Topic: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Didn't see this sort of topic so I decided I would make one. I also like reading about how other people discover certain shows and stuff they like. XD

So here's mine:

Sometime in July, I was watching Star Trek: Voyager on Netflix, and when I visited the page one day I saw Sliders on my recommended shows list. I read the description on it and thought, "Hey, this sounds cool". About two weeks later I watched the pilot episode and enjoyed it greatly. Then I waited a week before watching the next few episodes, and it went on from there. big_smile

Basically, I found it through Netflix. Unfortunately, Netflix is (of course) missing two episodes. I watched "The Weaker Sex" on YouTube but it was a bad-quality version with the edges of the screen cut off. So I'll wait to watch that episode and "Last Days" upon getting the DVD set! Hopefully that will happen.

I watched the first three seasons with enthusiasm, but around the end of season 3 it was tapering off, and after "Genesis" I didn't like the direction the show was going. Frankly the episode was kinda depressing (and I didn't much fancy the change of backstory on Q-ball's part). When I finally picked back up again a few weeks later, I pushed through the first few episodes of Season 4 (pretty much because I wanted to see Colin in action after realizing that Jerry O'Connel's ACTUAL BROTHER was playing Quinn's brother), and I regained my interest! I consider myself to be an oddity since I really like that 4th season for the most part... But during season 5 I lost interest in watching it again because it just wasn't the same show anymore. It lost its magic, so to speak. I plan to pick it up again eventually and at least say I've watched all the episodes (except Last Days).

And oddly in the weeks that followed my break from watching the episodes, I've become even more into the show. Usually when I stop watching something the obsession fades off. *shrugs* It's being kept alive through passion and fanfiction!

Soooo, share your story here. For no reason. o_o

Author, artist, sci-fi nerd, rebel against the world, and self-proclaimed eccentric.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

don't remember but it was love at first sight!

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Cyrokin, are you that person from deviantART I've been chatting with lately? You sound a bit the same. If so, hi!

As for my Sliders story - I was a wee bairn of... I guess 11?... when I saw it on broadcast TV in the UK, where I grew up. I don't remember much about what I thought back then, but I was instantly entranced.

I watched the whole first season and taped a bunch of it, but then vaguely recall that it went off air for a while, or I lost track of it or something. When I came back, there was this awful Maggie person in place of Wade, and the Professor was gone and everything was awful. So I quit watching.

Flash forward to a couple of years ago, when my wife was looking for stories that explored the topic of death in an unconventional way. I was like, "hey, I remember this lottery episode of this show called Sliders from years back". Looked it up, and I fell in love all over again.

And then had my heart broken all over again by the season 4/5 shenanigans.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Cyrokin, are you that person from deviantART I've been chatting with lately? You sound a bit the same. If so, hi!

I've definitely been chatting with someone on DA about Sliders, so if you're the same person, hi! XD I guess I must really have some sort of recognizable internet voice if so... And also if so, this fandom really is as small as I think it is!

Author, artist, sci-fi nerd, rebel against the world, and self-proclaimed eccentric.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

March 1995- my sister had seen a commercial for it and suggested that it looked like something I'd like (I was and still is very much into Back To the Future). Watched the first episode and enjoyed it from the very beginning! When it left Fox and switched to Sci-Fi, we actually got cable just for Sliders (well, it was the turning point anyway!).

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Cyrokin wrote:

Cyrokin, are you that person from deviantART I've been chatting with lately? You sound a bit the same. If so, hi!

I've definitely been chatting with someone on DA about Sliders, so if you're the same person, hi! XD I guess I must really have some sort of recognizable internet voice if so... And also if so, this fandom really is as small as I think it is!

If I'm the one you sent your draft to, then yep, that's me! Heya!

And... yes, we're tiny. But cosy! Pull up a chair, have some lemonad... no, wait, that's mold juice. My bad. *quickly throws it away*

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

I happened to catch the premiere when it aired on BBC Two ... and was instantly hooked. Since then, Sliders held a special place in my heart - and still does.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Sometime in 1998, I had just finished Babylon 5 and was sad to see it go. I worked graveyard shift then and prior to lying down for my pre work nap, I was channel surfing and stumbled onto Sci Fi channel.  They were airing a re run of the pilot and I was hooked.
I later learned that Sci Fi was rerunning the entire show Mon-Thur and on Friday would run a new episode. At the time it was about 2/3 way  thru season 4. As I watched then saw a new Season 4 episode I was like "Who the hell are all these people?" when I saw Maggie and Colin. 
I continued to watch and by the time Season 5 started I was all caught up. granted I had missed several season 4 episodes by this time but it did not matter.
I was hooked.  I loved the show so much that this was about the time I joined the computer age and bought my first computer (windows 95) and when I signed up for email I used the name "sliders" along with a number. I have used that as my email "handle" since.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

