Sliders!!

[TimBisley]

Man, I forgot how much I loved this show. I just rediscovered it on Netflix and am currently in the middle of season 3. Anyone else remember/like this show?

The Original, and best cast members.

I have to say Rembrandt Brown and Professor Arturo are my favorite characters on the show. While I hate what happened with Arturo, I was glad to see Remy stay on for the entire duration of the series.

Anyway, I figured it'd be cool to have a thread to discuss favorite/least favorite episodes, storyline theories and general interest in the show.

 

[Matt]

Great show. Unfortunately their inability to keep a cast sent the show straight to hell. It started with the Professor dying. But Maggie was a decent replacment. But then Wade left, and they cast a new Quinn,and it all went down hill.

 

[TimBisley]

Exactly. As soon as the Professor died, the show went down hill for me. At least it was only a double.

 

[Matt]

A double? I quit watching when it went to Sci-Fi. Did they retcon the Professor's death?

 

[TimBisley]

Well there was an episode where they thought they had made it back to Earth Prime, but it was just a close approximation. That Earth's version of the Professor stayed behind. He tried to claim sliding as his invention, and at the end of the episode, the two Arturo's tussled and only one slid. The shows creator and executive producer said he intended for it to be the double who slid.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Great show. Unfortunately their inability to keep a cast sent the show straight to hell. It started with the Professor dying. But Maggie was a decent replacment. But then Wade left, and they cast a new Quinn,and it all went down hill.

Yeah the backstage drama just ruined the experience.

The O'connell brothers being fed up

John Rhys-Davies drunk

Sabrina Lloyd locking herself in a trailer over Kari's comment

http://www.dimensionofcontinuity.com/bts.htm

The guy who runs the website, Temporal Flux lives next to or knew Cleavant Derrick's neighbor if I remember correctly. The Stuff about Sabrina locking her trailer is all true.

Why Did John Rhys-Davies Leave Sliders?
First of all, the huge misconception with John Rhys-Davies' situation is that he left. John (Professor Arturo) was actually fired. John has only admitted this once in public - a Sci-Fi Universe article from August 1998.

How could this happen, you ask? Well, John's outspoken criticism of the writers and their general lack of creativity and intelligence is well documented. But that wasn't enough to get him fired because only one of the hierarchical trinity was against him. Elements of production such as David Peckinpah wanted him gone due to John's constant creative criticism, but Universal and Fox saw no reason to fire John. At least not until December of 1996.

In December of 1996, a certain Fox employee gained a promotion to become an upper level Fox Executive. In fact, he was given control of a large segment of Fox programming including Sliders. This Fox employee had hosted a Fox party a couple of years before (when Sliders was first beginning), and John was there. Allegedly a very drunk John who targeted and quite thoroughly humiliated that Fox employee.

One of the first things the new Fox Exec did with his new power was review the shows under his control, and he found John's name on the list. Remembering the party from years before, the new Fox Exec vowed that John was not going to work on any show under his control. So, with Peckinpah and his brood now teaming with the new Fox Exec, they were able to sufficiently convince Fox and Universal that John had to go. And so, even though John was originally contracted for all 25 eps of season three, he was fired and released from his contract.

Why Did Sabrina Lloyd Leave Sliders?
The beginning of Sabrina Lloyd's (Wade Welles) woes began in late season three production when Kari Wuhrer (Maggie Beckett) came on board, but it's not in the way you think. When Kari came on Sliders as regular cast member, she reportedly viewed crew members as serfs as opposed to the stars as the lords. And Kari treated the crew in kind.

Even though Kari and Sabrina did not get along well to begin with, the major sticking point between the two was the fact that Sabrina was engaged to one of the Sliders crew members at the time (you can see Sabrina alluding to this several times in her 1997 Universal On-Line Chat). One day during a script read through, Kari made a snide comment about Sabrina's relationship, and this subsequently made Sabrina leave in tears to lock herself in her trailer. And thus, Sabrina held up production even though she wasn't totally at fault. To see allusions to more of Kari's attitude, be certain to check out this Night Magazine Interview. Though Kari doesn't name names, it is obvious that she is referring to Sabrina Lloyd in her comments about the actress who allegedly forgave her years later.

 

[TimBisley]

Thanks! I hadn't read about that before. Its a shame. Davies was right though, as much as I like the show, I never felt it lived up to its potential. It sucks that he got canned because of a grudge.

 

[Paradox1]

Yeah the backstage drama just ruined the experience.

The O'connell brothers being fed up

John Rhys-Davies drunk

Sabrina Lloyd locking herself in a trailer over Kari's comment

http://www.dimensionofcontinuity.com/bts.htm

The guy who runs the website, Temporal Flux lives next to or knew Cleavant Derrick's neighbor if I remember correctly. The Stuff about Sabrina locking her trailer is all true.

