why exactly did it get cancelled? - The Flash (1990) Discussion

[–] SpaceMonkey907 18 years ago

anybody?

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[–] jkcoco7 18 years ago

High production costs. For example: It cost $25,000 to make the Flash suits.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] moondoggiedaddy2007 17 years ago

"The Flash" had high production costs from the amazing special effects. They even hold up well today in the digital age! The cameras and optical filters to give the "Flash" his zoom and blurred speed trail, the expensive costumes for the characters, and the excessive amount of film for the super-speed effects all added up. At least the series was done exceptionally well if for only one year.

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[–] cljohnston108 10 years ago

Plus, those amazing murals that we'd see everywhere (even hospital rooms and the police station) couldn't have been cheap.

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[–] MichaelMovieLoft 17 years ago

Another factor was a bad time slot. It was on Thursdays up against Cosby, and if you remember the 80s and early 90s, Cosby was the king of Thursdays. On top of that there was pre-emptions for basketball games and news stories. Eventually it was moved to the time-slot-o-death to Saturdays.

MM

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[–] rorygunn 17 years ago

Also they tried to make it dark and brooding like Batman which was a mistake to me because the Flash from Jay Garrick to Wally West has never been dark...

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[–] sheets_jon 17 years ago

They tried to make it dark and brooding? Are you watching the right show? It wasn't dark and it certainly wasn't anything like Batman. This show was awesome but it was poorly managed and expensive to make. I heard somewhere that the producer (or somebody in a high positioin) ended up apologizing to John Wesley Shipp for mismanaging the time slots. It kept getting moved around to different times and so few people knew it existed and the people who were fans had a hard time finding out when the next episode was gonna be. This show could have lasted longer if it hadn't been screwed over.

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[–] eyepatchlarry 17 years ago

david u cant have sex u were nootered

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[–] SpaceMonkey907 17 years ago

okay, this got real weird....

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[–] wallacesawyer 17 years ago

It also had to compete in the ratings with other shows like THE SIMPSONS.

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[–] jkcoco7 17 years ago

^ And "The Cosby Show."

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[–] HawksRevenge 16 years ago

Correction: It cost $250,000 for each Flash suit and the series was cancelled due to high production costs for the time at over $2 million an episode

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[–] Woodwraith 16 years ago

For what it was, It was a good campy show. I certainly miss it.

But I guess that's show biz.

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[–] Latinfilms 16 years ago

So why do a show if you know it will be expensive - that's no excuse, the show should not have gone into production then. The shuffling of time slots was the maing reason and marketing, plus the show was on CBS (bad network; who watches CBS?) If the Flash was on Fox or NBC it would have survived into a Second Season.

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[–] jkcoco7 16 years ago

If the Flash was on Fox or NBC it would have survived into a Second Season.

Interestingly, in a 2006 interview with Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo, De Meo said that the show would've lasted longer if it was on FOX or the WB/CW. Basically, network mismanagement was what killed The Flash.

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[–] Latinfilms 16 years ago

jkcoco7 go figure. I hate people who ruin something good.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] HawksRevenge 16 years ago

I am currently rewatching "The Flash" on DVD and I am reminded what a fantastic series it was; there is more action and great actor performances in the single season of "The Flash" than in most series that ran ten seasons

The series was almost certainly killed because of a roving timeslot, low viewer support, high production costs and the question remains would the show have maintained it's quality?

I read the interview's from John Wesley Shipp and also the producers and they stated that the production for "The Flash" was a grueling ten month's to put out 22 episodes, but when you look at the show you see a quality show that was ahead of it's time

There was no other show like it for over a decade and I treasure every episode and I am glad it was released on DVD

The only shortcoming is I wish the DVD set had the network spots that aired on CBS in 1990, I have but not all of them and they are fantastic

For those of you that watch the DVD set remember that the following episodes are out of sequence. "Tina Is That You? was produced before "The Trickster" and it is very apparent when you watch the episodes

In memory of Jason Bernard; "The Nightshade Will Be Remembered Forever"

