Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (Page 4 of 12)

I got an explaination that can work that doesn't involve Wade being dead. If Sabrina Lloyd is only available to do guest appearances/reccuring roles then you can have it be that she decided not to go sliding with them in the pilot (for some important reason) and then we run into doubles of her throughout the show

He looks to me like the guy who screwed around most of his life and didn't give school much of a chance but then his 40s came along and he needed to make money so he went to study physics in college. I bet he works at Doppler Computers with Quinn and Wade.

Interesting! I used to read THE HARDY BOYS CASEFILES when I was a kid and a recurring character was The Gray Man, a short, balding, nondescript man who seemed to vanish into crowds as an indistinct and near-anonymous figure. He was an agent of a clandestine government agency known only as "The Network," and he appeared to the Hardy Boys either to warn them off a case that involved national security (only for them to get involved anyway) or to assign them to a case of national importance (because when the US government's first in espionage operatives was naturally two teenaged boys).

In fact, the description in the books of The Gray Man / Mr. Gray / Edward Gray / Arthur Gray is strangely close to Montague.

Is Montague not only a Gray Man? Is he The Gray Man?

We shall soon find out.

I think that as fans, we have accomplished anything and everything that could possibly be achieved with SLIDERS via unofficial fan works. We don't have fan films, but we have fan scripts and fan novellas which, given our numbers, is very impressive.

At this point, if SLIDERS can't come back officially through Tracy, we don't need to do anything more. We don't own this property and we can only steward it to an extent and we have reached that upper limit and surpassed it by now.

It's really up to Tracy and NBCU at this moment in 2021; our patronage has taken this TV show from 1995 as far as we can without actually having a TV show.

I've seen many of the fan Trek films, and for awhile they were really cool.  However, they had too many awful amateur actors in them working with Koenig or Takei or whoever.  There were a few that were REALLY good that only featured working actors. 

Anyway, Cabby I don't think Tracy has trauma from the original run of the series.  He fought with the network quite a bit, and I think he was often kind of like stuck in a crappy job with idiots for bosses.  Like most Hollywood writer/creators he seems to jump around a lot, in fact he admitted to having given up on projects he should have fought for.  That's kind of been his M.O.  Let's hope this reboot isn't one of them, although he doesn't have much of an alternative should NBCU fully deny his project.  They own it.

I don't know if Grizzlor has interacted with Torme, but RussianCabbie has had at least one lengthy phone call with Torme and if RussianCabbie finds Torme traumatized by Seasons 1 - 3, I'm inclined to take his word for it.

In terms of unofficial works and participation, I find that Torme has a history of ultimately stepping back from such endeavours and I consider it completely understandable. In 2009, Torme began a repeated cycle of events: he would interact with a specific fan, then disappear. He promised EarthPrime.com, over Facebook, a new SLIDERS screenplay, a series finale for SLIDERS. He wrote about one-quarter of an outline (and with a story idea he'd contemplated in 2000). After a few months, Torme deleted his Facebook account and ceased all communication with EarthPrime.

Four years later, in 2013, Torme allowed his number to be purchased/located by a fan whom I shall refer to as "Stephen Jensen" (because the real name is easily searched and identifiable and I don't wish to embarrass anyone). Jensen declared to SLIDERS fans that he was going to get Torme to revive SLIDERS with this phone call. Jensen phoned him and proceeded to blanket Torme in a pitch for a remake of Season 4 in which Wade would be a Kromagg villain and the Colin spy plot and the search for Kromagg Prime and the revelation of the Earth Prime in "Genesis" as a sham would be fulfilled in its entirety. Torme gently explained to Jensen: NBCUniversal holds the rights to SLIDERS, the series creator only owns a small percentage and cannot greenlight a revival.

In addition, Torme said he was unfamiliar with Season 4, didn't know what this search for Kromagg Prime was about, and didn't know the Colin character, nor would he be keen on remaking 1998 episodes in the year 2013. Jensen insisted that a remake of Season 4 would be brilliant and that Torme should do a run of episodes focused on a Kromagg war and produce a remake of "Revelations," blatantly ignoring Torme's explanation that the co-creator alone cannot produce new episodes of SLIDERS.

