I met John at a con a few years ago. He was coming back from lunch and I turned a corner and he towered over me. I was speechless and he was nice, “Don’t worry bud, handshakes are free.” Shook his hand and told him I was a fan. His hand is huge.
Isn't he though? Just one of the coolest guys I've ever met. He LOVES his fans and it shows, otherwise he wouldn't be AT the con. I got a selfie with him this year in my Jay costume. I got an autographed pic of him and Grant at another con in 2015....just a super nice guy!
@@barryallenflash1 Not dissing the show. I started rewatching it after meeting JWS at a con, and I'm having fun, but it spends a lot of time stumbling around, trying to figure out what it wants to be. Shame it never got a second season.
I used tune-in to watch "The Flash" and was heartbroken when it was cancelled. The Batman-esque theme song and suit did a lot to sell the mood of the show.
The show was perfectly cast with Barry, Tina, and Julio. They even has Mark Hamill as proto-Joker! I wish the stories would have been better and the look of the guest characters and acting was often strange. I still really enjoyed that show! It had so much potential.
To this day I still imagine a Justice League movie with Michael Keaton, Christopher Reeve, Linda Carter, and John Wesley Shipp. I can make due with the piece Alex Ross did.
I LOVED THIS SHOW!!!.. The show obviously had a MASSIVE cult following.. Such a following that John Wesley Shipp had at least 3 different roles on the 2014 Flash show... Without this show... You wouldn't have had a Smallville, Arrow, or The Flash... 💯💯✊🏾✊🏾
The thing with the Arrowvesre is they did like to bring in people who had roles in older DC shows which was always great. Although I disagree that without this show newer shows wouldn't have been made since it wasn't on long enough to get anything more of a cult following and it probably wasn't until Lois and Clark that a show got a chance to get any kind of long term audience but that and Smallville would have been made regardless of this as Superman in general is guaranteed to get people watching.
I also loved the show but i dont think without it we wouldn’t have gotten newer comic shows. Comic shows are just a result of comic movies doing good. It happened with arrow and the nolan batman movies, this show and 89 batman and even before the movies with shows like Wonder Woman and the incredible hulk
@@darkwoods1954 Routh was meant to be Reeves' Superman. Grey his hair up a bit and you got yourself an older Superman that would fit in fine with the other guys. IMO
It's a real shame The Flash (1990) lasted one season. If it had continued we could have more characters introduced like Wally West who might end up becoming Kid Flash, Jay Garrick; the Flash from another world and maybe Professor Zoom who might end up becoming a recurring villian.
Those were already part of the story, just dropped into the details. Jay was Barry's older brother in this, with Garrick being the address where STAR Labs was located. Professor Zoom was an identity Tina cooked up to present the idea that the Flash was deliberately created. Kid Flash was a villain in a one shot comic special (he wasn't Wally, just some juvenile delinquent who got off on stealing badges and gained superspeed). Hawkman even got a name drop in the second episode. It could have all lead to a multiverse to put all that in a more source-faithful context but I don't think the audience was ready for that in the late 90s.
@@michaelsarmiento3057Some of them (Mirror Master, Captain Cold, and Trickster, at least) already had, just not in comic accurate costumes. Rumor is that season 2 would have brought them all together.
I have a magazine where they interviewed John. He said that IF they continued he would have done a "dark" Flash. One where he OVER uses his powers and does evil things...kinda like Reverse Flash. That would've been an interesting take on The Flash.
To this day I maintain that the biggest problem with this show and ultimately the reason why it failed is because it was on CBS. They didn't know how to do "cool" TV at that time (and arguably still today). The show was ahead of its time.
I can't say the CW has done that many things right but I will say at least with the Flash and Arrow they got it right. Before everything on that channel collapsed and Warner Bros pulled most of it's properties.
The term 'ahead of its time' is so often overused but completely agree with you on this one, had noticed the show's Central City set was also used for both the 1970s Wonder Woman and 'Lois & Clark', respectively.
@@dannyr2976the problem with the phrase “ ahead of its time” is that there is no such thing, unless it was written by a time traveler, it is a product of its time
This was one of the best superhero tv shows of all time imo. JWS & Amanda Pays played off each other so well & casting Mark Hamill as the Trickster was inspired. It had its faults & it was sentenced to an awful time slot, but I wager it would’ve improved by leaps & bounds if it’d gotten a second season.
The show had such a strong foundation like you said. Great cast, interesting music, and a good suit. How many shows started off bad their first season but got better over time?
It led to Mark Hamill getting cast as the Joker in Batman TAS. Its a reason i can be glad it was cancelled. Otherwise i would have been sad for five minutes.
THIS show actually caused me to have a Flash suit made for Halloween. Technically it was my first "cosplay" suit, I just didn't realize it at the time. I have made my own suit(s) for cosplay. I have a Barry AND a Jay suit. My next one is going to be Reverse Flash. This show inspired me to do this!
From what they said at the time is the Flash was too expensive, it kept getting pre-empted by Gulf War news and they really wanted Carol Burnett on the network so they put the money into that (and then IT tanked). The SHOW wasn't a failure, the network just failed at scheduling it and continuing the promotion after the hype.
@@alucard624 Yup that's why I mentioned "it kept getting pre-empted by Gulf War news" I remember how frustrating that was and sometimes it was rescheduled for like 2 am (at least in my part of the US)
My friend would record the Cosby Show on 1 TV-VCR, record the Flash on another, and watch the Simpsons. My friend said "If you are recording 2 shows and watching a third all at the same time, maybe you're watching too much TV". Maybe so LOL! However, you're correct, the Flash got screwed with the scheduling.
I remember being told that many of the costumes for the Flash (1990) were reused from the TV show Werewolf (1987). Which leads me to say that you folks should totally do an episode on the Werewolf (1987) show because it was astounding.
