Original 1990 TV Series Coming to Blu-ray

John Wesley Shipp’s series is getting a new transfer from the original film negatives.

The Flash is zooming onto Blu-ray this summer from The Warner Archive. The series, which starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen/The Flash, spun out of the initial video game movie craze of the late 1980s and early ’90s, but it didn’t quite take the world by storm, and was cancelled after just one season. Years later, it still has a good reputation with fans, and Shipp himself has become cemented as a huge part of the Flash legacy, providing the voice of Reverse-Flash on Batman: The Brave and the Bold and then both Henry Allen and Jay Garrick on The Flash when it came to The CW in 2014.

The series also starred Amanda Pays and Alex Désert, with beloved actors like Richard Belzer and Mark Hamill in recurring roles. David Cassidy, whose daughter is Arrow star Katie Cassidy, actually appeared as Mirror Master in the show. 

Shipp would go on to wrap up the character’s arc in The CW’s “Elseworlds” and “Crisis on Infinite Earths” events, giving his version of Barry the closure and hero’s ending that the cancellation of the original show never offered.

There were three “movies” — multiple episodes cut to feature length and released on home video — that came out on VHS and were avaialble to rent from video stores. An extended version of the pilot was released on laserdisc as well. The full series was released on DVD for the first time in 2006. The upcoming Blu-ray features brand-new 1080p HD masters from 4K scans of the original camera negatives.

Keep an eye out for a pre-order link coming soon. For now, it’s just an announcement.

Here’s the official synopsis for the series, via KSite:

Who-o-o-o-osh! The origins and exploits of the crimefighting DC Comics superhero come your way in this 22-episode live-action series, from the 1990-91 television season. John Wesley Shipp portrays Barry Allen, a police crime technologist endowed with sudden talents after a fluke lab accident. He pledges to use his new powers for good, powers that include ultra-speed reflexes and the ability to vibrate his molecules so rapidly he can pass through solid walls. Amanda Pays is medical researcher Tina McGee, who monitors Allen’s accelerated metabolism and guards his secret identity. The Tricksters, Captain Cold, the Ghost, mad inventors: Central City is rife with criminals. Now there’s a hero to keep pace with them. He’s called The Flash. And in our era of instant communications, he’s more in step with the times than ever.