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Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
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http://www.jumptheshark.com/s/sliders.htm
Other Thoughts:
When Professor Arturo (played by John-Rhys Davies) was killed off.
Had to be with the "Night of the Living Dead" episode. Suddenly, with the new season, every episode became a ripoff of a different horror, fantasy, or sci-fi movie... "Tremors," "Westworld," even "The Wizard of Oz." First season "Sliders" was an intriguing show with an original premise and a likable cast. The next season, it lost all pretense of intellectual content and became "Monster of the Week."
They changed the format from exploring differing aspects of society to making the female cast members wear sexier outfits. This is a good example of why a show can be, "Too smart for TV." Wade got a new hair do, tight clothing and they brought in a busty blonde. <sigh>
I really enjoyed the show until they decided to change the format. This change is best examplified by the death of the professor (an intellectual character) and the introduction of Maggie (a "bimbo" character.) The plots went downhill from there.
You can't kill off John-Rhys Davies! What's wrong with you people! He saved Harrison Ford's behind in Raiders of the Lost Ark! How's that for a thank you??
The show was great when they were slidding out of different time periods or different types of San Fran. Confused on what they slide in and out of now.
It's sad to see a once-fun show with a promising premise reduced to a Sid-and-Marty-Kroft show with special effects, and scripts by wanna-be Norman Lears. In its beginning on Fox, "Sliders" explored some interesting takes on dual identity, politics, society, etc., without being heavy-handed. It helped that John Rhys-Davies was in the cast, his character offering an intellectual counterpoint. But when his character was killed in the 3rd season, the show jumped the shark and slid down the quality commode, collapsing into goofball farce (and way too many dino-world episodes). When it resurfaced in the sewer of the Sci-Fi Channel (whose only good new show is "Mystery Science Theater 3000"), the writing had reached a new nadir, profering feebly veiled anti-religious and socially leftist diatribes. This show needs the network equivalent of Ex-Lax to slide it out of sight. They should rename this one "Slackers."
Moving the productions from BC to Los Angeles changed the whole feel for the show.
The last episode was not in 1997!!! They started a new season in 1998!!! It's really good now.
This show totally jumped the shark when they added Maggie as a character, she is really annoying. Quinn's brother's not that bad, but maggie is just downright dumb.
I agree with all those who say this show jumped the shark when it ceased to be a show about alternate realities and became a 'Monster of the Week' show. When it stopped its highbrow views of current or historical events, and became just an excuse to rip off every monster movie ever created, the show was greatly 'dumbed down'. This trend began some time before Arturo's death, which, by the way, did not help matters. I was hoping that when the show returned on the Sci-Fi channel, it would improve...but no, we have to lose Wade too. The change in focus was the beginning of the downward spiral; the loss of Arturo and then Wade only brought it down further. Though Sliders hasn't been cancelled as I write this, it seems clear to me that its best days are behind it.
In the first episode of the last living season of Sliders, when Maggie suddenly stops being the life-toughened strong willed woman and joins the ranks of the "please protect me you big strong man" characters. It was sad. Sliders is "the show that wouldn't die"!! It was cancelled four times, and ressurrected three times! The addition of Maggie, the superbabe, and the death of the professor was nice, too.
At the end of the second (?) season, Maggie was introduced, and the Professor was killed off. I don't know whether the actor who played the professor resigned or was fired. My guess is that he was let go, because the producers wanted to inject some youth into the show. BIG MISTAKE. The show went from being the amusing yet intriguing adventures of a rag-tag band of misfits to the laughable, cheesy misadventures of a bunch of Melrose Place wannabees. Soon after the Professor was killed off, Sabrina Lloyd (Wade) left the show as well, and it moved to the Sci-Fi channel. Is it possible for one program to jump two sharks within the same season? Sliders may jump yet a third shark, if it survives after the departure of Jerry O'Connell, who plays the lead character Quinn Mallory.
This show has jumped countless sharks but I don't think anyone has mentioned the appearence of the Cromags. They definitely deserve to be mentioned.
The Cromag storyline refuses to die! Arturo leaving the show, then Wade, really bites!
When Quinn found out about his parents through the microdot. Before, it was about these guys hopping dimensions. Now it's about saving all these worlds, and finding his parents and lame crap like that. And there are no more really funny episodes.
This show has jumped the shark more times than Sheriff Brody and his family have had to fight it! But, ultimately, it did so big time with the death of Professor Arturo. John Rhys-Davies lent so much class to the show just with his presence and was replaced with a hot-blooded young woman to appeal to the little boys in the audience. From then on, the show pretty much excelled at ripping off whatever the hot film at the time was and has never recovered.
They killed the professor. How stupid could they be--he kept the show interesting. Then Wade left. And they added Maggie--what a waste of airtime.
As soon as someone decided that intelligent, brilliant science fiction is no match for bimbos and brain dead storylines that Joe Sixpack can understand. This show was the best thing on TV during its first couple of seasons, then they had the dinosaur episode and it arced the shark.
This show was one of my favs , but ever since they canned wade it really bites . Then it got canned . Then they added a tough chick , and turned her all " oh ! help me ! I fell over and......um , well I need help ! They canned it a few times , and now it is pathetic . Then they found ...........what's his name ? the black guy ? And though they might as well screamed it, Wade is dead . oO ( alien breeding camp ?! ) It was really good , now it's just.................sad.
2 Jumps really: (1) Arturo is killed by Tommy (Roger Daltry of the Who) - that deaf, dumb and blind kid sure can suck out some brain matter, I'll tell you that; & (2) when Rembrandt Brown was abducted by the Cromags and turned from a cowardly, bufoonish, has-been R&B singer to the friggin' Paul Revere of the Cromag War (when the show moves to the Sci-Fi Channel). So sad.
The show jumped because the Fox Network suits had to grab control over the show, taking it away from Robert Weiss and Tracy Torme. When Fox took over, they switched filming locations (no more of the same San Francisco places we knew), and made it a "movie of the week" ripoff.
this year it is worse the only original cast member is Rembrant.
Once Tracy Torme (the brains behind the concept) left.
Definitely jumped right at the beginning of the 5th season. The best characters (Wade, Quinn, and the professor) are gone, replaced with characters who just aren't that great.
Hello? What the hell has happened to Sliders? I can cope with no Wade (she was annoying), I can cope with Maggie getting a new outfit everytime she sldes, I can cope with seeing the stupid Chandler Hotel EVERY week (the list could go on for weeks here) - but WHAT THE HELL HAVE THEY DONE? I tune in to the new series (just on in Australia), and Colin has bounced out of the wormhole into nowhereland, and Quinn has morphed into this other guy who just happens to be 'Quinn Mallory'. So now Remy is the only original slider! (Just as an aside, were Quinn & Colin a package deal or something???!) I don't know if they can keep the shark away from this one now...(chomp! gulp! swallow! burp!) Nup- too late. This definitely should have gone at the end of last season. I'm not happy.
When the professor died and Quinn left
Sliders was such a great show its first season on FOX everyone i know adored it, i remember watching the first one ever it was a 2 hour episode i was hooked from then on. Then they decided to kill arturo that was EASILY the day the jumped the shark, there have been many since then but after he died it was all down hill.
This show is a rip-off of Quantum Leap. The fact that these people jump (slide, leap, whatever)from one episode to the other in situations not familiar to them, is a rip off Quantum Leap, which was an excellent show. Scott Bakula RULES!!!
Hey! He was a smart character among normal people. It gave the show some intellect and insight on different issues. It was stupid to write him out. After that, the interest in the show faded slowly...
Professor Arturo was still alive! The original cast was intact! The stories were great! Cable killed a great show!!!
My favorite show was Sliders on the Sci-fi channel. They changed Quinn Malory. When they got rid of Jerry O' Connell (total babe) the show sucked! That new guy is a total dorkus. He' s ever so slightly cute but, he's not Quinn. And he's stupid. ~ Now my favorite show is Farscape. But, I'm also a computer addict so, I hardly ever watch it. But, hey!, there are worse this to be addicted to!!