That's why I was always so stressed trying to find it on TV, they kept changing it! Kids today don't know the struggle! I loved the show, have the DVD full season set! Also thought it was awesome that JWS was on the new Flash series. CW really did good with callback characters in all their shows but having him as Barry's dad right from the get go was awesome.
the Arrowverse and even Smallville before it were Kings at 'Mythology Casting'; getting actors from related properties to guest star Shipp as Henry would have been 'enough'... then they spun that into Earth 3? Jay... AND the Earth 90 cameo(s) (as Desert, Hamill, Pays, Shipp again; heck they even got the actor who played Bellows the (Honest) Cop from Flash 90 as Bellows the (crooked) Mayor on CW ** and IIRC there's even an episode where Henry explained that his Mom's Maiden Name was Garrick; and her father or favorite Uncle was named Jay (so in a world where she's a single Mother/ has a different baby father he woulda/coulda been named Jay Garrick; making Jay a Proper 'variant' implying that that is what happened; rather than just "odd that they look alike"
I loved that 90's Flash got a proper ending as well in CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was 100% appropriate that it was his Barry Allen that made the ultimate sacrifice like in the comics.
Coolest show on TV at the time. It sucked that they kept changing the times/days! Set my VCR up to record and then BAM! NO FLASH! AAAAAAHHHH!!! That's okay, my best friend bought me the DVD set for Christmas, so NOW I can watch it whenever! YAY!
I wish there was a Flash cartoon, we literally only have him in Justice League cartoons and maybe as a guest character in Batman the Brave and the Bold. If there was a Flash cartoon, I'd watch it all the way through.
Warner Archive has done a brand new 4k scan of the original film masters and is releasing the complete series on Bluray June 25th 2024. Everyone please support this release. Its a must own for all 90s Flash fans.
Watching this show with my dad are some of my most cherished childhood memories. This and Lois and Clark, so awesome, love it! Loved seeing him come back in the CW Flash series, his appearances were always a highlight for me. Oh, and let's not forget he was Dawson's dad on Dawson's Creek lol
the 90s flash was way before my time, but when the cw flash aired and I learned about the existence of this show I had to watch it and I did, and oh... my god this show was way better than the cw show, in my eyes, the more mature flash, the more comic book accurate themes, Amanda Pays hmmm, and the suit, damn that suit looked FINE almost as fine as Amanda Pays, and surprisingly the special effects still holds up to this day, all of that was wrapped up in tim burton batman art gothic style and it had some 90s charm to it, that show was truly ahead of its time,I was so disappointed to learn that it was only 21 episodes, I wish that I had more of it to watch, but ultimately I was glad that it was even made.
I remember it on TV when I was younger here in the UK and I always quite enjoyed it although watching it years later it was a shame they weren't allowed to have more villains from the comics in it. I believe from stuff I have read over the years that season 2 would have featured way more.
Count me in as someone who watched from Episode 1, in spite of my love for the Simpsons. It's more insane that the Simpsons IS STILL ON almost 35 years later.
It's a shame they couldn't make this show work, because I remember it well and it was very well done. John Wesley Shipp was fantastic in the role and I was so in love with Amanda Pays (the accent, the eyes). I'm glad it eventually gained a cult following (not to mention the love it gets here) and as bad as the CW Flash eventually became after the fourth season, I was happy Mr. Shipp was a part of it since he was so good 30 years prior. Great video.
I loved that series as a kid. I watched it with my dad and we both really enjoyed it. When I saw the complete series on DVD I didn't hesitate to buy it. I think we taped The Flash so we could watch the Simpsons and go back to watch that. Watching it on DVD with a much better understand of the DC lore I picked up on a few things. Barry's older brother being named Jay and in the second episode after the premier Berry causes a car to crash and calls it in, saying it was on Garrick St. Also, Mark Hamill actually reprised his role before the CW. In Justice League Unlimited he played the Trickster in the episode "Flashpoint." But The Flash still stands as an entertainment tragedy for not getting more seasons, right up there with Brisco County Jr.
Excellent homage for a beloved short lived series . All the years later and I still wonder how a show with so much going for it didn't gel with the target audience.
It just wasn't a good fit for CBS, just like how Supergirl ended up not being a good fit for CBS. Back then, it probably would've made more sense to go the syndication route, like they did with Star Trek TNG.
@@kevwwong And, OT, neither was the Tic Tac Dough game show in 1978 a good fit for CBS when that was on in the summer of that year w/Wink Martindale. Better things were to come though, because that did go to first-run syndie, and lasted 8 seasons (7 w/Martindale, the last [1985-86] w/Jim Caldwell).
I loved this show! I also saw JWS at a con. He noticed a guy trying to sneak a picture and he just smiles and says “you don’t have to sneak a pic come on and get in the picture with me man.” They took the pic he shook the guys hand and told him to have fun at the con. It was really an awesome moment only overshadowed by me meeting my favorite Star Trek actors
I legit thought this was in cinemas back then. I remember my mom renting this on vhs for us, and years later the show aired on tv in my country. I was SO confused.
I did a re-watch of this a year or so ago, and it's held up remarkably well. The cast is almost universally acting well above their weight. Probably the worst mistake the network made was to insist that The Flash be the ONLY costumed supercharacter on the show, leading to a series of forgettable opponents. Bilson & DeMeo 'snuck in' several supervillain-adjacent types like Carl Tanner and his Monster Serum (Episode 2) and Trachmann (Episode 5). When those episodes spiked ratings, the studio gave the tentative go-ahead for the episode with the Ghost (Episode 9), and when that did likewise, they were able to introduce The Trickster (Episode 12). The success of the Trickster opened the door to Captain Cold (17) and Mirror Master (19), but it was too little, too late.
I always enjoyed the pilot quite a bit. Definitely had a Burton-vibe to it. I need to check out the rest of the series. I always loved when he would pop up in the newer Flash series. JWS Playing Barry's dad was awesome, then playing Jay Garrick, to eventually suiting up as his Barry in Crisis. Very cool!
