Search options (Page 5 of 20)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-e … rcna137975

It's over.  Biden has to step aside.  The special counsel describes him as effectively an old geezer who soon will forget his own name.  I do not know what other RED flag is needed at this point???

The NBC poll was horrendous for Biden.  If that one is even close to accurate, man he is toast.  Loses to Trump on almost every major issue, and badly so.  Barely has an edge on "democracy concerns."  That one has followed the trend of most of the polling now, with the Quinnipiac being a far outlier.  Or the polls are wrong.

Well this is what I've been saying.  Trump's campaign could well go broke, it doesn't matter.  Also, I'm not sure that those "on the fence" truly need a jury to convince them of Trump's culpability in those cases, nor his propensity to behave in that manner again.  Like most things with Trump, he is so transparent there's no grey area, you either support his tactics, abhor them, or just look the other way. 

Despite continue to poll alarmingly behind Trump, Biden is nearly double-digits behind Haley in battleground states.  He does remain the solid choice among the large segment of people who prefer neither candidate.  Gender separation is massive, women well ahead for Biden, men for Trump.

UPDATE: The DC case is off the court calendar, so who knows when they try it.  The Alvin Bragg "Stormy Daniels" case could be next up, which is of course the most nonsensical of the cases.  A jurisdiction that just RELEASED 4 migrants who attacked a NYPD officer without bail, and saw them flee to California.  Nobody around here takes Bragg seriously, they hate him.  This is all over the local news.  Even liberals are sick of migrants.  Had enough.  Trump is within SINGLE DIGITS of Biden in NY state polls.

The aspect of Tormé Sliders that really HAS to be there, or it's not valid, is the dark comedy.  Most of the shows given as examples here (I'd add Counterpart), largely feature some sinister plot or conspiracy going on.  What separated Sliders was that it also featured a "Land of the Lost" or "Wizard of Oz" aspect, where the group is truly "lost" and often finding themselves in bizarre realities.  I just don't know how many writers, producers, or networks have the backbone, or even the energy for that type of show. 

The greatest irony is that Tracy was chastised by Fox for interjecting limited continuity, when nowadays continuity is all you have on genre shows.

Immigration is not a cut and die issue.  One of the reasons it was "overlooked" by 95% of politicians was that for decades, the vast majority of border crossings were intentionally evasive, as the entrants were there for some type of work.  Whether they were seasonal workers, or those doing day laborer jobs, intending to send money back home to Central America or whatnot.  Because Rush Limpuke had Bush Jr. guest worker bill scuttled, there is no avenue for them, and their labor was in demand.  Ergo, they don't wish to be caught, and had to fly under the radar.  So they never applied for anything.  Again, the overwhelming % of these "illegals" committed crime at far lower numbers than home grown American crooks.  Yes, some were human traffickers, and many were drug dealers and gang members.  We grow them at home too.  However, it was never the kind of sinister issue that Trump loved to make it. 

Fast forward to now, and what you've had over the last several years is a totally different kind of immigration problem.  In addition to the labor seekers, you've had massive numbers of people escaping violence and poverty in Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, etc.  They come as entire families, and often with children.  Others are coming from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.  They're all seeking ASYLUM, which is a completely different scenario.  Trump began forcing these people to "remain in Mexico" which was inhumane, as well as putting young people in camps in Texas, which were barely better.  There is a 3 million backlog or some outrageous number, in asylum cases.  We simply don't have the lawyers or judges on staff.  Republicans don't want to fund them, but let's be honest, neither do Democrats.  These folks are applying for asylum, which is their LEGAL right, and staying here.  In the overwhelming majority of cases, asylum WILL be denied, it's simply that way in the statues.  They will be sent back.  However, the backlog prevents this, and so you have this massive swell of asylum seekers with nowhere to go.

