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January 20,
1995
Source: www.newstimes.com
- ``Sliders'' is the other one-hour science-fiction show vying for the
Friday night spot everybody expects ``MANTIS'' to give up this season. Jerry
O'Connell (``My Secret Identity'') is a grad student in physics who
generates a ``wormhole'' into other dimensions with his computer array and
somehow plunges himself, computer tech Sabrina Lloyd, physics professor John
Rhys Davies and R&B singer Cleavant Derricks into an endless ``slide''
through alternate versions of our world. Funny at times, inexcusably dumb at
others. May turn up by March, depending on what Fox does with ``VR 5.''
Spring
training: First up: Sci-fi fun with Sliders
The Vancouver Sun; Vancouver, B.C.; Mar 20, 1995; by Hester Riches
A couple of weeks away from
the premiere of his new series Sliders, actor Jerry O'Connell was called to work
on a weekend.
``I was so bummed about
being here on a Saturday, 'cause it was my day off,'' he recalls.
He soon forgot his troubles.
Sliders (premiering
Wednesday Mar 22 at 9 p.m. on FOX) is a unique fantasy series in which
O'Connell's character, a physics student, invents a machine that opens a
``wormhole'' to parallel universes. Each week young Quinn Mallory and his
companions travel to a different, present-day alternative to planet Earth. It's
an anything-can-happen kind of show.
On that dreaded Saturday,
the director asked the actors to come to the studio to help create an alternate
world -- one in which intelligence is the key to stardom, not beauty and
strength. The object of the rehearsal was to invent and perfect something called
``Mindgame,'' a competition that combined smarts and speed. Two teams would
answer skill testing questions (``Name a characteristic of string theory . .
.'') while playing a football-like game on a field designed something like a
chessboard.
It sounds like ridiculous
way to spend a good weather weekend in the studio, but within a few hours
O'Connell was hooked on the game.
``It was visualized in the
script but the plays weren't there,'' O'Connell says. ``I wouldn't call it a
rehearsal -- it was more of a practice. Tracy Torme, our producer, invented it
and it turned out to be a fun game. I hope he has the rights to it, in case it
catches on.''
The true object of the
Mindgame exercise might have been to get the handsome, 21-year-old star before
the cameras in gym shorts. Sliders gets a spring tryout as a replacement for its
teen drama Party of Five. The Fox Network seems to be morphing the styles of its
other hit shows -- combining sci-fi fantasy (The X-Files) with innocent teen
energy (Beverly Hills 90210.) With luck and good ratings, O'Connell could be the
next Jason Priestley.
A New Yorker by birth -- he
still attends film school there -- O'Connell spent a few years in Toronto on the
syndicated teen series My Secret Identity. That was also a slightly silly sci-fantasy
and O'Connell seems comfortable in the genre.
``This is a light-hearted
science-fiction show,'' he says of Sliders.
The 90-minute pilot episode
is laced with jokes for sci-fi fans -- the most pointed an aside about the
Pentium chip failure that rocked computer stocks last fall.
Much of the comic relief is
provided by Cleavant Derricks, a Tony Award-winner (for Dreamgirls) who plays a
soul singer named Rembrandt. While driving through the neighborhood, he
accidentally gets sucked into the young scientist's powerful wormhole. (A
wormhole, for those out of the sci-fi loop, is a passageway between dimensions.)
Others along for the trippy
travels are a young love interest (Sabrina Lloyd) and an intimidating physics
professor (John Rhys-Davies). The foursome are stuck with each other as they hit
one dimension after the next, desperately hoping to tunnel home.
The show is more fi-than-sci,
with mathematical equations staying on the blackboard and out of the scripts.
``I think it will have to
stay in the realm of fantasy and adventure,'' says Derricks. ``But every now and
then we'll come up with some science. Right know we're filming this episodes
where people with brains are recognized as heroes, for instance. But for the
sake of the audience I think it has to be pretty much an adventure every time we
go out.''
Lloyd, whose character is a
computer expert who can talk shop and hold her own with the male leads, loves
what Sliders offers to youngsters. ``I'm a sci-fi freak,'' admits Lloyd. ``I
think maybe because I love sci-fi I put a little extra into the audition. If you
don't like sci-fi or understand it, I don't think you can put your all into
it.''