I liked the show alot. Even re-watched it. Its always nice when the actor playing the flash is not a real life villian. Also props to the Animated Flash in JL (voiced by Michael Rosenbaum). When I found out that tv Lex was also animated Wally, I was flabergasted.
@@sdelmonte”I have no idea who this is.” Ouch. (The episode where Batman accompanies him to Central City for the opening of a Flash museum is one of my favorites. It breaks Bats’ brain when they spot The Trickster in a bar and Flash just sits down next to him and talks him into getting back on his meds instead of beating him senseless. Rosenbaum was great in that role.)
I was in the second grade when this debuted, and I still remember how excited I was. I recorded the premiere episode and rewatched it endlessly, and was really bummed when the plug was pulled after season 1
loved the original series, I was the perfect age for it. Loved the new series even better when shipp became the jay garrick version of the flash as well. It had some really good nostalgia for both series.
I remember when this came out. Too bad it didn’t pan out. I enjoyed it. At least the cartoon cooperative storytelling adventure version worked out with Justice League.
I was in HS when this came out. I remember it was a BIG deal, then just kind of fizzled out. By the end of the season, it was like, “oh yeah, there’s a Flash show”. I crushed pretty bad on Amanda Pays tho.
I worked with Mark Dacascos in 2022 on season 3 of Warrior, my profile picture is me holding a parrot on set of that exact show. Mark is such a lovely man, he recited a poem to me in between takes. Thanks for the awesome content!
It may have failed but John Wesley Shipp will always be my Barry Allen The Flash. Remember watching it on TV on Five, when Five first launched. A classic of 90s TV.
Absolutely love this show. I’m from Hungary and while the show never ran there in full length, the pilot and the Trickster episodes were released on VHS tape you could rent. This was an absolute revelation to a super hero fan in a world where apart from the Reeve Superman, and the Keaton Batman nothing else existed on the silver screen. A few years ago I managed to finally purchase the entire show and while I must say that to me the pilot is still the best, I love this series just as much as when I was a kid.
Saturday Morning Cartoons need to be brought back! That was such a great experience and tradition! So many great shows, like A Pup Named Scooby Doo and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh!
I remember seeing the first episode whilst on holidays in Hollywood Florida when I was 10 years old. Still have the tv guide for it somewhere. Just got back from the supermarket with some new gi joes and a slime bucket and saw the tv guide with the flash on it. We rushed home in time to watch it and I still love it.
As a kid I absolutely loved this show. I thought every thing about it was cool as hell. It really is too bad that CBS muffed the punt so hard on making it work, it absolutely could have.
I remember this one. In hindsight, perhaps the thing I enjoyed most about it (other than it was visually stunning for a network TV show) was that the superhero didn't hold back against _anyone._ It didn't matter if he was a mugger, mob enforcer, rogue CIA agent, or computer hacker, he was going to eat 200 MPH haymakers and _freaking like it._ He cheerfully flaunted how much better he was than nearly everyone else, and I _loved it._ I'm not sure how much further this could've gone, but if it weren't for that truly bone-brained decision to challenge The Cosby Show, a second season would've been almost a lock. (Production challenges would've stopped it there, however.)
My dad and I are flash fans and I remember watching this with him and my mom the day it aired. I still remember the first commercial was for pert plus. Loved it and still cherish the memories.
I really like this show when I was a kid. I was sad to see it canceled. But I wasn't crazy about the mixing different incarnations of The Flash. Like Tina McGee was Wally West's would-be girlfriend and at the time did not know Barry Allen didn't like the fact that they completely ditched Iris and that she was some kind of 0:33 New Wave art major. But I really thought the outfit was impressive. The stories were pretty good. And I really wanted to see more of Mark Hamill as the trickster. And I was always hoping that it was going to lead to a new live-action Justice League
This was my first exposure to the Flash character. Used to be on Sky One every Friday night (uk) when I was a little. I was crazy about it. I knew nothing of superhero shared universes at the time but a decade later, I remember seeing a book called *"JLA Secret Origins"* with the Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman all together which absolutely *blew* my mind. I've held DC characters, just a bit, closer to my heart than others ever since.
I really liked this show; unfortunately, I missed most of the last episodes because it was constantly preempted by CBS' Gulf War coverage. P.S. Amanda Pays also returned to play Tina McGee on the CWs Flash
Wow! And here I thought I was the only one watching in the entire multiverse. At the time, I thought The Flash was a terrific show. But there is one detail about this show that this video fails to mention. One of the things that struck me about the show was the cars we see in the background of every street scene. We don't see the cars of 1990. We see what appears to be a collection of cool cars of every era. We catch a glimpse of this at 2:18 in this video, a shadowy car parked by the side of the street with large tailfins, a '58 Caddy maybe. At 2:21, we see what appears to be a sedan of about 1930. We saw this in every show. One of those Jetson-y Citroens showed up time and again, no doubt the same car every time. Watch for it and you'll see it, too. I thought this was proof of the show's coolness.
John Wesley Shipp is MY Flash. I still have the three movies on VHS! I was gutted when they killed-off Flash-90 in the modern series... but I have a "head canon" solution. In the modern series, the Earth-3 Flash is a duplicate of Earth-90's Barry Allen (because they're both played by JWS), and it's established that he is using a name from his mother's side of the family; Garrick. Like Flash-90, he too fought Mark Hamill's Trickster. In my mind, he started out living the exact same life as Flash-90, even wearing a red mask to protect his loved ones. After his brother died, and eventually his mother too, he honoured them both by dropping the name "Barry Allen" and assuming their names instead; Jay and Garrick. When his other relatives moved away or grew old and died, he no longer needed the mask, and became the Earth-3 Flash we all know. It's the only way I can watch the Flash 1990 series without becoming mournful over Flash-90's death! Earth-3 Flash is basically the same guy, but he gets a happy ending. ⚡⚡⚡
This Flash holds a very special place in my heart. I remember standing right in front of Best Buy before opening to buy the full series DVD collection when it got released in the early 2000s.