Is it an issue?  It is for cash-strapped cities like New York or Chicago, which never setup this kind of situation, as it hasn't affected them.  They cannot handle these people.  The mayors are begging Abbott to stop busing the migrants.  What should Biden have done?  Well he should have just let "remain in Mexico" stand.  He tried to keep the pandemic order 49 in place, to stem the asylum migrants, but that was struck down.  In reality, there is little Biden can do legally.  Trump acted outside of legality and wasn't challenged, that was the difference.  I would argue it's no longer some "Republican concocted" problem, because this has absolutely become a fiscal issue for large cities and states.

Regardless, it's not an issue IMO that will decide the election.  However, if as I suggested months ago, that Biden turns the tables and now points the finger at Republicans who refuse to sign onto their own bill to fund border security, because Trump told them not to, well that is quite the play.

************************************************************************

In other news, idiot Trump was slapped with $83 million judgement for continuing to de-fame E. Jean Carroll.  His lawyer, Alina Habba, who would have been right at home in Sliders episode "The Young and the Relentless," stupidly left nothing to actually appeal on, so that will go nowhere.  Does he have this money?  Will he actually pay it?  Good question.

These Republicans, other than single-minded Christie, are all broken inside.  They have been so afraid of their own voters, and refuse to lead on anything.  Just worthless.  My feeling on Haley remains that while her policies would reek, I could "sleep at night" if she were President, as opposed to Trump.  Plus I just really despise the guy, and want him to lose any chance there is.  Anyway, here's the key, if Gov. Haley does what John Kasich did in 2016, she would be able to remain in the primary through June.  What did he do?  He spent minimally, but he did NOT have a huge staff or ridiculous travel expenses.  I doubt she would accept this bare bones campaign BUT should Trump flame out in some way, she could arrive in July at the convention and make it happen.  It's a long shot.

No, no, it's a very fair and well written rebuttal.  There is no legal or procedural restriction against dating your employee, but many frown upon it.  There are also claims that they took vacations "on the public dime," which I'd think she's not that stupid enough to do.  The District Attorney is a political position, although I doubt Ms. Willis is in any danger there.  I would agree there's nothing prejudicial alleged against Trump's case.  Either way, there's a hearing in Georgia for Feb 15 where apparently Willis will have to explain the Wade hiring to the judge. 

That's to say nothing about state oversight which would come from Republicans, that could end in impeachment, though that's unlikely.  Regardless, as I continue to harp on, you have to be utterly perfect, in so many ways, to take down someone like Trump.  He has too many allies all over the country who will intervene on his part.  Not to mention he'll appeal everything down to the color of tie the judge was wearing.  If Willis and her team are pushed to recuse, then the "Prosecutor's Council of Georgia" would need to find replacement attorneys.  This already happened to another Trump co-defendant, who received new prosecutors when a Judge removed Willis for appearing at a Democrat fundraiser.

It just feeds my personal paranoia that Trump will not face criminal prosecution before November.  The justice system I really feel is telling the electorate, we're not going to save you people, you have to do it yourselves.

*****

In other news, Trump will win in New Hampshire although Haley won't drop out yet.  The margin seems to be closer than many pundits claimed as of late.  The turnout was very high, and likely featured a large segment of independents and Democrats looking to stick the proverbial fork in Donald prior to November.

Well I hope you didn't pour the old stuff down the drain!  It's flammable.  Wouldn't washing hands with soap be more effective than Purell? 

I hear these people who swear by changes in diet, and that prevents illnesses.  Not that easy, given that most people are kind of stuck eating/drinking processed and heavily artificial products.  There remains a genetic component, with regards to overall health, obviously you can't do anything about that.  As someone who has spent a life of suffering from a range of upper respiratory problems due to allergies, chronic sinus issues and poor air quality living in suburbia, the environmental risks are probably worse for me than genetics or lifestyle.  Studies continue to prove a direct link between pollution and all kinds of sicknesses, and don't even start with the microplastics.  You just want to dig a hole and bury yourself in it. 

I've never found much of anything from a drug store that works aside from steroids or codeine.  And you can't take those too often.  I've just become more and more doubtful of store bought "medicine."  When they finally did a study on Sudafed, I laughed, because I could have told them it doesn't work.  I tried it many times, never helped.  The "old world" diets and treatments have hundreds if not thousands of years of actual results.  In reality, most of what you can ingest, that's sold at a grocery store or pharmacy, goes largely unregulated.  Fruit, vegetables, fish (not from oceans), and staying away from grain.  Do I do this?  Of course not (big dummy here).

