Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

The SLIDERS series bible is a joke. It's a farce. It's an embarrassment. It's nothing.

I think the reason why Gregory House and Sherlock and the Thirteenth Doctor are so effective: the episodes were actively transcribed by the fans, so all their dialogue is in the AI corpus. SLIDERS fans didn't do much transcription. Also, a lot of the SLIDERS scripts were hard copies scanned into PDF format and don't have machine-recognized characters in the pages. They're JPEGs, not rendered text files.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Today I saw a sample of a new Adobe Photoshop feature that filled out a photo to make it wider.   It improvised the information on the left and right and was scary good.

Pretty certain 4:3 video content could be turned into 16:9 in the coming decades though I am not sure there will ever be enough of a commercial market for it to be developed or be available to consumers to utilize independently.

123 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2023-06-07 12:04:23)

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Apparently Tracy Torme has a new radio show or podcast of some sort.  I'm not able to find it but don ecker brought it up on a recent episode of Gerry Russell's pop culture minefield YouTube show.

I got the sense it was ufo focused but not sure.

124 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2023-06-15 09:38:40)

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

This is quite impressing.

Check out the parent tweet ( https://twitter.com/137pm/status/1668266174549745664 )and the response to it, linked below (regarding legal implications)
https://twitter.com/hotte_ken/status/16 … 7923170314

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Imagine if Tracy could do season 1 style sliders, over and over again, without network pushing him out.  It may never have gotten the tv ratings to support the requirements fox needed but it would have been looked back on as one of the greatest genre (and multi-genre) series put together.  People would have appreciated it over time, and it would have had a pretty extended shelf life (e.g. 2000-2013 in syndication).

I totally understand FOX's decisions, I just feel like we were robbed of tracy's creativity on an extended run.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Perhaps this also happened on Guardian world

https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium- … the-earth/

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Here’s something you would expect to see in a Sliders episode:

https://www.globalconstructionreview.co … an-living/

Coming soon to a reality near you

128 (edited by Grizzlor 2024-01-10 11:02:28)

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Actor Peter Spellos, who played Jimmy Fountain in Eggheads, has died.  He played the bookie/gangster in that show, and was immortalized by being chosen for a two page "interview" in Brad Linaweaver's episode guide.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a … ancer.html

For posterity here's Peter's interview from the Linaweaver book....

https://i.postimg.cc/WzdKcV8x/IMG-170050833244-F-2.jpg

Transcript

INTERVIEW WITH PETER SPELLOS

This interview was conducted before I started work on the episode guide. Instead of winding up in Cult Movies, the film magazine for which I regularly write, this interview with a character actor who had a part on Sliders seems more appropriate for this book.

Peter Spellos has always been lucky. In TV Land, he has at least one role more famous than his stint on Sliders. He's the guy Teri Hatcher shoots on Lois and Clark. Fan translation: HE DID A SCENE WITH TERI HATCHER!

For this book, Peter Spellos organized his answers about Sliders into the following. So instead of the Q&A, here's something different.

∞ ∞ ∞

Coming onto a show as a guest star can sometimes be an alienating experience. The cast and crew have been working together for a while and have already bonded into a close-knit unit. When you spend twelve to fourteen hours a day with the same group on location or in a studio, you feel like an outsider at a family function, invited to partake... but not really part of the core. This was not the case with Sliders in one important respect. Everyone went out of their way to be warm and gracious. As a character actor who often does villains, I have only one thing to say: A bad guy never had it so good.
By the third day of shooting, I felt like one of the gang. With only one week to shoot each episode, there was much to be done every day, but the atmosphere around the set remained relaxed. This made it a very creative and productive environment. It was also a pleasure to spend a week in Vancouver, a beautiful city to which I'd never been (and on my birthday, no less).

I enjoyed playing Jimmy Fountain on the "Eggheads" episode. Villains have always been more enjoyable for me than "do-gooders." I've played mob bosses and henchmen, and they are often stereotypical "dems" and "dose" kind of guys. But Jimmy was different. As different as the alternate Earth he lived on. When trying to convince Quinn to throw the big game, in order to offset a million-dollar gambling debt he owed, Jimmy suggested that, "Desperati desperandum faciunt." (Desperate men do desperate deeds.)

