Topic: "Seasons Greedings" deleted scenes

In 1996, Sliders took a stab at a holiday-themed episode with "Seasons Greedings." Pitting the Sliders against one of the worst evils in any world – rampant Christmas consumerism – the episode features nice moments with Wade and her double’s family, Arturo reuniting a woman with her infant son, and plenty of location shooting at Universal CityWalk.

Earth Prime is pleased to share with you a few minutes of footage cut from the finished product. Our video collects alternate and extended takes, a few brief deleted scenes, awesome outtakes of John Rhys-Davies swearing like the salty sailor we know he is deep down, and Cleavant Derricks singing “Hark the Herald Jewelers Sing” in its entirety. There’s even long, creepy shots of animatronic elves for the one or two of you looking for that at Christmastime.

https://earthprime.com/video/seasons-gr … ted-scenes

As the Professor would say, “’tis better to give, than receive.” Enjoy this gift from us to you, and happy holidays!

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: "Seasons Greedings" deleted scenes

Thank you for finding, editing and sharing this. It's wonderful to see John and Cleavant in their prime and at the height of their powers. Even though I don't like the Season 3 costuming and hairstyling and makeup, it's incredibly flattering towards all the actors. There's a wonderful sense of ease and friendship between all the actors.

The strength of their chemistry convinces you that these untrained civilians have repeatedly beaten the odds and survived anything and everything and will continue to do so with their onscreen fates often seeming like a temporary situation rather than a permanent conclusion. I think this is why fans kept battling for more seasons of the show and had faith that the status quo would somehow miraculously be restored.

"Season's Greedings" is a pretty solid episode. Aspects that irk me like Quinn on a date with Kelly Welles when Wade is having a breakdown are more due Jerry's absurdly flirtatious performance than the script. There are two aspects that seem a bit too toned down from a modern perspective: the issue of consumer spending and debt is due to people purchasing items they don't need and can't afford. But from a 2020 perspective, people are generally in debt because their wages don't cover the cost of living. It's ridiculous that McDonalds and Walmart earn billions while having their frontline employees paid so low that they live on food stamps. "Season's Greedings" suggests debt is a matter of willpower and brainwashing and that's simply not the case.

"Season's Greedings" also has the sliders toppling the slavery of debt by destroying all the records which is charming but naive; what computer couldn't have its files restored? What corporation wouldn't have extensive backups of its debts? But people didn't really understand computers as commonly in 1996 as they do in 2020 and "Season's Greedings" would only have needed a mild rewrite here and there to address the issues of debt for survival and computer records. It's fine.

It's a pretty decent episode. It's interesting how Torme held it up as a symbol of everything that had gone wrong with SLIDERS, talking to me about how he hated how the episode ended with everything wrapped up in a bow and happy without any twists or turns or points of thought and how the sliders step into an offscreen vortex at the end to save money, but because of what came later in Season 3 and 4 and 5, "Season's Greedings" looks pretty good now.

Also, I've come to realize from talking to my film student niece: it's hard to make anything. If you make a bad TV show or film, you're probably average. If you make something okay, you're probably good. If you make something good, you're probably brilliant. And if you make something great, you may be a genius.

Re: "Seasons Greedings" deleted scenes

Wow, great stuff!  So weird to see alternate Sliders footage as after 25 years just rarely see it.

Re: "Seasons Greedings" deleted scenes

very cool, thanks matt!