I'd say Virtual Slide looks better than Fever. But that's not a surprise. The season 4 episodes always looked pretty decent to my eye, whether it be universal dvds or mill creek's. The season 1s (and 2s to a degree) are where I have found it most lacking.
841 2021-02-17 09:42:54
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
842 2021-02-17 09:38:23
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
"Fever": The final faceoff and Wade's awakening: https://gofile.io/d/zULVOv
"Virtual Slide": the finale. https://gofile.io/d/lYT0xn
Very interesting comparison between the distinct visual tones of Season 1 and Season 4 where Season 1 seems to be filling in a lot of bare studio space with extras and set dressing whereas Season 4 is either using the same standing set and backlot over and over again or is simply bare.
"Fever" is from the Universal DVD. "Virtual Slide" is from Mill Creek, but the image quality doesn't seem that different to me thanks to the upscaling having more to work on the Mill Creek set once we get to the last two seasons. It looks to me like the new post production company for Seasons 4 - 5 used a different film-to-video process -- or Seasons 4 - 5 used 16mm film that was transferred to tape. Either way, it created a level of graininess that remains even after overcompression, grain that the upscale can treat as texture.
Well I have to say I am very impressed with that mill creek upconvert. You're right, there's something natural about the grain deposited throughout the image. It does look like you're watching film. I think it's a tad noisy for my tastes... maybe 40 percent less would be optimal... but it does give the picture a palpable feel and harkens back to more of a movie image. Overall, really looks great.
edit: oops I realized I was watching with the adjusted windows media player settings I had privately mentioned. I reset them now. Still a big upgrade from Mill Creek!
843 2021-02-16 15:34:34
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Once again everything looks so great. I still remember the first time I saw Blade Runner in 4k. It was like seeing it in a new way. You get used to it after a bit, but the difference is never more clear that first time, when you are comparing to your last recollection of what the content looks like. So seeing these with such clarity, crispness, particuarly with the closer shots, is like seeing it for the first time. It's just "different." There are some of the fuzzy issues you mentioned when the person's face is afar -- I hope eventually the AI works in corrections for that. But these really are great.
And the coloring on the pilot actually didn't bother me as much. Only in the hallway scene when they first come back and Quinn's mom greets them. But it all looks generally great. It's just terrific that fans can take restoration projects into their own hands when studios will stubbornly, even if understandably, not.
844 2021-02-15 09:27:40
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Rembrandt's concert in "The King is Back" in FakeD HD! https://gofile.io/d/PfPmtx
Looks great!
845 2021-02-14 08:35:32
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Still image adjustment is possibly a way to upscale a standard definition video: by upscaling each frame of the video into a high resolution still, then running a mass filter on all the stills to increase pixel contrast and improve colour, brightness and remove distortions, then reassembling the frames back into a video with the original audio. However, that’s a bit too much for me, this project is something I need to have running while I’m doing other things.
Yea. Well on the jpghd it takes 3-5 minutes for just one still, so you can imagine what a nightmare that would be for 20-30 hrs of programming. It is a possible glimpse into the future, though the results are really good.
846 2021-02-14 08:14:27
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I believe he's using the same source material, the Universal DVD set. He said that the Pilot looked great after upscaling but everything else looked bad -- undoubtedly because the Pilot does not have the interlacing errors that mar all the other episodes. I only have Seasons 1 - 3 from Universal, but I can confirm that "The Guardian" had the same interlacing error lines across the image that had to be decombed in Handbrake before the upscale in Topaz.
There is going to be a 20 per cent drop in my upscale quality when I switch to Seasons 4 - 5 because I only have Mill Creek for those. However, it'll also be a bit faster because I don't have to deinterlace the DVD rips from Mill Creek. I could buy Season 4 for $20, but I feel like David Peckinpah and Bill Dial's estates should pay me for procuring it. I could buy Season 5 for apparently $150 on DVD, but I would sooner throw that $150 down a drain.