When the season started by replacing both quinn and his brother.
Sliders has probably done the biggest shark jump in the history of television. I mean, have you watched it lately? Pure, unadulterated crap. Before Remmy became a caricature of his former self, before the dissapearance of Quinn and wade, and even before Arturo, there were the cro-mags. I knew Sliders was heading towards monster-of-the-week suckiness when I saw the first cro-mag episode. I'm glad the sci-fi chanel is putting Sliders out of its misery.
Moved from B.C. to L.A. Writing goes downhill and Pop! up come the Cromags. Yecch.
Definitely when they got rid of Quinn. Not to mention that he's a total hottie, his character was very interesting. I loved watching him do his thing. The new characters are really stupid, they just don't grab my attention. If they wanted Sliders to stay good, they shouldn't've gotten rid of any of the old characters.
The beginning of the third season. The show was moved from Canada (location shooting) to Los Angeles (A whole lot of Universal Back lot episodes) The show lost its' creator & producer, The best character of the series was killed off, and original dark comedy and social satire was dumbed down into Action and movie rip-offs.
Actually this originally a rip-off of Doctor Who. In the early episodes, the Doctor and his companions were going to all these strange worlds, trying to get back home.
I can pinpoint the episode for you -- The Dream Masters in season 3. At this point, the show stumbled and tripped through various fantasy episodes that were horrible movie ripoffs, practically all the way through season 3. TDM was the first episode that had no scientific explanation -- it just WAS. Luckily, at the start of season 4, it began the jump BACK over the shark, and got a lot better. By season 5 the classic level of quality was back, and with good actors again, too.
It has twice. During the dreadfull 3rd season w/ the so-called actor maggie and the death of the irreplaceable JRD as the Proffesor. It also jumped the shark during it's ressurection to sci-fi. The plot changed, they got rid of yet even another character and the Kromaggs were now lame and typicall villian-of-the-week crap. However, 5th season has brought the show back to its roots with likeable characters and better acting (bye-bye O'connells)and alternate histories. just like the show was originally intended to be. Sliders:The Motion Picture, Spring 2002
GREAT sci-fi, truly one-of-a kind, despite what people say about a "clone" of Quantum Leap-not even similar. First jumped, though, when Sir Rhys-Davies left ON HIS OWN VOLITION-he wanted to leave, not forced out as people said. Then,once they established the new "Fantastic Four" with the VERY HOTT Maggie along, cruised til its untimely cancellation by Fox. Peaked again with the O'Connell Bros joining, but unfortunately the very cute Wade not along. However, MASSIVE JTS when the last season hit us, as it seemed to be a totally different show altogether. The true meaning of Jumping the shark, lasting too long! I hope when and IF there's a movie, they should have Quinn wake up from a dream and realize the last season was just that-a long Nightmare! Death to the Kro-maggs!
I love this show, and it's been really painful to watch it die. It used to have such great history and social studies based episodes (Prince of Wails, Summer of Love, Weaker Sex). But the minute they got the Kromaggs, it started a downward spiral of shame. They had all these weirdo-science based episodes that no one can comprehend. I just stopped watching in the fourth season in that episode with the weirdo virtual reality hotel. There were some good ones, like California Reich and Just Say Yes, but it was a shadow of it's former self. They got rid of the two-minute worlds, and there wasn't as much cleverness in the backround (BSA Today, Chia Man). And another thing: Robert Floyd? Come on! What were they thinking, "Yes, he will be MUCH better than Jerry O'Connell..." It could have been so much better.
when maggie beckett came into the picture and they stopped doing smart shows, SHE SUCKS!! the early seasons were good, even some of season 3, but than it all went downhill! the Kromaggs look more like Nazis, the stories have nothing to do with science.
Sucks for the rest of the cast that Jerry O' Connell became popular and the show went down....
Sliders began to decline (didn't REALLY jump) when David Peckinpah took over. Tracy Torme had thought provoking episodes, but Fox decided to put Peck in charge. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! Oh....and its "K"romaggs!
Sliders Jumped the shark more than once, starting with Killing off the professor, Then adding the female Rambo wanna-be, Then killing off wade,{even though she was sexist against men).losing colin,came next, and then as if that were not crummy enough they got a new and idiotic Quinn, and added that wimpy, whiny, female genius, but the biggest shark jumping occurred when they ended the series with a STUPID cliffhanger that is'nt likely to be concluded in a cool fashion if at all. For anyone who think's wade ain't sexist, what about that episode were she didn't think it was sexist, on that world were men couldn't vote, get a job and had no rights whatsoever... etc
Unless you have cable, you'll never see the last season. The Sci-Fi Network: where old T.V. shows go to die =)
It was all downhill after Arturo died.
I don't exactly remember how Arturo died, but I remember one episode where his double was fighting with him and we didn't know if our Arturo was the one to slide or not. It was a great premise, and if they rebooted it it could still work on the sci-fi channel (in original form), but from the death of Arturo came the introduction of those alien conquerors (not sure if it happened before or after Arturo's death, but it was cool until later), the addition of that chick (bad) then Wade left (worse), then Quinn discovered he was an alien or something (even worse, then Quinn merged bodies with another person (killing blow). Such promise, such a waste...
When the Professor was not only killed off--not from the disease he had--but was attacked, had a stroke, took a bullet, and then the planet they left his body on BLEW UP!!! Can you say OVERKILL? Without one interesting, non-Hollywood "real" looking person on the show, none of its many other faults could be overlooked
Sliders jumped the shark so many times and still managed to stay alive. I would say that the death of the professor and the inclusion of Maggie was the first shark jump. Then we lost Wade to the Kromag's(jump number two). Then we were to believe that Quinn really wasn't from earth prime. His parents were sliders also and had left him on another world (for safe keeping). Then the mission on the show changed to Quinn finding his long lost bro and his REAL homeworld (jump number three). Now they add Quinn's bro Colin (played by real siblings Jerry and Charlie O'Connell). OK it's lame but we still watch. And the powers that be figure that since we have swallowed all of the other shark jumps why not one more. The death of Sliders came the day they thought that they could recast Jerry O'Connell and make up some lame assed excuse about some mad scientist and the real Quinn is in this other guys body now. WHATEVER!!! In it's final season Sliders was unwatchable. I now think of it as "Sliders the next generation" And out of habit I would try to watch the show. The stories were horrible (Wade head as a Kromag computer, need I say more). They ruined a show that had such promise. And now I hear rumors that they are thinking of making a movie out of it. How could they possibly undo the damage they have done? Please let Sliders rest in peace.
Bringing in the Kromaggs as recurring villains was the "shark jump", but the loss of the Wade character (kidnapped by the Kromaggs) was the kiss of death. The show just got sillier and sillier.
I think the show really died when fox cut it loose and Sabrina Lloyd left the show.
Okay, so it wasn't really the same character and the show had started going done hill when they first started replacing the other characters, but it really jumped the shark, hit the rock and drowned when they replaced Quin. I didn't watch the entire episode coz it was so awful, but I think the general gist was that Quin kinda merged with this other, totally gormless Quin who was nothing like him, so really they kiled the character off. When dod they go form 'let's not interfere coz it's not our world' to 'we know how the world should be, so let's meddle in everyone's business'?
