I am devastated. I feel as if Tracy leaving us is a huge loss. I thought of him as a brilliant man, even if I did not always share his view on everything he said. The point is, he pushed the boundries. Tracy did not enjoy being muzzled by the networks. He used black comedy and science fiction to share his observations and convey possible outcomes. He made light of the peculiarities we have. He warned of dangers. His creative literature was his work, his path to do this. In later years, he grew frustrated with the muzzling of discussion in society. He didn't distain people for holding opposite views -- what he disdained was not being able to have the conversation in the first place.
I feel like Tracy was a kean observer of human behavior, and systems, and personalities, and he knew how to create a linear thread to help illustrate what he witnessed. Even the tone of his voice made it more pleasant to hear him share these narratives. I believe he was ahead on the curve on a lot of things -- he saw things before others did and so we at times can naturally recoil at this views or discard them when he's further along in understanding something than us. Tracy of course was no god -- he could be wrong or extremely wrong about things at times -- but what I got out of his work and his interviews was he always made me think. At times it could frustrate me in the moment but because of his gift, of course it was interesting to listen to, so how could I not? At other times, his thoughts immediately resonated with me or just were enjoyable to take in. And I loved hearing about his background. This man really in the thick of everything from the entertainment business and UFO research perspective. The guy knew and worked with Carl Sagan, Gale Anne Hurd (and James Cameron), Gene Roddenbery, Joe Stefano, Harlan Ellison, J. Allen Hyneck, Jacques Valles, SNL's team, Travis Walton, Jerry O'Connell, John Rhys Davis, did projects for FOX, HBO, Showtime, network tv, had plenty of exposure to legendary musicians through his father. He rescued dogs. He survived health bouts. He got back into the business after being out of it for so long. He became friendly with Lue Elizondo. He even had something going on with Marvel and Paramount in the last decade of his career (projects that did not go). His UFO documentary which he splitted ways on (because he wanted it to be part non-fiction, theatrical type of fare) ended up becoming the most mainstream UFO documentary of all time.
His show SLIDERS is still being viewed today and is on a premium streaming service and is in the top 92.4% of all tv titles in the U.S. ever produced as far as current streaming demand. 6.7x the market average. There have been 6 or 7 podcasts about the show. Countless websites that still exist. The thing about Tracy is, he impacted culture. Through SLIDERS, through elevating the Travis Walton case and popularizing it, through I AM LEGEND, which he was the first to jump on. The man made his mark. The man, who was ahead of most all of us in how he observed us, who did not want to just go with the status quo, who used his work and his voice to elevate, propose new ideas or introduce concepts, or share his thoughts, who wanted to have the conversation about things that were on his mind, made his mark. The world is a different one without Tracy Torme. How many of us can say we made as large of an impact.
I'm not building him up to be a lion. But for me, he was my lion. He was the artist / writer who I resonated with most. Between him and Bob Weiss, I found a lot of things they were involved with that I did not originally know they were involved with but I was drawn to. SLIDERS, Oddessy 5, Naked Gun, Kentucky Fried Movie, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Outer Limits, Contact. My brother even worked on I AM LEGEND as a PA. He was on the bridge that day with the seen with the dog that tracy had to walk out of the theater on because he could not take. I never got to tell him that thought I did tell him he had worked on that movie.
Many, many years ago when Tracy started working on 701: The Movie (which became "The Phenomenon"), I paid attention because it was a Tracy Torme project. They had a wealthy backer who made a lot of money off these prime mortage things, something the government cracked down on. The investor was a believer. They were offering $100k for anyone with great video as proof, and publicized it. That never materialized, but I did follow along the projects development, which had twists & turns and turned out to be a bit of a nightmare for both of the creators. On their youtube channel, they had uploaded some footage that was BBC archival footage I had never previously seen. I had considered the possibility of UFOs as real when I was super young but basically shut it down in the decades that followed because the entire subject went away, and it "felt" like there was really no compelling arguments for it. When I saw that BBC footage, which featured a bunch of school kids in South Africa, well. I could not turn away. I could never get out of my head, since it's not hard to tell when kids are lying, and so many of them were speaking honestly, I could not get out of my head, 'What if what those kids were saying was real?" And so, for me, the door could no longer be shut. Even if I don't know what to believe now.