Torme ended the call by saying that unless Jensen had an agent, Torme could not continue the conversation. Jensen then asked SLIDERS fans to get him an agent to have more phone calls of this nature with Torme, but Torme changed his number.

Can't imagine why.

In 2014, RussianCabbie had his phone call with Torme. RussianCabbie handled it well and listened intensely and did not deluge Torme in fan matters unless they were of actual relevance to Torme. Torme, during this phone call, shared how he lost out on millions of dollars for I AM LEGEND because he'd thrown out his script at an earlier stage of the development process, thinking the movie wouldn't happen, only for his draft to be used as a basis for the eventual movie and with Torme unable to prove his contributions and missing out on payment and credit (aside from being named a co-producer).

RussianCabbie felt that boundaries and politeness did not encourage another phone call and Torme would change his number and become unreachable again.

Why did Torme make repeatedly himself available and then abruptly remove his availability? I don't know for sure, but it's a pattern and I don't find fault with it; it looks to me that SLIDERS will only hold Torme's interest if he is being paid to work on it and that is completely reasonable to me.

I would also speculate that Torme's sudden withdrawals may have also had something to do with the health issues he had around 2016 and up to about 2020. He may have wanted to keep fans out of his personal life and crises; he didn't share these difficulties until describing heart surgery in a 2021 podcast that has gone offline. He lifted that veil on his own terms, but he had and has every right to his privacy.

Why didn't he come through on his EarthPrime project? Tracy Torme is a professional screenwriter and the creator of SLIDERS and it may be inappropriate to expect Torme to write a screenplay for free; yes, he offered, but I don't feel that fans should hold him to that (and we didn't).

If Torme wants to do it and comes through, that's great, but he hasn't before. And really, Torme shouldn't have to engage in labour at his own expense to promote an NBCUniversal property in a fashion that will not see him compensated financially for his time, work and effort while raising the profile of an NBCUniversal copyright that would get them increased exposure and home media sales and streaming figures. If Torme is writing SLIDERS scripts, NBCU needs to pay for them.

In contrast, fans writing fanfic doesn't earn NBCU any money even in a roundabout way.

Realistically, I think it is unlikely you can ever count on getting a screenplay from a professional screenwriter unless you pay them for it; the only free script anyone will ever get out of Torme is I AM LEGEND (and that should never have happened).

For a professional writer, paid screenwriting is always going to come first and fanfic screenwriting and unpaid appearances will likely be a 40th or 50th priority. I think the only way you will really get more SLIDERS stories from Torme is for NBCUniversal to pay him to make them. And if my speculation is true, I think that's fair.

Torme is nice to fans. I'd agree with that.

However, I haven't seen Torme give away his writing for free -- nor would I ask him to, nor would I hold him to his past promises to do so. I don't expect plumbers to fix my pipes unpaid; I don't expect technicians to repair my fridge for a thank you. If Torme's pilot pitch is rejected, I wouldn't expect him to put his pilot script on the internet. It'd be nice of him to do so, it'd be welcome -- but I wouldn't find fault with him preferring to keep it to himself, conceivably to repurpose the ideas in some other project he can sell, etc..

Torme's S3 experience was not traumatic, it was stressful due to his father's ill health.  He explained very clearly, he tried meeting with Peckinpah, who blew him off, and then poo-poo'd the show.  Last straw was getting his criticism for The Guardian, so he basically gave up.  It's my opinion, but I never took his recollections as traumatic.  Tracy knows the business well, he knows when something is out of his control and when it's best to just step aside. 

For years, years, he wouldn't divulge what Heat of the Moment script was about, being more angry than anything else.  He's also a professional, and if you hear what he has to say about a certain non-Sliders project that involved potential lawsuits, you'll know that he is not going to be interested in doing anything that might be considered improper. 

Lastly, again, the man wants to work, if this reboot falls through, I'm sure he'll move onto another project.  That's what he does.  It's a cool thought, but honestly unless he were restarting a comic book series or publishing a Sliders novel, something commercially available I myself wouldn't be interested and I think neither would he.

RussianCabbie talked to Torme and thinks Torme had post traumatic slide syndrome. JWSlider3 refutes this and also talked to Torme.