We shot the climax of the show that evening on the roof of the Canadian Broadcasting Company. The Sliders (except for John Rhys-Davies) and I had worked the past hour on the chase scene prior to the rooftop scene. Nothing like a nice pinstripe suit and a pair of Italian loafers to do aerobics in! After we completed shooting that scene and finished our dinner break, John arrived to shoot the finale. He's a very impressive man, both in stature and in presence. His mellifluous voice echoed through the halls of the CBC. We were waiting for the elevator when we were introduced for the first time. He greeted me with a firm handshake and a warm smile. We exchanged pleasantries and entered the elevator.

John and I are both men of joyous quantity. As we stood side by side (with not too many others around) during our ascent to the scenic skyline set, John turned to me and spoke in his rich, metered, baritone voice. "So you're playing the villain in this episode?" I turned and responded, "Yes, I am, John." He put his arm around me and shook me in a fraternity brother-like fashion and bellowed, "Pound for pound, we're the best villains on the planet, aren't we?" I agreed wholeheartedly, with every ounce (and pound) of conviction and joy I had.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Grizzlor wrote:

Actor Peter Spellos, who played Jimmy Fountain in Eggheads, has died.  He played the bookie/gangster in that show, and was immortalized by being chosen for a two page "interview" in Brad Linaweaver's episode guide.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a … ancer.html

For posterity here's Peter's interview from the Linaweaver book....

https://i.postimg.cc/WzdKcV8x/IMG-170050833244-F-2.jpg

that's very cool with the book.

he was excellent in Eggheads.  Quite memorable.  RIP.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Some interesting alternate history to mine here:

https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/stat … 3130486261

https://twitter.com/The_OJW/status/1730 … 16/photo/1

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

*jaw drops*

I feel ridiculous that I didn't know that there were presidents before Washington.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

The president under the Articles of Confederation wasn't like the president we know today.  It was more akin to the president pro tempore of the senate, someone who presides but has very limited powers.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

pilight wrote:

The president under the Articles of Confederation wasn't like the president we know today.  It was more akin to the president pro tempore of the senate, someone who presides but has very limited powers.

Exactly.  We were "taught" this in school, ha ha.  The Articles established a relationship between the 13 new states, but there was little Federalism there.  The Congress worked on international matters, for instance, but in a few years, they all decided there was a need to call the first (and hopefully last) Constitutional Convention.  That was brought on largely as a result of trade and tariff disagreements.  From there, came the greatest document in the history of mankind, the FIRST of its kind to establish the separation of church and state, by prohibiting a nationally sanctioned religion, and allowing all religious observation.  The late great Christopher Hitchens, a hero of mine, consistently presented that as America's most valued article.  A secular, federal republic, the first and largely only example of it.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

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

OMG, horrible, horrible tragedy for Christian Oliver, who was the guest star during S4's Net Worth!  I also knew him from one season of Saved by the Bell: The New Class. 

An American actor died tragically alongside his two daughters, ages 10 and 12, as their plane nose dived and crashed into the waters off of a small Caribbean island.

Christian Klepser, 51, who went by the stage name Christian Oliver, was confirmed to have been killed in the accident, along side his children, Madita and Annik. The plane's pilot, Robert Sachs, was also killed.

During his career, Klepser appeared in major movies such as Speed Racer and Valkyrie and recently had a part in the latest installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.

https://earthprime.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/episode-guide/season-4/net-worth/net-worth.jpg

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

oh god.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Man that's awful.

slidecage.com
Twitter @slidersfanblog
Instagram slidersfanblog

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

A bit inside tin-foil hat territory, but interesting for a Sliders idea if nothing else.  The interesting part starts around time stamp 2:40

https://youtu.be/LwD-IkT3u_0

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

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

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

An interesting look at one of those mundane things in life that Sliders can play with - the UPC barcode:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … r-AA1ncg0Q

And starting in 2027, it will be a thing of the past.  Products will all sport a QR code instead

140 (edited by RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan 2024-01-19 05:44:31)

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Wow..   bar codes leaving us is kinda nuts.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Something I could see in a Sliders story:

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/02 … cnnphotos/

But it brings up an idea I had a long time ago. We define reality by what we see; what we feel; what we know.  But what if the Sliders landed in a remote area and all they had was something like these guidestones.

With no way to build further reference, would they believe those were the norms of that world?  What if the perception of reality for four people was shaped by just one man acting alone in his solitary beliefs?

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

TemporalFlux wrote:

Something I could see in a Sliders story:

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/02 … cnnphotos/

But it brings up an idea I had a long time ago. We define reality by what we see; what we feel; what we know.  But what if the Sliders landed in a remote area and all they had was something like these guidestones.

