The Flash starring John Wesley Shipp was made possible in part by the success of 1989's Batman movie, but the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton film wasn't the only influence on the television series -- it turns out Major League Baseball had an impact, as well.
Shipp's costume for the series featured pre-molded musculature, not unlike that of Keaton's Batman costume, despite Shipp's existing muscular build. At the time, steroid use was becoming known in the MLB, and Shipp acknowledges the idea of performance enhancing drugs for athletes played a role in the look for The Flash in the series.
"They wanted it to be larger than life," Shipp told Den of Geek. "Remember, it was 1990, we were in the post-Pumping Iron, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, larger than life steroid haze, you know what I mean? Heroes had to be larger than life."
"It was quite an involved process," Shipp says, regarding the design of his costume. "I stripped down my underwear and they greased me with Vaseline all over, wrapped me in cellophane, and then I put on a spandex suit. They had individually sculpted foam latex muscle pieces, and they would glue them onto this spandex suit. They wrapped me in cellophane because the glue would get really hot while it was setting, and they glued the pieces on the suit with me in it."
In 1988, the Oakland A's Canseco became the first MLB player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in one season. Years later, Canseco admitted to using anabolic steroids, alleging 85% of MLB players used performance enhancing drugs. McGwire also played for the A's at the time, and later broke the record for most home runs in a season with 70 while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. McGwire subsequently became a central figure in MLB's steroid scandal, and the substance was eventually banned by the MLB.
Executive produced by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, The Flash starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Patrick Allen (The Flash), Amanda Pays as Dr. Tina McGee, Alex Désert as Julio Mendez, Mike Genovese, Vito D'Ambrosio, Biff Manard and Richard Belzer.