DC Takes on TV
- spokenjays
- Dec 9, 2014
- 5 min read
DC Comics is staking their claim on TV...
In fact, they've been trying for years; recently, however, with some serious gusto.
We can go back as far as you want... Comic driven TV shows have been around for a very long time, and DC (believe it or not) actually corners the market! The 50's saw the Adventures of Superman, with George Reeves as the Man of Steel for 6 full seasons. The 60's saw a very campy Dynamic Duo in Adam West and Burt Ward's Batman series, which surprisingly only lasted 3 seasons but spawned a movie or two, and a killer DVD collection! The 70's were packed with Shazam!, The Secrets of Isis, Legends of the Superheroes and most importantly Wonder Woman. 1988 gave us a four-season long Superboy adaptation... it lasted a few seasons, but was riddled with cast changes.
The 90's were fun! For a full 3 seasons, the USA Network gaves us Swamp Thing: The Series (I admit, I watched every episode... and I loved the movies that preceded the series). The Flash had a short one-season run (no pun intended), but we'll touch on that a little more in a bit. In 1992 we got seven episodes of Rick Springfield as Christopher Chance in Human Target - apparently Jessie's Girl wasn't enough to keep the show going. And in 1993, Dean Cain made his mark on DC Entertainment as the (younger) Man of Steel in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. It was a really popular show for the time...it was on a larger network (ABC), lasted 4 seasons, and launched the careers of Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher (who portrayed Lois Lane).
Not long after Lois & Clark bit the dust, The WB/ The CW Network gave us a 10-season long look at Kal-el before Metroplois' hero dawned his house sigel in Smallville. Another admission of mine; I only watched some of the last season and the show's finale...JB, on the other hand owns all 10 seasons on DVD. A lot of hero cameos, a deep look into the relationship between Clark & Lex (who were childhood pals in this version) and a huge following resulted in Emmy Awards and Teen Choice Awards throughout its run from 2001- 2011.
Here we are in the present. Stephen Amell's Arrow is now at the mid-season point of Season 3. If you have not watched any of this show yet, shame on you! If you have - you know why I'm shaming everyone else. To date we've seen DeathStroke, Roy Palmer (the Atom has been teased), Canary, Wildcat, the formation of the Suicide Squad including Deadshot and the Bronze Tiger and Ra's Al Ghul (who is said to play a much larger part in the mid-seaqson finale airing Wednesday, December 10 at 8pm on CW).
On Fox, currently on break until January, is the story that leads up to Bruce Wayne becoming the vigilante caped-crusader - Gotham. Forget what you know of Jim Gordon or any of the villians we've all grown to love from Batman stories... just leave all that out and you got yourself a crime drama, with a bit of super-real sprinkled in for good measure. Watched with that in mind, it could actually be a pretty decent show. I have a problem disconnecting from the canon - it's not my absolute favorite take on the gritty city, but I still watch it.
One of my personal favorites, struggling to keep afloat, is NBC's adaptation of the Hell Blazer himself, Constantine. Let me just start by saying NBC is screwing themselves by putting this on Friday nights! Season 1 has already been cut down to 13 episodes, and production for season 2 is on an indefinite hold. WATCH THIS SHOW! Matt Ryan plays a spot-on John Constantine and there are plenty of "AHA!" moments spattered throughout (such as Dr. Fate's helmet and the appearance of Jim Corrigan... he may play a larger part down the line). If you're worried that the show is just another feeble stab at the character after the 2005 Keanu Reeves movie - worry not. This series sticks MUCH closer to the source material. At the moment, Constantine airs Friday nights at 10 on NBC.
Coming up on a highly anticipated mid-season finale (a spin-off from Arrow, no less) is CW's high ranking The Flash. This is my personal Top Pick for TV. Like the series from 1990, this story focuses on Barry Allen... and like the original, stars John Wesley Shipp - except this time, he plays Barry's father. Grant Gustin has done an amazing job as the Fastest Man Alive. And this series has proven to show a lot of comic muscle alongside Arrow. Whereas Arrow's antagonists are steeped in archery and ass-kicking, Barry's Central City is overrun by meta-humans (or those affected by the explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs). Some of the teased and shown characters have been Weather Wizard, Girder, Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, Heat Wave...and more recently Firestorm has finally been teased. Of course the main antagonist spot seems to be juggling between the mysterious Dr. Wells and (making an appearance in the mid-season finale TONIGHT) Reverse Flash or "The man in the yellow suit". ***On another nerdy note, Mark Hamill has confirmed he will be reprising HIS role from the 1990 series as The Trickster!! How cool is that?***
You may ask yourself, "4 running shows? That's not really cornering the market,
Jay!" I'm getting to that... DC has a lot in the pipeline set to begin filming in 2015. The CW has picked up Vertigo's iZombie, set to premiere mid-season 2015. AMC has ordered up a pilot runner for Vertigo's Preacher, set to premier in the fall 2015. CBS is in development of a Super-girl series... no premiere date announced yet. Blue Ribbon Content ( a division of Warner Bros.) is developing a series of live-action shorts for Static Shock (if done well, could be really cool). And most recently announced, SyFy is in development talks with David S. Goyer on Krypton, said to follow Kal-El's grandfather on his not-yet-doomed home planet. TNT is also in development of Titans, a Teen Titans live-action series. Neither have a premiere date, as of yet.
In case you couldn't tell, this half of Spoken Jays is a DC fan. I'm really excited for the world DC is introducing us to via network television, as well as the movies they have slated over the next couple years (but that's a blog for another day). And as long as they keep pumping out awesome series like these, I will never be without something to watch.
Sound off with #OutSpokenJays... let us know how you feel about DC's TV presence now and in the future. If you really dig Constantine, let them know with #SaveConstantine
-Jay
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