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Disc I: The Film Score
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Posted: |
Sep 20, 2020 - 10:41 AM
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By: |
lonzoe1
(Member)
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"I know you really did see a demon. He was red as blood, wasn't he? And fast, like a flash."
The Flash (2-CD): Original Television Soundtrack - Shirley Walker
This short-lived TV series based on DC Comics’ "fastest man alive" premiered on CBS 30 years ago today. I watched most of the episodes when they aired on CBS Thursday nights. Sometimes my parents recorded it for me to watch after school the next day because it would air around my bedtime. The show re-ran on Sci-Fi channel (many years before they changed the spelling to Syfy for some reason) back during the mid to late 90s on Sunday evenings, which I'd rewatched then. I was always impressed by it. John Wesley Shipp was a great, convincing, at times intimidating Flash/Barry Allen (despite the lack of blonde hair). Amanda Pays, Alex Desert and the entire supporting cast are all stellar. The Flash costume was and still is phenomenal. Despite the lack of yellow boots the suit was very faithful to the comics. The special effects has aged over the years but was first rate for a TV show. The Flash never seems to struggle with balancing the drama and humor. Meaning the show took itself seriously but not too seriously. And like most of the comic book movies of the 90s the show was heavily influenced by Batman (1989) e.g. the production design, the score, tone, etc.
Danny Elfman’s theme for the Flash was always criticized for being too derivative of his Batman theme, which was probably intentional because the makers obviously wanted their show to be somewhere along the lines of Batman (1989). Due to Batman (1989) success and for setting the bar for that particular era in the genre. Elfman’s Flash theme is basically a faster variation of his Dick Tracy theme, but for some reason that never bothered me. I still believe Elfman's heroic theme perfectly depicts the Scarlet Speedster. It’s also superior to Blake Neely’s theme from the current CW TV series and Elfman’s own motif for The Flash from 2017’s Justice League, imo.
The late great Shirley Walker did an excellent job adapting and freshening up Elfman’s theme each episode without it ever feeling repetitive or overused, imo. She pretty much makes the theme her own. Her scores for each episode are top notch and distinctive from one another. And because of that each score for each episode hit a certain spot for me, but her score for the Pilot /movie is amazing and is up there with some of the best superhero scores. Unlike most TV shows of it's ilk today Walker's scores for the The Flash never felt like they were written for a TV show but for motion pictures. The episodes themselves even feel like short films of the Flash since it wasn’t serialized unlike most superhero TV shows (or TV shows in general) today.
Walker also came up with some impressive themes for the pilot episode alone. She wrote a secondary theme that depicts the Flash/Barry’s speed (which is often used in the show), a motif that depicts the Flash being subdued/weakened, a sinister theme for Nicholas Pike/Dark Riders (which recurred in Pike’s return in the episode Flash Forward), a militaristic theme for the CCPD Swat Team, etc. She also wrote some great themes for the Flash’s rogues gallery (The Trickster, Prank, Pollux, The Black Rose Gang, The Ghost, Captain Cold, Mirror Master, which Clayface‘s theme from Batman: The Animated Series seem to have derived from, etc.) and some recurring characters (Megan Lockhart, Nightshade, etc.) throughout the series. Walker’s music definitely contributes and adds to a lot of my enjoyment of the show. The scores to The Flash were pretty much the stepping stone for her more than stellar scores to Batman: The Animated Series.
I was beyond ecstatic when La-La Land Records released a (2-CD) set of the scores from certain episodes a decade ago. Aside from The Trickster none of the scores were complete, which is unfortunate because some excellent cues weren't included on the album. Not to mention missing some excellent scores from episodes (e.g. Out Of Control, Honor Among Thieves, Double Vision, Sins Of The Father, which has a southern blues tone and a harmonica that represents the villain, Child‘s Play, which contains electric guitar and a sitar that portray the hippie drug dealers, Walker’s jazzy Beat The Clock to name a few) that weren’t included on the album either. However, it’s way better than nothing. The (2-CD) set happened to be my favorite release of 2010. It’s unfortunate this album didn’t sell well because I wouldn’t mind purchasing another volume with even more music from the show. La-La Land Records only scratched the surface with this release, imo.
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