Hard to believe I watched this 25 years ago, seems just like yesterday (actually it was - I have been watching the boxset) Great fun, fairly simple plots, decent effects, one or two slightly dangerous situations for the Flash to get out of and some funny one-liners and gags to be had..All-in-all, it was a series that didn't take itself too seriously, didn't require any knowledge of superhero mythology to enjoy and wasn't overly violent and sweary (so granny didn't have to be wheeled outside and put in the shed for an hour)I would like to give mention to some of the supporting cast who were terrific: The ever-lovely Amanda Pays - I can't resist a girl with a plummy English accent... (though they seem to have little trouble being able to resist me)Alex Désert - Barry Allen's colleague at the forensics lab. Julio and Barry bouncing jokes and quips off each other is one of the highlights of the show. Also Julio's 'does he know/doesn't he know' looks that he gives Barry when he suddenly vanishes.Officers Murphy and Bellows - who could have been a comedy TV double act of their own. These two hapless(mostly) cops always seem to be in the wrong place at the right time and their bickering about whether the Flash actually exists is a constant amusement.Also: Mark Hammill, Joyce Hyser, Michael Nader, M. Emmet Walsh... to name a few guest stars. I haven't yet got round to watching the new series of the Flash.. mostly out of my love of this 90's series. But I will... someday.

Many here have already given many of the reasons for the series only lasting the one season. To summarize: 1. Too expensive to produce (more on this later, as this could very easily have been fixed, even at the time before affordable CGI, and indeed this is the point of my Comment). I seem to recall that it was one of the most expensive series (on a per-episode basis) ever on TV up to that time, rivaled only by the original "Battlestar: Galactica," and much of that (in both cases) was the SFX budget.2. Bounced around the schedule, often unannounced, sometimes at the last minute. Of COURSE people can't watch it if they can't FIND it! There were no TiVos or auto-updating Internet versions of the TV Guide back then, either.3. Lousy timing and luck, historically speaking. Pre-empted several times by Gulf War I news. Not quite as bad as the news-related bad luck that afflicted the earlier superhero series "The Greatest American Hero," whose main protagonist had the same last name as the man who, while the series was still airing, became notorious for shooting then-President Ronald Reagan.4. Inconsistent use of comic book elements. It seemed that the network execs couldn't make up their minds over whether the Flash should battle ordinary criminals or bring in some of his Rogues' Gallery from the comics (The Silver-Age "Barry Allen" Flash has arguably THE single richest Rogues' Gallery of ANY hero in the history of comics!). We did see Captain Cold, The Trickster (who was portrayed more like The Joker, and in fact Mark Hamill's portrayal of The Trickster is very likely what convinced WB animation to use him as the voice of The Joker in the outstanding animated Batman series and spin-offs from the mid 1990s up to and including the "Justice League" animated series of the early 2000s), and Mirror Master. We also saw a kinda-sorta "Reverse-Flash" (a clone of Barry on the TV series).But other excellent Rogues' Gallery members were ignored entirely. One in particular, one of the greatest, Gorilla Grodd, was mentioned off-handedly by the stoolie whom we often saw, in the episode "Deadly Nightshade" (in which the Golden Age Central City hero "The Nightshade" {note to an earlier commenter: NOT "The Prowler"!} came out of retirement and worked with The Flash to help hunt down a new, murderous vigilante who was using the Nightshade's name and costume to kill criminals), as a HUMAN gang-lord "up in Helltown." Presumably, he was big and tough, perhaps built somewhat like a gorilla, so "Gorilla Grodd" was just his mobster nickname.That angered me to no end. I realized that doing a real GORILLA Grodd would be difficult and expensive for the special effects of the time, and that a TV audience wouldn't likely accept the concept of a hidden city of sapient apes in Africa, but I didn't consider that good enough reason to just write the character off like that! So, shortly after the series ended, I wrote a fanfic episode (available on the Internet if anyone's interested) which introduced a version of Grodd that would (A) be cheaper to use in an episode, and (B) had an origin that was more palatable to an adult TV-watching audience -- I even tied Grodd into the series continuity so tightly that his existence explains many of the continuity problems with the series itself (such as how come Dr. McGee knew so much about how to treat Barry Allen in the pilot, saving his life from the effects of his altered, rampant metabolism).Anyway, back to #1: I said that the effects budget could easily have been fixed, and it could have, right from the git-go. You see, back when the series was announced, the producers received an offer from Mike Jittlov (http://www.wizworld.com), a special effects wizard of the time who had earlier produced a music video (later expanded into a feature film of the same name, about the making of the video) called "The Wizard of Speed and Time" which had special effects WAAAAY better than were on "The Flash" TV series, and which were WAY CHEAPER to do! Indeed, he did most of them IN THE CAMERA! He NEVER used a computer or other such gear! But, the IDIOT PRODUCERS TURNED DOWN HIS OFFER to do the SFX for the series! He was even willing to do it for SCALE!

The Flash is one of DC comics most endearing heroes for this simple reason; even though he has been given a tremendous gift of super-speed, he is still only human. Superman always could do the incredible tasks of saving the world and managing to rescue Lois Lane from the bad guys... The Flash is always trying to beat the clock. Batman makes detective work look easy, The Flash spends the majority of his day painstakingly analyzing evidence in a lab. Imagine one of the crew of CSI spending the whole day collecting evidence and then trying to stop villains in whatever time he had left of his day: all of this while working in a police station that is hunting down his alter-ego! For those who were not comic book fans, this series is still worth a look. It was ahead of it's time in many ways: X-men, Spiderman, and the upcoming Batman Begins all focus in on the people behind the masks and the costumes to reveal the true character of the Hero.The Flash Series had a hero who was fast, but not too fast. He had weaknesses and limitations and problems with his love life. And no matter how fast he was he never seemed to be on time! Memorable performances from John Wesley Shipp, Amanda Pays, and Mark Hamill as the Trickster.Budgetary reasons were the reason the show had to shut down, which was unfortunate. The show was definitely hitting a good stride between good characters and great plots. There was a large body of rogues to choose from, and I personally loved the adaptations of Captain Cold and the Mirror Master. No need for flashy outfits for these guys, the writing and action was so stylish that there was no need to put these two in ridiculous colored spandex.If you can find either the Pilot or the Trickster episodes to rent, give them a look. You will be able to see where the movies of today were able to prosper for the ideas that either flew or fell in this show.

I was a big fan of this show the first time around. I was already something of a comic fan, and this series was a great translation of the material into a series. The Flash was a great-looking show, and the actors played their parts flawlessly. John Wesley Shipp, who played the Flash, has that Bruce Campbell-like ability to portray a likable, average guy, who just happens to get super powers. His sidekick, the lovely Amanda Pays (formerly of Max Headroom) was a good, but underused, addition to the show.The special effects were surprisingly good for a TV show, although I do seem to remember some wince-inducing moments, like one villain whose costume included - unless my memory is really messing with me, which has been known to happen - a Nintendo Power Glove.On the subject of villains, they were usually done well. I highly recommend the episodes starring Mark Hamill as the Trickster. Fans of the animated Batman series will notice an early version of Hamill's Joker persona here, which is interesting since the Flash comics' Trickster character was basically a rehash of Batman's Joker in the first place.All in all, this show really didn't deserve to get canned after one season. Given another season, it could have grown into something classic. Luckily, videos of this seem fairly easy to come by, so it's still possible to check out this underrated footnote in the history of superhero television.