History Series / Sliders

''Sliders'' is a ScienceFiction show about four people who try out a device for traveling to {{Alternate Universe}}s, then get lost and spend the remainder of the series trying to get back to their world of origin. It started out an extremely fun AdventureSeries revolving around the "What If...?, scenarios offered by alternate worlds (''"What if the US lost World War 2? What if dinosaurs didn't go extinct? What if you were born the opposite sex?"'' etc.), but when Fox executives took over, putting in their own man and reducing the original producers to "executive consultant" level (and apparently not ''consulting'' them much) the series steadily self-destructed, most of its episodes being ripoffs of movies that were popular at the time, and becoming dark and mean-spirited, dumping most of the characters (via death or worse) and developing a MythArc about a race of killer-ape-descended villains called 'Kromaggs' which eventually took over the show.

The surprisingly competent final episode ended with a CliffHanger meant to try and push SciFi into giving them a 6th season: it had been clear from the start of production on S5 that SciFi intended to cancel it, having picked it up to get its viewers to watch their new shows. (Which failed. Season 5's ratings actually were good enough to normally get it renewed, but SciFi had committed to other shows already.)

* IdiotBall: In [[spoiler: Exodus]] it's particularly glaring [[spoiler: after finding their "home coordinates"]] and yet argue about timers, instead of just opening one-way portal. There's also a few episodes where they have an alternate Quinn's workshop (or a complete laboratory) at their disposal to analyze their timer for their home coordinates, yet move on instead. And to top it off, they leave their original timer (with their ''definite'' home coordinates) when it runs out.

** But it's a really ''small'' wormhole. And maybe he [[BackToTheFuture stole plutonium from the Libyans]].

* RecycledInSpace: One of the most persistent complaints of Season 3. The vast majority of the episodes ripped off a number of movies, including ''{{Tremors}}'', ''{{Twister}}'', ''ANightmareOnElmStreet'', ''{{Species}}'', ''{{Anaconda}}'' and ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''.

* YankTheDogsChain: In "Into the Mystic," the Sliders have a chance to go home, think they failed and leave [[spoiler:- only for viewers to then see they actually were home]]. "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" also involves a great deal of this trope, though in the other direction.

Over the years, the series has been slowly released on DVD. Season 5 is scheduled to be released January 2012.

* AlternateUniverse: For all the show's flaws, it's the most extensive exploration of this trope on American TV.

* ChannelHop: Fox to Sci-Fi.

* CreativeDifferences

* DirectedByCastMember: Jerry O'Connell helmed five episodes - "Stoker," "Slidecage," "Lipschitz Live!," "Data World" and "Roads Taken."

* MrFanservice: Jerry O'Connell.

* EvilCounterpart: Rickman.

* MakingUseOfTheTwin

* McLeaned: [[spoiler:Arturo, Wade, Quinn. Their actors all left the show on bad terms (not surprising, given the aforementioned behind-the-scenes turmoil), and their characters paid the price]].

* MisterSeahorse: Rembrandt in "The Prince of Slides"

* MythArc

* OutOfOrder

* PlatonicLifePartners: Rembrandt with Wade and Maggie.

* RealLifeRelative: Charlie O'Connell as Colin Mallory.
** Mel Tormé AsHimself in "Greatfellas."
*** In the same episode, Tracy Tormé's wife appears as a bridesmaid.
** Any time Rembrandt met one of his doubles, they didn't have to resort to fancy camera tricks, as one or the other Rembrandt would be played by Cleavant Derricks' twin brother Clinton.

* TimTaylorTechnology

* TroubledProduction: The production of this show has quite a story, to say the least.

* WrittenByCastMember: John Rhys-Davies has story credit on "The Exodus, Part 1" [[spoiler:(the episode where Arturo is killed off)]], though note that he had no input into the script. His [[http://www.dimensionofcontinuity.com/lostep.htm original story]] bore very little resemblance in details and execution to the finished product. Played straight with "Way Out West," where the story originated from Jerry O'Connell (who by then was a producer).