The show is scheduled for
only an eight-week run. O'Connell would happily take on a renewal and a long
stint of filming in Vancouver. He's already spent eight months of the last year
here, filming Sliders and an ABC miniseries, and loves the outdoors life. And he
says Sliders could sustain his interest over the long haul.
``A lot of actors complain
that doing a series gets monotonous and boring, but with this show we're playing
different characters on each Earth, and we're doing the craziest stunts,''
O'Connell says. ``I come to work every Monday never knowing what's going to
happen.''
factbox
Sliders adventures include:
- A world in which Quinn's
double, a scientist, has invented a virus that launches a deadly plague.
- A society in which women
rule and men are oppressed.
- A world in which
Rembrandt's double is an Elvis-like musical god.
- A world in which Soviet
communists conquered the United States during the Cold War.
- A world frozen in nuclear
winter.
- A waterworld where people
swim or sink.
- Special thanks to Blinker for this article
**March
21,
1995
Source:
The Milwaukee Journal
Fox, which premiered a science fiction hour, "VR.5," a fortnight ago, tries another, "Sliders," with a two-hour movie at 7 p.m. Wednesday. This one aims considerably younger say at junior high computer freaks. Producer Tracy Torme, 35, was raised by his father, singer Mel Torme. Tracy already has won a Peabody Award, broadcasting's highest honor. Rest assured that "Sliders" will not bring him a second. * 1/2
The popularity of "The X-Files" and such films as "Stargate" presumably has given rise to a new crop of shows with sci-fi tilts. Fox's latest entry is "Sliders," an ambitious undertaking that reels with special effects while chronicling the adventures of a grad student and his cohorts who discover the existence of other dimensions from which they "slide" back and forth.
The weblet deserves a gold star for its efforts to create unusual fare in the constrained environs of the small screen. The "Sliders" concept delves into time travel, relationships and good vs. evil in a unique domain. And in an hourlong format it would have succeeded on all fronts.
But the two-hour preem tosses in a plethora of storylines and special effects that too often distract from, rather than enhance, the show.
The debut kicks into motion when Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) endeavors to determine how to access other universes through a remote-controlled vortex dubbed the Gateway.
Viewers learn through videotape snippets, which are part of the logbook Mallory keeps, that he has sent a number of objects through the Gateway but none has returned. The next step, he advises the camera, is to go himself.
Though O'Connell's Mallory is fun to watch, he too often mirrors a college-age Marty McFly. And with the addition of his physics professor (John Rhys-Davies) to the team of sliders, the show takes on strains of a "Back to the Future" rehash.
Scribes Robert Weiss and Tracy Torme try to push the boundaries by creating different Earthlike dimensions.
Director Andy Tennant succeeds in getting his talented cast, especially O'Connell, to sell this out-there story concept. "Sliders" has some serious themes but mostly is delivered in an entertaining, lighthearted fashion.
- Special thanks to Blinker for this article
Sliding into
sci-fi: Vancouver-made series plays with parallel earths
The Province; Vancouver, B.C.; Mar 22, 1995; by Ray Chatelin
Another of those
made-in-Vancouver, someone-is-out-there science- fiction series from Fox is
about to intrude into our consciousness.
It's called Sliders.
No, it's not about baseball.
It's about corresponding earths . . . about "sliding" from one reality
to another, travelling a wormhole between dimensions and transporting to
parallel universes.
And if you believe that the
"truth" is really out there someplace, ready to be discovered, here's
one reality that's easy to believe . . .
Sliders is a show with some
invention. The only question is whether the timing is right for yet another SF
series.
When Sliders hits the
mini-screen tonight (U.TV, KCPQ; 8 p.m.) with a two-hour pilot, it'll be joining
a very crowded ship.
Fox already has VR.5 and
X-Files in its SF stateroom and other networks have a bevy of other-worlds shows
-- Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager, Earth Two and others.
"Sliders is not a
darker science-fiction show," says Jerry O'Connell, one of the show's four
main characters.
"It's more of a lighter
science-fiction show and that makes it even more fun. It's a lot of comedy and
it's a lot of fun."
O'Connell is teamed with
veteran actor John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Victor/Victoria),
Sabrina Lloyd, and Cleavant Derricks) as the four travellers go to a different
parallel universe each week. Each time they find themselves in a present-day
alternative version of Earth.
