Sliders Articles from 1999

04-March-99
Source: TV Guide Online

Kari Wuhrer Slides into a Music Career

She spends much of her time exploring parallel universes on the Sci-Fi Channel's Sliders. And now, Kari Wuhrer is trying out a new world in real life: the record biz.

It's a far cry from her gig on Remote Control, the '80s MTV game show that also helped launch the career of Adam Sandler. "He was Colin Quinn's brother on the show. Nobody got his humor then," Wuhrer recalls. "He really grew into his own. Colin thought he was really funny but I was just, like, 'Whatever.' I think he's hysterical now." — Susan Campbell Beachy

*Thanks to Blinker for this article*

7:30pm ET, 12-March-99
Source: Scifiwire

Saturn Nominees Announced

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films has announced the nominees for the 25th annual Saturn Awards, which honor "the best in genre film and television entertainment." The awards will be presented during a ceremony that will be held in early June. This year's nominees are:

Best Series on Syndicated/Cable Television

Babylon 5

The Outer Limits

Psi Factor

Sliders

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Stargate SG-1

Source: Scifi Weekly

Sliders

The bad news is, Jerry O'Connell has left the show. The good news is, his brother did too.

Review by Chris Kalb

Sliders, the show about interdimensional travellers journeying to alternate Earths, picks up some alternate cast members in its fifth season.

In the season-five premiere, the fourth season cast makes a hasty "slide" off a violent Earth even as an interdimensional experiment is being conducted on the next Earth they are about to visit. As a result, Rembrandt (Derricks) and Maggie (Wuhrer) come through the vortex okay, but Colin Mallory becomes "unstuck"--that is, permanently out of phase with all Earths and doomed to randomly jump between them for the rest of his days (in other words, he's off the show)--and Quinn Mallory becomes fused with the subject of the experiment, this Earth's Quinn Mallory (Floyd).

The experiment is being conducted by Dr. Geiger (Peter Jurasik), who previously used his interdimentional technology to harvest gene fragments from an alternate-Earth Mallory to cure this Earth's crippling disease. Now he plans to splice whole worlds together, including their populations, in hopes of creating a planet where he, himself an "unstuck" man, can live a normal life--without the help of an anchoring containment field. Lab assistant Diana Davis (Locke) develops doubts about her mentor and the perfect hybrid world he says he wants to create when she sees the split personality that Mallory has developed.

Feeling guilty about her own part in fusing the two Quinn Mallorys, Diana becomes a slider herself, hoping to one day split the Quinns apart. But her wavering allegience to Geiger is not so easily resolved, especially when she meets an alternate version of herself who, without his tutelage, dropped out of the physics program and became a single mother. The internal conflict between Quinns is also not so easily resolved, especially when the new one gets the feeling that his companions would like to see the old one win.

Quinn's new body

To their credit, the Sliders producers take the adjustment of the revised cast beyond the first episode of the new season in an attempt to make it an integral part of the show. It helps that the writers work in references to all of the former cast mates, and that Remmy and Maggie seem damn tired.

But why shouldn't they? Science fiction shows should have the easiest time swapping out lead characters (Deep Space Nine, Dr. Who), but Sliders makes it look hard. Departing cast members are whimsically shot, fragmented throughout the multiverse, or sent to Kromagg breeding camps, while credibility-straining contortions are made in order to get viewers to instantly care about the new characters. Last season it was revealed Quinn wasn't even from our Earth--so Colin could be introduced as his real biological brother. Now the story is, Quinn shares a body with this new actor?

This kind of baggage is unnecessary, and both the Quinn character and the show suffer because of it. Too bad, because Floyd and Locke need all the help they can get in making their thankless roles distinctive, since neither has much charisma. As actors, though, they're still better additions to the show than Wuhrer or Charlie O'Connell. Luckily, original castmate Derricks gamely keeps the faith, hoping viewers tune in more for the slide than the sliders.

The slides, as with last season, are a hit-or-miss affair, at best underdeveloped, but never sinking to the third season's movie parodies. It's best to watch the SCI FI Channel's road-show version of Sliders as if it were being broadcast on an alternate Earth, where there are lower budgets, lower expectations, and maybe only one station.

