Tracy Torme, Dark Matters Interview, February 2015

They start talking SLIDERS at the 42 minute mark. Basically saying that there's no hope for SLIDERS returning.

Sad now. My life is ruined.

Take a listen.  I cant tell if he said what he did out of a personal feeling for a revival or he floated the idea to some industry folks and they werent keen. 

He certainly was really looking at it when I spoke to him.  At that point he hadnt talked to weiss who he mentions in the interview.

The x files news on the podcast may have intrigued him too and we know jerry said a couple months ago he wants to do it.  I just think theyd have to find the right network who could deal with the style of the old show or theyd have to update it a lot in which case it loses the charm.

Imo this could happen with a push as long as jerry wants it but its best chance may be a tv movie or a summer miniseries.

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.

As much as I'd love for there to be a true continuation of the series, a reboot is the only shot at it being successful.

I'd be fine with a reboot, and there being nods to the original that wouldn't distract a new viewer but would be a reward for us long time fans.

No network will ever commission a TV show that only makes sense to people who've watched Seasons 1 - 5. It's too insular. It's called *broad*casting for a reason.

Jerry playing a Quinn who is in his mid-forties when he first discovers sliding in a 2015 version of the Pilot with the original cast? That might function. But there is no way SLIDERS could possibly return as the long-delayed 19th episode of Season 5.

If Sabrina isn't part of the reunion, what exactly is being reunited? What's the point of doing it at all?

I also can't say I'm too keen on a NEXT GENERATION approach considering the first generation was a complete and utter disaster in the end. I still remember the delight and joy of knowing that Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo were the first to discover sliding and we were along for the ride on this very first outing into the multiverse. Why deprive a new generation of viewers of feeling like they too, are discovering sliding with Quinn Mallory? Why would we instead tell them that sliding has been done before in some other series they would have to grudgingly endure in order to appreciate the current series?

It'd be cool, though, if Jerry played Michael Mallory to the new Quinn Mallory. (Jerry's a bit young, but Michael Mallory's also a bit dead.)

I guess, for me, I don't see SLIDERS as a show that's remembered. I don't think anyone really remembers Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo. I don't even recommend SLIDERS to people when I talk about it ("Jesus, this show again?") and advise that they watch FRINGE and COMMUNITY instead.

I think trying to appeal to the fans through a next generation approach is only deepening existing wounds. Fans had to watch their characters replaced by strangers. Now they get to do it again in a long-delayed Season 6? And I think characters who aren't Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo are essentially a spin-off best made with a non-SLIDERS name. What's the point of a sequel that doesn't contain the original characters?

I think a reboot works if the creators really embrace the original quartet of characters. You have the adventurous geekboy, the winsome dreamer, the over-the-hill showbiz icon and the wise Professor with a dark side. These four characters are ideally suited to each other and exploring parallel Earths, and it's simply a matter of finding new actors to reinterpret those roles.

Alternatively, you could have something like PARALLELS. Personally, I would have been fine with the boxer being named Quinn, the awkward lawyer being named Remy, the adventurous sister being named Wade and the mysterious girl being named Maxine.

In terms of reaching out to the fans -- I think the only real way to do that would be to really commit to doing A) a sequel set today and after "The Seer" that B) resurrects the original cast and C) is completely incomprehensible to the general audience. Like those X-FILES comics that kindly resurrected the Lone Gunmen and put Mulder and Scully back to work at the FBI. Those were aimed at the fans. But a half-hearted next-gen overture to the fans is really no overture at all.

Well. Maybe you're right.

I rewatched PARALLELS just now and I realized that RussianCabbie's idea of a next-gen approach is creatively full of potential. Imagine:

Two new characters, Ronan and Beatrix, are searching for their missing father. Their last names are not mentioned. The father's face is not shown in any photos or security cam footage. They stumble into a building, the address of which they found in "Dad"'s things. They find the building that is a rift between parallel universes.