Flash movie sucks. You know what else sucks? Y'all just doing the video you want to do in the order you want to do them on your own time. Do the videos I want to see. Damn. Like Conan the adventurer. No one else would be cool? Real deep dive all the way back to that cartoon that comes on the Spanish Channel sometimes now but it was in English on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. The Seven Cities of Gold or some crap... the baby that Spartacus cartoon about the guy that had a crossbow on his arm and held some kids Explorer underground where the weird Weeble wobble civilization of people lives in their weird talking spaceship with a head
Thanks for the video. I was one of the devoted fans of the 1990's Flash. It premiered when I was in my mid-20's and I was sad to see it go. It was great to see John Wesley Shipp return in the Arrowverse.
The quality and entertainment value of your channel is off the charts! If this was TV growing up, I would be programming my VCR to record your show every week.
I enjoyed watching John Wesley Shipp’s The Flash. I certainly remembered Mark Hamill as the Trickster, and there was a hero called Nightshade, who’s obviously inspired by the Shadow and Batman. Amanda Pays was beautiful as Dr. Tina McGee.
I met John at a con a few years ago. He was coming back from lunch and I turned a corner and he towered over me. I was speechless and he was nice, “Don’t worry bud, handshakes are free.” Shook his hand and told him I was a fan. His hand is huge.
Isn't he though? Just one of the coolest guys I've ever met. He LOVES his fans and it shows, otherwise he
wouldn't be AT the con. I got a selfie with him this year in my Jay costume. I got an autographed pic of him and Grant at another con in 2015....just a super nice guy!
Sort of how I met Joe DiMaggio. I went to get giant pretzels, and it turned out that He's a fan of them too. Oh, and He was gigantic!
Yes. The Flash show was good, not great, but John WS is one of the nicest guys on the planet.
@@travishiltz4750 It was/is like a Adam West Batman for the 90's. Cheesy, funny, serious....ya know....all the fun stuff!
@@barryallenflash1 Not dissing the show. I started rewatching it after meeting JWS at a con, and I'm having fun, but it spends a lot of time stumbling around, trying to figure out what it wants to be.
Shame it never got a second season.
I used tune-in to watch "The Flash" and was heartbroken when it was cancelled. The Batman-esque theme song and suit did a lot to sell the mood of the show.
I hope Danny Elfman is remembered with the same reverence as John Williams.
The show was perfectly cast with Barry, Tina, and Julio. They even has Mark Hamill as proto-Joker!
I wish the stories would have been better and the look of the guest characters and acting was often strange.
I still really enjoyed that show! It had so much potential.
@@matthewa2531 IMO, Elfman's "Batman" (1989) score stands on equal ground with John Williams' "Superman" score.
@@matthewa2531oh I'm pretty sure he will be he did create some iconic music scores same as Williams.
To this day I still imagine a Justice League movie with Michael Keaton, Christopher Reeve, Linda Carter, and John Wesley Shipp. I can make due with the piece Alex Ross did.
Omg, that would have been so cool.
I would have SO paid money to see that.
I LOVED THIS SHOW!!!.. The show obviously had a MASSIVE cult following.. Such a following that John Wesley Shipp had at least 3 different roles on the 2014 Flash show... Without this show... You wouldn't have had a Smallville, Arrow, or The Flash... 💯💯✊🏾✊🏾
He also played Thawne in an episode of Brave and the Bold.
The thing with the Arrowvesre is they did like to bring in people who had roles in older DC shows which was always great. Although I disagree that without this show newer shows wouldn't have been made since it wasn't on long enough to get anything more of a cult following and it probably wasn't until Lois and Clark that a show got a chance to get any kind of long term audience but that and Smallville would have been made regardless of this as Superman in general is guaranteed to get people watching.
I also loved the show but i dont think without it we wouldn’t have gotten newer comic shows. Comic shows are just a result of comic movies doing good. It happened with arrow and the nolan batman movies, this show and 89 batman and even before the movies with shows like Wonder Woman and the incredible hulk
@@freddiejohnson6137 It was so great to see the Arrowverse Flash show respect to CBS Flash. But they were always good at that.
Maybe four, since there is some dispute whether the Jay Garrick on Stargirl is the one from The Flash.
Keaton and Shipp together would make one cool Justice League!
With Dean Cains Superman.
@@darkwoods1954 Nah, Brandon Routh
Second Dean Cain
@@Chrismw81 He would have been about 12 at the time though. That early 90s era was Keaton, Cain and Shipp.
@@darkwoods1954 Routh was meant to be Reeves' Superman. Grey his hair up a bit and you got yourself an older Superman that would fit in fine with the other guys. IMO
It's a real shame The Flash (1990) lasted one season. If it had continued we could have more characters introduced like Wally West who might end up becoming Kid Flash, Jay Garrick; the Flash from another world and maybe Professor Zoom who might end up becoming a recurring villian.
Those were already part of the story, just dropped into the details. Jay was Barry's older brother in this, with Garrick being the address where STAR Labs was located. Professor Zoom was an identity Tina cooked up to present the idea that the Flash was deliberately created. Kid Flash was a villain in a one shot comic special (he wasn't Wally, just some juvenile delinquent who got off on stealing badges and gained superspeed). Hawkman even got a name drop in the second episode. It could have all lead to a multiverse to put all that in a more source-faithful context but I don't think the audience was ready for that in the late 90s.
I would like to see the Rogues making an appearance in the Flash 1990s tv series as well as John Shipps version of the Reverse Flash.