Cleavant Derricks is still my man. He made the most annoying character from the first season the heart and soul of this show long before he was the only reason left to watch it. Hey, can't Sabrina Lloyd get him an audition on Sports Night? -- Chris K.

2-Apr-99
Source: TVUltra.com

-- Jason Salisbury

*Thanks to Blinker for finding this article*

11:38am 23-April-99
Source: Scifiwire

B5 Actors Slide Onto SCI FI

Former Babylon 5 actors Peter Jurasik and Jerry Doyle will be joining the universe of the SCI FI series Sliders next season. Jurasik is set to play the recurring role of Dr. Oberon Geiger, a disembodied scientist who wreaks havoc with the Sliders when he causes the interdimensional travelers to have an identity crisis.

Meanwhile, Doyle will play Sgt. Vernon Larson, the commander in charge of troops in a type of purgatory between Earth dimensions where he is ordered to protect a mysterious bunker. Jurasik will appear in the season-five premiere episode "The Unstuck Man" as well as "Eye of the Storm" and "Applied Physics," while Doyle will guest star in "Strangers and Comrades."

The fifth season of Sliders begins June 11.

26-Apr-99
Source: Cinescape

April 26, 1999
The actor who played Babylon 5's Londo Mollari has found life after the cult sci-fi series. Next season, Peter Jurasik will have a recurring part on Sliders as Dr. Oberon Geiger, a discorprial villain who causes the heroes to have "an identity crisis", reports the Sci-Fi Channel's Sci-Fi Wire. B5 vet Jerry Doyle will also appear on Sliders next season, guest starring as a Sargent commanding troops in a "purgatory between Earth dimensions." Jurasik will be in the season premiere, which airs June 11th.

24-May-99
Source: Multichannel News

Sci-Fi's 'Sliders' Sliding Downhill.

Author/s: Jim Forkan

Sci-Fi Channel's Sliders was once an interesting time-travel series, but its time may be running out, based on a preview of early episodes due in its upcoming fifth season.

Cleavant Derricks as Rembrandt and Kari Wuhrer as Maggie are back as transdimensional travelers, but gone are Jerry O'Connell as Quinn Mallory and Charlie O'Connell as Colin Mallory.

TV writers are often forced to develop story lines to explain away cast members' departures, while also setting the stage for newcomers. But Sliders' scribes came up with scripts that are more convoluted than most.

Producer Chris Black wrote the season-opening episode, "The Unstuck Man," with executive producer Bill Dial.

Not only is the dramatic pace slowed considerably by too much explication, but so far, the two cast changes are a drag.

In "Unstuck Man," the Mallory brothers enter the vortex, only to become lost in midslide. Newcomer Robert Floyd then appears as another Quinn Mallory from a parallel universe, supposedly with some of the original Quinn's DNA mixed in.

It turns out a mad scientist, Dr. Geiger (Peter Jurasik in a new, recurring role), purposely scrambled the Mallory brothers in trying to combine the two universes and, thereby, to get himself "unstuck" from the laboratory force field in which he must live. (Don't ask.)

The name game even gets to the cast regulars, who soon dub Floyd's character "Mallory" to differentiate him from the earlier Quinn. But that doesn't solve a bigger problem -- Mallory's annoyingly whiny split personality, at least in the early episodes.

The series' other addition -- Tembi Locke as Diana Davis -- comes across better. Introduced as Geiger's assistant, she soon switches sides to help the sliders.

But in the fourth episode, "Applied Physics," also penned by Black, the Sliders script has Diana confront not one, but two alternate Dianas, in yet another parallel universe. Again, don't ask.

Suffice it to say twin story lines should be banned from TV land, since they rarely work. But that's not stopping Sliders from planning still more doubles in future stories.

The series' ongoing villains, the Kromaggs, make only a brief appearance in hologram form in this installment, but they'll play bigger roles later in the season.

Sliders' new season on Sci-Fi begins June 11 at 9 p.m.