I was a huge fan of MY SECRET IDENTITY, featuring Jerry O'Connell as a superpowered teenager. And when I saw the Pilot commercials with Jerry saying, "Same planet -- different dimension," I was very keen to see more. I found the Pilot rather alienating and ugly as a child and "Fever" was extremely disturbing, but I felt utterly compelled by the characters and their situation. I wasn't too keen on the show until "Prince of Wails" -- Rembrandt's grumbling monologue about wishing he'd taken the freeway instead of the shortcut past Quinn's house made me laugh uncontrollably. Quinn inspiring the rebels, Wade inspiring the Prince and the Prince's entire arc through the episode delighted me. And at that point, I just loved SLIDERS so much, although I preferred the light comedy to the darker episodes. The Professor was the father figure I'd always wanted; wise but flaws, and when he gets angry, it's not terrifying, it's hilarious.

I really love the comic side of SLIDERS, which you can probably tell from the more recent screenplays I've written. Abed Nadir on COMMUNITY, as scripted by Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna, says the following of TV:

"There is skill to it. It has to be joyful. Effortless. Fun. TV defeats its own purpose when it's pushing an agenda. Or trying to defeat other TV. Or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. It's TV! It's comfort. It's a friend you've known so well and for so long. You just let it be with you. And it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day. Or phone in a day. And it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with Levar Burton and never come back. Because eventually, it all will."

The sliders were my friends. That is the saddest, most pathetic thing I have ever said about myself. But anyone who has ever read my writing or seen my posts on this Bboard already knew that to be true.

I would say that a huge part of what's kept SLIDERS in my life is the (online) friendships I've made. Because there was a time when I fled SLIDERS. The horror show of Seasons 3 - 5 reminded me a bit of how bleak and miserable Russian World and Fever World were and I stepped away from SLIDERS when the Professor died. It was too bleak. Too horrifying. When it started airing weekly on the SPACE channel in Canada, I rediscovered it and loved it and despised it in equal measure. And then Temporal Flux and I would instant message a lot over AIM and I asked him so many questions and pleaded with him to help me understand how SLIDERS could have become such a mutilated monstrosity. TF was so patient. So kind. So reassuring. And there was that time I accidentally uploaded porn onto the Sci-Fi Channel server and he came to my aid.

If you must know: I was working on some manipulated images for the Infinite Slides fanfic project and they needed a decent photo of Season 3 Maggie where she wasn't glaring or scowling or sexually aroused. I searched the web and was also combing through the Sci-Fi Channel's FTP server. I found a neat photo (not on Sci-Fi's site) where Kari had an unusually neutral expression and Season 3-esque hair, but she was also naked. I was also dragging Season 4 photos off the Sci-Fi Channel site, thinking I might be able to mix and match faces and hair. At the time, my computer was really slow and prone to freezing up and I managed to drag the nude photo of Kari onto the Sci-Fi Channel server and replace one of the publicity photos with the nude image.

I was so sure Sci-Fi was going to track me down and sue me for this. I was also afraid that my mother would find out I had a nude image of Kari Wuhrer on the computer. I was 13-years-old. I swear to God I only had the nude photo for artistic purposes, but I didn't think that would fly with her.

TF talked me off the ledge and helped me sort it out, finding me the contact info for Sci-Fi's web design firm and they amended the situation. I also hear he saved Christmas for someone awhile ago.

I've also become really close with Transmodiar over the last few years, although I probably won't share too much of the nonsense we've been engaging with until I finish the twentieth anniversary special. Unless I change my mind.

10 (edited by Jim_Hall 2015-10-28 18:46:58)

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

My family and I were regular watchers of the X-Files, so I saw it being advertised on a commercial. I saw the original airing of the Pilot and was hooked. I was 8 years old at the time. My grandparents had cable but yes even they watched Sliders. My family didn't have cable at the time so with broadcast TV we had very little choices anyway. Talking about that, it's unreal the amount of TV shows kids have access to nowadays. We taped episodes on VHS and rewatched them too.