Ok, this show had several points where it downed and it halfway redeemed itself. The episode in season three where Professor Arturo died (or John Rhys-Davies quit/was fired) just killed it for me. But they introduced Maggie (Kari Wuhrer) and she was an ok character. But not that good. The show was kinda good and then they killed off Wade (Sabrina Lloyd)-not literaly though, she was captured by the Kromaggs. That also upset me. Then it went on with three people for a while. The fourth season introduced Quinn's brother, Colin (Charlie O'Connell). Then they played around the rest of the fourth season. But then the show finally hit rock bottom. The very first episode of the fifth season ruined the show for the rest of it's episodes thereafter. The main character, who was the reason for al the sliding that took place, collided with another version of himself in the vortex and merged with him. But for some bizarre reason, he didn't look the same because the other Quinn Mallory didn't look like the original one (played by Jerry O'Connell.) He was another actor, who I don't even know who he is because I stopped watching the new episodes of the show. Then they played it off that the two people in one body were fighting over the body and the original guy won, thereby keeping the original character and changing actors. Also to be noted is how when Jerry O'Connell left the show for beter things, his brother obviously left with him because he became "unstuck" between universes or something stupid like that. Then they added another woman character and finished the show with a quick season of crap, finally ending it by having the last original character, Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks) jump into a low power wormhole that could kill everyone if all of them went in and now we know that he's either stuck on a world full of Kromagg scum who'd kill him without a thought or he was killed on the way there, destroying the show completely, minutes from the end of the show's last episode. And now I don't know what happened to the last original slider left. Oh, Jerry O'Connell, how could you let this happen to your show?
I was willing to give it a chance, even though it was so obviously nothing more than an updated version of Irwin Allen's "Time Tunnel". Then make the only black character THE COMIC RELIEF. I was appalled and embarrassed. Politics aside, when you look at what this show could have been, it's depressing. Every week a "ripped from the blockbuster film" episode (i.e., the Jurassic Park episode), or lame ways to show how things have changed: Oooh, red means "GO" in the communist world. Wow, men wear skirts and women ogle them in the feminist world. Pandering at its best.
this was a great show util they killed the Profesor and wrote in that other girl. THen they wrote out That other girl (sorry I forgot her name) and then Quin. It just got worse and worse.
It jumped when they jumped home because that was the whole point of the show, and they didnt even know it because a gate that had squeaked for over 10 years had just been oiled. I mean whats the chance of them sliding home again!?!?
Sliders is one of the best shows on television! It's jam-packed with sci-fi thrilling adventure!
The 4 of them (Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Professor) finally made it home and then left because a stupid gate at quinn's house wasn't squeaking. Turned out they really did make it home.
The Death of Arturo (played by the ever wonderful John Rhys Davies). The Departure of Wade. Finally the O'connell brothers leaving put the last nail into the coffin of a once wonderful show.
Oh, it was without a doubt the departure of Professor Arturo. John Rhys-Davies (Sir John) did indeed leave voluntarily, and went to a role on one of the "Star Trek" descendants, for, I'm told, a *lot* more money. As many others have pointed out, after that the producers/suits frantically tried just about everything anyone could think of to try to rescue the series, with virtually every change making it worse. Wade was good, and I'll admit, as a male, that I didn't much mind the outfits, so long as the Professor was there. Didn't even much mind the Cromaggs, although I agree that the series was better without them. But the jumped shark was when they made the Professor terminally ill, got him shot, and then blew up the planet he was on. As an earlier poster said, overkill. Maybe indicating the producers' reaction to his desire to leave....
This show started out with a very interesting premise, and continued to inject new and inventive storylines for the first three seasons. Sliders jumped the shark when for some stupid reason, everyone involved with the show developed a sever case of myopia and couldn't see that Jerry O'Connell's bro CANNOT ACT !! He is without a doubt the sole pivotal cause of the shows demise, especially when you factor in that even through all of the show's incarnations prior to his appearance, the fans kept bringing it back.
The Cromags killed the show. What was a great show that had alot of promise became nothing but just another Sci-Fi show. What about a show about the South won the Civil War and Remmy has to act of their slave? What about a show in which JFK lived and married Marlyn Monroe-an idea they hinted at in the first episode? What if they landed in a USA that spoke German,which was almost the official language of the US? They go on and on, but NOOOOOO we have to give the people a boogey man and ruin a show that was great. They even could have gotten sillier at times, maybe the end of one episode they land in a world where a virus came back from the moon and killed all the dogs and cats and people had monkeys as pets(sound familiar?). I was hoping that they would see the error of their was, reverse jump the shark and slide into a world where the REAL cast were stuck from an earlier slide the FAKE cast dies in a horrible accident and the show goes on as it was.
FOR THE PERSON WHO DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LAST ORIGINAL SLIDER,(WADE) SHE WAS ALSO KILLED BY THE KRO'MAGGS.
Quinn was such a great character (not to mention a hottie), so when he died was when the show jumped the show. I could stand the Kromaggs (they make a nice enemy). I could stand losing Arturo and Wade (even though I wasn't happy). And I could even stand Maggie (after she retired from her rambo-woman attitude). But Quinn??? NO!! That's it; show's over.
Sliders started out as a smart show with a darker humor to it, that actually made audiences think (heaven forbid!). The cast had great chemistry, the plots were original, and it was a show that drew me in each week and made a lot of devoted fans. Then, season 3 started to head downhill plotwise. But that was okay, we still had a cast we loved. THEN they killed Arturo and brought in Maggie Beckett, whom the majority of the audience hated. That was doom, the plots were movie ripoffs and the cast had broken. It no longer was that sweet, wonderful show. It tried to improve when it moved to the SciFi channel, but ended up still being crap.
The pilot of "Sliders" was actually quite excellent, and seemed to promise a series that would explore the "what ifs..." of both world history and the personal lives of the characters. But, as early as episode two, the series promptly forgot all about that and decided to explore worlds that just didn't make any sense (women are the dominant sex, magic is real) or just lame science fiction (Kromaggs et al.). I'm all for a little sci-fi fun (the spider wasps were kind of neat), but they should have been concentrating on interesting plotlines with their duplicates (such as in Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome) against backgrounds where, say, the Nazis rule America or slavery was never abolished. A few episodes were good, but as far as jumping the shark, it was right after Day One; you could say Day Two.
It jumped in the second season when Tracy Torme had to allow the Fox network executives to become creative consultants. The original premise of the show was "what if" the Fox executives had no interest in the political storylines they only wanted glitz which included tighter clothes, more dinosaurs and magicians. This was a show that was sci-fi with a political edge as most good sci-fi is but became fantasy probably because the writing may be categorized as leaning left. Rupert Murdoch is quite to the right. Only on occasion did they revisit the poitical line.
Sliders jumped the shark when the new Quinn was added and the original was lost. You'd think they would at least try to get someone who looked the part. As if that were not bad enough this new guy couldn't act at all.
Oh, that show was a real mess! The first season was the best, then the second was good, but the third was the time of death. They weren't even trying to get back home! (the main objective!!) I think that the show could've servived a little longer if they kept Logan St. Clare (Quinn's female double), if she would've tracked them all over the multiverse it might have brought it self back from the terminal illness of bad writing for a little bit. But I'm sure the writters would have just screwed that up too. Like everone would agree the death of Arturo ultimatly marked it with death. I like to put it as the time of the new timer, when they got the new timer from that Egyptian world was the turning point. During season 4 the only good ep. in that season was Lip****z Live (even though it with a BIG rip off), it did however have some humor. Season 5 is the worst season in the history of any show. With the BAD writting and the horiffic acting, it was the death warrent for the show. Then at the very ending, the last episode, if that hadn't been the ending of it the next episode would've.
It really started to jump after they killed Prof. Arturo and I just stopped watching once Wade disappeared. I couldn't stand Maggie.