** June 1999
Source: Catalogers go Hollywood Catalog Age by Peter Girard

Every Thursday, millions of television viewers tune in to see an array of products from Skokie, IL-based medical supplies catalog Anatomical Chart Co.; oh, and while they're at it, they watch NBC's ER. Fans of Anatomical Chart can also catch glimpses of their favorite skeletons and prostheses on NBC's Providence and CBS's Chicago Hope, and in the motion pictures Patch Adams, Never Been Kissed, and Entrapment. Although medical charts and skeleton models aren't everyday purchases, Julia Stock, vice president of sales and marketing for Anatomical Chart, says the cataloger gets orders as a result of the exposure. "People tell us they saw our charts on TV or in a movie when they order." Anatomical Chart is in the unique and enviable position of dominating its market. Since the company is the primary manufacturer of these items, according to Stock, its target audience usually doesn't have to be told that the medical props that pop up on TV are from Anatomical Chart. Nonetheless, "we try to get into as many places as we can," Stock says. "It's a constant reminder of Anatomical Chart Co." According to David Scott, property master of the WB's Felicity series, catalogs hold a definite edge over retail sources when it comes to finding props. "My schedules are so tight--I usually need things yesterday. Catalogs help me because I can find what I need and get it fast. I've tried to get items online, but unless I know exactly where to find things, it's a waste of time. I know I can go through the catalogs in my office and find what I need right away." Scott uses a host of catalogs, particularly nostalgia collections, depending on the project he's working on. "Last year on [sci-fi series] Sliders, I used a couple of high-tech catalogs, particularly Sharper Image, to find up-to-date electronics," he says. Although such TV exposure is ostensibly free, finding and mailing catalogs to set designers and property masters is not. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the Burbank, CA-based union to which most set professionals belong, will not release its mailing list. But catalogers can contact the union directly; if IATSE believes a catalog contains valuable props, it will mail copies to its membership. For this the cataloger must prepare approximately 750 copies for mailing and pay IATSE a handling fee of approximately $1.00 per copy.

- Thanks to Blinker for this article.

05-Jun-99
Source: Ultimate TV

Wuhrer: From MTV Babe to "Sliders" Star

By David Martindale

So much for master plans.

05-Jun-99
Source: Xpose

Two of a Kind
Can Sliders survive without Jerry O’Connell? With newcomer Robert Floyd playing Mallory, we say yes!

ROBERT FLOYD can't wait to talk to Xpose! It's the middle of March and I'm sitting on the set of Sliders while scenes are being shot from the penultimate episode of season five, Dust. Throughout the day I've had the opportunity to interview different members of the cast, and Floyd has patiently awaited his turn. This is his first TV series, and his eager enthusiasm is wonderfully refreshing.

It's this boundless energy and verve that brought the actor to the attention of the Sliders producers, when they were casting two new leads for season five. Jerry O'Connell who, as Quinn Mallory, had led the series since its debut in 1995, has chosen not to return, along with his brother Charlie, who played Colin. In their place, enter Floyd as the 'melded' Mallory and Tembi Locke as physicist Diana Davies.

Thanks to its imaginative premise - a group of people 'sliding' between parallel Earths, where they encounter different variations of the same world - Sliders has survived many changes in cast, producers and style. The season opener, The Unstuck Man, sets the scene for the introduction of Mallory and Diana - while Quinn and Colin meet a tragic end... "I was Quinn's alternate in another world," Floyd explains. "When he is in the wormhole we are merged through a crazy experiment by Dr Geiger."

Geiger, played by Babylon 5's Peter Jurasik, is the titular Unstuck Man. Trapped within the Sliding vortex and unable to interface with the real world, the unscrupulous scientist has been attempting to find a way to merge himself with a Sliders. Mallory is the lab rat, used to prove that the process works.

"In the vortex he slams two people together and merges them as one. Most of the original Quinn is killed off."

There's no doubt that long time fans will be mortified by the teaser sequence, which finds Quinn and Colin disintegrating in the vortex, and the young stranger Mallory emerging in their place. In replacing such a popular leading character, Floyd faces a huge challenge, and yet - having seen the actor at work, and after viewing advance copies of finished episodes - there's little doubt that he will soon win over fans and establish a large following of his own.

"He's a fantastic actor," says Floyd of his predecessor. "There's a really nice inner strength about him.

"It was very nerve-wracking at first, because he had been so successful and everybody loved him. He is extremely good at what he does - not only his acting, but he was directing episodes and doing an amazing job. I definitely felt a little heat on but at the same time I was fortunate that the writers didn't want me to be who he was. So I was able to play and have a lot of fun."

In the first few episodes as Mallory adjusts to having some of Quinn's memories and persona within his head, so Floyd would have to impersonate O'Connell. And he achieves an astonishingly close match...