ACCIDENTAL GATEWAY
This all comes about when
Quinn Mallory (O'Connell), a physics student, accidentally creates the
"gateway" while working on an experiment in his basement.
His fellow travellers
include Wade Wells (Lloyd), a computer technician; brilliant but arrogant
physics prof Maximillian Arturo (Rhys-Davies), and a former R&B singer,
Rembrant Brown, who is sucked into the vortex by mistake as he drives by
Mallory's house.
Each week the Sliders find
themselves dealing with parallel earth problems, such as a world in which the
Communists won the cold war; one where a nuclear winter prevails; where the male
sex is considered the weaker sex, or where their doubles have taken different
paths in life.
Unlike other shows based on
time and reality travel, this foursome won't be able to come and go as they
please.
In the first episode a set
of rules is outlined in which -- after the first time -- they will not be able
to open and close the pathway whenever they choose.
This means on some worlds
they'll have to spend three or four months and assimilate into that society,
become four "Fugitives" by taking on identities and trying to survive.
In other worlds, they'll be
only minutes and have to decide whether to leave or to stay.
"My concept," says
executive producer and co-creator, Tracy Torme, "is if there are 100 earths
there may be 20 or 30 or 40 earths where Jerry's character is very similar to
the character here.
"There may be a couple
of earths where he's a serial killer."
The odd element is that the
two realities can exist in the same dimension at the same time.
But there's a lot of fun in
the series, a sort of tongue-in- cheek view of television itself.
"Part of the fun of the
series is transplanting cultural icons from our world and putting some spin on
them and seeing them in these other worlds or in different context," says
co-producer Robert Weiss.
"We've even talked
about returning to The Peoples Court and this time, Rusty the bailiff would be
the judge and Judge Wapner is the interviewer outside. I mean, that's the kind
of fun we can have."
The show is being shot in an
around the Expo site and shooting began in the usual early January drizzle.
"Of course," says
co-star Rhys -Davies, "we have to congratulate the writer who begins the
first episode of a series with one that's called Summer of Love and we start
shooting it Jan. 4 in Vancouver.
"I have this vision,
you see, as we sit in mud and in rain, of sybaritic writers down in California,
sitting by the pool, sipping a martini and saying, `Okay, the scene opens with
John and the rest stark naked on a beach.'
"Writers are
hell."
FAMILIAR FACE
That may be, but they've
kept the actor a familiar face to most North Americans and, indeed, throughout
the world.
Rhys-Davies has given much
thought to science fiction as a worthwhile activity and a valid literature.
"When I was 12, I had a
marvellous summer holiday and I read three books a day, 104 in all. I read all
of Heinlein and Bradbury and Asimov.
"I think there may well
be a time when John Rhys-Davies is not necessarily employed, because the
technology is going to digitalize Rhys-Davies.
"I won't have to go to
Vancouver. I'll have sold my rights as an actor in perpetuity. And they'll just
go ahead and do it."
- Special thanks to Blinker for this article
The Globe and Mail - John Haslett Cuff - Wednesday, March 22, 1995
The Fox network continues to chase the interactive video-crazed youth audience with yet another ludicrous, high-tech series that makes its debut tonight. Sliders (Fox/Global at 8) is a comedy/drama in which a scientifically brilliant young man (played by Jerry O'Connell, formerly the star of *My Secret Identity*) miraculously discovers a way to navigate the "space-time continuum," thereby sliding in and out of parallel universes. It appears to be a combination of *The Time Machine* and *Back to the Future*. While I watched most of the first hour diligently, I began to fast-forward when the characters entered a "universe" in which the Soviet Union ruled the United States and the four main characters (played by O'Connell, Cleavant Derricks, John Rhys-Davies and Sabrina Lloyd) suddenly had doubles. Silly, silly, silly.