This used to be a fantastic show. I watched it every Friday night without fail. The show went dramatically downhill when they killed the professor and added that slut Maggie. The original four - Quinn, Wade, Remmy, and the Professor had great chemistry together. Am I the only one who saw the great sexual chemistry between Quinn and Wade? It was like all of a sudden when Maggie showed up, Quinn didn't even see Wade as a chic anymore (just like a man). How fake. I tried to watch it after that, but Maggie got on my nerves, and I missed the professor. Glad to see lots of people agree with me that a smart, funny, intelligent, good actor beats a booby bimbo anytime. (...ok, most times)
Actually the first time it jumped the shark was back during the beginning of the third season when it got away from creator Tracy Torme (Mel's son) original premise of being about what alternate history earths might be like. Instead of constructing and having the stories being about alternate history earths, FOX executives forced (or tried to force) Torme to write stories based instead on a "movie of the week" Sliders -- when Torme wouldn't follow through Torme simply walked! -- this was during the 1996-97 season and was the first "jump the shark" experience that befell "Sliders" -- it couldn't recover at all from the loss of Torme and the loss of why the audience it had in Season 1 and 2 originally tuned into it (if you ask me FOX or some other network should have at that point made "Sliders" a show that would only come on during the spring second season -- sort of like what "The Days & Nights Of Molly Dodd" was for NBC and Lifetime). Like I said before after Torme's departure things went downhill from there with the replacement of Torme with David Peckinpah and his inept handling of putting the "Sliders" in a movie of the week theme, then Peckinpah's inept decisions about how to handle John Rhys-Davies and the death of Arturo and the coming on (originally) of that inept actress (at the time -- she improved as time went on) Kari Wuhrer as blonde bimbo "Maggie". It did start to improve somewhat by Sci-Fi's version of it Season 5 -- but I think Sci-Fi recognized another problem with it and that's why they decided to cancel it in the end of February 2000 and that was Maggie loosing the sharp edge she developed in Season 4 and maintained generally up to "The Return Of Maggie Beckett" episode of Season 5 and the relationship between Maggie and Remmy started to become way too mushy! If you ask me they started to have a good thing going with the show in Season 5 -- up to the episode "The Return Of Maggie Beckett" in Season 5 (it nearly was starting to resemble the best of Season 1 & 2's "Sliders" on FOX) -- but, then lo and behold they create this thing out of thin air between Maggie and Remmy (when Remmy's girl was always Wade or at least maybe we might have seen him with Diana) and the next episode after "The Return Of Maggie Beckett" was the god-awful "Easy Slider" which should have been renamed "Sleazy Slider" because it totally made us all sick about a character many of us originally thought was kind of neat and that was Robert Floyd's "Mallory".
The very moment Jery O'Connell a.k.a Quinn left the show.
this show jumped the shark when fox let it go. up here in edmonton we watched it every week (well my family that is) and only now have i got to see the eps after they left fox. man do they suck. a lot goes with that too. the kromags, maggie, arturo die-ing, the whole look we don't have to be in san francisco thing, quinn's real life brother being his brother in the show! he cant act!!!!
The episode when they killed off Professor Arturo. The show just wasn't the same without the original four.
Sliders just got out of hand after they killed Arturo. I stopped watching it regularly after that, and since then every time I tuned in it was hard to follow the new characters and/or plot twists.
Arturo and Quinn had a great "wise elder but brighter youngster" thing going. The character they replaced Arturo with may have looked great in a leather mini, but the actress' acting skills couldn't hold a candle to Rhys-Davies' and it showed. Too, the program lost its focus and you could tell the 'suits' at the studio were tinkering with things that worked until they didn't any more. I gave up a few episodes after Arturo's death. Actually, it's just as well because, with those excessively annoying 'branding' logos on screen now, I've pretty much stopped watching television altogether except for news. annoying.
I watched this show religiously from the first episode until the professor was killed off. They had explored complex social issues with humor and intellect, but at that point, I knew that the jig was up. And, sure enough, the whole thing went into the crapper. I see that they've gotten rid of every one of the original cast members except one. They need to blow this thing up before it hurts someone.
It started to go downhill when Professor Arturo died, but definitely jumped the shark when they combined Quinn and Colin into that "Mallory" guy. Rembrandt is the only original guy left. The group just isn't as lovable any more. They don't have the right variety.
I hate to break my own rule [which is that people who've never liked a particular show shouldn't comment, because such votes really ought not to count - so please don't count this one], but i just hafta say this - "Sliders" was lame from the start, continues to be lame, and will forever be so. Why? Because it's a blatant ripoff /half-baked melange of every sci-fi-time-travel storyline there ever was. Science fiction prose writing has been tackling these themes since the year dot; most of them, having been well and truly done to death, were consigned to the sci-fi cliche graveyard long ago. The "Sliders" scriptwriters, however, obviously aren't averse to robbing graves and reanimating corpses...
The jump was a long,painful one.While the change in tone doomed it early,the real sharkbite moment started with killing off Arturo,actor prerogative or not.The Kromagg thing continued the jump,but Jerry O'Connel leaving was the last straw.Even I stopped watching by that time!The final insult:a cliffhanger finale(which I DID see),leaving the central ending-mystery hanging forever,like Early Edition had to.Good fantasy shows(Sliders,EE,Quantum Leap,and MST3K)
It jumped the Shark when they started taking people from different worlds with them.
Does anyone remember this? In the episode where Maggie and Quinn are separated from Wade and Rembrandt, Quinn returns to earth, but Maggie has a breathing problem and Quinn is forced to slide out of his own world because Maggie couldn't survive in that world. They end up in some blue world, utter something like "where are we?" and the season ends. Next season, ALL FOUR CAST MEMBERS ARE TOGETHER AND THE TO-BE-CONTINUED PLOT SET UP IN THAT SEASON IS NEGATED! That's when it jumped the shark. Of course, the fifteen formats it had (intellectual discourse, action show, Voyagers ripoff, leftist diatribe) didn't help either. Oh, and props to Peter Jurasik for season 5's best (worst?) line..."So?...Are you two people?"
OK, anyone remember the stupid plots during the bad seasons? They happen upon a world infested with zombies. How did the zombies get there you ask? A company came up with a diet pill which turned the people who used it into zombies. Yes, the ENTIRE WORLD used the diet pills and turned into zombies. Then, they meet the one man who managed to reverse the process on himself and help him create a cure. This had to be one of the most retarted plots on any TV show ever. Hey, if any of you know any lame plots post em! It's not like theres a shortage.
Season 4 of Sliders was just AWFUL!! Jerry O'Connell's acting completely sucked, he didn't even TRY! And hiring Charlie O'Connell to play Quinn's brother Colin...what a nepotistic load of you-know-what. Not to mention all the PC storylines and Maggie's ugly dye-job (she looked bad as a dark brunette). Fortunately, Sliders jumped back in Season 5 when Jerry and Charlie O'Connell left the show (Jerry wouldn't return because Sci-Fi Channel refused to make him an executive producer...what an egomaniac!). They brought on Robert Floyd and the wonderful Tembi Locke to replace Jerry and Charlie, but Cleavant Derricks as Rembrandt became the leader of the quartet and did 10 times better than Jerry ever had!! Plus Maggie lightened her hair, and the scripts and plots actually became fascinating, exotic, and high-quality once again. Season 5 ruled!!!!
Sliders does little more than oppose distorted evil-empire dystopias to a predictable nucleus of 1990's moralism. It's hard to argue with each show's message-- racism is bad, sexism is bad, conformity is bad-- but it's hardly daring to spend an hour every week debunking ideas that lost currency in the 60's. Also, I find it hard to believe that these kids, coming from a totally foreign social and historical context, can re-create in their own image every society they come across within a week of arriving, as if their progressive 20th century american values were self-evident truths that people just haven't woken up to yet, instead of the distilled essence of centuries of intellectual development. And do any of these alternate societies have their own identity, or any real complexity? They are without exception generated by exaggerating a single aspect of 90's america in order to validate (irrelevantly) ideas that already have a high degree of nominal acceptance in american society. If you thought this was ever an intellectual show, congratulations: you have *bought* what the marketing boys are selling you, which is that warm glow you get from lording your moral loftiness over an imagined great unwashed to which you probably belong.