** Averted in "Genesis", but the sliders leave [[spoiler: because the kromaggs conquered Earth Prime]].
* YourMindMakesItReal

''Sliders'' is a ScienceFiction show about four people who try out a device for traveling to {{Alternate Universe}}s, then get lost and spend the remainder of the series trying to get back to their world of origin. It started out an extremely fun AdventureSeries revolving around the "What If...?, scenarios offered by alternate worlds (''"What if the US lost World War 2? What if dinosaurs didn't go extinct? What if you were born the opposite sex?"'' etc.), but when Fox executives took over, putting in their own man and reducing the original producers to "executive consultant" level (and apparently not ''consulting'' them much) the series steadily self-destructed, most of its episodes being ripoffs of movies that were popular at the time, and becoming dark and mean-spirited, dumping most of the characters (via death or worse) and developing a MythArc about a race of killer-ape-descended villains called 'Kromaggs' which eventually [[MalignantPlotTumor took over the show]].

* {{Alien Non-Interference Clause}}: Largely averted. Occasionally Arturo reminds the others that things would at least be simpler for ''them'' if they didn't try to save the world every week.
** {{Lampshaded}} in "Lipchitz Live" after [[JohnKassir a supposed interdimensional traveler]] lambasts Quinn for averting this trope.
--->'''Quinn:''' There's no prime directive!

* AlternateUniverse: For all the show's flaws, it is the most extensive exploration of this trope on American TV.

* And I Must Scream - the altered "Eddies" in the 4th season episode "California Reich."

--> '''Arturo:''' Well, I wouldn't go ''that'' far...

* ChangelingFantasy: {{RetCon}}ned into the fourth season. See JumpTheShark.

* CreativeDifferences: You bet.
* CriticalResearchFailure: In one episode they travel to a universe where the American Revolution failed. The people were unfamiliar with the concept of democracy, which has been around since Athens, and the British Empire was entirely ruled by Nobles, despite Parliament long predating the American Revolution!
* CutShort: They actually ''don't'' [[YouCantGoHomeAgain go home again]]. Or beat the bad guys, either.

* MrFanservice: Jerry O'Connell may've always been this, but in Seasons 3 and 4, production found more reasons for him to go shirtless.

* EvilCounterpart: Rickman. Would've been Logan if not for ExecutiveMeddling; also a semi-evil quartet of Sliders who stole our team's portal device to force them to repair theirs and get them home.
** They weren't really evil; they had just been stuck in-between worlds as basically ghosts for three years. Not too bad unless you've seen the episode, then you'll understand that three years with that Quinn is hell.

** RuleSixtyThree: Logan St. Clair is a [[spoiler:female double of Quinn]] in "Double Cross."
* ExecutiveMeddling: The main reason why the show lost its politically- and philosophically-charged plotlines, in favor of "Movie Rip-Off of the Week."
** Oh, and also "[[RealLifeRelative Hire My Brother]]."
** In a fun subversion, though, Tormé was once able to pull this trope off to his advantage. His bosses were completely opposed to "Invasion," but Tormé so wanted to do it that he went over their heads to their boss (John Matoian). Matoian liked the story, so he overruled the people that had been overruling Tormé. Oh, and unsurprisingly, "Invasion" became an instant fan-favorite.

* FanService: Replacing John Rhys-Davies and Jerry O'Connell with [[ActionGirl Kari Wuhrer]] and [[HotScientist Tembi Locke]].

** '''CAPTAIN''' Maggie Beckett.

** Mention is also made in the episode that Sigmund Freud discovered lithium while working on psychotherapy, and quickly ditched the latter in favor of the former.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Julie Benz of ''{{Dexter}}'', ''{{Angel}}'' and ''NoOrdinaryFamily'' appeared in "Electric Twister Acid Test."

* HollywoodHistory: whenever the team visited a dimension in which the US Constitution didn't happen to have been written, nobody in the world seemed to have even heard of the concept of democracy.