- Special thanks to Blinker for this article
March 22, 1995
Source: www.newstimes.com
``Sliders,'' an action-adventure series debuting tonight on Fox, is TV's first attempt at the classic science fiction theme of parallel worlds. Its premise is that there is an infinity of ``alternate Earths'' which exist in other dimensions cheek-by-jowl with our own. A ``slider'' is someone who can move sideways, as it were, between worlds similar to our own. Neat, eh? Think of visiting a world where the Beatles never broke up, where Mick Jagger is your favorite bartender and Jimi Hendrix is mayor of Seattle! In tonight's two-hour premiere, we meet impetuous young physics genius Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell), who has the charming notion that he can solve the Grand Unified Theory on a blackboard in his basement lab. ``One missing piece,'' the grad student muses ruefully, gazing at his calculations. ``You'd think after three months I'd be able to crack it.'' Sure, kid. We also meet Quinn's mentor, tetchy physicist Max Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), and his pal, perky computer whizette Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd), who is sweet on him. Quinn has no time for girls. When he tries to build an anti-gravity device in his lab, it instead opens a ``wormhole'' into the void. Our Quinn is no Hamlet. After chucking a basketball into the wormhole and retrieving it, he flings himself into the unknown. Hey, that's the scientific method, right? One swirling, tubular transdimensional special-effects ride later, a disappointed Quinn finds himself plopped back in his own basement. Or so he thinks. When Quinn ventures outside, he finds himself in a world where a red traffic light means go and a green means stop - and, oh yeah, Elvis lives! Quinn returns safely to his own Earth, but encounters his own, other-world double, who's been busy complicating Quinn's life in his absence. When Arturo and Wade come to Quinn's basement, he reveals the vortex to them and explains the chutes-and-ladders of sliding. ``Cool!'' says Wade. ``Where do I sign up?'' ``This wormhole must be carefully studied!'' insists the pompous Arturo. ``All its permutations must be calculated.'' Uh-uh, say Quinn and Wade. We're going right now. ``Then in the interests of science, I suppose I must go along with you for this joyride,'' the professor says. Ah, it's that scientific method again! ``Sliders'' starts to skid at this point. You see, any slider will tell you an infinity of Earths doesn't just mean the South won the War Between the States; it means worlds where blue-green algae never caught on to make a breathable atmosphere, or where an asteroid collision turned out the lights forever. A slide into one of these dead zones would be strictly one-way - an issue which never occurs to our plucky band. ``Sliders'' also grafts a fourth slider onto the story. Through extremely contrived circumstances, washed-up R&B singer Rembrandt ``Cryin' Man'' Brown (Cleavant Derricks) gets shanghaied into the ride of the century. When the reckless jaunt dumps them smack into an ice age, Arturo refers to it as a ``climactic cataclysm.'' No one corrects him, because almost immediately, our heroes are beset by an EXTREMELY unlikely meteorological event. They slide again, out of the frying pan and into the fire, stumbling into a world where the other side won the Cold War, and Russian soldiers patrol the streets of San Francisco. The biggest flaw in ``Sliders'' is one of tone. The first hour starts with the none-too-bright verve of the ``Back to the Future'' movies, but during the one-hour Cold War sequence, the mood gets downright ugly. Before things get sorted out (far too easily) we see human suffering, hand-to-hand combat, a full-on gun battle and violent death. It is NOT lighthearted fun, and we're stuck in it with paper-thin, comedy characters who are not particularly endearing. O'Connell's Quinn is a grad student who acts more like a high school sophomore. As the cranky, egotistical professor, Rhys-Davies delivers a strident, over-the-top performance that is almost operatic. Worse still, as ``Cryin' Man'' Brown, poor Derricks is limited to comic relief. He's a buffoon whose shuckin' and jivin' is an embarrassment to watch. You don't have to be a physicist to spot the flaws in ``Sliders.'' (As Mr. Rogers might ask, ``Can YOU find the missing entropy?'') Unless ``Sliders'' can find its own groove, it is doomed to the kiddie show twilight of programs like ``seaQuest DSV.'' That would make it a failure on any world.
