The Flash: Behind the Scenes

For 50 years, he's been the fastest man alive. And now, Warner Bros. is bringing DC Comics' high-speed hero to CBS Television with the Flash. When police chemist Barry Allen was accidentally struck by lightning and was covered with chemicals at the same time, he turned into the Flash. He hasn't been published for 50 years for nothing, obviously. Executive producer Paul DiMeo. Just the idea of, gee, if I could clean up my apartment in two seconds, wouldn't that be great? But it's up to the talents of two-time Emmy Award winner John Wesley Shipp to make the Flash a believable character. Keeping it personal, keeping it human, staying away from, I'm here to save the day. You know, that would be boring to me. Well, that's crazy. You're barely able to control power. Amanda Pays is Tina McGee, a biokinetic scientist who helps Barry Allen cope with being a new hero. For the first time in a long time, especially on television, I think kids are gonna be able to see a good human helping the world and creating a better world. I always call the Flash as we've done at Batman's Cousin. Executive producer Danny Billson. And we keep the same kind of tone and intensity to the character, the look of this costume. We went to a lot of trouble for it to be sophisticated enough. It's not just a guy in tights. To overcome the problems and the ambitious plans for the Flash's suit, the producers went to special effects makeup artist Robert Short, who won an Academy Award for Beetlejuice. If you took somebody who's very well built and put them in a skintight outfit, say spandex, they'd look flat as a board. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, when put into spandex, loses tone and definition. What we did is came up with a concept of actually creating a replica of the actor's body that he would wear on the outside of his own muscles so that he would have the tone that you couldn't get any other way. To construct a costume for the Flash, the costume artists make molds from various parts of the actor John Wesley Shipp's body. And then they use the mold to make a muscle made out of foam rubber. The artists glue all the foam muscles together and then the costume is painted. John wears a special vest that is made to serve as a cooling system under his costume to keep him from overheating. When you put on this thing, which they built for the Flash, which is like a second skin, really, and you look down and everything is heightened and everything is bigger and everything is more powerful and yet it's breathing with you. There are some suits that are made for the stuntman and there are some suits that are made for John himself. They've got a great technique on the show where they have the stuntman and John working in the same shots. So you get the impression that the Flash is in two places at once because he's so fast. We set out to take a format that was traditionally very simple, meaning a television format. We had Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. And change it, make it more like a feature. One thing that I think is going to set us apart, I hope, from other quote-unquote superhero shows that have been done on television in the past is that we're not trying to be silly, we're not trying to spoof the material. We're going to have fun and we're going to have humor, but there's going to be a certain intensity and a certain look that I hope is going to be real different from what people see. I mean, basically, we have an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances, you know, and what kind of problems that causes him, what effect that has on him physically, psychologically, emotionally. You know, basically a guy who grew up the unblessed child in a family, the brother is the favorite, you know, and always the sense of having to prove himself. And then he gets this superhuman element of speed, and suddenly he's capable of doing, you know, 20 times more than his brother or any of the things which would make his father proud. You know, his first reaction is, get rid of it. What will be nice is that their relationship will be many faceted in other ways. They work very well together, yet they're very close. So they do have tiffs or there'll be, you know, there'll be a jealousy because when you're close to anybody, you know, you have a kind of possessiveness about them. So when each of us get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, I think there'll be that kind of adding tension to it and realizing that maybe we do feel something more than we had wanted or whatever. First of all, Warner Brothers owns DC Comics. And so we had a choice of their characters, basically. And of their characters, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash are the most popular and the most long enduring of their characters. I've always been attracted to The Flash because I like the character of Barry Allen. He works in the crime lab, so it's easy to get him into police stories. The stories come easily. And his powers are fairly simple and straightforward that he's the fastest man alive. And it's never been done before. You haven't seen guys running the way he runs. You could run fast as a train or fast as a plane or a car or a motorcycle or stuff like that. As well as the other things he does with his powers in the show, like cleaning up his apartment or potentially changing diapers, things like that. So it's fun and I think it lends itself to a good TV show. Barry Allen doesn't become The Flash and just say, OK, now I'm The Flash. I'll run fast and I'll fight crime. He has a lot of things to deal with when he becomes his character. He thinks maybe he's a freak, maybe he's dying. This isn't cool. This isn't good. But then he becomes when he when he goes out and starts seeing the things he's capable of doing and feels he has some control over his power. It's OK, I can do this. I can do that. That's good. But there's still parts of it that are very frightening. And I think you want to have those complexities in order to keep going. I murdered Jay in the Green Committee. Please, you're unable to control your power. It was in a very unstable way. You came here asking to get rid of it. OK, that's crazy, you're barely able to control it. OK, we are going to go to work tonight. You're fine, right? Well, yeah, we're going to work. I need a door from Stark. Yes, I know. And then. OK, so I need it twice. I'm a fan. OK, thank you, sir. I need to know what to play for. And we have to think about it before we can play. Well, what can we do as far as care? Yeah, OK, guys, try this. All right. Are you ready? My name is John. OK, thank you. Ralphie. Yes, this is. I will cue the door. You don't work for me. Hold it a little bit. Quiet, please. I will. Right. We're all in a hurry. Speak, Mark. Ralph. Barry, what are you doing here? How do you get this crap? No more testing. No more games. I know what you're going through. Do you? Yes, maybe I do. Do you understand? You give me what I need. The red suit. I want you to go. I want you to build a hood to cover my face so no one can see who I am. And gloves. So I won't be fingerprints. Can you do that? Yes. I murder Jay. I'm going to bring him in. Well, that's crazy. You're barely able to control your power. That's what you call. Yes. And a very unstable one. You came here asking to get rid of it. I've changed my mind. And I'm afraid I cannot help. Fine. Ralph. Yeah, we were X. Alan. Yeah. Ralphie. Yeah. Can you stop it after two swings? On the first opening? On both openings. Yes. Swing, swing, swing. Stop. Give it a minute. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Action. Now, do your move. I just think we should maybe have a light around that edge. You know, not all the way down. If we get John. Yeah. If we get John in the right thing, John may have to do. Yeah. Used to be a peaceful place. Now, something dark and terrifying is erupting from the city's core. I thought you were upstairs. What do you think you are doing? Central City is crumbling. Its people live in fear. And they will watch as we destroy their hero cops one by one. We will cross-reference against a sample from that gun shop they hit on Tuesday. Barry Allen is a scientist, not a hero. But when lightning strikes, it transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Heart rate is accelerating. Muscle tissue expanding. You're holding at 200 miles per hour. 300. 347 miles an hour. That was before the equipment crashed. What's happening to me? While the city goes crazy, so does Barry's metabolism. I can't believe it was over so quickly. After all that anticipation, why bother? 20 bucks for a fight that's over in two rounds. The question is, which will blow up first? No more games. I want you to build a hood. Cover my face so no one will know who I am. You know that insignia they all wear on their backs? Well, I've got one of mine. Meet the Eye. Get ready for... Barry, your shoes are on fire!