They have two crazy adventures and flee back into the building. A villain follows them. Threatens to blow up the building unless the creator comes out to face him. The elevator dings. The doors open to reveal Ronan and Beatrix's father -- Quinn Mallory. That's PARALLELS (minus the Quinn reveal), but I guess the next-gen route isn't a dead end. However, at that point, one still has to wonder why sequelize SLIDERS instead of making an original work, and I'm not seeing the advantages.

And the rebootquel approach could be neat: Quinn is in his mid-forties. He failed to create anti-gravity in his 20s. Blacked out the house. Gave up on science and went to work as an accountant. Twenty years later, Quinn is a miserable loner nursing a crush on one of his clients (Wade) and plays chess his other one (Arturo). After Quinn's mother dies, he goes back to the old house. Wade and Arturo go to help him pack. Quinn starts rooting through the basement. Accidentally triggers the vortex. It accidentally sucks in Rembrandt, who is driving by for Reasons. And the adventure begins again?

But a reboot is probably best.

To be honest, I actually found PARALLELS a little more plausible than SLIDERS in some ways -- or rather, it presented the implausibilities more effectively than SLIDERS' pilot. The nature of the building is a mystery; as a result, I didn't find its creation or existence or discovery unlikely because there is no information for me to consider plausible or implausible. In a fairly realistic world where punches hurts and families fall apart, the building is a peculiar mystery box of delightful impossibility.

It's just one abandoned building on one Earth as far as the inhabitants are concerned.

The Pilot, in contrast, explains *everything* about sliding and piles upon endless unlikely plot points. The idea that Quinn was trying to build anti-gravity and created something else is plausible, but then you have a ridiculous coincidence: a double just happened to visit Quinn's Earth at the very same time Quinn slid out and was absent, a double uniquely suited to explain the sliding concept to Quinn. In an infinity of Earths, how likely is it that a Quinn-double would just happen to stumble across an Earth in such a plot-convenient fashion?

PARALLELS, quite smartly, cloaks its absurdities in mystery to avoid having to justify them at all or failing to.

Yeah Sliders is remembered and Netflix has helped it a little, but it is mainly the FOX years people remember.  I had 2 guys come by my house to work on plumbing, had Sliders playing, and the younger plumber said it use to be his favorite show, the Sci-Fi years are less remembered as Sci-Fi was an obscure channel at the time(some how SyFy found a way to make itself become obscure again).

The show was reran in Sci-Fi's weird SciFi World block for a couple years then the HUB rescently, so outside of HULU, Netflix, DVD's and Amazon Prime not high visibility, but more than Battlestar Galactica had before its re-launch, or any of several re-launches form Universal...Knight Rider, Bionic Woman, Ironside, New Dragnet where all re-launched with less notoriety.

The fox show is well remembered (and well-thought of) among people who were young teenagers during that time.  Anyone who moved over to the scifi channel days were more hard-core and may have some mixed feelings about it (though everyone seems to be fond of what sliders could be). So the property has good general awareness, some immediate built in audience (hardcore nerds) and if decent and validated by the nerd audience, could grow where the casual audience starts trying it thereafter.

The biggest challenge to getting this back on tv is tv execs looking at it as a cheesey/corney 90s show.  Because let's face it, as things progressed, it became that at times.  It's hard to pitch that to other executives without looking silly.

Plus, tv tastes are just less innocent now.  An extreme example, but could Different Strokes or Family Ties work now?  No.  Audiences have seen so much more programming by now, 20 years later, they have sharper pallettes. They demand smarter, and every tv exec is pandering toward the smart, snarky twitter crowd that drive the influential conversation (particuarly what's portrayed around the media and the bloggers at these entities).  So you need to do a show that they can embrace.

Either Sliders partially polks fun at itself as a summer movie, syfy style, or they aim to be a reboot or revival on a younger channel (a family or preteen one) and do the old fox style stuff or they get smarter and sleeker if they want to try to attract an adult crowd (which is required if you're going to be on a major cable network).