This is a good example of a no talent female getting a role just because the "men in charge" think she's hot. I have seen Kari in films, and she really is not a very gifted actress. In interviews she also seems to be fake and shallow. In my opinion, her joining the cast was the signal for the Shark. Another thing, I have a problem with not only Kari, but also her character. She played Maggie Beckett, and as I recall, in her first episode she was quite a bitch. Yet somehow, Quinn ended up falling in love with her. I was upset by the fact that Quinn and the gang found their home Earth, but they had to leave because Maggie couldn't breathe our air. That was lame. One last thing to mention....Charlie O'Connell. He should be the poster boy for why family connections don't equal talent(he and Daniel Baldwin should share that poster come to think of it). Really, he would have never gotten a role on the show had his brother not been the star. What did he add to the series? The camera was not good to this man, and his performance was lacking in quality. I won't ever forget the episode where Charlie and Kari's characters were supposed to be stoned out of their minds. I honestly didn't think that their "high as a kite" routine was much different from their usual shtick. Shows you what kind of a superb range they've got (sarcasm inserted).
When it stopped being about alternate histories and started being monster-of-the-week overly sci-fi drek. And then it somehow got even worse with the addition of the Kromaggs.
Fox was trying to boost the ratings of this show, and horribly ruined it. IT was a downhill slide that only got worse when it moved to SciFi. The plots got worse and worse and worse.
When the professor died, it broke my heart. He was definately the best (i.e. most entertaining) of the group. The sad part is, they could have pulled it off a little while longer with the cast they had left (they wern't too bad either), but then they just kept changing everybody. I just lost intrest in the show after awhile. I recently learned from a friend that later in the series Quinn picked up his brother from some world. What the heck is that all about?
At first, Sliders dealt with the extremely interesting concept of alternate realities; that is, by changing a seemingly insignificant historical event, everything can change. In the first season or two, they used that concept quite well (all right, there was a bit of cheesy acting and the occasional goofy plot, but basically they did it very well). Then, they gave up on the entire premise and started on that great big steaming pile of manure we remember as the "Cro-mag war." In the latest seasons, they even stopped explaining the nature of the different realities that the sliders visited. No more visits to the library to see what historical alterations caused that world to be what it was. Worst of all, despite having slid from reality to reality for years, the characters in the last few seasons seem completely unable to learn simple Sliding rules: Like in one FOURTH season episode when Rembrandt and Maggie just can't figure out why "Quinn" is acting so unlike himself - seemingly forgetting the concept of doubles (how they could not even consider it is a total mystery); or, upon sliding into a new and unknown reality, the characters immediately do something or get involved in some incident which eventually they learn was taboo. (How could they slide for so many years and not have learned to stay out of unknown situations and not get involved??) Basically, I agree with the above posters that it was approximately when Tracy Torme left that the show got stupid.
The Professor leaving was the first big disappointment, although I believed he could always come back as another world's Professor. What really gets to me are how series like this one appear happy to meander along without resolving the story before they get canceled. Learn from the Twin Peaks example. (I fear the X-files may be on that path - just wrap it up, already, and let the final scene be a picture frame holding a wedding snapshot.) It is dangerous to have a show be like a never-ending soap opera when the audience wants a great entertaining ending someday. I guess television stations will always be more interested in a show's ability to attract advertising dollars than in creating a coherent series from beginning to end. Also, because I live in Canada, I have been unable to follow the show properly. Our version of the FCC does not allow Canadians to see many specific US stations, such as the Sci-Fi Channel, because it is feared that Canadian channels would be crushed. So, I have to wait for the Canadian version of the Sci-Fi Channel to show the episodes, and figure out which days are rerun days and which are new episode days, but I gave up. I missed too many already.
The beginning of season 5 when not one, but two of the Mallory brothers (Quinn and Colin) disappeared. Actually, Colin became unstable and randomly slides between dimensions and Quinn became merged with the evil Mallory.
The very second that the name, David Peckinpah, was listed on the credits, the show not only jumped, but flew like a rocket over the shark.
This is when Arturo was kicked off the show. Everything after this episode is a downhill of horrors and sickness. I love the first three seasons but after his death the re-create the show. It wasn't the show I love to watch anymore.
This show jumped the most sharks of any. Although Arturo's death didn't help much, the change of premise really did it in. It went from being an intelligent view on the "what if's" of history to being a sensationalized movie ripoff, and the personalities of the characters changed way too much. Rembrandt went from a cowardly has been musician concerned only with getting home and restarting his career to being a bad-ass not afraid of taking on an entire army of Nazis by himself with his only weapon being a piece of angle iron. Maggie went from being a bad-ass super bitch to being the stereotypical big breasted bimbo. There were so many jumps, it's hard to count. The final season, with Quinn combined with his double who doesn't even look like him and Wade as an omnipotent Kromagg-whooping head, was the shark that Sliders fortunately didn't clear.
The first season was fantastic. Inventive storylines, great character interaction. And then... the recurring dinosaur bits bored me to tears, the move to the Sci-Fi channel was *not* for the better, but the death blow was the replacement of the original cast with a new ensemble that just doesn't have the same comic effect and chemistry. I don't even know if it's still on anymore, because the last few episodes I caught were so terrible I didn't care to keep track.
Jumped the shark when they tried to keep the show afloat without the original actors. First we lost the professor- I can deal with that. Then Wade, who was real and likeable, then the best looking part of the show (the O'Connell brothers) both disappear at the same time. We were left with no sexual tension, no intellectual conversations, and a whole lot of confusion. Poor Rembrandt could not be expected to carry that show by himself. They also had an incredible concept in the other dimension. It was fascinating how one different idea or event could possibly change our world. The "run for your life" episodes did get to be just a little too much.
Quinn and his brother get lost during a slide and Quinn's body is "superimposed" into the Quinn from another reality. His brother is forever lost in the ethers of the dimensions.
Definitely the show died when Arturo did, but even before that they never took advantage of the Arturo switch theme which could really have provided some great storylines.
I enjoyed the show when it was an "alternate" San Francisco every week, based on a twist of history.
When they stopped doing alternative history and introduced the Kromags. Yuck. It went from a fun show to a stupid show. Killing the Professor was a really bad idea.
When Quinn left was the end...you can't get rid of the main character and expect it to survive.
This show jumped the shark when its original cast changed. When Jerry O'Connell & the brainy Professor guy left the show had a serious decline! A definite bonus was the addition of the hot babe from the old MTV game show Remote Control!
Early in the series, the producers figured out shirtless Jerry O'Connell = good ratings. THEY FOUND A PRETENSE FOR HIM TO TAKE OFF HIS SHIRT IN EVERY EPISODE. IT WAS WORSE THAN WHEN SCOTT BAIO STARTED DOING WEIGHTS DURING HIS HAPPY DAYS STINT.
Sliders was my favorite show, before it got brainless fast. There were several reasons the show went down the tubes.
First, I didn't like it in the episode where Rembrandt had the supposed love spell over him, I mean what happened with Wade and Quinn, why didn't he fight for Wade, the love of his life. I think whole the concept of Rembrandt and Wade really, really, really sucked. It made a good episode with the spell and all but only for one episode.
One (Quinn) doesn't just fall out of love with the woman (Wade) he has loved for so long, who he finally has revealed his love for and love returned with love. Rembrandt should be glad that I wasn't Quinn because he might have found himself left behind on the next slide.
Sliders, still intact (pretty much), might have survived the fixable Wade/Rembrandt incident, If not for:
Second, (When it truly Jumped the Shark) Has to be the death of Professor Arturo. I'm not sure of the situation with John Rhys-Davies or if it was his choice to leave or if it was the decision of those brilliant TV Execs (Who think they now what the people want!). The Professor added an intelligent mentorishness (sound of reason) to the group as well as being the most refined. Could've been fixed by a revisit to the world where the other Professor (being their Arturo) was left behind by mistake. Would also have made some great story lines as he tried to gain their trust and be accepted back into the fold. And the final straw: Third, The switch-a-roo stunt with Quinn being combined with Mallory. I thought "No Way!, Talk about no closure!" In one minute Quinn and Colin (Are doubles as we never see their faces) are gone and we have in their place, Mallory (not even a shadow of Quinn). They not only lost the brains of the show but also some of the comic relief. And to top it off, they had the chance to rectify part of this but Mallory would die if they separated them (Big Deal, People die on TV all the time, it's just fiction. I bet they didn't flutter an eye when they killed off the Professor). I could go on and on. Thanks for the outlet.
