father in a couple of episodes. Seventies
icon David Cassidy had a whale of a time playing Sam Scudder, the Mirror
Master in Done with Mirrors. His slimy relish made him one of the best
villains in the show. Mark Hamill shook off the weight of Luke Skywalker
with a full throttle portrayal of the deranged Trickster. Contrary to popular
belief however it was not this performance that led to him being cast as
The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. That was entirely a coincidence.
Denise Crosby (Star Trek TNG) was excellent as an opinionated psychiatrist
who brands the Flash a time bomb waiting to explode during Deadly Nightshade.
Christopher Neame (Doctor Who, Dracula 1972AD) brought his
considerable British gravitas to Gideon, the guilt ridden weapons researcher
who became an invisible killer. Before his startling change of image in
Babylon 5, Bill Mumy was the criminal inventor of a sleep inducing
weapon which led to Goodnight Central City.
Where Are They Now?
In 1994 Bilson and De Meo created a new action series called Viper
which followed the exploits of a hi-tech car that could change shape. Never
shown in Britain, it apparently recycled the Central City sets. Unfortunately
it was a complete flop. Later in 1996 they produced another super cop series
about a policeman with incredibly developed senses. Entitled The Sentinel
it is now in its third season and still running on syndication. John Wesley
Scott starred in The Neverending Story II but has since dropped
out of sight. Amanda Pays has continued her successful TV and film career
which has included Solitare for Two, Thief Takers and a guest
spot in The X-Files. Alex Desert joined a twentysomething soap called
The Heights but since its cancellation has not had any more leads
as far as I am aware.
The Flame That Burns Brightest...
To the great surprise and disappointment of the show's creators and
stars, The Flash was not renewed for a second season. Exactly why
is not clear because the series had been a hit with the critics and despite
being scheduled against one of the most successful TV shows at that time
Murder She Wrote, it had achieved fair ratings. Possibly it was
the high budget coupled with Bilson and De Meo's refusal to compromise
their story and production standards. Perhaps it was an advantage in the
long run because the series did not have time to decay and become an embarrassment
to itself.
The Flash, fast, furious fun.