Sliders.tv → Posts by Grizzlor
Hand-drawn animation is incredibly expensive, not to mention there's hardly any cheap overseas animators anymore. 1 minute of animation can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars so 550K for 10 minutes like they were asking was actually economical.
I backed this but it fell short. However, Bluth and Goldman are starting a new campaign at IndieGoGo soon.
Now you'll think this is hilarious, but it's true. So I'll admit to watching 90210 from time to time back then, not much though. Beginning in 94-95 they replaced Shannen Doherty with Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who I was greatly infatuated with! So I would watch every week just about. Well that year FOX produced the Spelling-spinoff Models, Inc., which had started in summer '94 and continued through March '95. The chicks on that show were all pretty hot, so I tuned in from time to time at 9PM following Beverly.
Anyway, we started getting promos for this new show which was set to debut following 90210. I knew Jerry and Cleavant from past work, but the big draw for me was John Rhys-Davies of Indiana Jones fame. So following an hour of staring at Tiffani, I kept it on FOX for "Sliders." I thought it was cool and funny, and enjoyed it. I missed a few of the episodes though, and spent some of the others doing homework or showering, so I didn't consider myself more than a "casual" viewer. I don't recall them rerunning the show that summer either.
I pretty much forgot about it the next season, as I was watching Star Trek, Space Above and Beyond, Seaquest, and of course The X-Files. I did watch the lead-in to X-Files quite a bit, Strange Luck. I thought it was a quirky but cool show. Eventually that show ran its course, and the following spring Sliders was back, this time on Friday nights before The X-Files. Again I watched when I could, Friday's as a high school senior I was rarely home, and setting the VCR was a pain in the neck. If you asked me to recite a plot point I'd be hardpressed, again I was a casual viewer.
By fall '96 I was a college freshman, and Friday nights were a bit busier than ever! I always tried to catch Sliders and Millennium on Fox. Sort of like before, Sliders often was sacrificed so I had time to watch the lead-in or out show (Beverly, X-Files, Millennium). I've said this before, but the killing of Prof. Arturo really angered me, to the point that when I learned the show as cancelled from FOX, I was happy. One of my friends at school was bummed out, but I was like, this show stinks without him. Fox replaced it in fall '97 with The Visitor, which was absolutely terrible.
Whenever it was over winter '97, the Sci-Fi channel got the rights to the FOX episodes, and began airing them in repeated marathons. For whatever the reason, frankly I don't know why, but I started watching them. I was so enthralled with the early FOX stuff, that I started recorded all the episodes and watching them again on my own. Eventually when Season 4 premiered I was really psyched. Re-run hell certainly tempered by enthusiasm, to the point where I started poking around the old Dominion bboard to find out when the hell the season was going to be aired to completion?
Sadly I found out the show was again, kind of cancelled, then saved, but the O'Connell's were gone. The show had so many great off the wall stories, characters, guest actors, that's what made it so cool.
His contributions have been unmatched. Even though much of the BTS stuff is a lot easier to come by these days, thanks to social media, Sliders was well before then, and by now most of the people involved have forgotten a lot of the details, and of course some have died.
The footage I'm dying to see is Cleavant doing the national anthem at Candlestick Park before a Giants game! Tracy I think said even he hasn't been able to find it.
Definitely like to use Google Street and find Quinn's house!
So was this the Bay-Sliders a la Bay-formers or Bay-Turtles? Ha ha ha. I'll check it out when it comes to Netflix or cable.
I don't think I'm going to mention The Seer.
I guess she's made other appearances with them over the years, but came to my attention with her addition to the NJ Chiller Theatre show in October. She's appeared with former cast-mates Lori Saunders and Gunilla Hutton. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting Mrs. Mallory, and will try to get some Sliders questions asked!
Josh Trank is an awful director.
Great to hear from you tex!
I use Photobucket, it's free.
Gansevoort hotel, Meatpacking district, Manhattan.
I've passed this hotel before, never noticed it!
Jess, I miss folks like MissingSliderRyan, Vortex62, QBall79, many others. There are a few I don't miss, that's for sure. One had something to do with a sock...
Part of the issue there Jim is that the information may not exist, or is locked away in storage somewhere. SyFy's staff aren't going to spend time locating.
As for the ratings, it's a shame. I really fell back into love with the series when they aired the Fox years "in order" during the spring of 1998 leading into S4. I think a LOT of other viewers did as well.
TF, were these episodes you found after re-run hell? Hence lower numbers than say Alternateville Horror?
If I recall the show was #2 behind only Farscape on the SciFi Channel.
Ha ha, very clever! Great satire.
I also wonder whether Nick's personal issues influenced how his character was written later in the series?
SOB! I don't think I downloaded these, mine are probably old versions of lousy quality.