I'm not a Trump supporter, but I'm playing "devil's advocate here."  Since no one posting is voting for Trump.  I'm not sure what you're so peeved about since I actually agreed with your "white guy" theory?  It doesn't explain WHY he can or may win!!!  Those fools he's already got hoodwinked.  The vast majority of men AND women in the Republican Party are just MAGA.  If not for the GOP assault on Roe vs Wade, they'd probably come close to winning the female vote, too.  It's happened before, they used to have a lock on married women almost everywhere.  Women are just as capable of being crass and ignorant as men, equal opportunity!  Trump bellows plenty of red meat for them too.  I have to hear them in my family alone. 

Moreover, when I say he "speaks to every aggrieved person," yes that's his intent.  I didn't say most hear or listen to him.  Sorry if my grammar isn't perfect at all times.  I HATED English class, and much was ignored/missed.  But again, my point this entire time is that Trump continues to have this cement wall at 46-48% he cannot get beyond, due to his nasty populism and overall crudeness.  That doesn't mean that Biden is going to recapture the difference.  These are the voters who will matter.  You nor I will matter, we are already in a bucket.  It's getting the people who actually flip flop between parties, to stay Blue.  I'm trying to be helpful here, and push the discussion away from ideology and towards reality.  Slider Quinn has been there with me. 

Do not fall into the 2016 trap like I did back then.  What? Hillary is 2:1 unpopular?  Mehhhhhhhh, big deal, the other guy's a compulsive liar and a fraud, nobody will vote for him!  Well son of a gun.  QuinnSldr may well be right, and I'm just paranoid, but I've been screwed over before on this.  I can remember 2000, it was probably more stunning to me than even 2016.  The economy was outstanding in 2000, and yet Al Gore got beat by a colossal dufus, because he pissed off coal country, and Bush promised to cut taxes. 

You're "terrified" of the election, I'm defeatist, good chance having a mental breakdown.  Probably should shut up about it, because it's not fun being the party pooper, but I just cannot fathom that Biden and the Democrats have put themselves in this position.  It's careless, it's selfish, and I'm fed up.  I could be like my father, who just stopped speaking to friends and relatives, because he couldn't take their MAGA crying anymore, because St. Donald went home in 2021.  But I'm the guy who starts bitching when the team is ahead by 3 touchdowns because we have a reputation for blowing it at the end.

FWIW, he's only credited on 6 episodes of Sliders, with his final script "Heat of the Moment" purposely kept away from production.  While that's unusual today, where creators like Seth McFarlane write nearly every script, not so much back then. 

PS: ireactions, are you certain you chatted with Tracy via AOL back then?  LOL.  There were so many hoaxes, pranks, and shenanigans going on back then with Sliders fans, including Tracy and other cast/crew imposters floating around.

He's still Governor of Florida for another 2 years, then likely challenges Rick Scott for Senate. 

Here's what your missing.  In Iowa, 2/3rds of caucus voters believe Biden was illegitimately elected!  How many believe Trump is a harasser/abuser?  That wasn't asked but I guarantee it's far south of that number.  When Trump complained after Charlottesville about "good on both sides," that rang home big time with Republicans.  They simply don't believe the media.  Jan 6th is a Federal conspiracy involving FBI actors, that's literally the leading theory with them.  How is this unsurprising?  Most of that voting block are deeply religious, which means they are raised in some form of indoctrination.  That's much more of a factor as to why women support Trump, than any kind of patriarchy. 

Trump speaks to EVERY aggrieved citizen, of any race.  That's like saying a rapper only connects to minorities, when scores of fans wind up being affluent white kids.  Trump is a senior citizen's gansta rapper!!!  And you need not be white to approve of his crude, mean messaging.  He appeals to all races, and particularly to blue collar types, like a pro wrestler does. 