I'm going to split the difference and say that Torme was not eager to revisit an obnoxious, annoying, rage-inducing period of his life in 2014 but is significantly more enthused as of 2020.

https://twitter.com/SlidersFanBlog/stat … 8743692298

https://twitter.com/GilBavel/status/1456502207566827521

I have read a lot of reasonable, negative reviews of DISCOVERY and PICARD. As a writing mentor once said to me, "We are not the final arbiters of taste." I am quite happy with both shows, but if others aren't, it's because they wanted or expected different story and character elements that I either didn't need or could do without. For example, PICARD has the Federation existing in a capitalistic system with Picard being rich and Raffi being poor and shrieking at Picard about how his chateau looked so lavish and luxurious and a pilot saying he's "very expensive." That does not work for me; in my personal vision of STAR TREK, money doesn't exist. But I'm prepared to accept that IREACTIONS' STAR TREK is not PICARD and appreciate PICARD on its own terms. Others have found that a dealbreaker and so they should.

Peckinpah is a rare instance where his professional output is the direct result of his abysmal personal conduct. Marc Scott Zicree during the podcast, at least in my view, seemed to regard Peckinpah as an object of pity, a person who suffered from terrible demons that made him a pariah on his most well-known, widely broadcast project (SLIDERS) both during his life and after his death. Zicree clearly felt no need to indict Peckinpah any further; Peckinpah's work convicted his own legacy.

**

I'm not familiar with Kirk Douglas' body of work, although his reputation in recent days is deeply disturbing. It's possible your grandfather could see something in Douglas' demeanor, body language and presence that he recognized as something shared by your great-grandfather. In Season 3 of SLIDERS, there was a moment in "Season's Greedings" where Jerry is chatting with Chase Masterson and Jerry adopts this entitled smirk and preening physicality that I found deeply out of character for Quinn and reminded me of some of the more arrogant and belittling classmates I had in high school.

I started to see more of them and less of myself in Jerry's portrayal and it deeply offended me. In Season 4, I also recognized something in Jerry that I found myself associating with a number of my classmates in his empty, deadened facial expressions on camera; I would in later years recognize that as Jerry being hungover on camera. Part of this is unquestionably because David Peckinpah created a work environment where substance abuse was the norm and being inebriated when working was acceptable because the boss came into work intoxicated.

In 2005 or so, I think, Jerry stopped drinking for health and fitness reasons and viewed going to the gym to work out as part of his job as an actor. He said, and I paraphrase, "My work day didn't end when the director said cut." Since then, Jerry has been extremely professional and reliable in all his work; his acting on CARTER is in some ways overworked to the point of being unnatural, but I'd rather have Jerry trying too hard than not trying at all. I would love for this older, matured, experienced and as talented as ever Jerry O'Connell to play Quinn Mallory again and with Tracy Torme's leadership instead of David Peckinpah's.

And, as I said, if Torme and Zicree could team up, Zicree should do all the talking.

I don't think Marc Scott Zicree and Tracy Torme should be writing the same stories, but they could certainly offer each other feedback. Zicree is a science fiction writer who is very interested in the technology of sliding, having created the Slidewave and the Slidecage. Tracy Torme is a social satirist and a comedian who is very interested in using world-building to invert and skew our perspective of the world, creating worlds where Wiccans instead of Christians are the dominant religion, where 60s counterculture lasted for three decades and counting, etc..

Torme could write the social satire episodes and Zicree could write the slidetech-focused episodes. Zicree could offer Torme his view on how sliding technology works; Torme could provide Zicree with his world-building talent. Both men have a gift for visual storytelling, but judging from the scripts, Zicree is better at writing material where plot information is conveyed visually and immediately. Meanwhile, Torme is better at conveying comedy and depth of character through banter and action. Zicree is more dramatic; Torme is funny.

Torme should be the final decisionmaker, of course. SLIDERS is his show.

But in any meeting with network and studio executives, it would probably best if Torme never, ever, ever opened his mouth. In fact, I strongly recommend that Torme never speak to anyone again; from now on, whether speaking to his barber or his wife, whether ordering a pizza or visiting his mechanic or pitching a SLIDERS reboot or revival, Torme should take a vow of silence and give all his talking points for Zicree to convey with the Marc Scott Zicree warmth, positivity, charm and grace. I would happily never speak again if Zicree would do all my talking for me as well.