Never really got into this series, since it reminded me of “Quantum Leap,” which was a rip off of “Voyagers,” which was a rip off of the film “Time Bandits.” However, a disinterested person, I’d say that this series should go down has having the most shark jumps. 1) Death of Prof. Arturo—Rhys-Davies is a powerful presence. He’s so cool he has two last names! 2) Same Character, different actor. O’Connel had a charisma that Floyd didn’t have. 3) Network change from FOX to Sci Fi—and a new batch of egos who all want to write the series. 4) The first monster of the week was the dinosaur one. It was a Jurassic Park rip off, which was smouched from the “Land of the Lost”—yes, I am that old! I was surprised to see the show on still on in 1999, but with only one original character--Rembrandt. It was almost as if the point of the series was not storytelling, but mere existence. It made the case for euthanasia.
This show first jumped after Arturo left but then jumped several times after that. The Kromaggs and the "Malory" character were the biggest examples. However even after it went to the SCIFI channel is would still have an occasional good show that I kept watching.
Sliders was a good show, but it had an awful ending: Rembrandt jumps through a wobbly, unstable vortex hoping to land on Earth Prime (his homeworld) after having injected himself with an anti-Kromagg virus. He hopes to release the virus on his Earth to wipe out the Kromaggs, who've now dominated his planet. Of course, being that it's a cliffhanger, we never find out 1.) if Rembrandt made it back to Earth Prime safely, or if he was sent to another world by mistake or simply killed while inside the volatile vortex; 2.) what happened when Rembrandt emerged from the other end of the vortex; 3.) did the virus integrate itself with Rembrandt's body, and was he able to release it into the atmosphere of whatever world he landed on and kick some Kromagg ass? By the way, I'm writing a 44-episode conclusion to Sliders that picks up where "The Seer" (the final Sliders episode) leaves off, so you can read my interpretation of what happens to Remmy when he emerges from the other end of the wormhole. It then continues the series from there, with my own version of a sixth and a seventh season for Sliders that will give fans of the show some true closure. If you want to read it go to http://www.geocities.com/kneeloi/fanfiction.html
This show jumped about the fifth season, but it had problems before this. (1) It suffered from "Brown Hornet" syndrome. If any of you remember "Fat Albert," you'll remember that "Brown Hornet" and "Legal Eagle" were the kids' favorite shows. On "Brown Hornet" the title character would always have a cliffhanger ending and a resolution-to-the-cliffhanger beginning. However, none of the endings matched any of the beginnings. For the first few shows at least, we would always get a glimpse of the next world the Sliders visited. However, this was rarely the show seen in the next episode. (2) I didn't like the ending for the episode in the "backwards time" universe, because it was suggested that by altering the timeline, Quinn would cause that universe (or at least that Earth) to be destroyed. I really, really, hate "one little mistake and the universe goes 'boom!'" episodes. (see also, "The Alternative Factor" in Star Trek TOS). (3) Season 5 however, was the shark-jumper, for three reasons: (a) Colin and Quinn's departure was handled poorly. If they were going to be gotten rid of, they should have been killed, rather than tantalizing us with the possibility that they were out there and then in thefinal few episodes saying "sorry, they're gone!" Also, the loss of the entire original cast, except for Rembrandt, began to make the entire point of the show (they are trying to get home, or more specifically, trying to free it from the Kromaggs so they can be free there) meaningless. (b) After the episode with Jerry Doyle on the asteroid between the universes (the one where the Vorton device is used to destroy the Kromaggs), they question whether they'll ever free their planet (the Vorton device would destroy the environment and make Earth uninhabitable, and is therefore not a very good weapon to use). What do they do? They just continue sliding aimlessly; no new, alternate goal is presented them, and, far as I can tell, we forget about the Kromaggs until the very last episode, where they get a name-check, and, as an after thought, Remy decides to try out a new weapon on them. Even if you hated the Kromagg story arc (I liked it a lot!), it should have been resolved somehow before being dropped! The fifth season had interesting episodes, it's true, but that didn't matter because THERE WAS NO POINT. They weren't trying to get home or to free their world, what were they trying to do? (c) Peter Jurasik's character (Oberon Geiger) was a little too powerful for my tastes. If he had the power to change an entire universe (or maybe all of them), well, that's another "make a mistake and the universe goes 'boom'" situation.
Sliders jumped the shark when they killed off the Professor. It just went down hill from there. The first seasons were good because they explored differernt aspects of humanity, but after Arturo died, it just became another "shoot the alien" sci-fi show.
Come on sorry, Jerry's Quinn was the heart of the show. It was bad enough that the Professor and Wade left, but trying to continue the show without "Q-Ball"!??! And sorry calling Mallory, "Q-Ball" just annoyed me. Only Quinn. Jerry's Quinn is "Q-Ball".
The show was great until they (a) decided to chase Roger Daltrey around, (b) killed off the Professor, and (c) introduced the Kromaggs. The latter was the primary cause of the shark jump, but collectively, those three were enough to send this once excellent show over the edge.
This show jumped the shark with the introduction of the KROMAGGS. The Kromagg arc killed the show. This was before the professor was killed off. The whole Kromagg/change of premise thing was actually the reason John Rhys-Davies left the show and it jumped again. Then it jumped again with the addition of Maggie. Then it jumped again with Wade's departure. Then it jumped again with the addition of Colin. Then it jumped again with Quinn's departure. Then it jumped again with the addition of Mallory and Diana. It tried to revive itself in season five by getting rid of the Kromaggs, but it was already too late. The show could have been really successful if they had just kept the original premise.
Everything truly bad about the show happened after professor Arturo was killed off. The four core characters were the point of the show. The kromaggs, while a perfectly acceptable possibility in an infinite multiverse, were handled badly.
The loss of the professor did hurt the show. But I think it was more of an attempt to show that sliding wasn't all fun and games. But where I think it jumped the shark was with the Cromags. It went from them slipping between dimensions/timelines TRYING TO GET HOME to some kind of "we have to find our REAL parents and save all these dimensions from the Cromags" episodes. I mean there must be an infinate upon infinate number of parallel worlds and they have to run into the friggin' Cromags on all of them? If they wanted an antagonist, how about another version of one of the characters or some other bad guy that follows them around or something.
I was too lazy to watch the show when it moved to Sci-fi cuz the last few episodes on FOX weren't that good and I really didn't notice. The first season was absolutely amazing. Some of my favorites were when women were the dominate sex, the population control episode (where they used birth control like it was their job and actually WANTED to die), the episode where the black guy is famous and everyone thinks arturo is Pavaroti [my spelling sucks]. My friend told me about some of the Sci-Fi episodes, like how the killed off the professor and some cheeseball story lines. What up with aliens, the show was about different dimensions of earth, not aliens or Kromaggs, whatever they were called, attacking. Sounds like the shows death was gruesome, and I bet that Quinn finally got home. And now Jerry O'Connell has a struggling movie career. Who knew...
I used to love the whispered "sliders" at the commercial break. I liked the CroMag story line...sort of like the Borg in ST:TNG, but Sliders used it to change the entire premise and that stunk up the whole show. I hated to see the professor leave, but I kept watching until the whole premise shift with Quinn's 'parents' and the Cromag war. I was hoping the Cromags would be a one or two episode a year event..you just CANNOT change a premise like that. I never watched the last season. As for the cliffhanger beginnings and endings that didn't continue to the next show. I think they were intentional...I remember one where they were clinging to a lone rock in the middle of an underwater SF and someone shouted out how much time they had until they slid. One with headhunters, one where EVERYONE was rich because oil was struck in SF. It was a cute way to communicate that they went to a lot more worlds than we actually saw on the show.