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[–] DrZhivagX 16 years ago

same thing with Quantum Leap people. That show won many emmy's but was pushed around for 5 years in constantly different time slots that they canceled the show. It was on Mondays then Wednesdays then Thursdays no one could find it. I remember when I was a kid I caught an episode and next week I went on NBC at the same time and it was some *beep* Tracy Gold and Mark Paul Gosselar made for TV movie. I was like WHAT! Horrible. Ne way. I remember the movie. It was really good and then I remember I only saw one episode with The Trickster (STAR WARS: LUKE SKYWALKER) ne way It was really good for its time and in DARK and BROOD as that guy said. They made the bad guys dark and brood and the Central City like Gotham. Good show ne way.

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[–] steve-575 16 years ago

"If the Flash was on Fox or NBC it would have survived into a Second Season."

Yeah, I halfway agree with this. If it was on FOX, it would have survived another season. In the early 90s and even today, FOX was geared more toward younger viewers which is in contrast to CBS which had shows ("Evening Shade", "Dallas", "Knots Landing", "Designing Women") which were more suited toward older viewers. I'm not so sure about NBC. NBC has canceled some very good shows like "Boomtown" and "Freaks and Geeks". When "The Flash" was on CBS, I remember that it got respectable ratings for all the time slot changes. It was on the ratings bubble and I guess that the high production costs were the deciding factor to cancel it.

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[–] Kelex_the_robot 16 years ago

It wasn't campy at all, it was really sophisticated for its time

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[–] serabination 16 years ago

i could see where you can say it was dark. I mean even the oufit had that darkesh red to it, and the lightning bolts were gold instead of yellow, but i thought it looked alot better that way. also, shipp portrayed the flash a little too stiff for my tastes, flash is supposed to be light hearted. its still a good show tho.

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[–] ItsEddieHaskellBeyotch 16 years ago

The show had a noir-ish feel to it because they were in a way using the Batman films as sort of their blueprint stylistically. The series also shot at night which is also slightly more expensive and made the atmosphere slightly "moody" as well. They did the same thing with the old Superboy series in its later seasons as well, making the show alittle more edgy and taking place mostly at night.

As to of how it got cancelled? Cosby and The Simpsons were already having a battle Royale of their own for the ratings. Also as other posters have said, it was the special effects and the cost of the costumes which had built in cooling units so that the actor wouldnt get too hot to the point of exhaustion.

"A commitment to cinema means to lead a technically deviant lifestyle."

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[–] rogerscorpion 15 years ago

Serabination, the character of The Flash wasn't dark & brooding, like Batman.
Also, Shipp was playing Barry, a police scientist--not the irresponsible wally, who had to learn responsibility. Barry was always rather humorless.

Carpe Noctem

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[–] FishenFool 16 years ago

"It kept getting moved around to different times and so few people knew it existed and the people who were fans had a hard time finding out when the next episode was gonna be. This show could have lasted longer if it hadn't been screwed over. "

One of the other major problems concerning scheduling at least on the CBS Affiliate in San Diego that I watched it on was that it was an hour long show that started on the half hour and when the episodes were over all the other channels would be halfway through an hour long show that had started a half hour ago.

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[–] tigers10 16 years ago

There's one mistake in the above replys - except for the premiere episode "The Flash" was on at 8:30 PM on Thursdays - never again up against "Cosby" & "The Simpsons". CBS even ran a promo "After Bill, after Bart, head on over to the Flash"!

I think another reason for the shows failure was that they couldn't quite get the tone right, especially in the early going. Another season may have worked things out.

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[–] StormShadow420 16 years ago

Wasn't it also against 902 as well? I seem to remember a little blurb Maxim or FHM some years ago about it.

--
Bring back Scott & Charlene to Neighbours.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] rogerscorpion 15 years ago

Yes, but remember how Fox kept trying to find shows to pair with The X-Files'?
Remember Strange Luck &n The Visitor?

