Where are the good live action comic book hero tv shows?

[Gamerforlife]

This sort of came up in the last movie you've seen thread. Hollywood has found a lot of success with comic book superhero movies. Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman, etc. However, I haven't seen much success with comic book heroes in live action tv shows in the past couple of years. I say live action, because there are plenty of great animated examples, but live action shows based on well known comic book characters have not worked. Birds of Prey was cancelled really early, Witchblade wasn't a success and I don't know what the hell happened to that Blade tv series. Even original properties like Heroes haven't worked. The show turned to crap after season 1 with ratings dropping more and more

I know you can mention old shows like Wonder Woman, Batman and Hulk with Linda Carter, Adam West and Lou Ferrigno, but I'm talking about modern television. None of those shows would be successful today with all of their campiness

Is it just that these shows never have good writers? Or is the audience just not there? The only successful shows I can think of would be shows like Buffy or Angel, but they weren't based on actual comic book properties and they never amounted to more than cult hits. Smallville seems to do well, but it's more teen drama than a genuine comic book superhero show. Even when Smallville DOES try to be a superhero show, it falls flat on its face with some of most pathetic attempts at action sequences I've ever seen on a show

[Jrecee]

I just saw an interview with Ali Larter on IGN where they asked her if she thought a Heroes movie might get made. She more or less trashed everything after season 1 saying the first season was such a good experience and that magic wouldn't get recaptured. Or something like that. Her put down approach made it sound like there's very little chance she'll be teaming with any of those people for a movie.

Comic book movies only really became big around the time Xmen and Spiderman came out. They have become bigger and bigger since then. But since that explosion, nobody has really tried to do a superhero tv show. There's probably a couple reasons. 1. The studios that have the rights to make the movies don't want them getting watered down by tv shows. 2. TV networks just haven't figured it out. And when they have attempted it, they haven't used the biggest characters. The 3rd blade movie came out, didn't do so hot, and then they made a tv show. I've only seen brief bits of Birds of Prey, but it was crap. Smallville strays too far from its source material, and is just a crappy WB teen drama made by people who really don't know jack about superman.

My idea was CSI: Gotham. Who wouldn't watch that?

[FiftyDollarCurse]

I would think that the budget required to do a superhero TV series without embarrassing special effects would be the most restrictive element.

[Gamerforlife]

I would think that the budget required to do a superhero TV series without embarrassing special effects would be the most restrictive element.

Not necessarily, depends on what kind of comic book character you go with(the less super powers the better) and who is running the show. Some people know how to squeeze a lot more out of a budget than others. Plus, if a show is successful enough ratingswise, you can expect the network to pony up the necessary cash to keep it going

[benderx]

The flash tv series.

[Jrecee]

I would think that the budget required to do a superhero TV series without embarrassing special effects would be the most restrictive element.

That's why I think Batman would be the best. Once you build the batmobile and the batcave set the budget would be about the same as any action oriented tv series.

I have a theory that 1 minute of a guy in the batsuit drinking tea is equal to 20 minutes of a guy without a batsuit kicking peoples asses. Just put Batman on screen and it feels big budget.

A Daredevil tv series could work too. Or The Punisher. They even did a pretty good job with Superman with The New Adventures of Lois and Clark considering when it was made. Same with the Flash, as has been said.

A character like The Hulk is probably one of the hardest. And spiderman needs to swing around the city which costs a lot. Really it's just a matter of having a good story so that you have more money to spend on shorter action scenes. This is where I think Batman is great since it's always so focused on solving crimes as opposed blowing stuff up. But again, all you have to do is show the Batmobile driving down the street and it feels like a multimillion dollar blockbuster.

[Gamerforlife]

I would think that the budget required to do a superhero TV series without embarrassing special effects would be the most restrictive element.

That's why I think Batman would be the best. Once you build the batmobile and the batcave set the budget would be about the same as any action oriented tv series.

I have a theory that 1 minute of a guy in the batsuit drinking tea is equal to 20 minutes of a guy without a batsuit kicking peoples asses. Just put Batman on screen and it feels big budget.

A Daredevil tv series could work too. Or The Punisher. They even did a pretty good job with Superman with The New Adventures of Lois and Clark considering when it was made. Same with the Flash, as has been said.

A character like The Hulk is probably one of the hardest. And spiderman needs to swing around the city which costs a lot. Really it's just a matter of having a good story so that you have more money to spend on shorter action scenes. This is where I think Batman is great since it's always so focused on solving crimes as opposed blowing stuff up. But again, all you have to do is show the Batmobile driving down the street and it feels like a multimillion dollar blockbuster.

It's the only challenge left for Batman really. He's been done well in everything else now. Games(Batman:Arkham Asylum and a few other lesser known games), movies(Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan's movies), comics(duh), animation(too many examples to list), music videos(Prince)...........

Okay, that last one was a joke

Interesting fact, the creators of Smallville originally planned to do a Batman show. We're probably lucky they didn't. Not that I hate Smallville, but it's a show that never lived up to its potential

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Ugh..! This thread-title instantly made me remember the "Generation-X" made-for-TV movie.. ::shudders::

[Snickerd00dle]

The Walking Dead tv series is coming out soon, not really super hero related but comic related, it looks pretty good

[aaron]

Ugh..! This thread-title instantly made me remember the "Generation-X" made-for-TV movie.. ::shudders::

this, and the aforementioned Flash tv show, essentially shaped about a year of my adolescence. i loved fox as a kid.