With no way to build further reference, would they believe those were the norms of that world?  What if the perception of reality for four people was shaped by just one man acting alone in his solitary beliefs?

Can't be any worse than using a discarded newspaper or an old fence gate!

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

I've written a lot of dialogue for Quinn Mallory over the years in fanfic. And I like to think that I understand the character, but one thing eludes me: I do not understand Quinn's love for professional sports. I didn't realize this when writing SLIDERS fanfic, but looking back: I have habitually avoided sports in how I wrote Quinn.

I've written three scripts and one novella for the early-20s Quinn ("Slide Effects", "Net Worth: The Quinn and Wade Edition", SLIDERS REBORN 1 & 4) and five scripts and a novella for the version who is in his mid-40s (SLIDERS REBORN 2 - 3, 5 - 6). I've gotten some nice compliments on how my version of Quinn sounds like Jerry O'Connell, particularly in how I insert breaks and pauses and points of emphasis, and I also capture Quinn's body language and the way Torme wrote Quinn's improvisational heroism and nature as social crusader. And yet...

There is not a single sports reference in any of Quinn's dialogue in my stories. There are only two references to fitness: in the first SLIDERS REBORN script, Quinn says he had to quit drinking because it was making him put on weight (just like Jerry O'Connell); in the fifth SLIDERS REBORN chapter, Quinn says he had to quit caffeine because it kept triggering flashbacks of "Strangers and Comrades".

Part of this is because I myself do not understand or have any interest in professional or amateur sports. I have zero interest in soccer, football, hockey, rugby, badminton, tennis, wrestling. I just don't care. My utter disinterest in sports is best summed up by Garfunkel and Oates' hypersardonic three minute comedy song, "Sports Go Sports":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fraSdN-PG8

Garfunkel and Oates wrote:

Sports go sports!
This is the most important thing that's ever occurred
The vicarious fulfillment of your dream that got deferred
You had aspirations as a kid but you didn't have the skill
So you watch genetically superior people do the things you never will
Sports go sports

May the hours you spend watching post-match pontificators
Amplify the thrill of being a witness
And better your predictive aptitude
For your squad's future physical fitness
Sports go sports

Watching able-bodied millionaires play with each other
Watching less agile millionaires talk about it on TV
Sports go sports

At the same time, I wrote my 44 year old Quinn as basically being Tom Cruise in the latest MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movies and my dialogue for him indicates that Quinn does work on his fitness and health, and sports must be a part of that in same way, but in a way that I didn't explore at all in my writing.

While I have zero interest in sports, I feel that sports are clearly an important part of the Quinn Mallory character, albeit one that I didn't understand. As conceived and presented by series co-creator Tracy Torme, sports are one of Quinn's obsessions, just as Torme himself loved surfing and football and hockey. Torme used a pan across Quinn's bedroom to establish Quinn shared Torme's interet in athletics.

I don't see the appeal of sports, so I fail to grasp what Quinn likes about them or why they matter to him or whether or not he plays them. But it is clearly an important part of the Quinn-character, and a part that I have edged around, dodged, evaded and downplayed, not because it doesn't matter, but because it's a handicap for me. A handicap so engrained that I honestly never thought about it until recently, when Torme passed away and a number of posters talked about how much Torme loved sports and how Torme gave that same trait to Quinn.

What is the appeal of watching professional sports? A web search tells me that the appeal is enjoying physical peak performance in human bodies, the strategy and tactics of a game, the drama and unpredictability of a competition, the emotional investment in a team, the social aspects of being a spectator.

Is there a scientific angle to why Quinn likes sports? It might be Quinn's fascination with statistical analysis, physics of trajectory and aerodynamics, game theory strategy, and also nutrition and fitness as Quinn clearly cares about working out and being physically active and agile.

I never got into it. I never touched on it. People like my Quinn Mallory a lot and I'm very proud of how well I wrote him. Tom of REWATCH PODCAST remarked that he could always hear Jerry O'Connell's voice in his head when reading my SLIDERS stories, and I think that my ability to pastiche the way Jerry delivers Quinn's dialogue with weight, contemplation, (performative) improvisation, intellectual delight and inspiration would often obscure how some key facets of Quinn were missing.