"I watched a lot of the old roles that he did," the actor says. "He often weighs his words when he speaks, and that made his character very powerful. There are times, especially in the beginning episodes, when I tried to slide into that until I really started to find my character, who is really just Mallory. He tends to be a bit more of a live wire and he gets into a lot of trouble but it definitely adds a lot of fun."

A young actor with a clutch of excellent credits to his name, Floyd originally studied his craft at Carnegie Hall in New York, and worked in theatre. He moved to Los Angeles to appear in an Ivan Reitman pilot, and never returned to NYC.

"I stayed and just kept working out here," says Floyd, who has appeared in Early Edition, Law and Order and Silk Stalkings. "I really loved New York, I did a lot of theatre, I worked with a lot of great people. But if you're interested in TV so much of it is shot here. I kept busy and I said I'll go back to theatre another time."

How did the actor come to audition for Sliders? "I had just finished working on a couple of different independent [movies]," he recalls. "I knew that Jerry had left the show and I called my agents about coming in and meeting with the producers. I loved the show, I loved the concept. I'd known it when it moved to Sci-Fi. It was really exciting to me, because it's one of those shows where every week it's something different. You have no idea what to expect and I haven't been let down at all. It's been a ride."

For the established Sliders, Rembrandt (Cleavant Derricks - now the longest serving member of the cast) and Maggie (Kari Wuhrer), The apparent deaths of their friends and the arrival of Mallory and Diana is something of a shock. Maggie must adjust to the fact that she has lost her relationship with Quinn (in fact they shared an entire lifetime together in a bubble universe during the episode Roads Taken), while Rembrandt is deprived of his best friend. And Mallory is a very different person altogether...

"The original Quinn is a genius, and I'm very street smart," Floyd defines. "I'm very quick in that aspect, but I'm not [intellectually] smart at all.

"In the beginning it's great because Mallory has no idea what the word 'Team' means. He's only about himself, so a lot of times when he gets into trouble it's just through not trusting, not from being able to realize that there's somebody there, because he never had a real family. Rembrandt teaches him so much about life and how to stay out of trouble and how to trust again. It's neat.

"As the show has progressed I also develop an inner strength and an edge to him, which really helped me separate myself from the other Quinn. That was important."

At the time of the interview, the Sliders cast were shooting their 17th episode together. It's pleasing to report that the chemistry between them was very much in evidence; everyone's happy, relaxed and working hard, and that shows in the finished product. The departure of Jerry O'Connell may have been a blow, but by no means is it the end of the show.

"We have a great time together," Floyd raves. "It's just a lot of fun. Kari will usually slap me in the middle of a scene and at the end of the scene I'll get her back. There's a constant play and I think that keeps it all alive, everybody's on their toes."

With executive producer Bill Dial at the helm, the Sliders writers have been careful to ensure that a well-balanced mix of scripts cater for all of the characters evenly. The fifth season finds Mallory involved with motorbike outlaws in Easy Slider, helping a jewel heist in To Catch a Slider and joining an archaeological dig in Dust. As a personal favorite, Floyd lists New Gods For Old, which explores Mallory's past and inner demons.

We already know that, in the character's back story, he was a multiple sclerosis sufferer who was mysteriously cured by Dr Geiger. New Gods For Old finds Mallory paralyzed, and attempting to cope with a feeling of total helplessness.

"I get shot in the back just as we're diving through the Vortex," Floyd offers. "His legs are wiped out. He had to go back and face the worst thing possible in his mind - being back in the chair. when he is cured, I think that's a turning point and his beginning of really trusting others. Before that, it was all about me. >From then on you start to see more of an inner strength in him. Before it was more on the outside."

Floyd also enjoyed making Heavy Metal, a rather fun installment in which the Sliders accidentally land in the Pacific Ocean and are saved from drowning by a pirate ship.

"About two weeks ago I was 35 feet high on a ship walking on a plank with a big machete in my back!" exclaims the actor: "I'm one of those actors who likes to say, 'Hey let the stunt guy do it!' They said, 'No you'd look great!' I've done more stunts than I ever thought possible: I know how to fire a machine gun, I know how to ride a motorcycle now. I've done quite a few fights."

Does Floyd share his character's enthusiasm for adventure and activity?

