Interview: John Wesley Shipp (The Flash) Not in Pajamas

At Dallas Comic Con I spoke with John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays who starred in their short-lived TV series with long-lasting popularity, The Flash. Though it ran for only one season, the show remains beloved to this day. When I recently surveyed Facebook fans and an army of twitpals on their picks for “Best Comic Book TV Show,” one show emerged as the clear winner: The Flash.

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Action Flick Chick: The Flash was on for maybe a year, but it is still popular. Is there any reason why you think it’s had such a lasting legacy?

John Wesley Shipp: I think because we put so much into that first season. You know, it took us from the third week in August through the second week in May, with four days off for Christmas. That was it, in order to get what we got. It was the most expensive show Warner Brothers had done for television up to that time. We had a third of the back lot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. We just spent hours and hours and hours trying to get it right and get the art direction right, Danny and Paul [The Flash television series creators, Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo] being such fans of the medium. You know what I mean?

AFC: Yeah.

JWS: So they incorporated genuine respect for it. We didn’t make fun of it. We didn’t talk down to it. We had humor, but it was intrinsic in the characters. I think that’s why it has lasted. One other thing: the fact that they have not been successful so far in mounting another live action Flash. So when they all came out on DVD in 2006, it sort of had a new life. I’m sure once they get that movie made, then that will be thought of as The Flash. But so far it’s had kind of an extended afterlife.

AFC: Why have they not had a movie?

JWS: I can’t understand it. It’s been in development. I’ve been hearing about it for ten years. It goes into development, they write a script, it falls out. They get a director, it falls out. I don’t know why with this particular character, they seem to have trouble imagining. I have no idea. Maybe it freaks them out, who knows.

AFC: Maybe! With social media such a big deal these days, Facebook & Twitter, has it changed your work at all? Are you on Facebook and Twitter?

JWS: I am on Facebook. There are a couple of fan pages. I’m honored, but I didn’t put them up. I’m at like 4700 contacts, I’ve had to slow way down accepting people. I’ve put up family photos. I have all these personal things, political viewpoints. I interact with people who write. We exchange photos. They will take pictures here and tag me in them. That’s all cool. I hate networking. I love the work and I hate the business. But somehow, through Facebook, I’ve connected with directors I worked with 25 years ago, writers, actors. It’s been an amazing networking tool. Somehow I don’t feel quite as guilty if typing at the keyboard as if I am schmoozing at a cocktail party. I don’t know how that works or why that works.

AFC: And then you can do it in your pajamas.

JWS: You can do it your pajamas. Yes, yes, yes. No anxiety. Anxiety free.

AFC: Well, thank you!

Keep up with John Wesley Shipp on Twittter, now at @JohnWesleyShipp.

Additional live acting credits: Dawson’s Creek, The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter, NYPD Blue, One Life to Live, Sisters. Voicework: The Brave and the Bold as Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash.

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass – in a flash!