There's a pretty good site out there that does something similar to topez. But it does just on photos. Since it takes so long on one photo, i'm surer it's doing more intense processing than topez, but it gives you a glimpse into what the future may be like for video too (if they can speed up their algorithms). I did this on a sliders frame (which I've now lost) but the results were really good:
847 2021-02-14 08:02:21
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I’ve had a few chats with NaterTot, but he seemed to be having trouble with any upscaling beyond the Pilot and I haven’t heard from him for over a week. His project made me decide to aim for 720p and not attempt a 4K conversion or even a 1080p. I set my sights on good DVD quality and I think it’s hitting the somewhat low hanging target. I’m currently converting one episode a day and am hoping to be up to two episodes a day by tomorrow and aim to have the entire first two seasons complete by the end of this. NaterTot, however — it’s entirely possible that he’s a healthy, well adjusted human being who isn’t hopelessly fixated on a show from 1995 that faded out of the world like an Unstuck Man.
It was hard for me to tell looking at his stills vs. your stuff if there was any difference. Plus, the video in his youtube review -- where he used the footage -- was naturally a bit compressed with youtube's processing, I think. But it still looked great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=38& … e=youtu.be
848 2021-02-13 22:07:17
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I upscaled the end of "Time and Again World" to 1080p and downscaled it to 720p and played it side by side with the original 720p ending. There was no difference.
**
Don't forget that the GPU is also a factor in AI upscaling. I don't know how essential 32GB of RAM, but without it, I wouldn't be able to do my day job in Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe Premiere and Illustrator while Handbrake and/or Topaz run minimized in the background. My PC would become unusable.
Also, each disc takes about 30 minutes to rip and then 10 minutes per episode to deinterlace each file in Handbrake followed by 9 - 10 hours to enhance the video in Topaz. I don't think it's feasible to ask every single SLIDERS fan to do this and I don't believe Universal will do it -- they could have just scanned the master tapes properly the first time and decombed the digital assets.
But I'll be happy to give them the files when I'm done, although -- I'm not doing all 88 episodes of SLIDERS. I'll just do Seasons 1, 2, and a select few from 3 - 5. Anyone who wants to watch "Map of the Mind" in FakeD will have to do it themselves!
Have you checked out the upscale that's someone is doing on reddit? I'm curious how you think it compares to yours. I wasn't sure if you started doing this because you were inspired by what someone is doing over there or if it's just happenstance.
It would be awhile before Universal does this themselves, because of all those resources. But the great thing is any very committed fan doesn't have to wait on Universal (which clearly has bastardized the quality of this show) to take matters into their own hands and get a legitimately great looking finished product.
I've done upscales on the dvd stuff in the past using lesser tech, and then ran it on an xbox that further upscaled it, and then used a tv that processed it and took it even further. It ended up looking really great but it was just like a test of five minutes of footage and I lost the software and the algorithm settings (a lot of time was spent to pick configurations).
I can only imagine with a topaz upscaled source + a blu-ray player that upscales the content + a tv with some processing options how good it could look. It's exciting. Whenever I have watched the dvds or streaming or comet, the quality makes me feel like I'm watching something from the 70s. All because of heavy compression, whatever sort of video archiving they've done, and general lack of caring. This really is a terrific thing for rescuing the footage.
I'd love for them to rescan the film negatives but there's no way that is happening at this point. Which irks me because Seaquest got that treatment. And Babylon 5 just had an upconversion (which looks decent).
849 2021-02-13 21:11:41
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I appreciate that, but I still don't know what this really opens given that these are all files sitting on my hard drive and I only dare upload samples.
Here's the ending of "Gillian of the Spirits" in FakeD.
https://gofile.io/d/6Ftinm
Yes, but anyone can use Topaz 
Hopefully it doesn't require 32 gigs of rams though.
850 2021-02-13 19:12:00
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Well. Let's not go nuts. The stairs on Quinn's house are clearing giving the AI a lot of trouble in the upscale. The Sorcerer scenes suffer badly when there are high levels of light that blow out the character's faces in the highlights.
It is probably fixable and I know Transmodiar will have thoughts, but I'm going to refer back to what Transmodiar said when I told him how terribly my first draft outline of SLIDERS REBORN had turned out -- let's just aim to get matters from terrible to adequate.
I think it's a big deal. First off, what you've done is a big upgrade. Second of all, topaz, and other algorithms similar are only going to get better. If that is in year, what, 3, imagine in 4-5 years what it will be like. Maybe it won't linearly get better and maybe it's done 80 percent of its gains. But I know it's definitely gonna get even better.