March 22, 1995
Source: www.newstimes.com
`Sliders,' premiering Wednesday night on Fox By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Elvis lives. John Kennedy is president. Vinyl records have pushed CDs off the market. It's an upside-down world, all right, and whiz-kid scientist Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell) has transported himself there via a homemade gizmo in his San Francisco basement. In this parallel universe, red stoplights mean go, and U.S. citizens are moving illegally into Mexico. This will be the first of many alternate Earths that Quinn leaps into in Fox's hugely entertaining ``Sliders,'' debuting tonight with a two-hour pilot. Next week, the hourlong series moves to its regular 9 p.m. ET Wednesday time slot, after ``Beverly Hills, 90210.'' A better time period would be 8 p.m. Fridays, where more kids could see this imaginative sci-fi show. Sliders made me feel like a kid again, a pretty neat trick for a time-traveling series. Take the leap yourself, and you'll see what I mean. The premise will thrill anyone who enjoyed the old ``Time Tunnel'' series, ``Quantum Leap'' or the ``Back to the Future'' movies. ``Sliders'' exploits ``what-might-have-been'' for some way-out adventures. In tonight's nifty opener, Quinn meets a cleverer version of himself. This ``slider'' from a different dimension explains that jumping into the alternative universes - through a wormhole filled with psychedelic colors - is a lot like playing a roulette wheel. Each slot represents another dimension, and there could be hundreds of places to land. The veteran ``slider'' holds out the enticing prospect of visiting a nearly perfect world, but departs before giving Quinn some crucial information about the gizmo's timer. That oversight proves costly. Eager to demonstrate his discovery, Quinn takes a joy ride with adoring pal Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) and overbearing professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies). Soul singer Rembrandt ``Crying Man'' Brown (Cleavant Derricks) has the misfortune to be sucked into the wormhole while driving to Candlestick Park to perform the national anthem. The nearly perfect world is nowhere tonight. The four travelers tumble into a nuclear winter. San Francisco is frozen over, and terrifying winds force a hasty jump to another world. The travelers think they have come home. Far from it. They have fallen into a world where communism triumphed. The United States lost the Korean War, and the old domino theory became reality. A Lenin statue stands where Lincoln was paid tribute. Making a phone call can be a crime. A telethon demands viewers support public television ``or else.'' A homeless man in Quinn's world has become a U.S. senator in the Communist system. And in tonight's loopiest scene, the Communist version of ``People's Court'' unfolds, presided over by Commissar Wapner. The travelers join the underground, and Wade learns that her parallel self is a much-respected freedom fighter. The dialogue has some choice puns, none better than: ``She's off looking for herself.'' At the fade-out, the four jump again, and think they've arrived home, only to experience another shocker. They seemed doomed to travel among the parallel universes and never make it home. Which is their misfortune, but a delight for viewers. The series veers from the comic to the terrifying with surprising dexterity. How to explain the show's weird and satisfying tone? Just look at the creators' past credits. Tracy Torme wrote for ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and ``Saturday Night Live,'' and Robert Weiss produced the ``Naked Gun'' films and ``Kentucky Fried Movie.'' A sample upcoming plot: The quartet visits a world where men are considered the weaker sex. ``Sliders'' is hardly a perfect show. The soul singer is inserted awkwardly into tonight's plot. The action stops for a conventional battle - about the zillionith in my experience - between the rebels and the Communists. The cheesy special effects in the nuclear winter sequence will make you long for big-screen dazzle. Though the setting is San Francisco, the filming is done in Vancouver, British Columbia. No matter. The premise is the thing here. The show builds such good will, through its engrossing plot twists and its likable stars, that you sit back and enjoy the ride. And tonight's fade-out - simultaneously poignant, sad and scary - is certainly reason enough to tune in next week. Like Dorothy after Oz, these travelers will learn, over and over, there's no place like home. This is not the kind of show that allows a lot of room for characterization and showy acting, but the four stars impress through sheer personality. As the young friends, and possible sweethearts, O'Connell and Lloyd are utterly winning. Rhys-Davies blusters most authoritatively, and comic relief Derricks knows how to play exasperation for laughs, especially in the ``People's Court'' scenes. Among the new spring series I've seen, ``Sliders'' stands out as the most enjoyable. ``What-might-have-been'' is usually a pointless exercise, but here it makes for some rousing entertainment. Or as soul singer Crying Man puts it: ``Hey, that trip was a trip!''
March 22, 1995
Source: www.newstimes.com
Sliders (Series premiere). Fox continues its pursuit of new sci-fi series for the mainstream. ``Sliders'' is the term used for those who time-travel thanks to a vortex in the basement of a whiz kid (Jerry O'Connell, the heavy-set kid from ``Stand By Me'' who now resembles a cross between Patrick Swayze and Dennis Quaid). The sliders will be visiting parallel versions of Earth, sort of a weekly ``What if?'' scenario. Television shows have used traversing of the space-time continuum before with better results, but considering the nifty visuals, malleable concept and the likable O'Connell, there is definite potential here. Tonight's debut is a two-hour show.