@@michaelsarmiento3057Some of them (Mirror Master, Captain Cold, and Trickster, at least) already had, just not in comic accurate costumes. Rumor is that season 2 would have brought them all together.
The plan for the season two premiere was to have the Rogues team up.
I have a magazine where they interviewed John. He said that IF they continued he would have done a "dark" Flash. One where he OVER uses his powers and does evil things...kinda like Reverse Flash. That would've been an interesting take on The Flash.
This show is so good, it still holds up, and John Wesley Shipp is a great leading man
To this day I maintain that the biggest problem with this show and ultimately the reason why it failed is because it was on CBS. They didn't know how to do "cool" TV at that time (and arguably still today). The show was ahead of its time.
I can't say the CW has done that many things right but I will say at least with the Flash and Arrow they got it right.
Before everything on that channel collapsed and Warner Bros pulled most of it's properties.
always saw CBS as the old people network. I've never watched any of their primetime shows ever.
@@thecunninlynguist
I was super big into CSI like all the various versions for a while. But that was literally it.
The term 'ahead of its time' is so often overused but completely agree with you on this one, had noticed the show's Central City set was also used for both the 1970s Wonder Woman and 'Lois & Clark', respectively.
@@dannyr2976the problem with the phrase “ ahead of its time” is that there is no such thing, unless it was written by a time traveler, it is a product of its time
This was one of the best superhero tv shows of all time imo. JWS & Amanda Pays played off each other so well & casting Mark Hamill as the Trickster was inspired. It had its faults & it was sentenced to an awful time slot, but I wager it would’ve improved by leaps & bounds if it’d gotten a second season.
The show had such a strong foundation like you said. Great cast, interesting music, and a good suit. How many shows started off bad their first season but got better over time?
@@davidm4566 Seinfeld being the best example of that. First season was "meh" at best but got considerably better each season.
@@davidm4566 Star Trek: The Next Generation, for one. Many shows improve in later seasons, given the chance.
It led to Mark Hamill getting cast as the Joker in Batman TAS. Its a reason i can be glad it was cancelled. Otherwise i would have been sad for five minutes.
@@matthewgaudet4064 I mean mark could have been joker either way..he's not in the show every EP. Maybe twice.
This show was a big part of getting me into super heroes and comics as a kid. It was a good show that like so many was just ahead of its time.
THIS show actually caused me to have a Flash suit made for Halloween. Technically it was my first "cosplay" suit, I just didn't realize it at the time. I have made my own suit(s) for cosplay. I have a Barry AND a Jay suit. My next one is going to be Reverse Flash. This show inspired me to do this!
From what they said at the time is the Flash was too expensive, it kept getting pre-empted by Gulf War news and they really wanted Carol Burnett on the network so they put the money into that (and then IT tanked). The SHOW wasn't a failure, the network just failed at scheduling it and continuing the promotion after the hype.
Getting pre-empted and also trying to go up against The SImpsons when it was mega popular didn't help.
@@alucard624 Yup that's why I mentioned "it kept getting pre-empted by Gulf War news" I remember how frustrating that was and sometimes it was rescheduled for like 2 am (at least in my part of the US)
My friend would record the Cosby Show on 1 TV-VCR, record the Flash on another, and watch the Simpsons. My friend said "If you are recording 2 shows and watching a third all at the same time, maybe you're watching too much TV". Maybe so LOL! However, you're correct, the Flash got screwed with the scheduling.
@@apubakeralpuffdaddy392 just sounds like you were consuming media like people would do in the early 2000s...in the 1990s. You are ahead of the curve!
I remember being told that many of the costumes for the Flash (1990) were reused from the TV show Werewolf (1987). Which leads me to say that you folks should totally do an episode on the Werewolf (1987) show because it was astounding.
Werewolf rocks
yeah good show
Skorzeny still scares me.
I watched that show religiously. Don't remember a thing about except the werewolf looked awesome.
Unless I'm horribly mistaken, wasn't Werewolf one of the first FOX Network shows back when they only aired on the weekends?
That's why I was always so stressed trying to find it on TV, they kept changing it! Kids today don't know the struggle! I loved the show, have the DVD full season set! Also thought it was awesome that JWS was on the new Flash series. CW really did good with callback characters in all their shows but having him as Barry's dad right from the get go was awesome.
Yeah I bought the set and I and my wife happily watched the whole thing. Still holds up.
Yep, if you missed a show you were out of luck. Some things I don't miss about the old days.
the Arrowverse and even Smallville before it were Kings at 'Mythology Casting'; getting actors from related properties to guest star
Shipp as Henry would have been 'enough'... then they spun that into Earth 3? Jay... AND the Earth 90 cameo(s) (as Desert, Hamill, Pays, Shipp again; heck they even got the actor who played Bellows the (Honest) Cop from Flash 90 as Bellows the (crooked) Mayor on CW
** and IIRC there's even an episode where Henry explained that his Mom's Maiden Name was Garrick; and her father or favorite Uncle was named Jay (so in a world where she's a single Mother/ has a different baby father he woulda/coulda been named Jay Garrick; making Jay a Proper 'variant' implying that that is what happened; rather than just "odd that they look alike"
I loved that 90's Flash got a proper ending as well in CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was 100% appropriate that it was his Barry Allen that made the ultimate sacrifice like in the comics.
Coolest show on TV at the time. It sucked that they kept changing the times/days! Set my VCR up to record and then BAM! NO FLASH! AAAAAAHHHH!!! That's okay, my best friend bought me the DVD set
for Christmas, so NOW I can watch it whenever! YAY!
I bought the complete series a couple months ago on dvd ar Walmart for $15. Don't regret my purchase for one minute.
Can All Just Agree That John WS is the greatest live action Flash. He is literally the Keaton Of Flashes
We can all agree that you don't know what the word "literally" means.
Agreed! He is great!