I was just joking. But also not.

Tracy Torme is a genius. A brilliant visionary. A unique mind. He is the Vincent van Gogh of television. The Tesla of 90s broadcast. Unappreciated and undervalued in his time. But he's stubborn and difficult.

Marc Scott Zicree doesn't do stubborn, he does sweet. Zicree doesn't do difficult, he does deferentially sociable. Put him on Seasons 1 - 2 of SLIDERS and have him facing FOX executives and his approach would have been decidedly different from Torme's.

"Explosions? Absolutely, SLIDERS should have explosions! SLIDERS can tell any kind of story, some of those stories should have 10 - 20 nitroglycerin explosions so that you can have those in the trailers; but hey, that'll blow the budget, so how about next week, we save some money and do an episode where Rembrandt is like Elvis... "

"The People's Court scene is too silly? Well, how about this: we'll do a cut with it and a cut without it and you screen the version with it and if it gets no laughs, you cut it, but really, it's a great joke. Listen, it's a really good breather and it'll really set the mood so that we can have more of a car chase scene later, you like car chases, right? Walking here lets us drive faster here... "

"I was thinking we could do a dinosaur episode! SLIDERS does dinosaurs!! But again, very expensive, so next week, could we do this cheap story where the sliders think they've gotten home... "

"So, I don't see all these BAYWATCH extras fitting into many of our scripts after the credits. But before the credits, we always have a short world, and I think we could really make sure that all of our teaser parallel Earths can have lots of these women in those outfits you like, how about that? And we've got a world where most of the men died off and we've got this Vegas type episode where we could do that sort of casting and we could write some more recurring female doubles if there are any actresses you want to showcase."

"I know you're not sure about introducing these Kromagg characters, but that could lead to a lot of action sequences with spaceships firing lasers at the sliders and there could be lots of explosions, too. Great for trailers."

"I think for a 22 episode order, we could definitely do at least 11 action-heavy shows, but again, those are very expensive, so for the other 11, we really need to do more bargain bottle episodes like a world that prioritizes academics over athletics, where the gender divide favors women over men, where Mexicans rule America, where Wiccanism toppled Christianity, where psychics run government. The bottle episodes let us do the episodes with gunfights and car chases and explosions and foot races and motorcycle stunts and of course, those are our top priority, those take the bulk of our resources -- and these social satire episodes are really to pace our spending so we can get you the action that you want."

I just (independently/ironically) just finished watching last week's The Prisoner chat with Tracy.  I was stunned at the news!  They speak about it at the 1 hour 55 minute mark.

Tracy says there's going to be a "Sliders Convention" in Long Island, NY, in summer 2022, in the "early stages."  It's (thankfully) NOT per Tracy to be run by Creation Entertainment.  Sounds like he will reveal more information later, as it didn't sound like he had it in front of him. 

PS: Tracy later recounted a funny story about a fake Tracy Torme Facebook page doing a Q&A, which he found out about it, and showed up and was kind of turned off on social media by that.  His wife is currently putting something together for him now though.

Eggert is your favorite actress?!?  She was fairly pleasant although has also been known to party too much at cons and not answer the bell the next day, something I have witnessed ha ha.  As for the convention, I'm going to see what details I can get before giving my two cents on that.  Tracy mentioned a trip he and his wife were supposed to take to Jordan in December was going to be delayed until next June or July, so I guess that is not when such a convention would occur.

Yes, I've seen your fanfic all over FanFiction.net. It's so insulting, no one ever steals mine.

Response to Grizzlor is here:
http://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?pid=12226#p12226

Post your fanfics here! I don't think I've ever seen them.

Numbers look good so far, but we’ll see where it ends up. This is Torme’s argument to Universal, though.  Two points:

People spend money on legacy series (where the originals hand off to their kids)

https://deadline.com/2021/11/ghostbuste … 77444/amp/

And people still remember Sliders (to the point of mega-billion Marvel Studios blatantly copying Sliders imagery)

https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?id=430

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.  Marvel likes Sliders, and Marvel has proven they have their finger on the pulse of what people like.

That’s the argument.