I frequently drew on "The Guardian" in the scenes where Quinn is mentoring his younger self, and speaks with both gentleness and forcefulness, and that inner confidence and emotional vulnerability matched with scientific knowledge defines Quinn to the point where capturing that makes any discrepancies seem trivial or non-existent. I am at the point where Quinn seems to write himself and I just document what he would have to say. More truthfully: I ask myself what I think Quinn would say or do and then try to find the words that present that, but that presentation can be limited by my own perceptions, interests and limitations. And sports is one of those limitations for me.

My interpretation of Quinn often used performance and pastiche to hide its failings, and I find my aversion to sports to be a very interesting flaw in my work on the character.

I brought in Nigel Mitchell to help me create parallel Earths for SLIDERS REBORN, but I probably should have also found someone to help me write sports references for Quinn. :-)

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Plenty of "nerds" or "geeks" who excel in engineering or math have huge sports passions.  It's usually something that is passed down from father to son or daughter.  Professional sports today have become dominated strategically by math wizards who analyze metrics and statistics. 

My feeling was that Torme viewed Quinn's childhood as fairly routine for suburban Americans of the 1980s.  That would have included sports playing and watching.  At some point, he becomes highly interested and excels in subjects like mathematics and physics.  Tracy often mentioned that Quinn's brilliance came naturally, easily, and that he often took it for granted.  This annoyed Arturo, a highly intelligent man, yet more of a bookworm than possessing unique analytical gifts. 

I don't know that sports necessarily did much to/for the Quinn character.  I think it was something that interested him far more as a child/teenager than now, where his intense study and experimentation seemed to take place of all over interests.

145 (edited by Slider_Quinn21 2024-03-10 19:06:47)

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Grizzlor wrote:

I don't know that sports necessarily did much to/for the Quinn character.  I think it was something that interested him far more as a child/teenager than now, where his intense study and experimentation seemed to take place of all over interests.

Do they ever mention sports outside of the fact that Rembrandt is signing the national anthem at a Giants game?  I would think one of the sorta fun aspects of sliding would be to see how my teams performed from Earth to Earth.  Was I lucky to be from my Earth (where at least my teams won sometimes) or was I seriously unlucky (and my teams won way more on all other Earths).

ireactions, I could've helped with the sports references smile

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Grizzlor wrote:

Plenty of "nerds" or "geeks" who excel in engineering or math have huge sports passions.  It's usually something that is passed down from father to son or daughter.  Professional sports today have become dominated strategically by math wizards who analyze metrics and statistics.

Well, this is enlightening. Maybe, in 2024, a version of Quinn who never created sliding is a sports commentator.

Grizzlor wrote:

My feeling was that Torme viewed Quinn's childhood as fairly routine for suburban Americans of the 1980s.  That would have included sports playing and watching.

I'm glad to learn this. Sports are just lost on me. I'm very interested in fitness and nutrition, but I once went to a baseball game with my mother when I was 11 and my mother insisted that I bring a sweater and the sweater was too thick for such warm weather and I tied it around my waist and it fell to the ground at the train station and my mother screamed at me to pick it up and I screamed at her that I hadn't wanted to bring it in the first place and my mother screamed at me that if I didn't pick it up that there would be no baseball game for me and I screamed at her that it wasn't much of a threat because sports are boring and... I can't remember if we actually made it to the game.

Sorry, where was this going?

Grizzlor wrote:

At some point, he becomes highly interested and excels in subjects like mathematics and physics.  Tracy often mentioned that Quinn's brilliance came naturally, easily, and that he often took it for granted.  This annoyed Arturo, a highly intelligent man, yet more of a bookworm than possessing unique analytical gifts.

My personal opinion, shared by maybe nobody, is that Quinn was not actually smarter than Arturo. It's just that Quinn was willing to make leaps of logic and take guesses that sometimes turned out to be right and express guesses with more certainty than was warranted and improvisationally correct on the fly.

Arturo, however, did not like to make leaps and was a more methodical, deliberate and calculated thinker, which Arturo mistook for being slow or foolish when it was in fact more cautious and less reckless. Arturo would never have gotten everyone lost in the multiverse. Quinn was a daredevil and a gambler. Arturo wasn't dumber or smarter; he just had different strengths.

Grizzlor wrote:

I don't know that sports necessarily did much to/for the Quinn character.  I think it was something that interested him far more as a child/teenager than now, where his intense study and experimentation seemed to take place of all over interests.

Well, Quinn has to exercise at least as much as Jerry O'Connell, and the sports justified why Quinn clearly did some running and weightlifting every day.