"I played college basketball," he responds. "I swim junior Olympics and then I played club American football in Germany. I really enjoy sports but right now I can't remember doing anything since we started filming. I try to get up at four three or four days a week to get to the gym, but that's about it. Right now you work Monday through to Friday and you're in about every scene. Saturday you lay around in a coma, and Sunday you feel better again!"

Floyd is far from being a Hollywood wild child. Obviously at peace with himself and greatly enjoying success within his profession, the actor has been married for five years.

"I don't really go out or anything," he smiles, "so I never see that aspect. I live pretty central to everything so work's always close. I'm always driving into work at five in the mornings and I leave at eight or nine at night. I like working here."

It's been said that there are somewhere in the region of 300 web sites devoted to Sliders. It's worldwide following is huge, with an audience that has stuck by the show through many cancellations and revamps. Stories on Floyd began appearing on the internet months ago, but the actor has never been curious to check them out.

"I don't have a computer!" he grins. "I've just been going from project to project. I will get one and learn how to use it - I guess that's another difference between the other Quinn and I! I've never been on the Net, but I'll probably buy one in the next month or two and start to work with it, because I've heard there's so many websites."

At the time of our conversation, Sliders had yet to air. Now the fifth series has debuted and Floyd is beginning to enter the public eye.

"I haven't given it any thought whatsoever," he says candidly of the concept of fame. "It's been working in anonymity this whole time and enjoying the work with no distractions. It'll be interesting because I am replacing such a well-loved character.

"I did the best I could and enjoyed myself. I'm working on a show with a great concept and great people."

11-Jun-99
Source: South Coast Today

'Sliders' begins 5th season with strange newcomer

Cheap sets and flimsy special effects. Preposterous dialogue about "wormholes" and "flaws in the vortex." Actors and actresses at the outer limits of their dramatic range. Are we going to a "Star Trek" convention? No, preparing for the fifth-season premiere of "Sliders" (9 p.m., Sci-Fi, TV-PG).
As fans of this show already know, "Sliders" concerns a team of explorers who travel through a sliding vortex to parallel dimensions. This allows former R&B singer Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks, "Dreamgirls") and the sassy and snappy Maggie Beckett (Kari Wuhrer) to pop up in the strangest places.
In tonight's episode, evil genius Dr. Geiger (Peter Jurasik) begins playing games with the sliding vortex, sending a strange new man, Mallory (Robert Floyd), to join Brown and Beckett. They barely have time to get acquainted, or ask where the heck Colin and Quinn have gone, when they find themselves in a town driven crazy by doomsday predictions and strange weather.
Future "Sliders" adventures will involve a trip back to the Civil War where Maggie leads a Union charge against the Confederates, a situation where Maggie has an affair with the president, and an opportunity for Rembrandt to infiltrate the lair of the evil Kromaggs to learn the fate of missing slider Wade Wells. Newcomer Mallory will become seduced by leader of a female motorcycle gang, and the gang will travel an alternative version of Los Angeles reduced to desert where Rembrandt is worshipped as an ancient deity. There's a lot to look forward to.
Like the original "Star Trek," this series allows science-fiction writers to play with complex, convoluted and sometimes silly speculative notions of alternate realities. If you're not expecting to be blown away by the visual effects, "Sliders" can be good clean fun.