When you add some other playing with the colors, saturation etc etc, to the mix (as we know the pilot and first season is a bit "faded") I think something pretty damn superb is possible.
So yea, I think this opens up the Sliders 2.0 era. The content can become much fresher and modern.
851 2021-02-13 10:27:43
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Here's "Into the Mystic"'s scene of Quinn unmasking the Sorcerer and the sliders' homecoming. I ripped it from the fully upscaled episode using Handbrake, the sample re-encoded in their HQ720 preset. https://gofile.io/d/yuKsqB
beautiful. Sliders 2.0.
852 2021-02-13 08:51:18
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I wish there were some way for me to share the full results with everyone, but my legal department has advised me not to open that door.
Here is the Constitution handoff and slideout from "Time and Again World" in HD. Note the limitations of AI upscaling: wide shots are fuzzy because there isn't detail to enhance, the bridge against the dark sky is crushed into blackness. But medium shots and closeups of actor's faces -- that's where the AI works its magic best.
Spectacular. This opens up a lot of possibilities for making this show feel "new" again. Yes, there some fuzzyness on the faces of the wide shots but everything else is a big upgrade. Way better than we've seen it probably since it first aired.
853 2021-02-12 13:10:55
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
"The Guardian" looks good with my process: MakeMKV to rip the DVD (as Handbrake can't seem to read the Universal DVD). Then open the file in Handbrake, set the quality output to Production Standard and switch on the video deinterlacing to remove the horizontal lines across the image. Then upscale in Topaz with Artemis-LQ and a custom resolution of 960x720. The resulting file is 2GB. For storage, I'll probably need to shrink the files to 700MB or so (and lose a little video quality)
Here are the boxing scenes:
https://gofile.io/d/uvGMU5Also, here's the "As Time Goes By" Daelin-2 sequence on GoFile to download the MP4 instead of streaming it off Google Drive:
https://gofile.io/d/EY14mhNext in the queue: I'll be upscaling "Time and Again World" tonight (because I want to see the bridge scenes in FakeD). Then I'll do "Into the Mystic" (because I want to see all the beautiful shots of the sliders in the Sorcerer's home) and "The King is Back" (because I want to see Rembrandt's concert in FakeD). Then "Gillian of the Spirits" (for Quinn saying good-bye to his friends) and "Prince of Wails" (because I love Robin Hood) and then "Obsession" and the Pilot.
After that, I'll do "Double Cross" and "The Prince of Slides, "Season's Greedings" and "Murder Most Foul."
I'll move to the Mill Creek set for some Season 4 - 5 episodes: "World Killer" and "The Alternateville Horror." Thursday will be "Slide By Wire" and "Virtual Slide," "Applied Physics," "New Gods for Old, "A Current Affair" and "The Return of Maggie Beckett."
I think that covers all the episodes I really want to see again on my HDTV, so I'll fill in the rest of Seasons 1 - 2 that I missed before and then have Seasons 1 - 2 and a few select episodes after that in FakeD.
Jesus christ. These look great. It's not a blu-ray release, but I am not sure we'd get better from Universal. This is fairly pristine.
854 2021-02-06 17:49:29
Re: The Navy has made Sliding equipment? (3 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
The government has been seriously looking at all of this. It's not a joke. Our crazy show may actually be rooted in some reality.
Tracy Torme is a genius.
855 2021-01-23 21:02:26
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
can't wait to check this out!
856 2021-01-11 23:46:24
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Congratulations Cez!
857 2020-12-24 19:03:26
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Thank you Cez. Your project is a lot of fun!
858 2020-12-21 20:10:33
Re: "Seasons Greedings" deleted scenes (3 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
very cool, thanks matt!
859 2020-12-21 20:05:34
Re: “Parallel” - in theaters this Friday (9 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
looks cool. on vod. anyone see this yet?
860 2020-12-04 19:32:52
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
well done Cez!
861 2020-11-30 15:24:23
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Cez wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:I can't keep up
It's week after week because we are simulating the real television season hehe
Look at this funny Lego animation - Sliders jump into the vortex
Turn on the sound! >> https://www.facebook.com/SlidersPL/post … 1937694045
brilliant
862 2020-11-27 21:29:38
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I can't keep up I wish you guys shifted to once every couple of weeks
Next episode looks amazing though.