Thinking about it now, I imagine that Quinn's interest in sports, strategies, game theory, and how to throw a football, hit a baseball and sink a basketball led to his interest in mathematics, physics, engineering and quantum mechanics.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Do they ever mention sports outside of the fact that Rembrandt is signing the national anthem at a Giants game?

Yes, Quinn's bedroom in the Pilot is filled with sporting items and includes hockey, basketball, football and surfing equipment and merchandise. Wade "Summer of Love" and "Fever" have Quinn specify that he was a football player, a quarterback, and that he has a knee injury from the game. "Eggheads" draws on Quinn's background in football for playing Mindgame.

Quinn's baseball card collection is a key plot point in "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome". Arturo is familiar with football in "Summer of Love" but claims to have only seen his first game in "The Guardian". "The Guardian" also establishes outright that Quinn is a boxer.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I would think one of the sorta fun aspects of sliding would be to see how my teams performed from Earth to Earth.  Was I lucky to be from my Earth (where at least my teams won sometimes) or was I seriously unlucky (and my teams won way more on all other Earths).

ireactions, I could've helped with the sports references smile

Well, I'm still converting SLIDERS REBORN to ePub, and once I get it all into Google Docs, you're welcome to take a pass at it.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:
Grizzlor wrote:

I don't know that sports necessarily did much to/for the Quinn character.  I think it was something that interested him far more as a child/teenager than now, where his intense study and experimentation seemed to take place of all over interests.

Do they ever mention sports outside of the fact that Rembrandt is signing the national anthem at a Giants game?  I would think one of the sorta fun aspects of sliding would be to see how my teams performed from Earth to Earth.  Was I lucky to be from my Earth (where at least my teams won sometimes) or was I seriously unlucky (and my teams won way more on all other Earths).

ireactions, I could've helped with the sports references smile

There was the infamous OJ Simpson reference, and a few others here and there, but most of that seemed to be in The Pilot.  Obviously the big one was Eggheads, where Quinn played the Math Club version of Basketball.  Plus whatever episode Quinn mentions the 49ers Super Bowl victory, but if I recall it was actually the wrong year.  Something like that.  There were plenty of pop culture references beyond sports that seemed to vanish by season 2, and completely out with Tracy's departure.  If anything, I found that to be disappointing, and further example of the laziness and ineptitude of the writing staff. 

ireactions wrote:

My personal opinion, shared by maybe nobody, is that Quinn was not actually smarter than Arturo. It's just that Quinn was willing to make leaps of logic and take guesses that sometimes turned out to be right and express guesses with more certainty than was warranted and improvisationally correct on the fly.

Arturo, however, did not like to make leaps and was a more methodical, deliberate and calculated thinker, which Arturo mistook for being slow or foolish when it was in fact more cautious and less reckless. Arturo would never have gotten everyone lost in the multiverse. Quinn was a daredevil and a gambler. Arturo wasn't dumber or smarter; he just had different strengths.

I would agree, but again, Arturo was highly learned on many subjects.  Quinn seemed to know sports, computers, and quantum physics.  He was much younger and thus hadn't had the time to gain more knowledge.  He was certainly the risk taker, especially with his invention.  Max was conservative, and that fit his nature.  This was also seen during Last Days when he seemed to hit many walls, only to have a baked Benish come up with answers like it was nothing.

ireactions wrote:

Well, Quinn has to exercise at least as much as Jerry O'Connell, and the sports justified why Quinn clearly did some running and weightlifting every day.

Thinking about it now, I imagine that Quinn's interest in sports, strategies, game theory, and how to throw a football, hit a baseball and sink a basketball led to his interest in mathematics, physics, engineering and quantum mechanics.

I can attest that being physically fit and spending time in the gym does not make one all that much better at sports!  I mean, there's that infamous O'Connell "duck walk" that the old Scifi board had a field day with.  Ha ha.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

I always thought Charlie was the one mocked for the "injured duck" run. I don't remember Jerry having it. I do remember fans noting that Charlie's body double in "The Unstuck Man" mimicked Charlie's run perfectly.

**

Did you know that the Spinning Topps were based on a real life band called The Four Tops? I did not, but maybe you all did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Tops

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

ireactions wrote:

Did you know that the Spinning Topps were based on a real life band called The Four Tops? I did not, but maybe you all did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Tops

What really gets you is when you see the signature performance style of the Four Tops on tv:

https://youtu.be/P0B0Kv7hiNo?si=GiEudjO40689pUqf

https://youtu.be/BRfpdSkDZ7E?si=FsP8bwc074YI3hfs

It’s also worth noting that this comparison may even expose another difference between Earth Prime and our own reality:

https://hof.slidersweb.net/temporalflux/25766.html

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Of course Temporal Flux knew that The Spinning Topps were based on The Four Tops. :-) And TF's theory on HOF that The Four Tops on Earth Prime had their place in history occupied by The Spinning Topps is intriguing and challenging because Rembrandt is too young for The Four Tops' history to apply to him without significant revision.