Point I was making, yes.  "MAGA" is just a moniker, it was once "Tea Party."  Those are Republicans, how often they vote is another story, but they're Republicans.  They overwhelmingly supported renaming of French Fries to "Freedom" Fries, after all.

******

My point remains, why are we wasting time squabbling over why MAGA exists and who's in it?  Who cares?  The point is to get the incredibly tepid # of people who remain disgusted by Trump to get off arses and vote against him once more.  The poll numbers remain possible, in that Trump cannot surpass that 46-48% national figure.  However, Biden is going to be an awful campaigner, and it's going to be a TALL ask for people (as the media continues to normalize Trump) to be convinced that someone should lead the free world well into his 80s.

Elizabeth Holmes was another Bernie Madoff basically, both were caught, but tons of hedge fund managers and CEO's and others make the same terrible business practices because of greed.  She concocted trash but she had multiple executives and others go along with her.  It's done out of greed or self preservation. 

Ron Desantis, after running an absolutely pathetic Presidential campaign based on his "fighting the good fight" against Disney, is out.  He was easily the WORST candidate in the field, and I really have to laugh if GOP donors think he has a future nationally.  Worse yet, he ended his campaign with a quote incorrectly attributed to Winston Churchill.

Meanwhile, Trump's State case in Georgia is likely over.  The District Attorney Fani Willis, is now mired in a serious corruption crisis that honestly should force her resignation over.  I had zero faith in her case regardless, but this is really the end of it.  Paying for your married boyfriend, on the taxpayers' dime, is really unforgivable.  She's done, and so is the case. 

Given that Jack Smith's Florida case will likely be delayed until the 22nd century by Trump Judge Cannon, and the NYC porn star payoff case is borderline ridiculous, that really just leaves the election interference case for Smith in Washington, D.C.  But that case itself is likely to be delayed further by Supreme Court appeals over Trump's immunity, and whatever else.  I doubt Trump will even see a courtroom before November.  These indictments have only served to win Trump the GOP nomination, and likely, the White House, given how unpopular and feeble Joe Biden is going to look during the campaign. 

As for MAGA...

First, MAGA is FAR more than white men, believe you me.  Women love him too.  Trump also has non-white support, even better with black men than prior GOP candidates, and his Latino support has risen to George W. Bush levels.  The reasons are simple.  Trump promises immediate, direct action on a variety of issues.  Granted that won't happen, but people are so sick of a do-nothing Washington, that just like 2016, Trump's dictatorian edicts ring true to these people.  Even as Joe Biden has actually DELIVERED many of his campaign promises!  It's exhausting, but people are too busy to pay attention. 

As for Holmes, wasn't her chief co-conspirator and husband from Pakistan?  That being said, yes, her company's Board of Directors were a who's who of the old guard of American diplomatic core, including deceased war criminal Kissinger.

To bring it "back to Sliders," it's like if you had the choice, say a year or so ago when Torme had his pitch with NBC.  The choice is, and this site and other groups often held these polls.  Would you rather have the OG Tracy T go make that pitch, knowing that his politics were antiquated, and his resume is wrought with "being difficult," and that his stories might be too cerebral?  Meaning he has far less of a chance of getting the green light.  ORRRR would you rather a new group, led by an Alex Kurtzman type, with recent TV success, definitely more in line with Millennials, and thus a better chance of being selected?  Granted his show might be fine, you may love it, but it wouldn't be OG. 

The OG choice usually won in those polls, and guess what, in the end, sadly, his pitch was not green lit.  That's where the GOP is with Trump.  The polls continue to show him as the WEAKEST November candidate of their field, and he has so many red flags with his age, mental state, and the legal problems.  Why would you insist on the OG Gangsta??  You can say it's a cult, but in reality, Trump is his own nostalgia act at this point.  He's some iteration of Van Halen without Dave and possibly heading into Gary Cherone territory.  Am I dating myself?  The point is that MAGA = Trump, they can't give up on him now, or ever.  So why then are the non-MAGA still voting for this moron? 

