Tracy Tormé, ‘Sliders’ Co-Creator and ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Writer, Dies

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The second son of singer Mel Tormé, he started out in comedy on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ then moved to drama projects including ’Fire in the Sky,’ ‘I Am Legend’ and ‘Carnivàle.’

BY MIKE BARNES

JANUARY 9, 2024 5:40PM

Tracy Tormé, a UFO expert and son of stylish crooner Mel Tormé who co-created the 1990s series Sliders and was hand-picked by Gene Roddenberry to serve as the head writer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has died. He was 64.

Tormé died Thursday of complications from diabetes in Escondido, California, his sister and brother, actress Daisy Tormé (Superman & Lois) and recording artist James Tormé, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Tormé also was a writer on Saturday Night Live during its eighth season (1982-83); wrote and produced with Travis Walton the fantasy drama film Fire in the Sky (1993), starring D.B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick; and was a consultant on the acclaimed Robert Zemeckis sci-fi drama Contact (1997).

He wrote the original treatment for the Francis Lawrence-directed I Am Legend (2007) and received co-producer credit on that film, which grossed $585.4 million for Warner Bros. Smith battles mutants as the last human in New York in the post-apocalyptic thriller that was based on a Richard Matheson novel.

On the first two seasons (1987-89) of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tormé wrote the episode “The Big Goodbye,” which went on to receive a Peabody Award — the only episode of any Star Trek series to win one of those — and was instrumental in the use of the Holodeck as the show’s centerpiece. He also served as an executive story editor and creative consultant before departing.

Sliders, which starred Jerry O’Connell, John Rhys-Davies and Cleavant Derricks, revolved around a group of characters who travel (or “slide”) between different Earths in parallel universes. The series, which Tormé created with Robert K. Weiss, ran for five seasons from 1995-2000 on Fox and the Sci-Fi Channel. (He left amid creative differences with network executives during the third season.)

Tormé was born in Los Angeles on April 12, 1959. His mother was model Arlene Miles, Mel Tormé’s second of four wives (they were married from 1956 until their 1965 divorce). As a teenager, he was impacted by such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Planet of the Apes movies, his brother said.

Tormé attended Beverly Hills High School and film schools at USC and Loyola Marymount; while still in college, he sent samples of his writing to producers at the Canadian comedy SCTV — he was a big fan of the show — and they hired him in the late ’70s.

After working on SNL — Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall were among the featured players that season — Tormé would make a seamless transition from comedy to sci-fi with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

He had his dad, playing himself in an alternate Vegas-type universe and singing a song Tracy wrote, on a 1996 episode of Sliders.

A leading ufologist in Hollywood, Tormé was “always interested in UFOs — the serious side of UFOs — and in the Air Force pilots who had seen them,” his sister said.

Tormé also was a writer for the rebooted The Outer Limits in 1998-2002; a writer and producer on the 1992 CBS sci-fi miniseries Intruders, the 2002-04 Showtime sci-fi series Odyssey 5 and the mythological 2003-05 HBO series Carnivàle; and a producer on the 2020 documentary The Phenomenon.

Plus, he wrote the screenplay for Spellbinder (1988), starring Tim Daly and Kelly Preston.

Tormé was a dedicated animal activist as well as an expert on football and baseball, especially when it came to his favorite team, the Angels, his sister and brother noted.

In addition to Daisy and James, survivors include his second wife, Robin; his other siblings, Steve and Melissa; and step-brother Kurt. Donations in his memory can be made to The Gentle Barn sanctuary or any animal charity.

His dad, a two-time Grammy winner and songwriter affectionally known as The Velvet Fog, died in 1999 at age 73.

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