The Four Tops formed in 1953 and had the bulk of their career from 1953 to 1988, with their stardom achieved in 1965 ("I Can't Help Myself"), only to have lesser success by 1967 after the departure of songwriter/producer Holland–Dozier–Holland from Motown, but they had a resurgence in 1972 during a period with ABC-Dunhill Records, and continued to have hits from 1972 to 1977 and then 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1988. Their mark on music and culture was indelible and eternal.

But Rembrandt, according to the Season 4 Online Slide, was born in 1955. "Into the Mystic" says his last performance with the Topps was in 1986, "As Time Goes By" says he was 17 when he was singing with "The Shandells" and referred to as "Little Rembrandt", which would be 1972 or 1973.

Did The Spinning Topps, at some period between 1972 - 1986, achieve everything that The Four Tops did between 1953 and 1988?

This may or may not be the cause of the error that Temporal Flux notes in his Online Slide comments on HOF: The Online Slide says that "Can't Help Myself" was written by The Temptations, a 1960s-originating group. TF points out that song was actually written by The Four Tops, whose place in Earth Prime is presumably occupied by The Spinning Topps.

But The Spinning Topps, given Rembrandt's birth year in 1955, could not have written a 1965 hit song as Rembrandt would have been 10 years old and he's never been presented as that much of a prodigy.

One theory to which I'm partial but which doesn't work for the timeline is that The Spinning Topps achieved equivalent achievements to what the Four Tops did between 1986 to 1994 -- after Rembrandt had left them.

But it's unlikely that The Four Tops' 60s - 70s hits would have had the same impact in the late 80s and early 90s. It makes more sense to put achievements similar to The Four Tops into the late 70s for The Spinning Topps and put them between the late 70s to 1986.

I have been working on writing Rembrandt's eulogy for Tracy Torme. While the Professor, Quinn and Wade had a very metatextual perspective on honouring their creator, Rembrandt's eulogy is instead going to be a story about how he met Tracy Torme in the early 1980s, and how a twentysomething Tracy inspired Rembrandt to do something new with his talents, and how Tracy Torme changed Rembrandt's life forever and created a bond of friendship between them for which Rembrandt has always been grateful.

I know nothing about music, so I have been doing a lot of research and reading to better understand Rembrandt's life: he was born in 1955, according to the Season 4 Online Slide. But where was he born? What was his first encounter with music that made him embrace James Brown soul and R&B but also Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky and the other classical greats? What was his inspiration to drop out of high school and join the band The Shandells as under the diminutive stagename of "Little Rembrandt"?

How did the Topps first meet and form? What were their first successes? And why did Rembrandt leave them?

Searching for similar figures in real life history is where I learned what most people probably knew already, that The Spinning Topps are a reference to The Four Tops.

Being able to use the real life history of The Four Tops and Levi Stubbs has been both help and hinderance because The Four Tops started decades before The Spinning Topps could have even met. But it also shows how music is such an integral part of Rembrandt Brown, Cleavant Derricks and Tracy Torme, and how much Tracy Torme loved music and Rembrandt to attach Rembrandt to musical history in this way.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Had forgotten until Jim tweeted the pilot episode commentary from Tracy Torme.  The Spinning Topps was inspired by two groups - The Spinners and The Four Tops

https://youtu.be/ojCikI9npJQ?si=eTtoK6Cgqoa79ZXd

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

I would say that The Spinners were the bulk of the inspiration, given that Tracy considered himself a "Philly" guy, and they were part of the Philly soul/doo-wop scene back then.  The Tops were a Motown group, and originated as far back as the 50's.  The viewer technically had to "suspend" belief a tad when it came to Rembrandt Brown, who in actuality would have been even older than Arturo, had he actually been a 60's soul/RnB crooner, in the style of the songs that Tracy haphazardly concocted for season 1.  However, the character likely was "just out of high school" in the early/mid-70s when the Topps hit it big.  Maybe not fully in line with what actually went down in music back then, but it's a TV show after all.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

I was screwing around on Microsoft Copilot, and I asked it who would win in a fight between Quinn and Spider-Man.  From what I've seen of this, AI never picks a true winner and this didn't disappoint.

