Amanda Pays To Reprise Her 1990s Role For The Flash

The CW has added another 1990s The Flash alumnus to the upcoming The Flash series.  Via Variety, The CW has announced that Amanda Pays is set to reprise her role as Dr. Tina McGee from the almost 25-year old CBS series.  One of the earliest cast member announcements was that of John Wesley Shipp joining the series as Barry Allen’s father, Henry Allen.   Shipp played Barry Allen / The Flash opposite Pays in CBS’s 1990 to 1991 series The Flash.

The character of Tina McGee, nutritionist and researcher for S.T.A.R. Labs, was first introduced in the August 1987 issue of Flash Vol. 2 #3.  Tina, already married, and the Wally West version of the Flash met when she was tasked with studying his metabolism.  Tina’s husband, Jerry McGee, also performing his own experiments on speed, accidentally turns himself into the super-villain Speed Demon.  From here, Tina and Wally started a romantic relationship.  But it would soon prove to be too stressful and the two eventually parted ways.  Tina and Jerry would later reunite after Wally finds a way to turn Jerry back to normal.

In CBS’s 1990 to 1991 The Flash series, Tina McGee was a main character portrayed by Amanda Pays.  In this version, Tina was single and helped the Barry Allen version of the Flash with his abilities.  Always good friends, their romance was hinted at, but never acted upon.

For the upcoming The CW The Flash series, Pays will play a different version of Tina McGee — a brilliant geneticist working for a rival company to S.T.A.R. Labs who has taken an interest in Barry Allen’s newly acquired powers.  Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg commented on Pays’s joining of The CW team:

"When we decided to bring Tina onto our version of ‘The Flash,’ who better to get than the amazing actress who originated the part? … Like with John Wesley Shipp, we are so proud and excited to have another actor from the original series join us on our new adventures for Barry Allen."

This isn’t the first show to have past actors and actresses from the same franchise reappear.  The CW’s Smallville (2001 – 2011), the series that focused on an adolescent Clark Kent, famously did it throughout its ten-year run.  Although playing different roles in the series, these people all had some form of past relationship with Superman in the movies and television: from 1978’s Superman and 1980’s Superman II , Christopher Reeve (Clark Kent / Superman), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Terence Stamp (General Zod), and Marc McClure (Jimmy Olsen); from 1983’s Superman III, Annette O’Toole (Lana Lang); from 1984’s Supergirl, Helen Slater (Linda Lee / Supergirl); from the 1993 to 1997 series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Dean Cain (Clark Kent / Superman).

Now, all we need is Alex Désert to make an appearance in the upcoming The Flash series and the circle will be complete.  For a more exciting look at the original main cast, watch the intro for CBS’s 1990 to 1991 series The Flash:

The CW will premiere The Flash on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 8:00PM EST.