“We were really into the comics of the ’80s that sort of reinvented comics and wrote them more for adults,” Bilson recalls. Bilson and De Meo drew inspiration for Unlimited Powers from the “adult” takes on the superhero genre in the comics of the moment, an influence that Bilson freely admits. The Flash of Unlimited Powers wasn’t a man first coming to terms with his powers, but rather a 40-something Barry Allen recently released from a 15-year prison sentence, in a world where superheroes have been outlawed. While Barry Allen was a key character, he would have been joined by other DC Comics heroes including Green Arrow, Doctor Occult (a minor creation from Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster), Blok (of Legion of Super-Heroesfame), Wally West, and Oliver Queen’s teenage daughter (three decades before a similar character would become a fixture on Arrow). And in 1989, they wrote a feature length pilot script for a series called Unlimited Powers.īut Unlimited Powers wasn’t a Flash show, and instead dealt with an entire team of superheroes. The men who would eventually steer Barry Allen’s network TV destiny, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo had made a name for themselves in genre circles with their work on films like Zone Troopers and cult classic Trancers, and as big comic book fans, were looking to bring superheroes to the screen. The Flash began life as a pitch for a different show entirely. In honor of the show’s 30th anniversary, this is the story of how the 1990 The Flash TV series came to be and its brief, bright run. The show has crept back into the pop culture consciousness in recent years, with every major cast member making appearances on the current show, and it was even acknowledged as part of official DC canon thanks to recent TV crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, a fitting bookend for a series that once seemed destined to only be remembered by die hard fans. The Flash was an expensive gamble for CBS and ultimately only lasted one season, but its legacy lives on and it remains an important part of superhero TV history. No, this is The Flash TV series from 1990, the one starring John Wesley Shipp and boasting a theme song by none other than superhero movie maestro Danny Elfman. We could only be talking about the beloved The Flash TV series, right?Īh, but this isn’t Grant Gustin and Team Flash from the CW’s The Flash. Weird sci-fi villains and blockbuster special effects.
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