In the cosmic arena where dimensions collide, let us pit two unlikely contenders against each other: Spider-Man and Quinn Mallory from the interdimensional odyssey of Sliders.

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) swings into the fray, his agility and spider-sense honed by countless battles against foes like the Green Goblin, Venom, and Doctor Octopus. His web-slinging prowess and acrobatics make him a formidable force. But beware, for with great power comes great responsibility – and sometimes, a pesky J. Jonah Jameson editorial.

On the other side of the wormhole, we have Quinn Mallory, the accidental traveler of parallel worlds. Armed with a trusty timer and a penchant for stumbling into alternate realities, Quinn is no stranger to survival. He’s faced dystopian Earths, steampunk dimensions, and even a world where everyone communicates through interpretive dance (yes, really).

Now, let’s break it down:

Physical Prowess:
Spider-Man: Superhuman strength, agility, and reflexes. His spider-sense warns him of danger.
Quinn Mallory: Well, he’s not exactly a gym rat. But he’s resourceful and scrappy – the kind of guy who’d jury-rig a photon accelerator out of a toaster.

Arsenal:
Spider-Man: Web shooters, spider-tracers, and a suit that would make Tony Stark jealous.
Quinn Mallory: A trusty timer that opens wormholes. Not exactly a weapon, but it’s his ticket to adventure.

Intellectual Acumen:
Spider-Man: Brilliant scientist and inventor. He’s got brains to match his brawn.
Quinn Mallory: Quantum physicist (well, sort of). He understands sliding tech better than most.

Battle Tactics:
Spider-Man: Flips, quips, and web-based acrobatics. He’d probably tie Quinn up in a web cocoon.
Quinn Mallory: He’d slide to an Earth where Spider-Man is a mime, distracting him with invisible walls.

Motivation:
Spider-Man: Protecting New York City and honoring Uncle Ben’s memory.
Quinn Mallory: Finding his way home and avoiding Kromaggs (those nasty interdimensional hunters).

The Verdict: In a straight-up brawl, Spider-Man’s agility and combat skills give him the edge. But if Quinn can slide to a reality where Spider-Man is allergic to spider silk, all bets are off. Plus, Quinn’s luck is like a malfunctioning timer – unpredictable.

So, in the ultimate crossover event, Spider-Man might win the battle, but Quinn would slide away with the last laugh. And who knows, maybe they’d team up to fight a villainous version of Aunt May with six mechanical arms.

Remember, in the multiverse, anything is possible – even a dance-off between Spidey and Quinn.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Why would Peter Parker and Quinn Mallory fight... ? It seems to me that they would have a lot in common, given that both Quinn and Peter have had to deal with:

  • Flesh craving zombies

  • Giant slugs

  • Dinosaurs

  • Killer robots

  • Bloodthirsty vampires

  • Underground predators

  • Mad scientists trying to collapse and combine universes

  • Artificial twisters

  • Sorcerers

  • Dream Masters

  • Clones of themselves

  • Clones who presented themselves as brothers

  • Confusing revelations about their parents and true origins which may or may not have been true

  • Being 'combined' with another person in a 'merging' and then 'lost'

But I understand. You want to know who would win in a fight. Honestly, I would defer to the needs of the plot and come up with options for Peter to win, for Quinn to win, or for the fight to lead to a draw.

In these match-ups of this nature, Batman is a popular character to often be pitted against another superhero, and fans always like to have Batman win. The reason: it is fairly straightforward to have Batman defeated by the Hulk's superstrength or Thor's hammer or Ghost Rider's chains. There are more variations in how Batman could defeat more physically powerful characters.

It's more unexpected if a less powerful character defeats a more powerful one. And yet, because this is such a common approach, it has paradoxically made it highly predictable that Batman will win the fight.

We have a similar problem with Quinn and Peter where, because Peter has superpowers, there are a lot of obvious, straightforward ways in which Peter could beat Quinn, and it is more challenging for Quinn to beat Peter. But then it's obvious that most writers will have Quinn win the fight because Quinn's victory will be more challenging and Peter's victory would be very straightforward, except the straightforward is now the unexpected and the expected is the difficult -- you get my point.