In recent years, even though Tracy was a guy who didn't use cell phones or email much, or was rather late, and was still old school in making actual phone calls, we were blessed to get to hear from him again through the rise of creator work on youtube and podcasts. He sorta figured out how to do video streaming, he was burdened by the bad internet connection in moving to a more rural area of California (to get away from the traffic). And, after a huge gap in hearing from him, we got to enjoy him more. Dark Matters with Don Ecker (and later Gerry Kissell), Cardinal Sin's channel, where we were blessed with many episodes thanks to Gil, a wondeful man himself, and finally Awake Nation, where he became a weekly guest contributor for some time.
Now of course Awake Nation had/has some off the rocker batshit crazy stuff. But g*d damn we got Tracy every week. And even if it could be maddening some of the discussion, we got plenty of good stuff, and the maddening stuff could force you to challenge your thinking. Because even if you didn't always like what was being said, it doesn't mean you are always right. Or that things are black and white. On the show, Tracy also did a bunch of entertainment related things. He brought back Bob Weiss. He had a reunion with Cleavant which was a huge, huge gift to the fan base that we never were otherwise going to likely get and now, as long as the video is preserved, we will always have. We saw the love those two had for each other, and we saw the pure love that was in Cleavant's heart for tracy, and for life. In spite of Cleavant's own challenges with the health of his brother.
I was so looking forward to his return to Awake Nation on Jan. 10. Or Slidecage's upcoming interview, which was spoken about just five days before Tracy passed. Tracy had no idea that he would be passing. He was going back to his normal routine after a couple of months of bad health. He was feeling better.
In some ways, that he was feeling better before his passing, is a relief. I believe Thomas at Slidecage was fortunate enough to have that last phone call with Tracy, or that Tracy even felt better shortly before he passed, because some phenomenon that we don't know about, or don't understand, in a realm that we can't see, wanted to give him the proper exit before moving onto the next world. Where he could be with this father once again. That phone call Thomas had was a last chance for Sliders fans to convey how important to Tracy what he created was. How it lives in us, now almost 30 years later, and how he has impacted us. It was also a chance for Tracy to tell us sliders fans, he was OK. And how Sliders was still something he hadn't given up hope on. Whether it be a revivial or some sort of reunion fan event.
When Tracy first passed, I was sad, but also immediately angry. Because selfishly, I wanted more of his words and content, and now I don't get to have it. I was also mad, because I had seen this coming for a long time, and my fear was realized, at least in part. That before everyone got to get together again, the main cast and tracy, or some creative work from Tracy, that it would be too late. I had always wanted at minimum Tracy's "works" in that world to be recorded, so once his work on earth was done, we'd have them. I wanted novels and/or audio dramas, something lower level aimed at the fans. That didn't need to be explosively successful, but at least the fans would have. So when he passed, time ran out and just getting what should have been the simple things, was not realized. I always found doing a full on TV revival both an awesome goal but as years went on, maybe more ambitious than we needed.
I just wanted more of Tracy's words, whether they be in book form, or Cleavant reading them in an audio book, or Jerry speaking them in a tv event. It didn't matter. Because what I was interested most in was Tracy. He is the writer, author, observer, creator that has most resonated with me in my lifetime, and I feel like we lost a gift to the world. Someone the networks never really let run free. And I wanted him to get that shot, through SLIDERS, in whatever medium possible.
But, we were lucky to have him for all the time we did, and all the work he put out. At this point, I feel most for his wife, Robin, who he was very close with and who won't have his immediate companionship for the time being. I feel for his family. I feel like all Sliders fans lost a "friend", too. That's what upsets me most, more than just losing any of his future work.
