Does Anyone Remember SLIDERS?

Does anyone remember that totally awesome sci-fi show SLIDERS that spanned 95-99? It was a show about 4 people travelling through strange parallel universes while trying to get back to their world. The main character was Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) who devised the timer they used to "slide". Along with him was Wade Welles (Sabrina Lloyd), Professor Arturo (John Rhys-Davies) and Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks).

This show was definitely one of the best sci-fi shows I've ever seen, and even now I love watching the reruns. The sliders never knew where they would end up, whether in a world where dinosaurs rooam, or ones with eveil dictators controlling the world. The catch was they only had a certain amount of time on each world, before they would have to slide again. I remember on many episodes their timer fell into wrong hands.

Another interesting aspect of the show was those pesky doubles. Every one of the main characters had a double in each parallel universe, which led to trouble most of the time.

Sliders was one of those unpredictable shows that continues to please with each episode. So, did anyone else watch it?

 

i remember the show a little bit. i didn't watch it regularly but i liked the episodes i watched. is it on DVD?

 

Yes, I think the first few seasons are on DVD now

 

The show was best in it's first season and got progressivly worse as time went on. During the 2nd and 3rd seasons each episode was just ripping off a different movie, they went to zombie world, dinosaur world (twice), Island of Dr. Moraeu world, etc. Then, in the 4th season, when it moved from FOX to the Sci-Fi channel they had the entire series revolve around the Krommags, a species of sliders that evolved on an alternate Earth. Then the show reached it's lowest point ever in the 5th season when they killed off Jerry O'Connell. I couldn't stand the new sliders in that season. But at least we still had Rembrandt through the entire run.

 

Yeah the first season was good. the take off of the movies in two and three werent bad but man by the time of the Cromags I gave up.

 

you know what came to mind when I was reading the title of this thread?


White Castles

 

How did the series end, I never caught it.

 

I think that John Rhys-Davies left for that very reason, that he didn't like where the show was heading.

 

I rememeber it a little bit, but not much. I think I only watched the first season and gave up at that point.

 

Sliders was great. The pilot was excellent. I still think "The People's Court" sketch they did was hilarious. I also liked the episode where Rembrandt was an Elvis like singer.

The teasers for the show were really cool, too. Sometimes they were better than the show following it.

 

I used to watch it all the time until it started to get lame. Then out of the blue I started it watching it again, and there were different folks on the show and the kromaggs. It was a good show that lost its way and became tainted with lameness.

 

When it first came out, it was FANTASTIC, I never missed an episode, .... until near the middle/end of season 2. I started drifting, and then stopped watching. Things just got dumb.

 

Yes I remember Sliders and despite watching the worst of the Sci-Fi channel from age 12-19, I always hated that show....very boring and I couldn't careless about the characters.

I would rather watch a Sci Fi Channel Battle Star Gallactica marathon, now that's bad.

 

The premise for SLiders was awesome, it could have been a better show than it was, the only thing was that the writing wasn't very original half the time. I still enjoyed watching the show, despite that. The four original characters were the best, things started going downhill after the Professor died.

 

I liked the first season, but it did get progressively worse. After the Professor left I pretty much lost interest.

 

The key thing to remember here is that the show was being funded by FOX, an outfit notorious for messing with series content. Since Tracy Tormé and his buddy Weiss weren't really up to fighting the network week in and week out, by the third year the show was exceptionally weak; thus, FOX messed with it, often quite a lot. The nonstop producer complaints didn't start until FOX decided that sensationalistic, movie-ripoff-of-the-week crud was more important than a plot or continuity.

Tormé was a staffer and confidante of Gene Roddenberry for some time, early in Star Trek: The Next Generation's run. Two of their better episodes, "Conspiracy" and "The Big Goodbye," were written by Tormé. (The material in both episodes was highly derivative, but handled relatively well in comparison to most TNG episodes; it is noteworthy that "The Big Goodbye" was handed a Peabody Award; it appears to have made quite an impression on the literati, and it was certainly a fun episode.)

The network's planned "revamp" of the show (Kari Wuhrer: in, John Rhys-Davies: out) might well have worked, if they'd hired a sexy woman who could successfully portray a military officer. Unfortunately, they chose to contract Ms. Wuhrer. While she did seem to have done some acting in the past, there was no sign of any on Sliders, and she was completely unbelieveable as an officer with combat experience. She was in mediocre physical condition, and her behavioral gestalt was not that of someone who's even aware of her surroundings. She didn't move, think, or act like a fighter pilot, much less a run-of-the-mill military officer. Obviously, the script work she'd gotten was no help at all.

Their best course of action, if they needed someone with military go-get, would have been to kill Wade off on a highly militarized alternate timeline, and pick up her analog there as a replacement. Sabrina Lloyd would've been quite capable of handling such a part. *THEN* they could have added Ms. Wuhrer in as whatever Bimbo Factor was needed, if only to save her life by getting her off a timeline where she was in terrible danger.

 

sliders was good to begin with... after the middle of the second season I stopped watching every week and only caught it from time to time. When they brought Charlie on I quit watching completely after 2 episodes - between him and the new girl I missed the somewhat substantial ideas that were there from time to time and the discussion the group always had.

I don't even knwo what happened to Jerry byt he end of the show...

 

The mind of Quinn was trapped inside the body of another Quinn Mallory (who for some reason looked completely different) during the entire last season. I kid you not.

Jerry O'Connell wanted a Producer credit for the 5th season. When he didn't get it he quit. Without him there was no reason to keep Charlie around so Colin was said to be stuck in one of the wormholes when it closed, to forever be in-between universes.

 

Like Quantum Leap, the stories started getting tired, and I finally stopped watching it after Season 2.

 

I've liked all the episodes I viewed. Cool show.

 

I can understand Jerry wanting a producer credit - he had been on the show long enough and was working in that direction with his career...

he got stuck in a wormhole? oh my yoda! that is funny... sorry but it is. Now I have to get it on DVD so I can watch that episode... lol!

The last episode I remember clearly is some dreamy one where Quinn and the new chick were in prom clothing or something like that

 

Unfortunetly, (or fortunetly, depending on how you look at it) the 5th season (in which the events I mentioned take place during the season premiere) isn't on DVD yet, only the first 3 are.

 

The worst part of it was the scifi channel pulled another farscape and just ended the series without any real end, they got stuck on this planet and had to jerry-rig (no pun intended) a wormhole, which was Red and defprmed, and was supposed to take them home, Remy goes through because there is only power enpugh for one, and he might just die, i believe it may have even said to be continued, and theat was it

 

The series ended with the team ready to make a jump back to Rembrants Earth, but the team was worried if it was the right earth. Remmy made the slide, and the others had to wait for the wormhole to open again, with none of them knowing if he made it there or not!