Will Sliders be able to slide on to a fourth season?
That's the question producers and fans are wondering these days as the
veteran series about four people who "slide" into alternate worlds is again
awaiting word from Fox. (The show was canceled after its first year, then
revived as a midseason replacement.)
And Fox officials, while publicly praising the show, aren't offering
encouraging words about its chances. "It's 50-50 right now," says Fox
executive vice president Bob Greenblatt. "It could go either way."
Not that producers haven't tried to turn Sliders into a show Fox would want
to keep around. Sliders has been fine-tuned for an X-Files feel with lots of
aliens and monsters. Creator and executive producer Tracy Tormé quit to
protest the change, and one Sliders actor was given his walking papers.
John Rhys-Davies, who played professor Maximilian Arturo, saw his character
die a few weeks ago. He was replaced by Kari Wuhrer as new Slider Maggie
Beckett.
The cast change was made "because it was tough to create any conflict between
these guys. They liked each other too much," says executive producer Alan
Barnette. "We thought adding another woman in there would mix things up."
There's been grumbling among die-hard Sliders fans about the show's new
direction, with many yearning for the hypothetical stories of previous
seasons, such as the episode that speculated what life would have been like
had the British won the Revolutionary War.
"When Sliders first appeared, it was unlike anything else on television,"
says Robb Potter, 28, a computer programmer from Ayer, Mass., who operates a
Sliders fan Web site. "It provided the ability to say 'What if?' and see what
and where that would take you. These days the 'What if?' has been replaced
with, 'What movie is that?' "
But Greenblatt says the "What if?" stories were viewer turnoffs. "Whenever we
did high concept, action-adventure stories like dinosaurs or ice world, the
ratings always went up."
Fox had planned to take the show off the air for a few weeks to make room for
a spring tryout of Lawless, the action series starring former pro-football
player Brian Bosworth as a private investigator. Fans objected, and Fox
executives decided otherwise after studying Sliders' strengthening ratings.
Lawless premiered on Saturdays instead but was canceled after one episode.
Sliders' future is uncertain because of the success of science fiction on Fox.
The X-Files is the highest-rated show on Fox, and the network has been trying
for years to duplicate its success. X-Files creator Chris Carter's new
series, Millennium, has been renewed for next season, which may say more
about Carter's standing at Fox than it does about the show's weak ratings and
reviews.
Fox has several otherworldly pilots planned for fall, all vying for Sliders'
Friday time slot.
The Visitor stars John Corbett (Northern Exposure) as a World War II pilot
abducted by aliens who returns to Earth at the end of the century. It's from
the producing/directing team from Independence Day, and FOX has already
committed to a 13-episode order. There's also The Notorious Seven, a Dick
Tracy-like series from former producers of The X-Files.
"We developed a lot of big-ticket items because we weren't sure where Sliders
would be," Greenblatt says. "The show has solidified itself and is stronger
than we thought it would be. But these decisions come down to the wire. You
never know which direction they'll go until the very end."
Fox will announce its fall schedule May 20 (1997).