863 2020-11-16 21:47:50
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Ah great to see that Cez. Glad Rob is so enthusiastic.
864 2020-11-15 21:40:45
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Congratulations Cez!
You've taken a very creative approach and it's good to see John and Jerry acknowledge it.
865 2020-11-14 13:01:02
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Fun episode Cez. Would have required a lot of budget and special effects!
866 2020-11-10 13:42:10
Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,539 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Are Americans... evil?
i've stopped believing on the inherent goodness in people. it's not inevitable. culture is fragile. groups of people can go down bad paths. ultimately, at a certain point, after a certain period of time, everybody is responsible for what they go along with.
we can have stark policy differences but there has to be a baseline set of core values that we adhere to.
it's OK to be disappointed. most of us are.
867 2020-11-09 20:23:46
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Keep up the great work Cez. Thank you for your rollout of Season 6!
868 2020-11-07 15:11:23
Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,539 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Look, it's terribly embarrassing. It's all terribly embarrassing. And disappointing. Extremely disappointing. And angering.
869 2020-11-04 18:25:29
Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,539 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Thank.
God.
870 2020-10-26 16:36:32
Re: The Virtual Season 6 by Sliders.PL and the Brick Sliders by Brick Lady (106 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Cez wrote:
What if... the 6th season of Sliders was created?
In 2004, when I’ve created Polish fansite www.Sliders.PL I wanted to publish my own vision of “virtual” season 6. I even asked Alexslider from http://www.sliders-dimension.de/ to make an intro for me with all 8 sliders, which he did
Years passed and I forgot about my plan. Then in 2011 I’ve read great fan-fic "Slide Effects" by Ibrahim Ng/ireactions, the admin of this forum
I've made some changes to Ibrahim Ng's idea. I also thought that although the fan-fic “Slide Effects” is an excellent continuation of the series, it is incomplete. I added a few more episodes to it and finally I present the grand finale. It concludes the arcs of not only the original Sliders, but also those alternative Sliders, whose fate ended in a huge cliffhanger in the episode 5x18 “The Seer.” This topic was not taken up by the fan-fic “Slide Effects,” which is why I decided to conceptualize 13 new episodes to build a full sixth season. As a result, Sliders would have a total of 101 episodes, or 100 if we count the two pilot episodes as one.
First episode of virtual 6th season of Sliders will be online on Wednesday 28th October on http://www.sliders.pl/season6.php. It will be promoted by Brick Sliders created by Agata!
-----------------------------
Sliders.PL presents a fan-made, direct continuation of Sliders, which ended with a cliffhanger in the final episode 5x18 entitled “The Seer.” On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the series, we present our ideas for 13 episodes of the sixth virtual season, which resets certain themes while others we bring to conclusion. On our website we have published a list of all 13 episodes with summaries, plot descriptions and from where the ideas originated.
Episode 6x01 is based on the great fanfic "Slide Effects," by Ibrahim Ng which reboots the events of the series in order to bring back the original four Sliders: Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Professor Arturo. The next 10 episodes are based on the comic books by Acclaim, which were published between 1996-1997. They describe adventures of the original four Sliders, which were supposed to take place parallel with the first televised season. However nothing prevents us from placing these events after the reboot, which happened in episode 6x01 “Slide Effects.” The final two episodes 6x12 and 6x13 are both original ideas of the Sliders.PL website. These stories combine two independent groups of Sliders and end themes that were omitted or unfinished in the television series including Kromaggs and Logan St. Claire.
The explanation of the following infographic will be included in the description of episode 6x01. Big version www.sliders.pl/gfx/odcinki/season6_infographic.jpg
Social media:
https://twitter.com/SlidersPL
https://www.facebook.com/SlidersPL
https://www.instagram.com/sliderspl/
very exciting! looking forward to it.
871 2020-10-09 18:13:57
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
There's a new show on FOX called NEXT. Mini-series I think.
It involves AI gone amuck. First episode came out Oct 3. Speculative sci-fi. From Manny Coto. It's worth checking out if the concept appeals to you.