So, I guess the fight unfolds this way: Spider-Man sees Quinn breaking into big box electronics store to steal parts needed to fix the timer. Spider-Man pursues Quinn, tries to escape the store only to find Spidey's webbed off the entrance and then Spider-Man confronts him. Quinn is terrified of the webbing and freaked out by Spider-Man's emotive mask and white eyes and swings wildly. Spider-Man easily dodges every punch, grabs Quinn, and throws Quinn backwards.

Quinn lands in the housewares section and Quinn realizes: Spider-Man's hands gripped the surface of Quinn's shirt without Spider-Man's fingers actually squeezing the fabric; Spider-Man has the ability to stick to surfaces by manipulating the interatomic forces of surfaces, increasing the co-efficient of friction.

Quinn starts crawling through the housewares, grabbing a toaster, ripping a control board out of a mini-fridge, yanking a lens out of a projector, and hurriedly assembling these items to the back of a microwave just as Spider-Man gets the drop on him. Quinn triggers the microwave and Spider-Man discovers he can't stand; his feet keep slipping off the floor and he is sliding all over every surface like he's been coated in grease.

Quinn has used his contraption to reverse Spider-Man's adhesion powers, inverting the interatomic forces so that Spider-Man can not stick to any surface at all. Quinn lets Spider-Man slide into a wall and then Quinn grabs Spider-Man's web shooter and webs Spider-Man to immobilize him and switches off the microwave.

Quinn then explains to Spider-Man: he's sorry for robbing the store, but there's a crisis facing this parallel universe. Quinn can tell from Spider-Man's webbing and advanced yet homemade costume design: Spider-Man is clearly a scientist, an engineer and a chemist. And Quinn needs Spider-Man's help...

After averting the crisis, Quinn and Peter elect to stay in touch and do a monthly podcast together.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Sliders is officially now listed under "Golden Oldies" on the Xumo app  (where  the streaming quality is  the  best picture of  any platform).  So yea, that feels just great.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Hahahahah wow

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

I just want to say....  I think it's non-trivial that Sliders has yet again seemingly been renewed for licensing on Peacock after it expired at the end of June. Universal has many titles its studio owns yet Peacock does not license all of them. 

It's 2024.  30 years after SLIDERS debuted.   Yet on a modern, premium streaming platform, it still maintains itself as relevant to today's marketplace.

Yes, Seaquest is available too, but Spielberg & Amblin got that totally remastered and in HD.  It had some help, politically.   Sliders is there truly based on having enough fan interest to be kept on the platform.

It's a privilege as a fan to see it there.

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Random appearance in my Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/PowerRangersDay/sta … 8729776134

A vortex-like portal to another dimension?  A handheld device that activates it?  Not quite on point, but it tickles the memory

Not sure why Dr. Phlox is there, though

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

Forgot to mention that Sliders gone poof into thin air on Roku. Just like that kid in Electric Twister Acid Test.
https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details … s/season-3

slidecage.com
Twitter @slidersfanblog
Instagram slidersfanblog

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

TemporalFlux wrote:

Random appearance in my Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/PowerRangersDay/sta … 8729776134

A vortex-like portal to another dimension?  A handheld device that activates it?  Not quite on point, but it tickles the memory

Not sure why Dr. Phlox is there, though

I don't think Tracy realized how powerful Sliders was. You can see it in entertainment like Power Rangers, Marvel, etc. But when it affects society on such a wide personal level, that is huge. Time and again Sliders is brought up on X, literally every single day in their personal lives. There are other TV shows I can think of that are never brought up like this.

slidecage.com
Twitter @slidersfanblog
Instagram slidersfanblog

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

While this probably makes sense legally it's awful news for the sliders pilot novelization available on archive.org

https://www.wired.com/story/internet-ar … se-appeal/

Re: Thoughts on Sliders in Random

I don't believe in book burning, but if I could burn one book, it would be Brad Linaweaver's novelization. I would settle for it being erased off the face of the Earth.

Let Brad Linaweaver be remembered for his masterpiece, MOON OF ICE, as well as THE LAND BEYOND SUMMER and his BATTLESTAR GALACTICA novels and his DOOM novels. Let his non-contributions to SLIDERS be forgiven as an unfortunate set of errors in judgement on the legacy of a man who did better work elsewhere. And then let his work on SLIDERS be forgotten.

Let him be honoured and remembered for his best and not his worst.

I cannot stress enough in the name of Wade Welles' leather jacket that the opinions of ireactions on anything -- up to and including Brad Linaweaver's SLIDERS writing -- are not the consensus views of Sliders.tv.