March 24, 1995
Source: Entertainment Weekly
VIRTUAL DUALITY
FOX ADDS TWO SCI-FI DRAMAS TO THE PRIME-TIME TECHNO-RABBLE: 'VR.5' MAKES CYBERHEROES OUT OF COMPUTER HACKERS, BUT 'SLIDERS' SEEMS THE WORK OF JUST PLAIN HACKS.
Review by Ken Tucker
As for Sliders, well, Jerry O'Connell stars as Quinn Mallory, a genius physics student but an otherwise standard-issue grad-student lout. He can slide through what jaded sci-fi types call a "wormhole" in space and visit different versions of our world. Sliders' idea of a good joke is to have Quinn visit an Earth on which Elvis Presley is still alive. Sliders features ceaseless blustering by John Rhys-Davies (of the Indiana Jones movies) as Quinn's physics teacher, and a character named Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown (Cleavant Derricks) who, in the pilot episode at least, is written in such a way as to make Amos and Andy look like sophisticated paragons of African- Americanism.
April
3, 1995
Source: Time Inc.
BY GINIA BELLAFANTE
Millennialism produces intriguing impulses in a culture. Around the year 1000, European manuscript artists and poets limned their visions of the Apocalypse. Today's equally important purveyors of world culture - American television producers - are approaching the next millennium with less dismal thoughts. They are offering an onslaught of science-fiction series replete with brilliant techno-fetishists, emoting robots and impassioned parapsychologists.
"As we near the year 2000," explains Fox programming executive Bob Greenblatt, "people are becoming more open to what might lie beyond that magical moment." Greenblatt's employer is responsible for much of the current science-fiction barrage. It has been sparked largely by the astounding success of The X-Files, the hit Fox series that focuses on two fbi agents assigned to investigate cases for which there may be only paranormal explanations. Hailed by critics, the show is one of the network's top rated and has spawned an Internet discussion group 10,000 members strong.
In the time period just before The X-Files, Fox has launched the eerie cyberthriller VR.5 (Fridays, 8 p.m. EST). Last Wednesday the network introduced Sliders, about a charmingly disheveled physics student who creates a void in his basementthat transports him to different parallel universes every week. Elsewhere, Showtime has just launched a revival of the 1960s anthology series The Outer Limits (Sundays, 10 p.m. est), which will prey on fears of everything from alien organisms to virtual reality. These shows are joining a sizable armada of sci-fi programming already on the air, ranging from NBC's SeaQuest DSV and Earth 2 to the syndicated Star Trek sequels, as well as the fare offered on cable's Sci-Fi Channel, now seen in over 18 million homes.
Despite their otherworldly obsessions, the new sci-fi shows are hardly radical in terms of storytelling. They dabble in shadowy bureaucracies. They feature heroes and heroines maniacally driven to resolve the unanswerable. And the shows often conclude in standard good-vs.-evil showdowns. In the first episode of Sliders, the young physicist and his friends find themselves in a communist California, where they join an underground movement to oust the Soviets, who in this world have won the cold war. Sliders, filled with dialogue like "The guy is Three Mile Island - it's going to take him years to cool down," is a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for teenagers who actually read newspapers. The Outer Limits also dampens its chills with banal dialogue. In one episode, a voluptuous robot falls in love with a paralyzed scientist. His response to her kiss: "I couldn't stop thinking about your saliva. What is it made from?"
*Thanks to Blinker for this article*
April 10, 1995
Source: Newstimes
``Sliders'' has held enough of the ``90210'' audience virtually to guarantee renewal and to make it the season's only new show to join the ranks of such established Fox regulars as ``The Simpsons'' and ``Melrose Place.'' ``VR.5,'' much darker and challenging than its straight-ahead sci-fi brother, ``Sliders,'' does better Fridays at 8 than any Fox series in two years. But it's still third or fourth in its time slot, while ``The X-Files,'' the show that follows, comes in a strong second.
Networks
decide the quick and dead -- but some in limbo; Few instant hits
Edmonton Journal; Edmonton, Alta.; Apr 16, 1995; by Richard Helm
Since the new year, 22
replacement shows have been thrown in by the networks. Many of those died a
quick death as well -- The Great Pretender, A Whole New Ballgame, Get Smart --
but instant hits were confirmed in Cybill, Hope & Gloria and Sliders.
- Special thanks to Blinker for this article
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