Nothing ground-breaking but i enjoyed it.
872 2020-09-17 20:28:26
Re: JOC and CD on Twitter (6 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
much respect to jerry for still trying.
873 2020-09-08 19:55:18
Re: Sliders: The Animated Series (26 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
There was definitely a weird period for Jerry about two years ago, maybe a little more. He admitted as much in several podcast interviews during the period. I think he was trying to diversify and get into hosting, being a personality, and even did some directing (on a kids show for disney) because it wasn't clear what was gonna happen for him as an actor. This is when Sliders got particularly more interesting to him. Especially with his wife on The Librarians, a mid-budget cable sci-fi show not entirely different from Sliders. Not that the period was where his reboot interest started; I think that was after this Funny Or Die "search for arturo" drummed up unexpected interest.
I do think he always loved the show, Tracy's vision for it, and totally got what it was (whereas john perhaps didn't despite his great performance). It's a shame he had to ask for Charlie to be on the show, it certainly didn't help. But regardless, as an actor, artist, he was really perfect for Sliders. I think we can all agree part of it's magic was how well cast it was, and of course the chemistry and family atmosphere they had. They were a team and a lot of people (viewers) were attracted to that element of it.
874 2020-09-08 10:04:06
Re: Sliders: The Animated Series (26 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I think you have a point about the economics of audioplays. Amazon is a giant. Yet, Amazon Audible operated on a peanuts model for THE X-FILES. Rather than commission new material meant for the visualess format of audio drama, they used comic book scripts that need visuals to function. Why use something so unsuitable? Probably because they only needed to pay a small fee to writer Joe Harris to secure the material and didn't have to hire a writer; the director, Dirk Maggs, had to adapt the scripts to audio as part of his existing duties.
Amazon Audible hired David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and many of the series' performers -- but they had replacement actors for Annabeth Gish (Reyes), Robert Patrick (Doggett), Nicholas Lea (Krycek), Steven Williams (X) and Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat). Not soundalikes -- just replacements. And the budget was so small that there were no rehearsals. The actors recorded it as they read it for the first time. It was like someone had assembled the play from the actors' voicemail messages. It sounded disconnected and detached.
Amazon clearly didn't see much earning potential in THE X-FILES and didn't want to invest in getting all the actors or a script suited to the medium or even a readthrough.
But I do think SLIDERS could work on audio as part of an initiative to create audio drama for a mainstream audience if NBCUniversal wants to try tapping into the podcast market with a small streaming service and a subscription fee that is low in cost but would be affordable for a high number of subscribers.
I can imagine NBCU Audio Originals as a brand headlined by SLIDERS, KOJAK, SEAQUEST, THE MUNSTERS, EUREKA, FARSCAPE and WAREHOUSE 13. I can see it as a low cost, high volume subscription service for podcasts. $5 a month. Entertainment for the commuter with earbuds or car stereo or for listening at home. Actors recording from home with equipment and sound blocking gear sent by courier.
Jerry and John shouldn't and wouldn't work for free. But if this hypothetical streaming service offered them a small upfront fee but a percentage of subscription gross based on the number of listens to the SLIDERS audioplays, they might sign for a year's worth of audio recording sessions with the caveat that if there is a second year, they need to be paid their usual rate upfront.
They already have a podcast division, believe it or not. Mostly to serve as an R&D lab. It's part of why I brought it up before, and also mentioned the need for a platform to get traffic. And that's the difficult part. They haven't really developed their audio channel yet and they still are trying to make peacock work. meanwhile, they just hired a new head or programming for everything yesterday. They have gone through some of the old executives being in charge of various things but they realize they don't really have the chops at this point. I see the podcast channel being an extension of peacock (which has a hybrid subscription/ad model in place) but you just know at this point they wouldn't be able to turn it around or focus on it enough. That said, if they ever do, I think it would be the avenue. It's just that it will be five years from now so.... at what point is there gonna be anyone left who cares about Sliders? It will literally be 30 years from the original's premiere and most fans will have aged out of 18-49 anyway or started to care about other things than make-believe entertainment.
The best time to have done something was really 2013 around. The problem was Tracy wasn't interested, and it took a long time for Jerry to even get interested in doing a reboot. He really only returned to it after yet another network drama failed. I feel like they probably missed the window and they possibly could have gotten somewhere with an aggressive push and managed expections.