* HonorBeforeReason: For "Requiem," voice-overs from Wade were a necessary part of the story, but production had no qualms about resorting to TheOtherDarrin. Of course, Sabrina Lloyd left the series on bad terms, so expecting her to return just like that would indeed be foolish. Regardless, Cleavant Derricks thought it was absolutely essential that Lloyd be involved in Wade's final episode, so he pressured production to agree and personally asked her to return.
* HotScientist: Diane, supposedly. Smarts are supposed to be part of the appeal, but Tembi Locke was obviously, as they say, [[BrainlessBeauty not a rocket scientist]].

* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: The "Timer", several of which were actually used by the main characters (the original, the one from Egyptian World, and Colonel Rickman's Timer). The Timer's job was to open wormholes between universes, and also to [[PhlebotinumBreakdown malfunction]] [[MacGuffin or get stolen]], [[PlotDevice providing half the series' plots]].
* ItGotWorse: You may think Kari Wuhrer was just hired as eye candy, but her contributions are positively Shakespearean compared to those of any of the zombie-like regulars who came on later.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Arturo, though most of his counterparts were just plain [[{{Jerkass}} jerkasses]].
* KickTheDog: If you think John Rhys-Davies being fired for criticizing Season 3's writers (basically saying what all the fans were thinking) and the way Arturo's death was handled were bad, read [[http://earthprime.com/interviews/cleavant-derricks.html this interview with Cleavant Derricks]]. Turns out that after "Paradise Lost" wrapped filming, a producer told Rhys-Davies that he was fired... casually... ''in public''... '''in front of the rest of the cast and crew.'''

* TheMultiverse: Well, duh.

* OldShame: Writer Paul Jackson has very little positive to say about his last episode, "Slither."

* OutOfOrder: And how!

* PlatonicLifePartners: Rembrandt with first Wade and then Maggie.

* RecycledInSpace: One of the most persistent complaints of Season 3. The vast majority of the episodes ripped off a number of movies, including ''{{Tremors}}'', ''{{Twister}}'', ''ANightmareOnElmStreet'', ''{{Species}}'', ''{{Anaconda}}'' and ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Good ''God''...

* SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying

* SpringtimeForHitler: In "The Weaker Sex" Arturo tries to throw an election by weeping in front of the camera, but it backfires and his approval ratings go up.

* TimTaylorTechnology: "MORE POWER, MR. MALLORY!"

* TroubledProduction: The production of this show has quite a story. The first two seasons had many episodes broadcast OutOfOrder, along with the show being "cancelled" at the end of both seasons before fan petitions kept [[UnCancelled bringing it back]]. Then came the third season, with an OutOfOrder pilot, the head producer(Tracy Tormé) leaving and getting replaced, and the show taking a new direction into more action-oriented episodes. Then, in the middle of the season, John Rhys-Davis was fired and his character was replaced with a MsFanservice ActionGirl. The show got cancelled yet again, and stayed off the air for a year before its ChannelHop to the SciFi Channel. During this time, Sabrina Lloyd quit (rumors say she had a feud with Kari Wuhrer, but nobody know for sure why). The SciFi channel executives wanted more of a focus on the Kromaggs, leading the show even further from its original premise. Then came the aforementioned "Hire My Brother" decision, with Jerry O'Connell also taking over more of the writing and changing his character to more of an ActionHero. However, the SciFi executives eventually started letting the show get back to its original premise, and it was becoming decent in the late fourth season. Then, the O'Connell brothers quit for the fifth season. This, combined with the budget going down to almost NoBudget, doomed the show to cancellation after less than a month from the fifth season premiere.

* UnresolvedSexualTension
* UnwantedRevival: No, not Season 4.