That's the real question here.  Desantis and Haley are no moderates, they should be trouncing Trump, but the GOP in my opinion, is well beyond the norm now.  This leaves the sliver of reality that Biden is (dangerously) hanging on, that there will be enough Trump fearing voters, who actually bother to vote, to propel him.  The danger is that he's created plenty of people now afraid of continuing with him!

Unexpected trip to the hospital for the Princess of Wales, wish her the best.  Shades of Prince of Slides?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl … -days.html

Great post!  I do hope that "Slidecage" Jim Hall does post his thoughts here.  I suggest him to on Twitter.  I'd love to hear about that last conversation.  Even though Tracy often came off as a bit of a Debbie Downer and complainer on Awake Nation, in may ways he was a great optimist.  Personally, I didn't give his reboot much chance, not with today's media landscape and overall what a turd NBCU has become.  Exchanged many emails with the late Gil Bavel on the "Sliders convention," which I also had equally big doubts about from the get-go.  Yet Tracy was still pushing those plans right up until the end.  Was it wishful thinking?  I don't know.  I wasn't watching these broadcasts beyond the few with Cleavant and Bob, but you can tell in the summer, after a bout of the flu, that Tracy did not appear well.  It's all very unfortunate, as I too wonder what he might have done over the last 20 years had he not been chronically ill?  I had reservations about whether he was well enough to write/run a show again.

It's certainly possible, although I think we have to temper the "original cast is back" chatter, because who knows how invested the show would have been with them.  They were definitely adding characters in some form, and there was the rumor that it would be Quinn sliding with his kids and Remmy. Wade was dead and Arturo dead or lost. 

Tracy went silent for a long, long, long time on most everything including Sliders.  He explained in one of the podcasts that he'd been having health issues for almost 20 years.  However, he never forgot about Sliders or the FANS.  He repeated over and over, he was amazed going back to the 90s with the fans.  He was so pissed and embarrassed when the show went off the rails, and couldn't believe the fans kept loyal.  That's why, IMO, he wanted to continue the original story (from some point) and keep continuity.  It was for the fans. 

I would agree with this statement, but unfortunately, I don't know if the chances improved THAT much.  He said on the Awake Nation that he, Epstein, and the former Fox producer gal took a meeting with NBCU.  There was one person who was a Sliders fan, and the rest had never heard of it.  And you wonder why the pitch went nowhere? 

The other issue would have been Tracy's fiercely held beliefs that Sliders would not be "woke," and though I doubt that would have even been a problem.  What might have been would be if he wrote anything that put a satirical spin on whatever, because there would be some interest group or party pooper up in arms about it.  There's great fear in TV land against doing anything controversial, nor even poking fun.  I could easily see some NBC executives throwing a fit.  But I've said that for the last two years, I cannot comprehend how modern Hollywood would have the balls to do an honest Sliders these days?  I mean, could they even get away with Prince of Wails, where the British royal family is goofed on?  Tracy actually joked on the podcast that Bob Weiss would never get away with the guy in the wheel chair flipping out of the upper deck of the stadium in Naked Gun!

He'd mentioned Patrick McGoohan when discussing Sliders back in the 90s, it's in the Linaweaver book/interviews.  I believe it impacted his writing on TNG as well, he was really as obsessed with The Prisoner as much as many of us were for Sliders.  He certainly treasured the brief phone conversations he was able to have with his idol Mr. McGoohan prior to his death.  Invasion he cited as an homage to The Prisoner, and you can definitely see why.  I can assure you, Tracy never saw Please Press One!  Supposedly he had some kind of tepid script review in his contract as "executive consultant," but he always maintained that he refused to participate in production whatsoever once Peckinpah was kept on as showrunner.  I know in the old IRQ chats when he'd drop in (quite randomly), and elsewhere, he was emphatic about this, and often reacted quizzically if a concept from Seasons 4/5 were brought up, because I truly think he had no idea.  There was stuff that went down in Season 3 which he was aware of and greatly embarrassed by.  I don't know if that was just based on scripts he saw, or if others saw the episodes and cued him in, to his horror.