As a kid I would say that I took to Sliders more because of its comedy and overall lighthearted approach versus the darker X-Files. The Invasion episode scared me so much and I still think I'm traumatized. The monsters, twisters and robots in season three were great. I mean as a young boy that was epic. When the Professor died I cried in front of my TV, and wanted Maggie to go away. I was so sad to see the final slides of season three knowing at the time Sliders was finished or so everyone thought. I later found out SciFi was bringing it back but by then I think my interest had faded and I didn't have cable anyways. It was maybe late 98 or early 99 before I got cable but by then I had missed so much. I vividly remember flipping through and seeing glimpses of some of the seasons five episodes but I didn't see Jerry O'Connell so I really didn't care. I think it was only till a few years later that I caught up with reruns. I could ramble on but if your interested you can read more why I like Sliders in my about section on my website.

slidecage.com
Twitter @slidersfanblog
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Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

BBC2 was having it's golden era.
ST: TNG, ST: DS9, ST: VOY, Sliders, Space Above and Beyond, The Outer Limits, Red Dwarf, Farscape, Buffy the Vampire Slayer etc.

I fell in love with sliders right away and saved everything to VHS.

Channel 5 had not long been on air and had Deep Water Black and Lexx to compete at opposite timeslots Morning for DWB and Night for Lexx.

Even Channel 4 tried to compete with Babylon 5 but made everybody furious with constantly changing Timeslots and Episodes out of order.
It was only with SG1 that Channel 4 competed with BBC2 which then withered before Ch4 stopped caring and screwed Stargate fans like with B5 and then did the same to Angel and Smallville Fans.

Eventually Channel 5 got SG: Atlantis but then that moved to Sky so lost track.

Today though... Sliders is the only VHS I never taped over, binned or Wiped.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

ireactions wrote:

The sliders were my friends. That is the saddest, most pathetic thing I have ever said about myself. But anyone who has ever read my writing or seen my posts on this Bboard already knew that to be true.

For what it's worth, I don't think that's sad or pathetic at all. That's one of the reasons fiction exists and one of the beauties of it: to allow us to become close to these people we'd probably never know in real life.

I see nothing to be ashamed of in feeling comfort, warmth and love from four people who worked very hard to portray it.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Now you'll think this is hilarious, but it's true.  So I'll admit to watching 90210 from time to time back then, not much though.  Beginning in 94-95 they replaced Shannen Doherty with Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who I was greatly infatuated with!  So I would watch every week just about.  Well that year FOX produced the Spelling-spinoff Models, Inc., which had started in summer '94 and continued through March '95.  The chicks on that show were all pretty hot, so I tuned in from time to time at 9PM following Beverly. 

Anyway, we started getting promos for this new show which was set to debut following 90210.  I knew Jerry and Cleavant from past work, but the big draw for me was John Rhys-Davies of Indiana Jones fame.  So following an hour of staring at Tiffani, I kept it on FOX for "Sliders."  I thought it was cool and funny, and enjoyed it.  I missed a few of the episodes though, and spent some of the others doing homework or showering, so I didn't consider myself more than a "casual" viewer.  I don't recall them rerunning the show that summer either. 

I pretty much forgot about it the next season, as I was watching Star Trek, Space Above and Beyond, Seaquest, and of course The X-Files.  I did watch the lead-in to X-Files quite a bit, Strange Luck.  I thought it was a quirky but cool show.  Eventually that show ran its course, and the following spring Sliders was back, this time on Friday nights before The X-Files.  Again I watched when I could, Friday's as a high school senior I was rarely home, and setting the VCR was a pain in the neck.  If you asked me to recite a plot point I'd be hardpressed, again I was a casual viewer.

By fall '96 I was a college freshman, and Friday nights were a bit busier than ever!  I always tried to catch Sliders and Millennium on Fox.  Sort of like before, Sliders often was sacrificed so I had time to watch the lead-in or out show (Beverly, X-Files, Millennium).  I've said this before, but the killing of Prof. Arturo really angered me, to the point that when I learned the show as cancelled from FOX, I was happy.  One of my friends at school was bummed out, but I was like, this show stinks without him.  Fox replaced it in fall '97 with The Visitor, which was absolutely terrible.

Whenever it was over winter '97, the Sci-Fi channel got the rights to the FOX episodes, and began airing them in repeated marathons.  For whatever the reason, frankly I don't know why, but I started watching them.  I was so enthralled with the early FOX stuff, that I started recorded all the episodes and watching them again on my own.  Eventually when Season 4 premiered I was really psyched.  Re-run hell certainly tempered by enthusiasm, to the point where I started poking around the old Dominion bboard to find out when the hell the season was going to be aired to completion? 

Sadly I found out the show was again, kind of cancelled, then saved, but the O'Connell's were gone.  The show had so many great off the wall stories, characters, guest actors, that's what made it so cool.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Same here I remember being in High School and seeing the adds saying the Jerry O'Connell was coming back to Fox from"My Secret Identity."  I remember going on a school trip and everyone talking about how cool the show was.  It was the fill in for P,arty Of 5, a show that wasn't doing good, was in fact ratings where so low they started airing Dr.Pepper commercials being for people to watch, then Sliders had higher ratings, but, it didn't matter as at the end of the 1st season it was canceled.