But this is also part of why I pointed to that chrome extension audio reader the other day. As text-to-speech technology gets better and better, we are more likely to be able to get faux "books on tape" with all the sliders fan fic out there. It's a way for the world to live on.
And on the plus side, Jerry has really been doing well in his career the last year after a little bit of a rough patch. His own tv show, voice over work on cbs all access, he's in the movie "The Secret" and now "Ballbreaker." He frequently is on Bravo doing reality tv programming talk with Andy Cohen. He does fill-in hosting work on occasion. He has made a career as an actor and personality, and not every child star or actor in their 20s is able to work in their mid 40s. So I am happy for him he needs Sliders less and less at this point, where as at the peak of his interest, I think his motivation was so he could find a gig that worked and had an audience.
875 2020-09-07 20:27:16
Re: Sliders: The Animated Series (26 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Jerry O'Connell at this stage in his career would read your shopping list for union scale, but John Rhys-Davies wouldn't put up with that and demand rehearsals.
John is having a more difficult time due to his age and covid. A few productions he was scheduled for didn't work out because insurance wouldn't cover him. As we have seen with jerry, as actors get more looking for work, they become more open to compromise and/or reprising old roles. But I still stay to make the economics would they would really have to work for peanuts. And that's because an audio drama will only reach so many people to begin with and sliders fans are now scattered all over the place and hard to reach and the property does not have as much interest as the bigger brands. Sometimes actors are so separated from the economics of these things, they think their time, talent has some absolute value, and/or they don't want to send some signal to the marketplace that they will work at such a rate. John though is someone who can really translate his acting into an audioformat. In fact, he did an audio adaption of a couple of twightlight zone episodes that can be found on hoopla digital as narrator.
876 2020-09-07 16:11:39
Re: Star Trek in Film and TV (and The Orville, too!) (746 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
there's a show called "Other Space" on DUST (a channel, roku app etc etc). it originally was part of yahoo's programming line up (when they did a season of community too). Those who like the orville or avenue 5 may like this as well.
877 2020-09-06 14:10:49
Re: Sliders: The Animated Series (26 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Slider_Quinn21 wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:honestly, I dont think anyone would use the brand for an animated show. It requires permissions, and reduces ownership of the new thing. As a sequel of the original, people would want live action. As a reboot, I don't think anyone would see the value of putting it under the brand.
Oh I 100% agree and have made this same argument myself. I don't think there's any reason for any creator to make a new version of Sliders. You can essentially do the same concept for free without much tweaking.
My thought is only this: if Sliders were ever going to come back, it would be via Jerry O'Connell. Torme and the other creators are either too old or too out of the game for anything to have happened. Jerry is the only one who seems noticeably interested in a return because he'd be the star and he has fond memories of the experience. If Sliders were ever going to return, he'd have to be the champion.
And since Jerry is on Star Trek: Lower Decks, he has the ability to make the right networking connections in animation. He could find the right talent to either recruit someone to make a demo reel for him or at least hire the right people to get the show done the right way.
Animation also fixes several problems that a live-action story cannot. Jerry O'Connell could voice a 20-something Quinn when he cannot do that in live action. JRD can voice Arturo without possibly hurting himself in the process. And most importantly, they could do all this without a huge time commitment on their part (since Sabrina and Cleavant have their own things going on).
A live action continuation is essentially off the table now. It's too confusing and too muddled and the cast is too up in the air. A reboot doesn't make sense logistically because it's too easy to do without the rights. But an animated series gives Jerry an avenue, allows for a more flexible continuity, and allows for the ease of getting the actors back without a full acting commitment. If it's ever going to happen, I feel like animation is the only road.
And, yeah, there are drawbacks. It's not the preferred way. But I've been watching a lot of animation this year, and I think it can be done really well.
I hear you. Maybe it is a possibility. My instincts tell me it doesn't really work as a project for jerry to sheppard for a few reasons:
1) animation still takes time, and the production budget is not going to be trivial, especially compared to a low-grade version of sliders filmed on a universal lot. An overseas animation team would lower costs a bit but they are still gonna be in demand for competing projects in hollywood (and overseas) especially for any reliable company w/ some sort of quality.