It was a very long time ago, but there was word that Kelsey Grammer was a Sliders fan.  It started with an anonymous poster on the old forums who claimed he had talked to Kelsey, but I believe it was later confirmed in an interview.  No idea where that interview would be.

Danielle Claman Gelber also fits everything Tracy has been saying:

https://www.thewrap.com/dick-wolf-danie … elevision/

She was a Fox Exec from 1995 to 2002; and before that was involved in development of Fox shows ranging from 90210 to X-Files.  She should know Sliders and it’s history pretty well.

Most recently, she’s had a big hand in the various Chicago series on NBC.  Her work on the Chicagos led to a first-look deal with Universal TV, so that’s the current connection and likely why she’s looking at Sliders.

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm1891764/bio

Her career in tv is a long one - dating all the way back to The Love Boat.

Here’s an interview from last year:

https://youtu.be/EoGldC4Oe1s

Danielle Claman was not a name that registered but appears she was a backer of Epstein and Tracy back in the day, something that Jacob revealed to EP.com (https://earthprime.com/interviews/jacob … interview/) years ago. 

If Sliders returned, I'm sure we'd have a fan or two in wherever they film who could post some stills from afar on their location shoots.

What is Quinn Mallory's favourite food? "I made your favourite," says Amanda Mallory in the pilot. In the script, Quinn anxiously asks his mother what his favourite food is and she assures him that it's Rice-A-Roni and lamb chops as usual. Like Computer Boy, this piece of world-building was cut from the aired episode and the world is poorer for its absence. In fact, I believe that in omitting the reference to Rice-A-Roni and lamb chops, SLIDERS unfortunately missed an opportunity to hearten a troubled nation, to mend our wounded souls and, more critically and vitally -- to reignite our lost cultural interest in solving problems.

Rice-A-Roni was first created in 1958 by an Italian family who attempted adding dry chicken soup mix to rice and macaroni. Rice-A-Roni is a boxed food mix of rice and seasonings, prepared by browning the contents in butter before simmering the concoction with water for further absorbsion.

In addition, as befitting a meal adored by genius intellect Quinn Mallory, Rice-A-Roni is without question one of the most difficult boxed dinner kits to prepare correctly and effectively. Without precise temperature control, the mixture will burn when simmering. Without maintaining proper steaming level, the rice will not absorb sufficient water and be hard and inedible. The rice must also be allowed to stand for water to evapourate from the mixture.

Rice-A-Roni is possibly the most difficult dilemma ever faced by our Mr. Mallory. It is a dish that requires dedication and commitment. It must be cooked with precise timing and tremendous patience; each step of cooking the Rice-A-Roni must be followed to the letter. Rice-A-Roni requires an understanding of fluid dynamics, evapouration, condensation, boiling points and an intensive level of mathematical calculation for volume and time.

Had the Pilot made it clear that Rice-A-Roni (with lamb chops) is Quinn Mallory's favourite food, SLIDERS would have established a brand identity for itself based on the values of intricate calculation and a commitment to follow instructions fully and accurately. SLIDERS and Rice-A-Roni would have become an advertising force to be reckoned with, inspiring a generation of middle aged viewers and youthful students to dedicate themselves to timekeeping, non-proportionate ratios in water-to-rice volumes and weights, the study of hydrology, and a full understanding of physics and thermodynamics needed for the realization of the potentiality of perfection within each and every box of Rice-A-Roni.

In the event of a SLIDERS revival, all of us must band together. We must implore Tracy Torme to realize the scale, value and impact he could have effected had he recognized that his true work was never about SLIDERS or the sliders. Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo, the timer, the vortex, the adventure -- they were all a path and platform for Torme's true purpose and the real value proposition behind SLIDERS; the value of Rice-A-Roni and the inherent power of Rice-A-Roni to galvanize society and create a generation of culinary artists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers and people who want dinner ready in 15 - 20 minutes.

The stove is set. The box is ready to be opened. Let us open our hearts and stomachs to Rice-A-Roni and the wonders it will bring.

TLDR: Rice-A-Roni is really hard to make. Like, really, really hard. Even Quinn probably screwed it up now and then.