That being said, I would always point out that a lot of what Tracy wrote on Sliders links back to his love of dark comedy and cultural/political satire.  He was a writer on SNL in the early 1980s, as well.  Honestly, one of my favorite things about Sliders was the music.  Granted Cleavant was a great musician and singer, but Sliders as only it could was unique in that you'd have multiple characters performing specifically written songs.  Not a full musical episode or anything like that, just very random.  Was there any goofier song than Cry Like A Man?!  He also wrote satirical country songs for his father Mel to sing in Greatfellas, and Mel was no country crooner, again Tracy saying I'm going to do the most unexpected thing here.  As he stated in the Linaweaver book, as well, he KILLS off his old man in the middle of the episode!  Then went to great lengths to hide the fact he would return at the end unharmed, to keep the cast and crew out of the loop.

You can read the transcoded Interview section from the book here, and download it!

https://moccasin-agna-57.tiiny.site

For posterity, if anyone wishes to read up on additional Tracy thoughts from back in the day...

His fiery gauntlet laid down against that Doorways guy!
https://hof.slidersweb.net/celebs/u0002.html

Chat's courtesy of vortex62, including the infamous DragonCon 1997 panel, and Scifi.com webchat the next day.  http://www.earth62.net/transcripts/torme27jun97.htm
http://www.earth62.net/transcripts/torme28jun97.htm

And a few more with fans, after the show went off the air.  Rereading these, just love the answers Tracy gave to some of these questions, like you know he couldn't have been serious!
http://www.earth62.net/transcripts/torme10jan00.htm
http://www.earth62.net/transcripts/torme15jun01.htm

I'll list his YouTube "appearances" when I get a chance tonight.

Jerry O'Connell tweet

https://twitter.com/MrJerryOC/status/17 … w&s=19

Rob Floyd tweet

https://twitter.com/drinkwithrob/status … g&s=19

Are you an INFANT?  Trump had 74+ million votes, Biden 81+ million votes.  155 million people voted, a turnout of nearly 2/3 of ELIGIBLE VOTERS.  Not citizens, not people who live here, VOTERS.  So you cannot say X number voted for a candidate out of the # of people who lived here as if that matters.  1/3 of the voters chose not to vote for ANYONE, and therefore out of 330 million, around 230 million are eligible to vote, the rest are not.  Trump got 46% of the popular vote in both elections, so SUE ME it's not exactly half, but it's close to it.  And my point was that "nearly" half the country (VOTERS) are not simply to be written off as mentally ill.  It's tribal, they have voted for GOP Red forever and they're not changing, even when the candidate is a scumbag like Trump.  There's no mental illness to explain it.

It's not a "shield" but the guy had one meltdown on a movie set, and the crew actually backed him up on that, and has been nothing but a model citizen beyond that.  You're the one throwing him under the bus here, not me, and I found it unfair, and really has little to do with the subject matter.  And for the umpteenth time, I "posed" with Allison knowing nothing about the later legal accusations on her, other than she was accused of being in some kind of "strange cult."  But again I find it questionable that you seem content to besmirch public individuals freely here for a variety of superficial reasons (such as who they vote for), and act as the forum's King of Thought, over anyone else. 

***************

Again, the point I made remains, to try to pass off Trumpism or simply voting Republican as a mental illness is both foolish, and unscientific, and a waste of time.  Nor does it make a lick of difference in how the '24 election will pan out.  People look past plenty of crap when it benefits themselves.  I recall when NFL QB Michael Vick was suspended and later jailed for owning a dog fighting illegal business.  He would later return to the league, and despite tons of fans hating his guts (rightly so), he was still cheered by fans of his team.  Why?  Because all they cared about was winning football games.  Politics is not all that different.  Again, it's tribalism.  Not a mental illness.  Trumpism has morphed into a cultish following, but that will never explain that he received slightly less than half of the votes cast twice.  Tribalism does. 