This show most definitely lost a loyal fan when Arturo bit the bullet. But to all those who think the exec made Davies leave, check the credits of "The Exodus" two-parter in which he died. Davies wrote it!!
Okay, it wasnt a Quantum Leap rip off, it was more like QL Lite. But the problem was, it was about PEOPLE how the same people in different circumstances are different. Well, kill off the dominant personality and you kill the show.
Sliders was amazing in it's first season , it's second season was still good but wasn't on par with the first. But it's third season was terrible , almost every episode was a monster of the week style episode which didnt work at all. But when they killed of the professor that was the end. It was trully a classic example of jumping the shark , the show began to go downhill so fast after he was killed that it was almost unbelievable. Having wade leave and the kromaggots take over Earth prime , and then later having Quin and Colin leave was just a sign of how badly this show deteriorated. I actually stopped watching it shortly into the season where Remmy was the only one of the originals left. It truly was a shame too as Sliders had so much promise and could have been an amazing show, but instead ....
When they got home to their real dimension, but left again thinking they were in the wrong place. It seemed like they were just trying to extend into another season.
I started watching this show from the pilot. I thought it was really great, and caught it whenever I had the chance. Then they killed off the Professor. At that moment, I knew, KNEW, that it was all downhill from there. It was ruined. I haven't watched an episode since.
Wow!!! I don't think I've ever seen a show JTS so many times. I really don't think it jumped "A" Shark, I think there must have been about 15 sharks end-to-end. I agrre with most of the people that the main reason was when John Rhys-Davies left the show. Now it may be true that he wanted to leave the show but I can almost guarentee that if he hadn't of left, they would have canned him. In my opinion after he left they just tried to turn this show into a Sci-Fi version of Friends. One episode I remember in particular was when they slide to this one world where every person that was over 30 went out for some help and they were never seen again. HOW CONVENIENT. I'm probably not your typical Sliders Viewer. When this show first came on I was in my early 30's and really loved this show for the fact that it seemed to be written for every age group. There was stuff for everyone. But they got rid of the Professor they just seemed to Aim strait for the younger viewers. It seemed as if every world they visited, the average age was about 25, all the women were beautiful, the men handsome, and everyone had great bodies. No one was ever Fat or Bald and even under the worst of situations it looks as if they just spent the last 2 hours at the beauty salon. There are MANY MANY times it JTS and I agree most of the ones mentioned in the posts (although I did like the idea of Jerry O'connell bringing his brother on the show). Up here in Canada as it was mentioned before we never got to see the episodes until after a year after they aired in the US, I caught maybe one or two episodes with the New Quinn and I said To Myself "What the Hell is this Crap". So my advice to everybody is just watch the episode till The professor is killed and then STOP. Just remember how great this show was before it Jumped the Shark, Again and Again and Again.............
Yep, it was the beginning of the end in the two-part episode "The Exodus" when they killed everybody's favorite actor John Rys-Davies. You could see the writing on the wall when both the actor and the character were complaing about their lot in life, so to speak. So they replace him with Kari Wuhrer. (Talk about a drop in talent.) And the episode also shows the danger of guest-casting. If they wanted to bring back the character of Col. Rickman, they never should have cast Roger Daltry in the first place. And the FOX network continued to tinker with it. At some point, the show moved production to LA. So now the episodes could take place anywhere between San Fran and LA, instead of just the Bay Area. And Season 4 seemed like a movie rip-off every other episode. No wonder series creator Tracy Torme' left. He had no control anymore. And then the network cancels it. I just love it when a network gets in its own way. But hey, the show was still popular, so the Sci-Fi Channel picks it up. But Sabrina Lloyd left, not knowing this would happen. (Because she landed on _Sports Night_.) And from what I heard, she didn't get along with Wuhrer. They had differing attitudes toward the little people behind the scenes. (Maybe that's why Lloyd never put _Sliders_ in her on-line bio for _SN_.) But they award Jerry O'Connell with a producer's credit for that 1st season on Sci-Fi and hired his brother to replace Lloyd. But when the show got renewed, Jerry got greedy and wanted a full executive producer's job. So off go the O'Connell boys. So now the only original Slider left is Rembrandt Brown -- the accidental Slider! But Sci-Fi made the decision to finish off the series that season. But the show started gaining an audience (as cable systems started picking up Sci-Fi and other channels. I know -- my cable system didn't pick up Sci-Fi until a month or so before the final episode.) Why do networks mess with a good thing, but serve us up shows we have no interest in?
Sliders began as a good show with Quinn, Arturo, Wade and Rembrandt traveling different dimensions in search of home. The first season was midseason in 1995, and returned for a second midseason run in 1996. It had the potential to be one of the greatest sci-fi shows of all time. However, when David Peckinpah joined the series, he ruined it. He truly didn't care about the characters. Then Arturo died and the slutty Maggie came who was grieving the loss of her husband by hitting on Quinn. The series made the move to the Sci-Fi Channel. Wade went to a breeding camp, which Peckinpah thought was funny,and Quinn eventually became a victim to a slide gone wrong. By the end of the series, Rembrandt was the only original Slider. So although Peckinpah should never work in TV again, the major cast change also had to take some affect in the end result.
This show was never truly good- it wasted one of the best premises for a sci-fi series with goofy stories and poor writing, but at least John Rhys-Daniels kept it interesting. Then he left, and that was all she wrote. Note, however, that this show somehow managed to endure for five years despite getting continually clobbered by bad writing, bad ratings, derision from critics, fans, and science fiction buffs alike, mismanagement, cast changes, cancellation and revivification, bad acting, lame effects, and... I could go on like this for some time. One has to respect this series for it's sheer tenacity. That said, I'd still prefer if the first cancellation had stuck.
When they could never get home....hello boy genius meets alternative dimension self boy genius's and can't get home to petticoat junction......pahlease
In hindsight John Rhys-Davies got out at a good time. After he left the show went from a genuine "what would other worlds be like?" to "how much sex and violence can we squeeze in?". It definitely jumped the shark when the only truly intelligent character (the Professor) left the show.
I've been watching this show on the Sci Fi channel for a about a month. I was blissfully unaware that the show ever changed its format and cast....then...today...DISASTER! The SciFi channel went from the show where Arturo was temporarily blinded to a show where he just wasn't on! And...making matters worse there was no Wade and in Arturo and Wade's place there's this goofball that looks just like Quinn and some bimbo. Quinn seemed to be saying all of Arturo's lines too. It sucked...absolutely sucked. I used to tape this show while I was at work. I looked forward to watching it when I got home...now...NOTHING! ITS CRAP! CRAP DO YOU HEAR!?
this show jumped when jerry o connell left...i want to know how a show thinks it can survive without its STAR? (ie...x-files, ER, or even the F'N "Hogan family")...if u think it didn't jump then well it definately jumped when it moved networks, comeon from FOX to SCI-FI, thats like graduating college in the hope that one day you can venture on to be a clerk at your local Albertsons!
This show had more jumps than a hurdle race The first was early on when it changed from a look at alternate cultures to the kill the monster/goodguy-badguy/x-files/movie of the week ripoff show. The second was the increased emphasis on big-breasted women, who eventually ended up replacing the more complex characters on the show. The third is the death of Arturo, one of the greatest characters on the show, being replaced with Maggie, who was nothing more than annoying eye candy. Wade leaves next.........what is this? We can't have someone who's hot, complex, and intelligent? Apparently, only hot and stupid are allowed. Another series of shark jumps comes from the repeated changes to the whole premise of the show. First, it was a bunch of people trying to find their way home, then it was a bunch of people looking for Colin, then Rickman, then it was a bunch of people vs. the Kromaggs, etc. etc. etc. The biggest shark jump of them all had to have been when the MAIN CHARACTER LEAVES THE SHOW. When the main character is no longer a part of the show, you damn well know something's wrong. It's pretty sad when the ONLY remnant of the original show that stuck around till the end was Remmy.........the one character who didn't even want to be along for the ride. :-) Everything else was long gone.....the cast, the crew, the original location (moved from BC to LA), the network (from fox to scifi), even the timer wasn't the original timer. Everything but the one guy who never wanted to be there in the first place. :-) I'm sure I've missed quite a few shark jumps.......I haven't seen so many jumps since high school gym class. Each jump led to a progressively worse and worse show, that thankfully was finally put to rest.