This part about Davies isn't totally correct because he was having issues with the creative direction. That creative direction was being forced by Fox execs. The guys at Fox wanted more action in the third season. Davies was very vocal about the changes Fox wanted Tracy Torme went as far as calling the episode Exodus where they meet Kari's character as the worst piece of television ever produced.

 

[GhostPoet]

Man, I forgot how much I loved this show. I just rediscovered it on Netflix and am currently in the middle of season 3. Anyone else remember/like this show?

The Original, and best cast members.

I have to say Rembrandt Brown and Professor Arturo are my favorite characters on the show. While I hate what happened with Arturo, I was glad to see Remy stay on for the entire duration of the series.

Anyway, I figured it'd be cool to have a thread to discuss favorite/least favorite episodes, storyline theories and general interest in the show.

I've tossed around the idea of watching this again since my wife never has. How's it aged?

 

[elgaz]

Used to love this show. Had a great premise and a lot of potential. Very different from Quantum Leap in execution, but certain parts of the backstory reminded me of it.

 

[Cyberdruis]

It was okay for what it was, but it could have been better. The main thing I had against it was the whole 30 year thing between wormholes. They should have had a "Nazi World" and a "Confederate World".

 

[TimBisley]

It held up alright. The cgi is bad, but it was '95. The first couple of seasons are not bad at all. O'Connell is at his best, and Davies is awesome as always.

I agree that it could have been better. Especially with the alternate history. Its a shame we never saw a Confederate world or Nazi world. There was infinite potential there, that unfortunately was squandered. After to reading that behind the scenes stuff, I'm surprised that the show got past season one.

 

[Maximus One]

Goddamn cro-mags

 

[TimBisley]

I wasn't too fond of the Kromaggs at first, but the idea of a species that evolved alongside humans in another reality grew on me. As long as they weren't aliens, which I didn't think belonged in the series.

 

[Matt]

The cromags weren't bad, but the execution of the idea was terrible.

 

[superhero]

I GOT THE first and second seaosn. i like to get season third. after that it went down hill i didn't like it when they got different girl. then didn't they replace O'Connell. i think he was replaced with brother. it wasn't that good. if you like the jerry O'Connell then you should check out the defenders. it has jim bluise their like secert agnet it comes out this fall.

 

[TimBisley]

They actually replaced him with some random actor. His character, Quinn was said to have "merged" with another version of himself, creating this new character. His brother was on the show in season 4, but didn't come back when Jerry left, since he was only there because of him anyway.

About the kromaggs, I did like that when they developed sliding and found that most Earths were dominated by humans, it pissed them off and they were hell bent on wiping them out. Other than that, meh.

 

[KnightBat]

This part about Davies isn't totally correct because he was having issues with the creative direction. That creative direction was being forced by Fox execs. The guys at Fox wanted more action in the third season. Davies was very vocal about the changes Fox wanted Tracy Torme went as far as calling the episode Exodus where they meet Kari's character as the worst piece of television ever produced.

To add insult to Davies, they used his plot idea for Exodus to send him off, only to make it crappy.

As for the Kromaggs, I liked the original season 2 versions, the evolved apes, not the season 4 & 5 Nazi wannabes.

 

[TimBisley]

The whole Nazi thing was random. They could of just had a throwaway line about how they took over a Nazi controlled world, were impressed by the Nazi war machine, and made it their home base.

The treatment of Davies was awful, especially the way they killed him off. His brain was essentially destroyed, then shot, and then left on a world that was destroyed.

 

[Orb]

They did leave his body it was on their new home planet.

 

[Paroxysm]

Man, I forgot how much I loved this show. I just rediscovered it on Netflix and am currently in the middle of season 3. Anyone else remember/like this show?

The Original, and best cast members.

I have to say Rembrandt Brown and Professor Arturo are my favorite characters on the show. While I hate what happened with Arturo, I was glad to see Remy stay on for the entire duration of the series.

Anyway, I figured it'd be cool to have a thread to discuss favorite/least favorite episodes, storyline theories and general interest in the show.

Of course I remember Sliders, the first two season were filmed in Vancouver. It's a classic.

 

[<(o_o)>]

Would love to see a full length movie or a new mini series based on the show just bring back Jerry O'Connell. How about a crossover movie with Quantum Leap, Sliders & Stargate, now that would be cool.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I remember watching this show every now and then but I dont think I knew when it ever came on which is probably the reason. The concept would be a good one to do a remake or continuation with new charecters.

 

[Scourge2099]

Sliders was cool up until they introduced the Kromaggs. It was a good concept , but the execution killed it for me.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

I remember this show jumping the shark HARD.