Then a year or so later its the lead into X-Files, which seemed like the perfect schedule, actually, gets picked up for year 3 on Fox, hard to believe a Sci-Fi show that's not X-Files with a 3rd year on FOX wow, But their where changes, bad Movie Rip-offs every week, with next to awful special effects, (Star Trek TNG, DS9, Babylon 5, Seaquest, this is the heyday of sci-fi).

Fox kills the Professor, then cancels the show, now we have to do the good fight to get it picked back up which Sci-Fi eventually does with the promise of the return of Torme' no more movie rip-offs possibility of the Professors return, all that was bad was because of FOX and with it being on a channel that loves Sci-Fi we would get the intelligent Season1 level show that we originally had.

It didn't happen while Season 4 was better than 3 it never hit season 1/2 levels of greatness.

Then season  5 and it was over, hung out on Sci-Fi, universal, and Fox BBoards during this time.

Experts webpage was a must read of all the things to come in the Sliders universe.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

I remember seeing very early advertisements for Sliders before it first premiered. Several things hit me right away.

1. I was already a fan of Jerry O'Connell from "Stand by Me," "My Secret Identity" and the lesser known "A Christmas Story" tie-in "Ollie Hopnoodles Haven of Bliss," in which Jerry plays Ralphie.

2. I was instantly turned on to the early music, which I instantly recognized from Explorers. Another film I loved while growing up. The music is on youtube and the DOC has edited a version that presents it as it was in every early advertisement for Sliders.

3. I was already a huge fan of the Indiana Jones franchise and recognized JRD as Sallah. Always loved hi wink

4. I was also a Doctor Who fan since the age of 3 or 4 in the very early 80's. I was an instant fan. As I grew, I tend to find that I was naturally drawn to stories that relied on what I have coined as "Junk-Sci-Fi." I don't mean that the story is junk but that the device to get them there is home-made, should not exist, should certainly not work, and might not get you home. While I can appreciate Star Trek, it was occasionally too streamline to me,…..to…..Supposed to Be. I find myself more in the Sliders, Doctor Who, Back to the Future family….and regardless of the TARDIS being mass produced and supposed to be,….the Doctor's is the last TARDIS in the universe,….he's re-built it to the point where it's his own,….and he keeps a rubber mallet near by in case it acts up,…..so it works with my feelings smile

5. I actually had a crush on Wade instantly. When she dyed her hair red,…I loved her even more. I think it suited the character a lot. Humorously enough, when I watched the pilot, I was disappointed during the scene where Quinn, Wing and Nan are talking while leaving their class at the college.


Nan: "If you ask me, Professor Arturo is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is."

Quinn: "Oh, come on! The man should be a Nobel Laureate for his theory on Coset Wormholes in Keller Oribifolds and I just read his thesis on Chiral Field Anomalies, t's killer."

I saw Nan and and got confused regarding the Wade character, thinking wait….what? Who's that?? That's not the girl in the commercial, is it?…….IS IT???? She looked so much cuter than that!!

AAAAAAAND Then we saw Wade,…PHEW!!

Anyway,…I've been there since before the beginning! smile I remember calling my best friend during the very first commercial break and telling him about how the show is amazing, it's my favorite, etc.

Re: How Did You Get Into Sliders?

Oh Wow! I very much agree with you about "Junk Sci Fi" as you call it!
I always called it "Garden Shed Sci Fi" or "Kit Bash Sci Fi"!

Stuff like Caverite in Journey to the Moon the H.G. Wells Story and Film with Anti Gravity Window Blinds! wink

I am a Massive Fan of Captain Nemo and Robur the Conqueror by Jules Verne also as they to were Visionary Inventors who achieved what they did in similar ways! smile

Funny that you mention Explorers as I never noticed the Music Similarity but I do love the Film for it's Kit Bash quality or Junk Sci Fi as you call it. You know I think that term might catch on with me. smile
I disliked what the Kids found in Space after they built their space pod but apart from that.... The Film had a great sense of Wonder to it.

There is an Inventor here in the UK (A Real Life one) called Trevor Bayliss who actually made the Term "Garden Shed Inventor" famous as he designed a Radio that needs no Batteries and instead runs off of stored Clockwork Power!

They seem to have disappeared now his fame has waned and Digital seems to be phasing out FM Radio sadly but I still think they are great!

I've always wanted one.....

I'd love to see some new Sci Fi in that Genre actually but it seems fairly scarce sadly.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids was great too.....

We need MOAR!! big_smile

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-