Slider's Jumped after the first season, the first season showed so much promise and potential and by the second year they were just doing attention-getting episodes with Dinosaurs and such, I lost interest after this.
Premise began to change to annoying monster-of-the-week but the death of arturo destroyed sliders. Replacing arturo with maggie became melrose place in monsterland. The downward spiral farce: hunting rickman, losing wade, returning to home devastated by cromaggs, learning that quinn was alien, then the plot of saving world from cromaggs. But cromaggs could have served one useful purpose - killing maggie. Watching and waiting for stupid maggie to be killed off became the new point to the show, but it wasn't worth watching all seasons. The hope that stupid maggie would be killed off wasn't worth the sheer stupidity of the show itself with maggie in it. But perhaps a plot for quinn and remy to kill maggie would be the next option. Or, the original cast returns and redeems itself from the stupid maggie syndrome in melrose-place-parallel-universe and real sliders destroy "alternate" sliders where maggie lied about quinn being alien and everything was blamed on maggie(including rickman and monsters and cromaggs). And quinn, arturo, remy and wade return to original home earth.
The only trouble I have with SLIDERS is that I saw DOORWAYS first. DOORWAYS was seemingly supposed to be a pilot for a TV series that was never made. It was about two people who traveled from one parallel Earth to another. One of them only wanted to get back to his home world, while the other (who came from an Earth who was ruled by tyrannical aliens from another planet (or maybe another Earth, like the Crommags?)) was trying to escape from her pursuers (an alien and three human hunters). SLIDERS wasn't a bad TV series(at the beginning, at least) but DOORWAYS was so promising, so full of good ideas that every SLIDERS episode I watched seemed weak by comparison. If someday you have an opportunity to watch DOORWAYS, do it! You won't regret.
Whereas Quantum Leap was a bad idea (time traveler who changes the past) but turned out to be an excellent series, Sliders was a good idea badly executed. The Wizard of Oz episode ended with the Sliders getting back to their own world but they think they've landed on the wrong Earth so they slide off again. They should have known they were home and the series should have ended there.
Sliders started out as a thoughtful exploratory science fiction show. It degenerated into a lame action parody of it's former self. The shark jump occurred when the Professor was killed and replaced with a hot posterior kicking marine woman. It represented the change from intelligence to violence.
This show used to rock my friday nights in middle school until they killed off arturo and replaced him with kari wuhrer. he added a touch of class and dry humor to the show, they didnt need another hot chick. also, the storylines got really stupid, like where they were fighting those weird interdimensional aliens
Shark #1 was the arrival of David Peckinpah as executive *******, sorry producer. Tracy Torme was pushed aside along with any pretence at making intelligent TV. The cast struggled manfully along and the core relationships between the four were just enough to make it still watchable. Shark #2 was the death or Arturo. The show lost it's brain as well as one of the most interesting characters. Shark #3 was the arrival of Maggie. This happened at the same time as Arturo dying but it deserves a shark all to itself. Aside from Kari Wuhrer's questionable acting ability, the new character completely skewed the relationships between the remaining characters. Shark #4 was the departure of Wade (Sabrina Lloyd). If Arturo was the brain of the Sliders, Wade was their heart. Without her the Sliders ceased to be a group that could be cared about - in fact ceased to be a "group" at all. And losing the finest (and cutest) actress in SF (or anywhere else) has to qualify as vaulting a great white for any show. All these sharks took bites out of Sliders until the last one took out the heart and the show flopped about until it slowly died. Sliders went from a show about four friends tryng to get home to a show about four virtual strangers who had no home to go to
Sliders may be in the unique position of having jumped more sharks than any other show on television. It was as if the people in charge systematically thought with each new plot device, "Well, we've lowered the quality of the show again, but how can we make it even worse?" The first significant jump came when they killed off Professor Arturo, since John Rhys-Davies had the greatest amount of talent and the best way with humor (not to mention a great, resounding voice). The new character written in to replace the professor proved to be a boring would-be female Rambo, played by a dull actress with forgetable, standard good looks and no force of personality (which meant that the attempts to generate romantic sparks between her character and Quinn were doomed). Then the scriptwriters, rather than just having the characters slide from one world to another and make social commentary, changed things so that they followed a single bad-guy from the female Rambo's world. This had the same tedious effect of Dr. Kimball chasing the one-armed man, since you knew that they couldn't catch or kill the villain without putting an end to the series, and so you never felt any tension when they were trying to track him down. Next the show lost the engaging original female lead (who moved on to Sports Night, where she was great). I thought that the introduction of the Kromaggs was going to prove the real death blow, since it changed the original purpose and tone of the show so badly. However, I had not reckoned on the final shark jump of having Jerry O'Connell, who had an easygoing charm and good looks, being replaced (in a truly ridiculous plot development) by an actor who seems to have been chosen for lack of charisma and physical appeal. This was definitely a case of a show that needed to be given an lethal injection to put it out of its misery by the end.
They killed the Professor. All of the downhill crap started after that moment. I would almost argue moving to the scifi channel but no the Professors death is when it truly jumped.
Even though she was *HOT*, Maggie was not enough to save the show. Very sad, since as soon as they killed off the professor, it became evident that the end was near, since the show had a completely different 'feel' to it. To this day though, I still remember the episode where Maggie had that worm-thing living inside her stomach... mmmmmmm....
This show jumped when they got rid of the old Quinn and his brother. That whole two people inside his head bit? Killer.
It all started when they slid back home at the beginning of one season (I think it was the 3rd season) and Quinn decided that they weren't really home because the door at his house didn't squeak. That pissed me off a little, but I could live with that. The show went totally downhill when they killed off the professor. After that, they just seemed to keep bringing in crappy character after crappy character. There were some points where it seemed like a Quantum Leap rip-off, for instance, they introduced the evil sliders, much like the evil leaper in Quantum Leap.
When they killed off Professor Arturo and replaced him with that horrid Maggie Beckett.
This show was absolutely amazing but when Professor Arturo was killed off it went downhill. Then they added Maggie who sucks so bad. However, I became really upset when Wade was captured by the Kromaggs. This is awful. WE lost two amazing characters.
Wow, now here’s a sad case. When Sliders began it was a fantastic show. Then of course, as most everyone here has stated, the Professor died. But it doesn’t end there. It took some time, but eventually I warmed up to Kari Wurher’s character of Maggie. Then in another blow to the show, Wade was gone too. Enter the star’s brother, Charlie O’Connell, as Colin Mallory. As with Kari, it took a little while, but eventually he grew on me as well. However, while these cast changes were going on, there was also a change in premise happening too. It seemed like every episode was Kromagg Madness. Forget doing anything else, it became “All Kromaggs All the Time”. And then bizarrely enough, they claimed that the Mallory brothers were not human as previously thought, but really aliens. This flew in the face of the entire original premise. At that point it went over the edge and was wholly devoured by the shark. Funnily enough, they didn’t stop the show at that point. Instead they got rid of Quinn and Colin. As unsatisfying as the “alien” idea was, it was obvious that if they left there’d really be no point in having the show. Quinn especially (Jerry O’Connell) was the STAR. I could understand them going on without the Professor and Wade, but dropping your star and going on is pretty damn unclassy.
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02-23-2004, 07:01 PM
The "State of the ART" Episode