Honestly, I don't know why the two of you prefer to ignore points I try to make or even engage in normal discussion, but instead choose to attack me personally with insults and whatnot?  What is the point of having a moderator, oh wait, he's the one doing it.  Nice.  Look, I do NOT want Trump to win, but it's increasingly possible due to the disastrous candidacy of Joe Biden.  His atrocious polling cannot be simply ignored as though it's the media or right wing made up crap.  2016 was the same story.  The liberals laughed at the notion, and then cried, because they chose to focus on social issues that the country didn't care about or were sick of hearing of.  It's still the economy, stupid.

"can't have an 80 year old sitting in jail," I'm sure Charles Manson would have agreed!

Is there a singular form of "Jedi" in English?  Could mean a single Jedi.  HA HA HA.  Seriously though, I suspect maybe Rey will now follow the journey Luke was intending to do, but failed at.

As I said, Biden team had better make the narrative about Trump's violent uprising, and threats of a future repeat.

Reminds me of the old Batman cartoons from the 70s.  They used to switch a lot of voice actors in and out, nobody knew.  In fact, my friend was Larry Storch's manager and nobody knew whether Larry had actually played the Joker!  It remained a mystery.

If I told you how old my PC at home was, your head would explode!  Granted it's been given a couple upgrades, but I only use it for web browsing, Photoshop, some Android desktop/app emulation, etc.  I bought it originally as more of a gaming PC but I stopped using it for games many years ago.  Honestly, I could afford a new one, I just hate having to reorganize my files!  Even my NetGear storage server is fairly old in the tooth.

I first remember Lake from the series Surface, which I watched a little bit only.  But to show you how your memory fizzles and fades, when I first recalled it, I swore it had to do with devil doppelgangers from a parallel universe.  In reality, it DID have a lot to do with a body of water, but not that.  What I was recalling was the movie The Lake (2018) starring Yasmine Bleeth!  FWIW, both aired on NBC.

Well you now have me searching for news, and I have some of the lousy type.

First, the co-host of Awakenings, Penny Shepard tweeted a month back that per Tracy: "he’s been under the weather."  So obviously that's not fun to hear.  She did reply and said that Tracy is "doing better; he will be back Jan 10."

https://twitter.com/shepardout/status/1 … 8314158460

Also in that search, I was stunned to read that the host of "The Prisoner" rewatch podcast which featured Tracy, Gil Bavel aka Cardinal Sin, passed away on September 14.  Sounded like he passed in his home at 55.  I think he had a number of health issues, but wow, very shocking.  He was an interesting guy, seemed to be knee deep in every fandom, and had a decent following on the interwebs.  In my brief interactions, I thought he was very generous, and had that old school kind of public access vibe.  We had a bunch of emails about the supposed Sliders convention, for one.  He went me some DVD's for participating in several Tracy chats.  Granted they were UK region and I couldn't watch, but a nice gesture nonetheless. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8FePLLAi9s

Don't ask me why, but I've started watching Young Indiana Jones again on Disney Plus, and those are at best upscaled, and don't look to bad.  That being said, I believe that LucasFilm may have done some cleanup on those when they were reassembled as "movie volumes" in the late 90s.  I mean, can you imagine if they had Sliders cast members 10-15 years later shoot new footage to include on DVDs?  That's practically what they did for that series, when 11-12 year old Corey Carrier was brought back to film new segments when he was 17 and not supposed to have aged.

TLJ was decent enough, I didn't have a big issue with it.  Though old Leia turning into Superwoman was farcical.  I certainly wouldn't rate it above any of the OT, good grief no way.  They should have just allowed Johnson to direct the last one, but J.J. was brought back in.  In typical Abrams fashion he had a great premise but couldn't get it to the finish line. 

I personally like most fans, lament the extinguishing of Luke, Han, and ultimately Leia.  They were never given a grand reunion on screen, and a LOT of older fans are angry at how they turned them into old hasbeens, most especially Luke, into a caricature of Yoda.  Looking back, I also lament that George Lucas was basically lied to, and J.J. Abrams tossed whatever concepts he'd supplied for the evolution of the characters into the trash. 

Now we've had Dave Filoni on this drunken journey to re-establish the Lucas-verse, if you will, over the franchise.  They've canceled more projects than Amtrak.