25-Jun-99
Source: TV Hole

Sci-Fi Network Serves Up Table Scraps; Tens and Tens of Teenage Boys Tune In

We drop food, our dog eats it. Period. He's not picky; we could drop three-week-old raw pork stored in our attic, and he'd scarf it down.  For a demonstration of this concept, tune into Sci-Fi for Sliders, a show so bad it couldn't even survive on Fox. Now part of "Sci-Fi Prime," three Friday night Sci-Fi shows interrupting the otherwise constant Star Trek reruns. Sliders is basically Quantum Leap Goes To Multicultural Camp, but with the leaps being among different dimensions' Earths, rather than among different time periods, and without the (minimal) charms of Scott Bakula's entry into different bodies. The wholesale theft of the QL concept even extends so far as to include the end-of-episode teaser for next week's dimension. Anyway, the four titular sliders are wandering among dimensions looking for the ultimate weapon that would destroy the "Cro-Mags," an evil race who are, by all appearances, the lovechildren of Sinead O'Connor and Dennis Rodman. Every slide brings said sliders to Southern California's equivalent on another dimension's Earth, which presumably works out pretty handily for the location scouts. This week, our sliders landed on "Purgatory," a between-dimensions asteroid. Purgatory features, among other things, war with the Cro-Mags, a weak Bruce Willis impersonator, and a lot of really obvious matte drawings. The war scenes were remarkably lacking in anything actually compelling, instead providing all the drama of kids playing cops-and-robbers in the backyard. Left completely unexplained, for example, is why the Cro-Mags politely wait until the humans climb down into the trenches to open fire, rather than just shooting the wholly unprotected idiots wandering around in broad daylight. Regardless, it turns out the war's over a bunker containing the weapon the sliders are searching for, which appears to be a Commodore VIC-20 with three jello-filled blenders welded to the top. We learn that the weapon, when used, not only kills all the Cro-Mags (good), but "degrades the ecology" (bad). Oh well. Sliders's attempts at wit ("I'm serious as a root canal") and pop references ("Oh, we've got a Robin Williams in the group") don't even rise to Aaron Spelling's level, much less Kevin Williamson's. And the show goes through silver-clad bimbettes (Sabrina Lloyd, late of Sportsnight, Kari Wuhrer, something called a "Tembi Locke") like 1974 Elvis at the Stardust in Vegas. But for Sci-Fi, the network execs probably figure Fox's table scraps are still better than what they could come up with on their own. And they're probably right.

*Thanks to Blinker for this article*

07-Jul-99
Source: Inside the Web

“Prof. Arturo’s Shadow or How I learned to Slide”

