'The Flash'

( CBS )

The powers: Super-speed

The actor: John Wesley Shipp

The run: 1990-1991

The villains: Corrupt officials and mobsters, Trickster, Captain Cold, Mirror Master

The tone: At first dark, gritty and relatively realistic, then with added comic-book villains.

Of note: Danny Elfman composed the theme song, and Mark Hamill played The Trickster. None of that could make up for the Flash looking like a 'roided out bodybuilder rather than a lithe runner with a super-speedy metabolism.