Carpe Noctem

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] kooljerk666 11 years ago

Well I am 6 years late on a reply, but u are exactly right. This was pre internet days & tv guide sucked & they moved this show & pre-empted it. I do not remember seeing 1 episode, AND I EFFING TRIED.

This was similar to what FOX did on Sunday Nights to Futurama. The crappy sports always ran late & futurama while better than the Simpsons never had a regular time slot to build an audience. I'd rather watch reruns of futurama than the world series or superbowl.

Also, Green Lantern:TAS took almost 3 years to air 1 season & was canceled & it was the best show on any Saturday

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[–] vranger (444) 3 years ago

Yes, it did have a dark quality, although this comment is a waste because I'm responding to 14 years ago and a guy who will never see this. LOL

The leveraged the 1989 Batman art and Danny Elfman music since that Batman was so well received. What's not dark about the motorcycle terrorists and the murder of his brother?

It was a good show, but it was 20+ years ahead of its time for television.

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[–] rogerscorpion 15 years ago

Rory, don't confuse 'atmospheric' with 'dark & brooding'. I liked the way they made the city look a little gritty, with older looking cars, but had the cast wearing more modern clothing.

Carpe Noctem

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] grendelkhan 13 years ago

You can throw in the other excuses but it boiled down to ratings that were too low to offset the production costs. The rest of it are causes of the ratings. One, it's a cult audience, largely drawn from fans and young viewers, but without a strong enough mainstream hook. Two, the time slot changes made it hard to follow on the schedule. Three, the look and tone of the show was a little too adult for the younger crowd, so they weren't there in huge numbers, but the superhero stuff may have seemed to childish for a more mainstream adult audience. Lastly, the network did mismanage the thing and failed to sell it well outside of comic circles.

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[–] R_Kane (15828) 3 years ago

Today, The Flash is solidly in the mainstream.

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[–] Tjanssen411 11 years ago

It was greenlit on the success of Tim Burton's Batman in thaters, then the Network put it up against the Juggernauts of Cosby Show and the Simpsons

once it was trampled by those elephants the Network 'gave up' and just let it die

to some degree I think it was ahead of it's time...

-- just a few years later Lois and Clark started a 4 season Run on ABC which while more 'rom-com' had a similar tone as far as effects and "brightness"
-- not to mention Barry's Day Job in the Crime Lab would have played a lot better Post OJ Trial... and certainly when the CSIs took over

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[–] helderuto 11 years ago

because it had poor ratings and changed the day and hour often

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[–] KnightWolf725 11 years ago

The show was canceled because of high production costs and a fluctuating time-slot which caused poor ratings to occur. see below in the IMDB TRIVIA section for The Flash tv show.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098798/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

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[–] rentfan719 10 years ago

For all who are mis-informed or just plain naive. The high production cost/changed day and time slots/any other excuses are pure BS and propaganda from whom I can only deduce, is either the PR team of the network and/or sponsors to keep a more favored image. However, the real reason it was cancelled (and systematically sacrificed is a better term) was because the great John Wesley Shipp is gay, and when the network sponsors learned this news, wanted him gone. Pure and simple. However, as previous posts mentioned all the excellent reviews/awards/quality overall, the network was then faced with either killing the show themselves, or trying to pass off a different lead actor in season 2. I'm sure anyone who watched the incredible first season will agree, it's not Bewitched, and John was definately no Darren. He played the role SO well, and had such great approval numbers, the network knew they would not be able to replace him with anyone. At least not with any amount of good success. For any of the un-believing....remember, this was 1990-91, lesbians were just becoming generally accepted and gay men were still pretty much very negatively viewed through-out most of America (i.e. - the fly over states and pretty much any city smaller than Denver was at the time) By no means would the sponsors core financial support (the viewers) be burdened with finding out the lead on their favorite new show was a fudge-packing fairy...no no no.."handle it" the sponsors ordered. The network of course had the only choice of losing it's own financial support. So don't believe the fluff and BS they have plastered up to cover the real reason. It was just a different time without much acceptance of "alternative" lifestyles, and unfortunately like today and forever, the ones with all the money and knowledge of their own superiority make the rules.

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