* ViewersAreMorons: Suffice to say, with all the ExecutiveMeddling this show suffered, this trope could run rampant. In "Slither," for example, snakes somehow knock down a door. This was so idiotic that Cleavant Derricks said he interrupted a script reading to ask how such an action was even remotely possible. A producer responded that the snakes possessed some kind of force - which suggests the producer (incorrectly) thought Derricks was a moron.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Oh, so many possible examples, which may be appropriate given the premise.
** The major arc of Season 4 had a far different ending in mind. Originally, the team was supposed to make it to Kromagg Prime, where it would be revealed that Colin was unknowingly TheMole, an altered clone of Quinn created by the Kromaggs. The Sliders' Season 4 quest would have been a Kromagg deception to re-conquer their home Earth, with it also being revealed that Earth Prime had never been conquered at all. The Kromagg plot was hinted at several times, but the plot was largely dropped due to resistance from David Peckinpah. With the final resolution aborted, the arc was altered and the related loose ends fizzled.
** Tracy Tormé intended Ryan to be apart of the team for a few Season 2 episodes, creating a love triangle with Quinn and Wade.
** John Rhys-Davies was contracted for the entire third season and would've stayed if not for the behind-the-scene bitnerness. Scripts for "Sole Survivors," "The Other Slide of Darkness" and "The Breeder" were being worked out before his departure. A script for "Sole Survivors" with Arturo is available [[http://earthprime.com/scripts/sliders-scripts.html here]].
** Logan St. Clair was intended as a recurring nemesis.
** "In Dino Veritas" was conceived as a mere BottleEpisode, but Jerry O'Connell was allowed to film his part in ''JerryMaguire'' and the special effects proved to be more elaborate than at first thought.
** Production intended to bring back Bennish for Season 5, but the cost of flying Jason Gaffney in and out of Canada was deemed too large.
** ABC was contemplating a version of this show called "Doorways" before a shuffling of upper management caused its main champions to jump ship (and, evidently, end up at FOX). The guy developing the pilot for them? ''GeorgeRRMartin''. (source: [[http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/his-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy-george-r-r-martin-talks-game-of-thrones/ here]])
** Even after it was a given that Jerry O'Connell wouldn't be back as a regular for Season 5, he was willing to return for guest appearances to allow Quinn to be written out effectively. Reportedly, the deal was for six episodes, but a sticking point for Jerry was Charlie. It boiled down to Jerry wanting his brother in for all of Season 5 and production refusing - so the deal fell apart.
** After Sci-Fi picked up the series for a fourth season, Tracy Tormé made a play to return as executive producer. (Fellow co-creator Robert K. Weiss was also interested in getting back in the game.) This didn't happen because the studio was contractually obligated to keeping David Peckinpah onboard. Tormé couldn't stand the thought of working with Peckinpah again and couldn't convince the higher-ups to remove him. [[http://earthprime.com/tracy-torme/tracy-torme-2009.html This interview]] features some ideas Tormé had in mind for Season 4, as well as other parts of the show's run.
** The idea was thrown around of revealing that Maggie's biological parents were Colonel Rickman and her universe's version of Wade (this would have meant Maggie's universe was in the future compared to ours).
** There was a proposed episode that would have shown what happened to Wade after she was taken to a Kromagg breeding camp without Sabrina Lloyd having to return to the show, via the gang coming upon a device that made them experience past events from the perspective of other people. Maggie would have been Wade, Diana would have been Mrs. Mallory, Mallory would have been a Humagg soldier in love with Wade, and Rembrandt would have been a sympathetic Kromagg scientist.
** Fox wanted to renew the series for a fourth season but it would just feature Quinn and Maggie alone. This is why season three ended on the cliffhanger where Rembrandt and Wade slide back home with Quinn and Maggie following but ending up in a different dimension. This plan ended when SciFi decided to pick up the show.