Perhaps not literally, but I agree, he's was pretty awesome! ⚡😎
Facts. Even got my grandma into this show back when it aired. Still my favorite live action adaptation of flash. Sucks we never got a season 2😢
Yeah, he was perfect.
I wish there was a Flash cartoon, we literally only have him in Justice League cartoons and maybe as a guest character in Batman the Brave and the Bold. If there was a Flash cartoon, I'd watch it all the way through.
Warner Archive has done a brand new 4k scan of the original film masters and is releasing the complete series on Bluray June 25th 2024. Everyone please support this release. Its a must own for all 90s Flash fans.
I remember this show. It was actually my introduction to the character. I believe my parents still have a few episodes recorded on VHS.
I have a VHS tape still that has some episodes on it.
@seibervideo Nice! One of the key episodes I remember was the one where a toddler knew his identity, but everyone thought he was playing.
Watching this show with my dad are some of my most cherished childhood memories. This and Lois and Clark, so awesome, love it! Loved seeing him come back in the CW Flash series, his appearances were always a highlight for me. Oh, and let's not forget he was Dawson's dad on Dawson's Creek lol
the 90s flash was way before my time, but when the cw flash aired and I learned about the existence of this show I had to watch it and I did, and oh... my god this show was way better than the cw show, in my eyes, the more mature flash, the more comic book accurate themes, Amanda Pays hmmm, and the suit, damn that suit looked FINE almost as fine as Amanda Pays, and surprisingly the special effects still holds up to this day, all of that was wrapped up in tim burton batman art gothic style and it had some 90s charm to it, that show was truly ahead of its time,I was so disappointed to learn that it was only 21 episodes, I wish that I had more of it to watch, but ultimately I was glad that it was even made.
"Live action. Animated. Live action, that looks like it's animated" I nearly died from that end part lol.
Flash 1990 was a pretty good show. Mark Hamill was awesome as Trickster and Corinne Bohrer was great as Prank. Just as good as Joker and Harley Quinn.
Corinne Bohrer was my 80's dream girl. I'm going to have to track down her Flash episodes.
Totally had a crush on Corinne Bohrer myself. 😅
FYI: Amazon has the series on DVD for $10 right now.
Ah, Corinne Bohrer, the epitome of big-haired 80s cuteness for me. Also, that one scene in the movie Dead Solid Perfect.
So glad they brought him on for the CW Flash to reprise his role
The Trickster's episode was epic. Mark Hamill did such an amazing job.
Yes that episode was awesome also the references to flash comic’s
He reprises the role in the newer series and is both fantastic and terrifying.
@@jrobson100 I wish he got more than 2 episodes
That's why they call me the HANGIN' judge!
Don't you mean the Cck knocker?
John Wesley Shipp wore the character very well, I've been a fan since the premier
I enjoyed the show as a kid. Cool that they brought Shipp back in the Multiverse.
This was the first live action show I got into as a kid. I remember dressing up as the Flash in grade 2 or 3 because of it!
I remember it on TV when I was younger here in the UK and I always quite enjoyed it although watching it years later it was a shame they weren't allowed to have more villains from the comics in it. I believe from stuff I have read over the years that season 2 would have featured way more.
Count me in as someone who watched from Episode 1, in spite of my love for the Simpsons. It's more insane that the Simpsons IS STILL ON almost 35 years later.
It's a shame they couldn't make this show work, because I remember it well and it was very well done. John Wesley Shipp was fantastic in the role and I was so in love with Amanda Pays (the accent, the eyes). I'm glad it eventually gained a cult following (not to mention the love it gets here) and as bad as the CW Flash eventually became after the fourth season, I was happy Mr. Shipp was a part of it since he was so good 30 years prior. Great video.
That turtles commercial has to be one of Christian Slater's earliest roles lol!
I loved that series as a kid. I watched it with my dad and we both really enjoyed it. When I saw the complete series on DVD I didn't hesitate to buy it. I think we taped The Flash so we could watch the Simpsons and go back to watch that. Watching it on DVD with a much better understand of the DC lore I picked up on a few things. Barry's older brother being named Jay and in the second episode after the premier Berry causes a car to crash and calls it in, saying it was on Garrick St. Also, Mark Hamill actually reprised his role before the CW. In Justice League Unlimited he played the Trickster in the episode "Flashpoint." But The Flash still stands as an entertainment tragedy for not getting more seasons, right up there with Brisco County Jr.
This was my favorite TV show at the time, did my best to never miss an episode.
Excellent homage for a beloved short lived series . All the years later and I still wonder how a show with so much going for it didn't gel with the target audience.
It just wasn't a good fit for CBS, just like how Supergirl ended up not being a good fit for CBS. Back then, it probably would've made more sense to go the syndication route, like they did with Star Trek TNG.
@@kevwwong And, OT, neither was the Tic Tac Dough game show in 1978 a good fit for CBS when that was on in the summer of that year w/Wink Martindale. Better things were to come though, because that did go to first-run syndie, and lasted 8 seasons (7 w/Martindale, the last [1985-86] w/Jim Caldwell).
I loved this show! I also saw JWS at a con. He noticed a guy trying to sneak a picture and he just smiles and says “you don’t have to sneak a pic come on and get in the picture with me man.” They took the pic he shook the guys hand and told him to have fun at the con. It was really an awesome moment only overshadowed by me meeting my favorite Star Trek actors
The 1990 Flash was definitely MY Flash. I was so gutted and bewildered when it didn't come back for a second season.
Mark Hamill's portrayal of the Trickster foreshadowed his voice work as the Joker.
I legit thought this was in cinemas back then. I remember my mom renting this on vhs for us, and years later the show aired on tv in my country. I was SO confused.
In the UK they edited together episodes and released them on VHS as three movies so I had no idea it was a TV series
Cant wait for more amazing uploads from this channel!
The 90's Flash TV 📺 show should have never been canceled in the first. 😀👍
Oh yeah, this came out when I was in high school. I wasn't the biggest fan, but I do remember watching some episodes.