2) i am just not sure the original sliders translates well to animated style. it lacks something. look at the sliders comics vs. the series. the characters come off as caricatures.
3) adult cartoons are basically snarky and foul-mouthed. it's a difference audience than the core sliders audience of yesteryear. so if you are trying to bring back something as a sequel, it is obviously with the original audience in mind. i think cartoons work better for the absurd.
just my opinion of course. i think a better avenue for jerry (and john) at this point is to go audio drama route. it would require them taking a very minimal fee, otherwise the economics for that won't even work. is jerry and john prepared to work for peanuts? I tend to think not, and i tend to think their management teams won't even let them. but for me it is the only avenue that can maybe lead to a live-action movie or series again. to proof some demand. they'd need to release the audio drama (series format) on a platform, however. they wouldn't do well driving traffic to it independently. they'd need a platform to promote it.
i do also think that since syfy is going down the tubes so bad, as a hail mary, maybe they would be willing to just do some series. super cheaply. it probably won't happen, of course. perhaps as you said, though, given how irrelevant they are, at the very least they should do a sliders animated series, if they won't do live-action.
878 2020-09-05 12:19:15
Re: Sliders: The Animated Series (26 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
honestly, I dont think anyone would use the brand for an animated show. It requires permissions, and reduces ownership of the new thing. As a sequel of the original, people would want live action. As a reboot, I don't think anyone would see the value of putting it under the brand.
Rick & Morty btw is already based in part on Sliders (and Back to the Future). Or inspired should I say. The creator was a fan of both.
879 2020-09-04 12:50:19
Re: Fan Fiction: Better than the real thing (4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Cool little toy for anyone interested:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta … aplp?hl=en
It's a chrome extension, that servers as a text-to-speech reader. I think there may be better ones but the technology seems to be getting better, and more natural vs. a few years ago. It's a good way to convert fan fiction or essays into something you can listen to in the background while doing other things.
880 2020-09-03 21:22:30
Re: Marvel Cinematic Universe by Slider_Quinn21 (934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Transmodiar wrote:
ireactions wrote:Chadwick Boseman has passed away.
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/chad … 234753232/This hits hard because he is my age (a few months younger) and I was recently diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, my medical outcome looks a little rosier.
:-O
Very sorry to hear that. Glad there has been some positive news.
882 2020-09-01 22:10:33
Re: JRD's Grizzly II finally hitting theaters (1 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
pilight wrote:
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/8 … hys-davies
“I had hopes for it,” says Rhys-Davies. “I thought it was a good little performance that might actually do something for my career.”
interesting
883 2020-08-17 16:30:14
Re: JRD (and others) talk G-Loc and franchises in the age of COVID (1 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
wow.
884 2020-07-17 10:20:10
Re: Bar Rescue's Rob Floyd Interview on Sliders (3 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I agree. He deserves a lot of credit...
I was impressed as well.
885 2020-07-14 15:15:09
Topic: Bar Rescue's Rob Floyd Interview on Sliders (3 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
886 2020-07-10 20:23:32
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Twilight Zone Season 2 has some good stuff. Been very impressed.
887 2020-06-10 22:03:40
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ha!
888 2020-06-10 14:04:47
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
you are a executive for syfy. what do you do?
889 2020-06-10 14:02:30
Re: Found some Sliders BTS photos... (2 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
very cool!
890 2020-05-30 17:17:50
Re: The King is Back script goes for $402.11 on Ebay! (44 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Amazing that it would fetch that much... Didn't realize we had enough fans like that to command such a pretty penny.
891 2020-05-30 17:16:38
Re: One of the best shows ever! (New poster, hi there!) (4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Hello, welcome to the forum!
