Plausibility Check: 60s Flash TV series

I'm considering writing a timeline with a TV series about the Flash, much like our Batman one. I think this would be a great show. Flash has Pied Piper, Gorilla Grodd, Giganta, Mirror Master. All of these villains would be perfect for camp! I'm thinking a lot of the required special effects wouldn't be difficult. Chroma Key technology can be used to show the city zooming by while Flash is running, and they could reuse stock footage of this in every episode. It could also be used when Giganta is gigantic. Mirror Master's powers can be done simply by replacing mirrors with windows mid-scene. I really don't think any of the special effects would be more expensive and difficult than the Batmobile.

If a Flash series could happen, is it possible to have multiple superheroes making guest appearances in it? I'd like to see The Atom and Elongated Man, and maybe Green Lantern. Elongated Man wouldn't be that difficult, if he only occasionally uses his powers, and it's done by having very long fake arms reaching out to the object he's grabbing.

I'm heavily leaning towards a timeline where the Batman series doesn't exist, because I'm not sure two series like this would be successful. Maybe Yale Udoff pitches a Batman TV idea to ABC but finds out Batman's being considered for a different project, either for a low-budget film with gangsters or a TV series starring Mike Henry, so Udoff picks a different superhero. Is that plausible? I'd prefer the Batman movie option over the TV show, so what do you think?

Also, my ideal timeline would have Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore guest-starring as Elongated Man and Sue Dibny, so would that mean it would have to be CBS?

Please, let me know your thoughts and suggestions. Do you think this could happen?
 
The problem is that Speed effects are among the hardest to without making them look hokey or just plain fast-forwarded. And if you make ithe show too hokey, Barry might be canceled either during the Silver/Bronze Age transition, the DC implosion, or just plain killed off during Crisis on Infinite Earths and never brought back.
 
Does anyone know if I can find examples of special effects used in those days? I admit a blue screen won't usually be enough, but maybe it won't be too hokey for a campy show, but I suspect the hokeyness can be counteracted by good jokes, memorable actors, and attractive young women.
 
Anything related to moving faster would just be the film or video played faster. It would look hokey.

Torqumada
 
The problem is that Speed effects are among the hardest to without making them look hokey or just plain fast-forwarded. And if you make ithe show too hokey, Barry might be canceled either during the Silver/Bronze Age transition, the DC implosion, or just plain killed off during Crisis on Infinite Earths and never brought back.

Anything related to moving faster would just be the film or video played faster. It would look hokey.

Torqumada

Here's the thing: It was the 60s. No one will care if it looks like that, because that's just how things look when something is supposed to move faster; just speed up the film. Especially in the era of camp as king, no one will care. And I doubt they'd interpret it as camp and not just a normal effect.

I surmise, however, that it wouldn't just be sped up film. Sped up film in certain areas, and to show him starting to go faster, but then I suspect what they'd do is (while running alongisde the flash or looking at him from a front area) having it be the project like they had/have when they film from inside a driving car. You'd have that projection things going on alongside him and behind him.
 
Batman worked well because he also had a group of friendly characters such as Robin, Commisioner Gordon and Alfred with which to bounce dialogue. Does Flash have such analogues?
 
Batman worked well because he also had a group of friendly characters such as Robin, Commisioner Gordon and Alfred with which to bounce dialogue. Does Flash have such analogues?

Well, I know threre's Kid Flash. You also have the original Flash, who could act as an elder figure if need be (though I don't know if they'd need him; this is, after all, not Batman so there'd be no need to make a Batman setup).
 
The Flash has his girlfriend Iris, Iris' nephew Kid Flash, and his best friends Green Lantern and Elongated Man. There is also Elongated Man's wife, Sue, and if she's a recurring character she can be a friend of Iris. I admit, Flash seemed to be a little short on non-superhero friends in the Silver Age, but unlike Batman he has a job and family members, so the show can work with that. Specifically, the Flash's job is as a police scientist, so the show should include his boss in an important role.
 
On speed fx: is it possible to greenscreen it so you speed up the actor, but not the backdrop? Because it's the fast-moving background not looking real that gets me.

What about using real footage shot at high speed? Put a camera in an F1 car... Jack that up.:eek:
 
I'd like to bump to add that, after viewing a documentary on the history of DC, Flash comes across in a light that looks good for something that could be on TV. Basically, comics following the World War 2 were in trouble. The war had created a boom, but the comic heroes were now associated with the war, and now that it was over, it was hard for them to go back to fighting crime in their towns. So comics died off except for Batman and Robin, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and those were retooled to fit the conservative 50s. Wonder Woman went from an amazonian strong feminist to someone worried about her boyfriend. Lois Lane went from a tenacious news reporter to a girl who only carried about if Clark Kent was Superman and how to win his love. Superman became a dad. Everything got neutered and sales were low, and in the 50s after the witch-hunts and the creation of self censorship and the Comics Code Authority sales dropped by 70-some percent, and a consensus was that comics were dying.
Flash was part of the DC effort to revitalize itself, and it worked. The character, reimagined and updated for the 50s Atomic age, sold very well and began the Silver age. Green Lantern followed thereafter, along with a reboots of all the other classic heroes we know today, who were given (then) modern back stories and brought into the (then) modern world.

Before realizing that, I had just thought of this scenario as an interesting possibility, but given what Flash was in all of that, it does truly come off like he very logically could have been given a TV show. Certainly other big characters who created a boom have, such as Superman and later the Marvel superheroes.
 
Oh, absolutely. And I'm also not worried about the special effects looking hokey.
What I am worried about is whether a TV network would be willing to put in anyone other than Superman or Batman and spend a bit on special effects. But maybe I'm worried about nothing, because apparently nobody heard about Batman either.
And would the best way to make this happen be to have Yale Udoff be inspired by the Batman serials but find out Batman's already being used by a different company? What are some other ways to make this show happen?
 
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