By Anthony Genovese (‘99 copyrights; all rights reserved)
I am one of those actors in Hollywood who haven’t quite became a recognizable “name”. I am working hard to do that. But on the way, I have had many wonderful varied acting jobs through the years here. I am going to tell you about my acting with a wonderful man and actor named John Rhys-Davies. I was his photodouble and stand-in for a few projects.
Before going on, I need to establish what a stand-in and photodouble does on the set. This is because the public thinks there is very little “acting” talent to this important job. A photodouble portrays a double of the “star” in the scenes where the director calls for it. A photodouble will be seen on camera during the movie. Some of these “double” scenes can be long wide ‘establishing’ shots, complicated ‘over-the-shoulder’ dialogue sequences, or in quick ‘insert’ shots. This way the “star” does not need to work these scenes and they can be virtually filming in two scenes at once! The photodouble must deliver dialogue and exact actions with the other principle “star” actors to make the scene ‘real’ since it will be seen in the final cut. On the other hand, stand-ins are usually never seen on camera except when they do photodouble responsibilities. They have the same body size and hair/skin color of the principle actor cast in the role. This is to aid the D.P.(Director of Photography) and his camera department to light and focus movie scenes in advance of the lead actors and director coming into set for a scene rehearsal. Stand-ins can help in the initial rehearsal process. The film’s director will ask stand-ins to deliver dialogue(lines) and walk through the scenes to be photographed. In this way, a good stand-in and/or photodouble can help speed up the day's production.
One of my favorite acting jobs was working with a hero of mine, John Rhys-Davies. His most publicly recognizable role was of ‘Salla’, in the Indiana Jones movies. I first met him by working as his stand-in and photodouble on the successful CD-ROM game called “Wing Commander IV”. In Wing Commander, John played the Confederation council leader and retired general called “Paladin.” The process of working on a CD-ROM is quite different from working on a movie. Every scene is shot 3 different ways because the game player makes various choices on how each scene should end. Photodoubling John, I got a chance to act in ‘over-the-shoulder’ dialogue scenes with the other cast members, Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell. This was a highlight for my career and great money, too! A few months later, my agent asked me to work again in the same capacity on the Fox network TV show “Sliders” when this show came back to Los Angeles from shooting in Vancouver, Canada. This is what the fans are now calling the “original” series. The original cast members included Wade, Quinn, Rembrandt, Prof. Arturo and much later Maggie. Working on the show then was very enjoyable because of the cast and crew. We had a family atmosphere. Lot’s of fun....Life was great!
Fast forward to Spring ‘99... I was cast in two fifth season episodes of Sliders. I was looking forward to seeing the friendly cast and crew after some years. Unfortunately, I saw that major changes had been made with cast, crew, story and production values. I was very disappointed. The only person I knew was Cleavant. He welcomed me on board for my work days. IMHO The crew was more aggressive and production values had been compromised. I worked as a ‘day player’. My first fifth season episode was as “Jim”, the hot dog vendor. The story line revolved around a high level White House scandal alla ‘Monica Gate’. The plot was further complicated by the fact that Slider ‘Maggie’ coincidentally was a dead ringer for this Lewinsky-like gal at the center of the presidential controversy. During the plot, I supplied the cast with some story points from my job as a humble street vendor. Some plot ! Haven’t you had enough of this in the news? Enjoy, and you draw your own conclusions....
The next episode, “The Seer” was a bit more interesting and challenging as an actor. It co-stars Roy Dotrice, ‘Father’ of the old TV series “Beauty and The Beast” and Jennifer Hetrich, ‘Fash’ of the TV series “Star Trek, TNG”. I was to play an alternative Professor Arturo. The episode’s plot was very ingenious. The current Slider cast slides into a world where ‘The Sliders’ are a hit TV show. Sounds pretty far fetched. huh? ‘The Sliders’ show and their cast has their own sci-fi fan conventions on this world. We worked on a GREAT scene where the current Sliders arrive on this world right in the midst of ‘The Sliders’ fan sci-fi convention. The crowd’s reaction to this sliding appearance is priceless! Also, it creates some puzzlement to our fifth season heroes. You can appreciate that this episode becomes a multilayered plot with many wonderful ironic possibilities and comedic situations. Myself and my Slider photo double castmates become the cast of “The Sliders” TV show. Professor Arturo, Quinn, Rembrandt, and Wade and we become TV celebrities. We became the cast and participated in shooting of that “The Sliders” TV show. There is one very dramatic sequence shot with us running down a burning ruined city street, shooting automatic weapons at the bad guys. To end the scene, myself(Prof. Arturo) meets up with the whole “The Sliders” cast members and a new fifth season cast member, Tembi Locke. I use the handtimer to open the vortex and we all slide out of that temporal reality. Tembi was wonderful and laughed along with Cleavant at my Prof. Arturo impression when I bellowed in a loud voice, “Mr. Mallory!” The ‘behind the scenes’ explaination that I was told as to why the production company wrote this show was equally unique. The company was constantly getting mailed requests for a ‘reunion’ show with the original cast and the current cast. And as such, the show’s writers went to work with this episode’s plot. This was their answer to those requests. I thought it was a wonderful and creative solution for the fans requests. I can tell you I enjoyed playing my part in a story within a story. Not many people can say they have had a chance to temporally ‘slide’ on a major sci-fi production. FIN (July ‘99 ; for reader’s sole use only; it MAY NOT be SOLD or DISTRIBUTED without prior permission; any other uses prohibited, 1999 copyrights by A.Genovese/Cine Productions)

20-July-99
Source: Scifi IGN

TV: Sci-Fi Channel plots new course

Cancellation, renewal, and at least one new show


Changes are afoot at the ever-morphing Sci-Fi Channel. One beloved show is out, another one's getting a new character, and there are signs of yet another series on the horizon.

First, the bad news--Sliders, the show that shuffles casts more often than Kate Mulgrew changes hairdos, has been canceled.

A spokesperson for Sci-Fi told Sci-Fi Wire that the channel feels the show, which lasted five season, has simply run its course. That course has been a troubled one--over the years, Sliders has bounced networks, been canceled and then revived, and gone through numerous cast shake-ups.

The most recent of these shake-ups was the departure of star and requisite hunk Jerry O'Connell and brother Charlie, who played Quinn and Colin Mallory. Original cast members John Rhys-Davies (Professor Maximillian P. Arturo) and Sabrina Lloyd (Wade) both departed in '97. The show added actors Robert Floyd and Tembi Locke just this year, but, apparently, nothing could make up for the loss of the Brothers O'Connell.

Sliders had been an integral part of the Sci-Fi Channel's recent makeover, and was featured as part of a two-hour line-up that included Farscape, First Wave and Poltergeist: The Legacy. Sliders joins Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the list of fan favorites recently departed from Sci-Fi. With no more new episodes of these shows on the horizon, what reasons are there for us to keep watching the thing?