If Eliza Dushka had not committed to Tru Calling anyway.....
After speaking to her about Tru, I got the clear impression she regretted that choice.
X-Files was immensely more popular, and continues to be. It ran twice as long, all on network TV, and spawned two movies.
Seaside had a nice classic arcade called Flashbacks which was washed away. Fortunately there are now better establishments like Yestercdes in Red Bank, and Silverball Museum (luckily survived) on Asbury Park boardwalk.
Info, gentrification and McMansions are the order of the day around here. There's really no reason to live out in the woods anymore, too many bears!
Yes the boardwalks are rebuilt, although only a few were actually damaged. Many homes are not, as the homeowners fight with insurance companies.
I think NBCU could do a decent rebooted TV show nowadays for Sliders. Especially if they did so in Canada as most of their current shows are.
probably rarely looks at it.
Haven't met anyone. I've exchanged emails/IMs with a few, but that was mostly during the Scifi Dominion days, and sadly mostly pertaining to fights on it. Never seemed to have many ppl from the NY/NJ area.
Act, write and direct an action movie? Can you say Expendables? Never works.
It's remembered more than you think. The problem is that it's been off the air way too long. Also, the fact is what Torme wrote in 1995 was groundbreaking at the time. It pushed your imagination. I think a reboot would definitely be in line with the SyFy network's genre right now.
Great interview, as Tracy always is. Great Nimoy story, wasn't familiar with the story about his TNG "sequel to City on the Edge of Forever" script. Also reminds me to check out "Chaos on the Bridge" about the TNG, given that Tracy is in it.
Apparently Tracy convinced Chris Carter not to quit The X-Files early on. As for Sliders, he basically said I'd love to do it, but the industry isn't interested.
I never felt Jerry quit on the show. He nor his character had good chemistry with Kari/Maggie or the now militant Rembrandt, and of course Charlie was a joke. He played off John and Sabrina and earlier Cleavant so much better than the later cast.
As for S5 production, yes, it was terrible. I think Dial wrote science fiction well, but he was a terrible producer, as was just about everyone else. They all figured the show was DOA, so they padded quite a few positions with "friends," resulting in a poor product at times. What's interesting though is in the few in person, brief conversations I've had, those who acted on S5 seemed to be pleased with it. It was also pretty pathetic the way they cheaped out and put Wade in a bottle in Requiem rather than hire Sabrina fully. The revisions did not sit well with scriptwriter Michael Reeves either, who felt his script was butchered if I recall.
There was some bad timing. Even though the O'Connell's had left, the season was shot, and in the can months earlier, SciFi took forever to air the thing. The web was loosey goosey back then. I remember a lot of fans having no clue about Jerry until Unstuck Man aired, logging onto the Dominion board to complain. It wasn't much longer that Floyd announced the show was cancelled, with a ton of S5 yet to air. There was just a lot of pissed off fans, me included. S5 didn't get a fair shake, plus it went into rerun hell TWICE.
Finally got around to binging the last 3 episodes of season 10. Pretty incredible stuff. If they were going to end the series, it would have been fitting.
I think it was a misconception. I always felt that whether he did or not, it was probably unavoidable. To force him to impersonate Jerry was kind of ridiculous, and he deserved his own character. I also thought the rumor was that Floyd asked for changes very early on, which again I found hard to believe. That was a very difficult season for writers and directors and actors. The budget was so low, and they were forced to essentially do a stage play rather than a TV show.
Thanks for the link, I'll have to keep an eye on that. Glad that he's still performing though!
The last time he was on Broadway, during the last decade, a friend of mine tried to meet him but he kind of blew him off!
Honestly I'd like to know. He has zero presence on social media, it's unfortunate. Love to meet him one day of course!
That's understandable. I wouldn't mind listening even if it's cruddy.
John is appearing at NYCC Fri-Sun October 9 - 11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York. Unfortunately, most tickets to NYCC are sold out. Hopefully this time I will have the spare time to attend his panel.
Sorry about your dog Info, been there.
Unfortunately the people you seek have basically fallen off the face of the earth. Let's not forget how difficult it was for TF and someone else to procure the administrative rights/password for the sliders.tv domain a few years ago. Honestly there's only about 10% of the HOF that really ought to be preserved. The rest is so dated, and so many of the people involved have left the Sliders scene ages ago.
Man, another interview I have missed. Really good work on getting that Surf Dance Chris, with JOC.
Man, I completely missed that original Robert Floyd posting! That was a terrific article, really an eye opener. Bill Dial was a bit polarizing but he seemed to genuinely wish to produce quality science fiction. The Sci-Fi network group in NY were awful, sadly many are still in place there. Just sad all the way around. 100 minutes? Wow, you need to turn that into a podcast!
Sliders.tv → Posts by Grizzlor
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