The series was developed for television by
Joseph Stefano (known for the film
Psycho and
The Outer Limits TV series). Actor/stuntman
Dick Durock, who played Swamp Thing in both
films, reprised his role for the more serious-toned TV series (with Lonnie R. Smith Jr. and Patrick Neil Quinn portraying Alec Holland in flashbacks, etc.). He wore a modified version of Carl Fullerton and Neal Martz's latex suit created for
The Return of Swamp Thing, and he spoke in an electronically altered
basso profundo. Since his profuse sweating caused the lip and eye
prosthetics to fall off while shooting the previous films, Durock simply had makeup applied in those areas for his television costume: "In the first feature, it took close to four hours. In the second feature, it took close to two hours. By the time we did the series, which ironically was by far the best makeup and costume, we had it down to about 45 minutes".
Swamp Thing was filmed in the brand-new
Universal Studios Florida facilities and
soundstages by Universal's MTE division. This was granted to demonstrate the new studio because the series could be produced cheaply and quickly. For the first 13 episodes, the crew shot second-unit footage in actual Florida swamps and returned to the studio for the primary scenes. The swamps, however, not only prevented them from creating favorable lighting, but also required much time to transport people and equipment from the swamp to the studio. They finally decided to use swamp areas then existing on the perimeter of the studio and to build
a swamp in the studio which, according to Durock, looked "ten times better than a real swamp".
Swamp Thing debuted with "The Emerald Heart" on Friday, July 27, 1990, in the 10:30pm
EST time slot. The show's introductory narration decrees: After the
pilot episode and first 12 episodes, executive producer Stefano left the series and production was temporarily halted for some retooling by Tom Greene, the new executive producer. By the end of the first season, the network and studio sensed that the show could attract even higher ratings, and further modifications came when Tom Blomquist was enlisted as a replacement for Greene to revamp the series for two more seasons and a lengthy production order of 50 episodes. Those episodes, which helped make
Swamp Thing the highest-rated original series on USA Network, were less dependent on elements from the comic books and instead introduced anthological science fiction stories featuring guest-star characters encountering the mysteries of the swamp.
Swamp Thing regularly featured guest actors, such as
Roscoe Lee Browne as Duchamp (a
Voodoo houngan/
bokor, who refers to Swamp Thing as "
Loa of
Green Things" or the "Spirit of the Swamp"),
Tyne Daly as Arcane's rival Carla Jeffries,
Wolfman Jack as a carnival owner,
Debby Boone as the estranged daughter of a beloved local woman,
Philip Michael Thomas as a ghost trapped for eternity with his bickering wife,
Andrew Stevens as a politician,
One Life to Live stars
Robert S. Woods and
John Loprieno as escaped convicts,
Summer Phoenix as a local friend of Jim's, and
Adam Curry as a rock star. Two episodes also guest-starred
professional wrestlers Terry Funk,
Kevin Nash, and
Jorge Gonzáles (El Gigante}. Also, returning from the
1982 film, actor
Ray Wise, who portrayed Alec Holland-pre-metamorphosis, appears in the third-season episode, "Never Alone", as a man who thinks that Swamp Thing and he are both aliens. The series also introduced characters such as the Kipp family, as well as a completely new incarnation of
Anton Arcane played by
Mark Lindsay Chapman. A young boy named Jim Kipp, played by Jess Ziegler, was intended to appeal to the young audience, but after the first 12 episodes, a decision was made to return the series to a darker tone seen in the original
Swamp Thing film. Consequently, the story had Jim Kipp abducted by a South American child-stealing ring acting under Arcane's orders, and Jim never appeared again in the series. Durock noted: "The way they wrote him out was kind of a shock to me and everybody else except for, I suppose, the writers... That's a hell of a way to meet your demise!" Indeed, the
Swamp Thing evolved as it went along. Regarding these shifts, Durock commented: "I guess we finally got it ironed out with the next 50, we kind of tried to hit a balance". Jim Kipp's fate and several other unresolved plot points from the first season were resolved by the new writing staff in the second and third seasons. Jim was later said to have been found (off-camera) sometime in the third season by his divorced mother Tressa, played by Carrell Myers, after a long search, and she supposedly sent Jim to live with his father far away. Primary among those plotlines in seasons two and three was Alec Holland's quest to find a cure for the affliction that had turned him into a swamp creature. Several episodes were dedicated to his desire to rediscover his human nature, including his unrequited love story with a beautiful scientist, Dr. Ann Fisk, played by
Janet Julian, a former student of his who dedicated herself to helping him. Another innovation in the second and third seasons was an exploration of Dr. Arcane's madness, in an attempt to explain his penchant for evil. With the network eager to release new episodes, many in the first season were aired out of their original order in the series' original run. The disorganization created the effect of sporadic or unfulfilled plot points in various episodes, an issue that was corrected in the first DVD set. Due to its strong
cult following, however,
Swamp Thing was later reaired on
Sci-Fi Channel and featured during the
S.C.I.F.I. World schedule in the early 2000s. As of 2008, the series aired on
Chiller in movie form and was available on its official website. The series currently airs on
Heroes & Icons, along with many other 1990s syndicated live-action shows, such as
Xena: Warrior Princess and
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. It can also be seen on the
MeTV network during its "Red Eye Sci-Fi" block every Sunday morning. ==Cast==