892 2020-05-30 17:15:16
Re: Sliders Season 4....so what do we REALLY think about it? (8 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Grizzlor wrote:
The Comet TV Sliders schedule just finished it's season 4 portion last week. I've been rewatching, mainly via DVD's, although the transfer/upscale on those were awful compared to the Fox season DVD's. But I digress. Back at the time, after Fox canceled the show, Sci-Fi infamously picked it back up. Clearly the budget was scaled down to next to nothing, resulting in frequent Chandler stays. All in all, I've felt for years that the season featured quite a bit of good science fiction, even if it was often a bit "main stream" at that point. Bill Dial, Chris Black, Marc Scott Zicree, and co. made sure of that. The guest acting was largely okay as well, particularly the Kolitar guy, Thomas Mallory, and a number of others. Charlie O'Connell was fairly unbearable, but what can you do? He was cheap. Anyway, my point is that I feel like it holds up well.
Certainly, as you mention, just the video quality is pretty decent, making it look less aged than earlier stuff. So yea, in some senses it holds up well. And there are some decent episodes. They really tried to make it work. It is hard on a smaller season budget to get the most out of scripts. I have the most time digesting s5 because only one main character remains.
893 2020-05-20 14:39:42
Re: Sliders: Declassified (89 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
TemporalFlux wrote:
We are living in a Sliders episode right now.
894 2020-04-21 17:38:01
Re: Sliders reruns will return to the air (literally) on April 6! (4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
pilight wrote:
Comet is doing a Sliders marathon today! Running until 4AM Eastern.
I caught it. It's nice to not have to switch out DVDs and just have one after another episode playing on the tv. We got this with netflix and hulu but the quality was so poor, worse than what is being shown on comet, I believe, that it wasn't quite the same. I hope SLIDERS regulary stays in syndication in the U.S. now and it takes on a live of things like Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5, which that network is always playing. I hope this doesn't come and go like it did with The Hub.
895 2020-04-16 21:18:15
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Slider_Quinn21 wrote:
Did anyone watch the 2019 version of the Twilight Zone? I finally did, and I thought it was terrible. Since it's an anthology, I pushed through. But every episode was either boring or very predictable. I didn't think there was anything interesting told or said - the themes were either dumb or way too heavy handed. I thought it was an absolute mess.
Jordan Peele also had an anthology series on youtube. They are asking too much of these creators... or rather the creators are spreading themselves to thin. It's hard to maintain quality when you have to bang out episodes.
896 2020-04-02 13:47:23
Re: John Rhys-Davies is now on YouTube (1 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
excited to check this out! thanks for posting this.
897 2020-03-22 15:56:01
Re: 25th Anniversary of Sliders Coming up in six months... (49 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Tom please do the novel! It will be great.
Thanks Ib and Griz for the stories and the rewatch post. Great way to celebrate #25!
898 2020-03-22 10:55:58
Re: 25th Anniversary of Sliders Coming up in six months... (49 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
tom.holste wrote:
Happy 25th, "Sliders"!
Thanks for making that video, Grizzlor. I just saw someone post it in a Sliders FB group, which is what made think to come here. I tried to share it, but there wasn't an option for that on FB for some reason. And when I click on your Instagram link above, it just shows the picture instead of the video. Do you have a shareable link of the video I can post?
Will this work Tom?
https://twitter.com/slidersfanblog/stat … 2738472960
How about doing a read of the Sliders novel by Brad Linaweaver?
That would be incredible!
899 2020-03-21 14:31:17
Re: 25th Anniversary of Sliders Coming up in six months... (49 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
roulettewheel wrote:
Well, hello!
It's been a long time since I've posted here (I did "Think of a Roulette Wheel," lol).
Anyways, it's the Big Anniversary tomorrow, and I wanted to at least mark the occasion with something, anything.
I had been working, sort of, very slowly, working on making Think of a Roulette Wheel into a book, with updated essays and fresh takes on some old faves. I technically am still working on it, but who knows when of if I'll actually finish it. I'm feeling a little exhausted on the topic of our old friend Sliders, a little bit like I've said all I need to.But! I wanted to at least put up a lil' something for the event, for all y'all keeping the flame ALIVE!
So here's the New & Improved, Revised Season One of Think of a Roulette Wheel, Better, Longer, Stronger—
http://violetmice.com/ThinkofaRouletteWheelS1.pdf
Enjoy! Love on ya! See you in five for the big 3-0!
—Annie
OMG thank you! I can't wait to see the updated version!!
900 2020-03-17 14:23:10
Re: 25th Anniversary of Sliders Coming up in six months... (49 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Thanks for repping for forum Griz!