The Flash: The Original Series - Warner Archive Collection

As a kid of the 80s who started collecting comics at a very young age and quickly amassing a large collection, I have to be honest and say that our cinematic and television superhero pickings were pretty damn slim. I'm old enough to see the Christopher Reeve Superman run die a wimpy deflating death with The Quest for Peace in theaters. I’m old enough to remember the blistering excitement of Tim Burton’s Batman and the merch fallout that put dozens of comic shops out of business. I'm old enough to remember seeing a teaser poster for the never-officially-released Roger Corman Fantastic Four poster! While comic films weren’t quite the box office behemoths they are today (some recent films notwithstanding), television options were largely regulated to cartoons and reruns of Super Friends. When John Wesley Shipp was announced as the Monarch of Motion AKA Barry Allen, it was a pretty big deal for a young collector! 

Depending on who you asked, The Flash was either ahead of its time or too anchored by public perception of what a live-action comic book series could/should be. Outside of the general fan community, a comic show like The Flash was supposed to be something like The Incredible Hulk or Wonder Woman. Folks even had the idea that it should be high camp like the classic 1960s Batman. People just weren’t ready for a Superhero series that aimed more for a high-concept police procedural case-of-the-week format with hyper-stylized colors and sets like Dick Tracy and a banger of a soundtrack. “Should we laugh? Should we be on the edge of our seats?” - personally I found the answer to be all of the above.

As a near lifelong comic reader, I remember getting into The Flash comics right when this series was announced, so I had a blast keeping up with it. But that was over thirty years ago. I had recorded tapes of a few episodes that kept me going for some years, but I never did pick up the old DVDs for a full rewatch. After so much time away, I was a little worried that my rose-colored nostalgic glasses wouldn’t serve The Scarlette Speedster’s first live-action television series on a rewatch. It took me time to get the gumption to pick up this Blu-ray set and give it another run after decades away. Ultimately, I’m glad I gave it a shot.

I was glad this rewatch of John Wesley Shipp as The Flash faired far better than expected. His guest spot time on the recent CW series were often the highlight of any given season. Where the CW show got increasingly convoluted and frankly straight-up burning by the end, this 1990 series maintains its playful air through the entire 22-episode run. I don’t know if that would have held on if the series kept going or not, but as it stands, this was a lot of fun to reconnect with. From the first episode on, this series has that wild late 1980s and early ‘90s flair with bright colors, garish costumes, and larger-than-life plots all mixed together with this pseudo-police procedural case-of-the-week flavor. 

At the same time this series was set to air, Sam Raimi would debut his non-comic comic book movie Darkman. During this rewatch I couldn’t help but notice the two projects had a similar grounded yet over-the-top air to them. It didn’t hurt that Danny Elfman did the theme for the series with Shirley Walker doing the main series music (she also worked with Elfman on Darkman, Night Breed, and Dick Tracy among other projects). As I picked through each episode I was charmed this series had the same sort of playfully grounded take on superhero shenanigans. Obviously a lot less gore and violence, but vibe was certainly similar.  

As the sort of nostalgic bait I enjoy but try to avoid (less it lives up to memory), I was glad to see The Flash: The Original Series had a fun heart. Shipp’s suit still looks like he’s covered in rubbery water-logged Nerf-padded muscles, but it stands up as an icon of an era when “comic accurate” was taken a tad too literally. I enjoyed that no one looked like they were above the material. Everyone from the main cast of Shipp and Amanda Pays to the guest stars, all looked like they were enjoying themselves. And speaking of guest stars, the show enjoyed everyone from Richard Belzer to Mark Hamill to Dick Miller making memorable appearances. And if you watch this today, you wouldn’t be wrong noticing Hamill’s Trickster had similar vocal intonations for a certain other DC villain! All around, this is 22 episodes of damn good nostalgic fun. A nice little time capsule of when the live-action comic book formula wasn’t fully formed, but also not completely run into the ground. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 
Warner Archive Collection enters the Speedforce to deliver all 22 episodes of The Flash: The Original Series to Blu-ray. Spread over six Region Free BD60 discs, the discs are housed in a standard multi-disc case with individual trays - no stacked discs. Each disc loads to a standard static image main menu with basic navigation options letting you select a specific episode or play the whole disc through.

The Flash: The Original Series makes for a solid sprint to 1080p 1.33:1 Blu-ray. The series was decently well-produced and budgeted so when and where it counts, it can look quite good. Facial features, production design, Barry Allen’s massive loft apartment, and the iconic rubbery suit all stand up well. Details are strong throughout most of the series run on Blu-ray. What takes a hit are the series’ visual effects which there are many. Made long before the era of HD televisions and broadcast, The Flash was just like any other sci-fi/action show of the era - shot largely on film but visual effects were finished on video. This was a budget-saving maneuver as no one would care because everyone was watching the same SD broadcast at the time you wouldn’t notice any difference. But now that we are in the HD era, whenever Shipp slips into that crimson suit and races to the rescue, the video quality takes a backward hit. It’s pretty damn noticeable and can be a tad jarring at first. Thankfully as I binged my way through the discs, I stopped noticing or really caring about that dip in quality. Just an artifact of the time that likely couldn’t be helped without spending an egregious amount of cash to pull new effects or offer some kind of clean-up sharpening effort. This 22-episode series isn’t something as grandious and in-demand as Star Trek: The Next Generation! As such, this is about what I expected to see, and am pretty damn happy with most of what we have here in 1080p.

Each episode of The Flash crashes the sound barrier with an effective DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio mix. Each episode is actually largely a mono track except for the opening credits music, but overall it’s clean and effective for what it is. Again, this wasn’t a show produced for the surround sound market of today, so there’s no call for the show to be mixed into a 5.1 format. Each track holds pat well enough giving plenty of life for dialog and the key canned action sound effects. The real shine is the Danny Elfman opening theme and Shirley Walker’s score. I’d forgotten just how damn good the music was for this series so the opening and closing credits tended to get a volume pop during this viewing.

On a bit of a bummer note, this set is void of any extra features. I’m not sure if anything was produced to promote the series or not, but a few cast interviews would have been a nice add. So it goes. 

Through my Scarlette Speedster-tinted nostalgic glasses, The Flash: The Original Series is a great time. It’s not a perfect show, it can be quite silly and certainly a product of its era, but it was a fun one to reconnect with. It might not appeal to everyone, but for fans of my generation, it’s worth the time. On Blu-ray for the first time, Warner Archive Collection delivered a worthwhile Blu-ray upgrade. I never did get around to grabbing the DVDs but I was quite happy with the 1080p transfers even if the big visual effects were still stuck in SD. The audio kicks when necessary otherwise it sticks to the basics for all 22 episodes. Now, as much as I do enjoy this, The Flash: The Original Series really does have a limited appeal and that’s largely going to be for moldy-oldies like myself so I have to skew my review to For Fans Only