Torme mentioned sliders being "of its time". I think that's pretty much the dilemma - you have to either go younger or update the show - if you are going to bring it back as a series. There's no excuse though why SyFy execs couldn't greenlight a summer movie and I'd love for someone to do a miniseries.  I think it's going to take someone other than torme to bring it back though.

I think the best thing we can do is send around Jerry's interview on Slidecage indicating he would like the show to be brought back so maybe some of the scifi blogs do a post about his interest in a revival and maybe it catches interest on the internet and gets picked up more. That sort of buzz is what tv execs look for in making decisions on programming.  The X-Files Files and the buzz that built really was the tipping point for bringing x files back.

From a fan standpoint, the original cast are SLIDERS' greatest asset. You just put the four of them in a room together and let them bounce around for 95 pages. But from a general audience point of view, the cast is probably the biggest liability. I think any new SLIDERS with Jerry would be obligated to act as a sequel, and I can't see that working out well. I think it'd be best to start new.

I've probably hammered this sentiment into the ground. But the inescapable truth is that when you follow a TV show regularly, you are letting specific people and faces into your home. If those faces suddenly change, it's akin to a home invasion. I didn't invite Maggie over for dinner; I invited the Professor. Who does she think she is?

There's also the fact that in Seasons 1 - 2, all the characters were from 'our' world. Therefore, they could compare our history with alternate histories and react accordingly. But with Season 4, Quinn and Rembrandt are from an Earth that was invaded by Kromaggs; Colin's from a pre-industrial Earth, Maggie's from the Pulsar world where nuclear weapons were detonated on American soil -- there's no sense of contrasting our world with this week's world. None of these characters are from our world, which makes it impossible to create the homesickness and alienation that were so prominent in Seasons 1 - 2. The show became absolutely pointless.

That's probably why I'm not overly in favour of a sequel series where sliding has existed since 1995. I'd rather see Quinn discover it today. And see him played by Gregory Smith.

The Ireactions idea of later episodes being a seperate group of Sliders works for me.

Rather than a "All a Dream"/"Never Happened Moment" we can have a side by side approach.

The Non Native Earth Quinn is a seperate Quinn, or the Cromagg Deception re Charlie was less a Knowing Spy and more of a Sleeper/Manchurian Candidate.

Maybe there was a real Quinn who came from invasion world just not OUR Quinn...

A Quinn who discovered Sliding in 95 does not have to be totally written off but a gentle handwave avoiding how this is orriginal Quinn may be best with maybe subtle hints later in the Series to spark debate among Fans but remain Unanswered.

New Sliders to Join him would be fine but as you say careful casting for Chemistry would be essential.

I doubt Sabrina will come back as a full cast member but a Cameo may be possible if in the right spirit perhaps is viable.

Arturo coming back as a Mentor or even a Rival Mentor for Mature Quinn is also possible with the Blue Gate Arturo situation.

What if Gillian of the Spirits Quinn never reunited with our Core Group but a Very Similar Double did? That could be interesting to play with.

Quinn exploring our World and Rediscovering it is his own could be an interesting Pilot. Reconciling the Changes to our World with his Memories of Home.... His almost Idealised Home could be very engaging.

Maybe I'm the odd man out. Personally I'd rather not see a reboot. To me Sliders needs to have a least one of the original characters in it for it to be 'Sliders'. Without that it's not Sliders. Not unless you create something new and name it something like Sliders: TNG. I think the best shot and my hope would be to create a miniseries with the actors that would be willing to reprise their roles. I think there's no doubt you couldn't fully restore the feeling the show gave from its own time period in the 90s. Today it would have to take a much more serious approach. Perhaps the return of the X-Files will get brains cogs to turn. Why wouldn't Universal use the opportunity to compete against the X-Files with a Sliders return. Yes, it's pretty obvious X-Files would win. I mean what does Universal have versus FOX's X-Files. Defiance, the never ending Sharknado series and the great scifi of WWE?