Posted in: Fox, SYFY, TV | Tagged: Jerry O'Connell, Sliders

Sliders: Jerry O'Connell Pitches Reboot Starting Point After Season 2

If NBCUniversal gives the green light, Sliders star Jerry O'Connell pitches that the reboot series should look to the first two seasons.

One of the caveats of network television is the creative wiggle room only goes as far as autonomy creatives are given. The series' early seasons were reminiscent of '60s-70s exploration shows like Star Trek, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Lost, where a group of reluctant adventurers try to survive weekly within their immediate surroundings and adapt accordingly. Created by Tracy Tormé and Robert K. Weiss, Sliders made its debut in June 1998 on Fox churning out weekly adventures of Quinn Mallory (Jerry O'Connell), his best friend Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd), his college professor Maximillian Arturo (John Rhys-Davies), and reluctant traveler and Motown great Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown (Cleavant Derricks) as they try to survive various dimensions of Earth's, encountering various threats before their next portal is ready to send them what they hope is "Home." Following its cancelation in 2000 on SYFY for its final two seasons following its original three-season run on Fox, the series was hardly recognizable from its origins since Derricks was the lone cast member to appear in every season. O'Connell, who left after season four, had an idea of rebooting the series if current IP holders NBC Universal show interest at least where to start.

Sliders Star Jerry O'Connell's Idea on Rebooting/Reviving Series

"I love my experience and everyone involved, but come Season 3, we had all new bosses. A lot more guns/CGI/Explosions. I personally preferred the first two seasons," O'Connell wrote on social media. "If we ever reboot, that's the direction I would go… #SlidersRewatch" The dominos for the cast started to fall in season three when creative changes from Fox led to shifting the focus of Sliders from being more thought-provoking to more action-oriented. Rhys-Davies was the first to depart in the middle of season three with producers bringing in Kari Wuhrer to play Captain Maggie Beckett to reflect on the creative shift. Lloyd would depart the series, not making the move to SYFY, and Jerry's brother Charlie O'Connell, who had guest starring roles in seasons two and three, played Quinn's long-long brother Colin Mallory in season four.

Both O'Connells left before the fifth and final season, with Robert Floyd playing a variant called "Mallory," with writers scrambling to find a way to write off both actors as a freak accident during a slide that changed Quinn while Colin was lost. Tembi Locke was introduced as Dr. Diana Davis as the series focused on one of the series' earlier villains, the Kromaggs, a militarized race who conquer various Earths and see the sliders as a threat.

Since Tormé's passing in 2024, fans have wondered what the future holds for Sliders, given its cult status. For now, O'Connell was just happy talking with his castmates again, telling Bleeding Cool, "It was so fun to see [John in Orlando at a con]…I hadn't seen him. He lives in New Zealand now. He did all 'The Lord of the Rings' movies, but man, I hadn't seen him since his last day on 'Sliders' [and] that's not okay," he said. "We caught up and went out to dinner. He's got all kinds of plans for a reunion and all that sort of stuff. I'm letting 'The Professor' sort of take it from here. All the Sliders [cast] are on an email chain, and that's it. We're on an email chain, and we are talking."

Technology has advanced leaps and bounds in the past 25 years since Sliders ended its original run and retconning the foursome's adventures since season two isn't such a radical idea, especially in the age of streaming when the drive for ratings isn't so dramatic as it used to be.

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