Well, here's one: Coaxial News reports that the wonderful Farscape, fast becoming the show known for non-cheesy use of puppets, has been renewed for a second season, and will supposedly introduce a "very outrageous" new character.

Finally, the channel announced plans for a new action/comedy series called The Invisible Man, to be helmed by commercials director (and Disney CEO Michael Eisner's son) Breck Eisner. The premise concerns a small-time thief who avoids prison by agreeing to be the guinea pig in an experiment that causes him to become temporarily (and sometimes accidentally) invisible. He is enlisted into a "ramshackle, underfunded intelligence agency," all while an evil scientist tries to track him down. Hmm, sounds great, especially if Pauly Shore plays the thief (kidding).

21-Jul-99
Source: Cinescape

The Sci Fi cable channel has officially announced through their website that the Sliders TV series has finally been canceled. The site reports that it was revealed to the public during a chat with TV Guide online with series stars Tembi Locke and Robert Floyd. Sliders was a series that was rescued by Sci Fi channel after it was canceled by the Fox TV network, When series star Jerry O’ Connell split last year, the seemed to suggest that the series was not long for this world. (Thanks to ‘Ryan Bloom’ for the info!)

12:00pm ET, 17-Dec-99
Source: Scifiwire

Sliders Movie Is In The Works

Sliders co-creator Robert K. Weiss said he is hoping to develop a feature film version of the SF television series, with production starting in late 2000 or early 2001. Weiss made the comments in response to questions in an online chat with fans, according to the Earth Prime fan Web site.

Weiss said he hopes the film will reflect the characters and situations in the first two seasons of the series, which premiered on Fox, then ran later on the SCI FI Channel. He also said he hopes to reunite the original cast, though he added that no talks have occurred with any of the actors.

Once he writes a screenplay, Weiss said he'd have to persuade Universal, which owns the rights to the show, to agree to develop a feature film.

17-Dec-99
Source: Cinescape

Sliders co-creator Robert K. Weiss is sure sounding positive about the possibility of there being a Sliders
theatrical movie in the future. According to the Earth Prime website, Weiss participated in an online chat with Sliders fans earlier in the month during which the subject of a rumored film was brought up.

Regarding when a film might happen, Weiss revealed that he is hoping to get things rolling by late 2000-early 2001. He also is hoping to reunite the series original cast, something which may be hard to do with the career climbing Jerry O’ Connell. As far as the possibility of the character of Arturo, played by John Rhys-Davies, appearing in the film, Weiss would only type in the following: "I'm not telling... :-)".

Weiss also revealed that he is currently "fashioning a story that would be satisfying to old and new fans." He adds, "One of the big issues I'm wrestling with... [We] must do exposition for those new to Sliders without boring those already familiar. The trick is to layer it appropriately so that exposition is interesting, then move forward with story."

As far as adjustments that needed to be made bringing the series to the big screen from its last form, Weiss reveals, "I want to do some retrofitting for the movie."

Also, don’t count on a film necessarily ending on Quinn and company all getting back home again. Weiss comments on this potentially happy ending saying, "I don't know about a "happy" ending, but it will be both satisfying and tantalizing vis a vis sequels."

(Thanks to ‘James Buckley’ for the tip!)

23-Dec-99
Source: Scifi IGN

Sliders Slipping onto Silver Screen?

Series creator hopeful that the reality-hoppers might hop into their own feature film.


Is there a Sliders movie in the works? Well, somewhere, in some alternate reality, there certainly is, but whether or not we'll get one in our world remains to be same. But there's certainly an effort being made.

Robert K. Weiss, one of the co-creators of Sliders, told fans in a recent online chat that he's working on a film treatment for the abandoned show right now.

"I am fashioning a story that would be satisfying to old and new fans," Weiss told the faithful. "Nothing to do but sit tight and wait for the vortex to open up." He said he hopes to use the same cast as season two.

Weiss said the rights to a movie were held by Universal, and optimistically he wouldn't expect a movie until "late 2000 -- early 2001".

As for sequels, Weiss didn't rule them out, although obviously he still has to get approval on the first film before he can event think about that. "It's possible. It's a natural for sequels," he said, about his film project. "As for more TV, we'll have to see."

Weiss' remarks were recorded on the Sliders fan site Earth Prime.

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