I did a re-watch of this a year or so ago, and it's held up remarkably well. The cast is almost universally acting well above their weight.
Probably the worst mistake the network made was to insist that The Flash be the ONLY costumed supercharacter on the show, leading to a series of forgettable opponents. Bilson & DeMeo 'snuck in' several supervillain-adjacent types like Carl Tanner and his Monster Serum (Episode 2) and Trachmann (Episode 5). When those episodes spiked ratings, the studio gave the tentative go-ahead for the episode with the Ghost (Episode 9), and when that did likewise, they were able to introduce The Trickster (Episode 12). The success of the Trickster opened the door to Captain Cold (17) and Mirror Master (19), but it was too little, too late.
Man I loved it, I watch it every few years.
I watched it and liked it back in 1990. Mark Hamill was good on it as The Trickster.
I remember taping this when it first premiered. Good memories
I always enjoyed the pilot quite a bit. Definitely had a Burton-vibe to it. I need to check out the rest of the series. I always loved when he would pop up in the newer Flash series. JWS Playing Barry's dad was awesome, then playing Jay Garrick, to eventually suiting up as his Barry in Crisis. Very cool!
Wow! 7:09 is that Christian Slater being interviewed as just a reggo audience member who just saw the TMNT movie?
I liked the show alot. Even re-watched it. Its always nice when the actor playing the flash is not a real life villian. Also props to the Animated Flash in JL (voiced by Michael Rosenbaum). When I found out that tv Lex was also animated Wally, I was flabergasted.
Bet you liked it as much as I did when Rosenbaum briefly played Luthor in the Flash's body.
@@sdelmonte Great Brain Robbery IIRC
"I have no Idea who this is."
"Because I'm Evil"
"That's not very restful."
@@sdelmonte”I have no idea who this is.” Ouch. (The episode where Batman accompanies him to Central City for the opening of a Flash museum is one of my favorites. It breaks Bats’ brain when they spot The Trickster in a bar and Flash just sits down next to him and talks him into getting back on his meds instead of beating him senseless. Rosenbaum was great in that role.)
Rosenbaum was also in
a short-lived sitcom called
"Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane".
@@CantankerousDave "
James, That's not how the Medicine works."
"Bi-Lateral symmetry!?"
I was in the second grade when this debuted, and I still remember how excited I was. I recorded the premiere episode and rewatched it endlessly, and was really bummed when the plug was pulled after season 1
I remember being 6 and loving this show when it came out. But my bedtime was just after The Simpsons so I had to sneak around to watch it. Good times.
I loved that show as a little one growing up.
loved the original series, I was the perfect age for it. Loved the new series even better when shipp became the jay garrick version of the flash as well. It had some really good nostalgia for both series.
I remember when it 1st came on. I recorded it so I could watch it later. At some point it was like they didn't know what to do with this show.
I remember when this came out. Too bad it didn’t pan out. I enjoyed it. At least the cartoon cooperative storytelling adventure version worked out with Justice League.
I was in HS when this came out. I remember it was a BIG deal, then just kind of fizzled out. By the end of the season, it was like, “oh yeah, there’s a Flash show”. I crushed pretty bad on Amanda Pays tho.
Who didn’t have a crush on her? That accent man. ❤
That suit, is still the standard for what the costume should look like.
I was stoked for The Flash when it came out, and our high school concert band even did the Danny Elfman theme in concert!
The Flash was such a thrill to me because I missed out on Batman 89 in the cinema.....
I worked with Mark Dacascos in 2022 on season 3 of Warrior, my profile picture is me holding a parrot on set of that exact show. Mark is such a lovely man, he recited a poem to me in between takes. Thanks for the awesome content!
It may have failed but John Wesley Shipp will always be my Barry Allen The Flash. Remember watching it on TV on Five, when Five first launched. A classic of 90s TV.
Absolutely love this show. I’m from Hungary and while the show never ran there in full length, the pilot and the Trickster episodes were released on VHS tape you could rent. This was an absolute revelation to a super hero fan in a world where apart from the Reeve Superman, and the Keaton Batman nothing else existed on the silver screen. A few years ago I managed to finally purchase the entire show and while I must say that to me the pilot is still the best, I love this series just as much as when I was a kid.
This show was the best version of The Flash I've ever seen. I actually liked it. It's the best suit as well.
This show allowed me to get my Amanda Pays as Mission Control fix after Max Headroom went off the air.
Loved Max Headroom!
Saturday Morning Cartoons need to be brought back!
That was such a great experience and tradition!
So many great shows, like A Pup Named Scooby Doo and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh!
@MrSpiritstealer I always liked A Pup Named Scooby Doo and The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh.
What were some of your favorites?
This show changed my life. Please Do An Episode About Jolt Cola!!!!
That was a great series it brought up so many memories thanks for doing this video 👍
I remember seeing the first episode whilst on holidays in Hollywood Florida when I was 10 years old. Still have the tv guide for it somewhere.
Just got back from the supermarket with some new gi joes and a slime bucket and saw the tv guide with the flash on it. We rushed home in time to watch it and I still love it.
As a kid I absolutely loved this show. I thought every thing about it was cool as hell. It really is too bad that CBS muffed the punt so hard on making it work, it absolutely could have.
I loved this show when I was 15! My brother and I would exclaim ‘gotta make a dash for the flash!’ when it was on!
Say what you will, John Wesley Shipp will always be the best version of The Flash. And that Danny Elfman intro theme!
I remember this one. In hindsight, perhaps the thing I enjoyed most about it (other than it was visually stunning for a network TV show) was that the superhero didn't hold back against _anyone._ It didn't matter if he was a mugger, mob enforcer, rogue CIA agent, or computer hacker, he was going to eat 200 MPH haymakers and _freaking like it._ He cheerfully flaunted how much better he was than nearly everyone else, and I _loved it._
I'm not sure how much further this could've gone, but if it weren't for that truly bone-brained decision to challenge The Cosby Show, a second season would've been almost a lock. (Production challenges would've stopped it there, however.)