Well, I read the instructions on the back of this box of Rice-A-Roni and thought it seemed hopeless, so I put it in an Instant Pot along with the seasoning, some sliced up lamb chops and some frozen broccoli and cauliflower. Then I browned it lightly with some butter before pressure cooking it for five minutes.

I have to say, this is pretty good. The lamb has a gamey aroma that fits the chicken broth seasoning perfectly and blends in wonderfully with the rice. This is, was, and ever shall be the official meal of SLIDERS.

In all seriousness, Rice-A-Roni and lamb chops is such an individual, peculiar and specific choice that it must hold some special significance to Tracy Torme. The box even says it is "A San Francisco Treat." Hopefully, SLIDERS will be revived and we will all learn the reason why.

Rice-A-Roni and lamb chops is also going to be my last carbohydrate heavy meal for awhile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILHq4MFctmI

Warning. Very quick and dirty trailer. But I was bored.

Who the hell is Annie Fish, and why should I care?  Only fish I care about is MAURICE!

Annie's credentials -- they are roulettewheel on this forum and they wrote the Think of a Roulette blog and covered every episode of SLIDERS and all the comics -- are irrelevant as to whether or not their opinion is worth considering.

Annie's opinion is valid and their criticisms are very reasonable: Jerry O'Connell is old. Tracy Torme may be seriously out of touch with TV. Tracy Torme may be seriously out of touch with present day concerns of identity and culture and economy.

Tracy Torme may be seriously out of touch with reality to think that NBCUniversal would ever revive SLIDERS with the original cast instead of, say, doing what they did with MACGYVER and rebooting it with new actors playing the original character(s).

Annie Fish could be completely and totally right. However, writing is not like selling IKEA shelves. Torme is so rich that he invites homeless people to live with him. Torme is so rich that heart surgery and prostate cancer didn't put him out on the street when most people with that sort of medical cataclysm in America end up renting cardboard boxes for shelter.

Torme comes to SLIDERS now from a place of passion, not avarice. The only SLIDERS writing Torme wants to do is the writing in which he will invest his heart and soul into and the only writing for SLIDERS he wants to do is a vision of SLIDERS with Quinn Mallory played by Jerry O'Connell, Wade Welles played by Sabrina Lloyd, Rembrandt Brown played by Cleavant Derricks, and Professor Arturo played by John Rhys-Davies (and additional new characters should the originals prove difficult to book).

There is no point in Torme pitching a SLIDERS continuity reboot with recast versions of the originals if that isn't what makes Torme passionate. If that's the only revival that NBCUniversal would ever want to do, then that revival can come after Torme dies or is abducted by aliens.

Tracy Torme deserves the chance to fail. It is Torme's right to pitch the revival he wants to pitch because SLIDERS is his show. If I decide to paint my house glow in the dark green before putting it on the market, that's my right too.

If Torme's revival bid proves unmarketable and unapprovable, so be it. It was the revival he wanted to make. We can criticize the creative and marketing merits of this approach and we can review the unlikely successes and likely failures of his efforts. We can talk about what we'd like Torme to do with SLIDERS. But it's never going to be up to us to say what Torme should or shouldn't do with SLIDERS. Tracy Torme is SLIDERS.

(I would also argue that Temporal Flux is SLIDERS, but that's a different thread.)

I applaud Annie Fish for raising all of these extremely self-evident and likely problems with what Torme is trying to sell, but doing so in a way that in no way invalidates Torme's right to do as he sees fit with his show and in no way denigrates the fans' longings to see SLIDERS and be reunited with the sliders.

And Annie is right about those podcasters, they are abominations of broken humanity.

I got a question for you guys.

Is a "remastered and restored" version of SLIDERS the worst pitch for a Netflix?  Or would the public just kinda laugh at that.

Thank you.

I'm really not sure where this has come from, but "older" male actors is not a thing that Hollywood has any issues with at all.

There are many genuine reasons why rebooting an old show while keeping the old cast won't work, but JOC's age is NOT one of them.

I think a remasterization of Sliders and putting it on Netflix could help pave way for a reboot in the future. It would introduce new people to the show who haven't heard of it before.

Plus editing on tape (as sliders did) is another burden.  It's very ironic older shows can get HD restoration easier but it's the case.