Underrated show.
My dad and I are flash fans and I remember watching this with him and my mom the day it aired. I still remember the first commercial was for pert plus. Loved it and still cherish the memories.
Still carrying that “expensive failure” tradition in 2023 😅.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Oof. Gonna need a senzu bean for that one.
I'm sure Grant Gustin is laughing his ass off now!
The TV show was better
Always loved the theme tune by Elfman.
Oh my gods!! I adore you guys!!! Absolute legends!!!!! 🥰
Another great job guys! Bars! Now I can go back to playing “BAD DUDES” by Data East😂😂😂 We have to save the President!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🤣🤣🤣👍😎😜😂😂🤔
I really like this show when I was a kid. I was sad to see it canceled. But I wasn't crazy about the mixing different incarnations of The Flash. Like Tina McGee was Wally West's would-be girlfriend and at the time did not know Barry Allen didn't like the fact that they completely ditched Iris and that she was some kind of 0:33 New Wave art major. But I really thought the outfit was impressive. The stories were pretty good. And I really wanted to see more of Mark Hamill as the trickster. And I was always hoping that it was going to lead to a new live-action Justice League
I loved this episode, I didn't even know it existed until I was sick at home one day and saw the reruns on the Sci-Fi channel.
You should do a video on Dick Tracey! I love that movie!
I was a kid/teen when this was on TV and it was my favorite show at the time.
History repeats itself
This was my first exposure to the Flash character. Used to be on Sky One every Friday night (uk) when I was a little.
I was crazy about it.
I knew nothing of superhero shared universes at the time but a decade later, I remember seeing a book called *"JLA Secret Origins"* with the Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman all together which absolutely *blew* my mind.
I've held DC characters, just a bit, closer to my heart than others ever since.
I really liked this show; unfortunately, I missed most of the last episodes because it was constantly preempted by CBS' Gulf War coverage. P.S. Amanda Pays also returned to play Tina McGee on the CWs Flash
So did Vito D'Ambrosio and Alex Desert. And of course Mark Hamill.
Wow! And here I thought I was the only one watching in the entire multiverse. At the time, I thought The Flash was a terrific show. But there is one detail about this show that this video fails to mention. One of the things that struck me about the show was the cars we see in the background of every street scene. We don't see the cars of 1990. We see what appears to be a collection of cool cars of every era. We catch a glimpse of this at 2:18 in this video, a shadowy car parked by the side of the street with large tailfins, a '58 Caddy maybe. At 2:21, we see what appears to be a sedan of about 1930. We saw this in every show. One of those Jetson-y Citroens showed up time and again, no doubt the same car every time. Watch for it and you'll see it, too. I thought this was proof of the show's coolness.
Nice catch.
John Wesley Shipp is MY Flash. I still have the three movies on VHS! I was gutted when they killed-off Flash-90 in the modern series... but I have a "head canon" solution. In the modern series, the Earth-3 Flash is a duplicate of Earth-90's Barry Allen (because they're both played by JWS), and it's established that he is using a name from his mother's side of the family; Garrick. Like Flash-90, he too fought Mark Hamill's Trickster. In my mind, he started out living the exact same life as Flash-90, even wearing a red mask to protect his loved ones. After his brother died, and eventually his mother too, he honoured them both by dropping the name "Barry Allen" and assuming their names instead; Jay and Garrick. When his other relatives moved away or grew old and died, he no longer needed the mask, and became the Earth-3 Flash we all know. It's the only way I can watch the Flash 1990 series without becoming mournful over Flash-90's death! Earth-3 Flash is basically the same guy, but he gets a happy ending. ⚡⚡⚡
This Flash holds a very special place in my heart. I remember standing right in front of Best Buy before opening to buy the full series DVD collection when it got released in the early 2000s.
I really like this show, it's 100 times better then the recent movie
I love that you quoted Barry, when he describes to Tina which chemicals were on the shelves when the lightning struck. 🙂
Who else clicked on to this video in a flash?
I have vivid memories of sitting on the living room carpet in front of the tv watching this series....it was awesome
Flash movie sucks.
You know what else sucks? Y'all just doing the video you want to do in the order you want to do them on your own time. Do the videos I want to see. Damn.
Like Conan the adventurer.
No one else would be cool? Real deep dive all the way back to that cartoon that comes on the Spanish Channel sometimes now but it was in English on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. The Seven Cities of Gold or some crap... the baby that Spartacus cartoon about the guy that had a crossbow on his arm and held some kids Explorer underground where the weird Weeble wobble civilization of people lives in their weird talking spaceship with a head
I was in highschool. My french teacher had a huge crush on the actor who played the flash on tv.
First! Loved this show!
The Flash I mean! Secret Galaxy is cool too though 😉😜
Thanks for the video. I was one of the devoted fans of the 1990's Flash. It premiered when I was in my mid-20's and I was sad to see it go. It was great to see John Wesley Shipp return in the Arrowverse.
The Flash - Causing expense failures for over 30 years.
The quality and entertainment value of your channel is off the charts! If this was TV growing up, I would be programming my VCR to record your show every week.
I enjoyed watching John Wesley Shipp’s The Flash. I certainly remembered Mark Hamill as the Trickster, and there was a hero called Nightshade, who’s obviously inspired by the Shadow and Batman. Amanda Pays was beautiful as Dr. Tina McGee.
I used to rent episode collections in VHS from my local rental store as a kid, loved it
I loved the Flash back in 1990, there wasn't anything else like it. I met Shipp at a comicon a few years ago, he is a really nice guy.
The series never aired here, but the two Trickster episode release on VHS did hit the stores and I LOVED it. lol