* WordofGod / WhatCouldHaveBeen: The creator has gone on record stating that the world mentioned in YouCantGoHomeAgain was actually the group's homeworld. He has also stated that the plot from Season 4 with Quin being from an alternate Earth was up until the season finale going to turn out to be a hoax by the Kromaggs. This concept was abandoned when the budget dried up and the intended master reveal of Colin turning on the group due to his status as a sleeper-agent-modified-clone-of-Quinn and wormholes opening with dozens of Kromagg ships pouring onto Earth Prime due to Quinn opening the Slidecage was no longer feasible to film. Several fanfics have taken this original plot and run with it.
** It's also been stated that the wrong Arturo slid and that there were several hints placed that showed this.
** Confirmed by Tormé himself, after over a decade of keeping silent on the matter, he considers the "Wrong-Arturo" from Earth-Double-Prime to have been the one who slid with the regular Sliders, thus the reason for the horrified "Oh my God" from the Aturo left behind.
** If he ''hadn't'' left the show, Rhys-Davies probably wouldn't have been available for the LordOfTheRings films.

* YouFailBiologyForever: Every monster in Season Three.
* YouFailHistoryForever: Most of the early episodes deal with an alternate Earth where one or two things are different but human civilization is otherwise identical to our late 20th century. Many of these differences are rather drastic (the atomic bomb was never invented; the Soviet Union conquered the USA; penicillin was never discovered; the American Revolution failed; etc.) and would have had profound effects on later events. Most of these can probably be excused by BellisariosMaxim, though.
** [[FridgeBrilliance Its implied a few times that the Timer is purposely directing them to realities that are ''close'' to its home dimension, possibly explaining why apart from huge historical changes, the world remains fairly similar to Earth-Prime. The implications of the Multiverse mean that these sorts of eventualities ''would'' exist.]]
** The above and this cross over in the episode (or was there more than one?) where it's stated that Dinosaurs never died off. Not only did dinosaurs remain recognizable in their original species and forms over the ensuing millions of years, and not only did humans still evolve just as normal, but human ''society'' proceeded exactly like ours did to the point of dinosaurs being put on the endangered species list. Yes, that's right, in a world where we developed alongside giant, carnivorous, almost impossible to contain and almost certainly impossible to domesticate creatures, humanity would still view wiping them out as a ''bad'' thing.
*** If dinosaurs had only survived in the Americas, human society could develop in Eurasia similarly to how it developed in OTL.
* YouFailEconomicsForever: This show is full of [[AlternateHistory Alternate Histories]] written by people who usually write, y'know, [[DidNotDoTheResearch sitcoms and stuff]].

* KangarooCourt: "Dead Man Sliding" -- The Sliders end up in a world where the justice system has become a GameShow, and lawyers are banned. When Arturo tries to object to this attitude that Quinn may as well be convicted, the host warns him not to try any other "lawyer tricks." To be fair, though, Quinn is acquitted when the real killer is found.

* OurWormholesAreDifferent: In order to generate a wormhole, you would have to convert the entire mass of the planet Jupiter into energy. I don't think you can do that with a TV remote[[hottip:*:Egyptian timer]], a cell phone [[hottip:*:original timer]], or a SegaGenesis controller[[hottip:*:Rickman's Timer]].

* HotAmazon: Maggie

* HurricaneOfAphorisms
* IAmHeAsYouAreHe
* InterdimensionalTravelDevice

* Hey It's That Guy: Julie Benz (Dexter, Angel, No Ordinary Family) in the Twister episode.

* KirksRock

* GiantSpider: In the episode "Summer of Love," the Sliders first land on a world where the United States has been mostly devastated by these. A mix of a spider and wasp (yes, [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel flying spiders the size of your head]]), they were genetically engineered for pest control--namely the actual killer bees... And ironically enough, a few queens escaped from the labs and suddenly the cure became a lot worse than the plague.

* TimeParadox: In one universe, time flows backwards. The Sliders still go forwards in time, however, and Quinn ends up stopping something that put him in jail, after he started out there. The result is.. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Not pretty.]]

* ActorAllusion: In "The Guardian," Arturo tells his younger friends, "Your generation thinks nothing of seeing ''IndianaJones'' thirteen times. Well, I happen to feel the same way about Mozart." John Rhys-Davies, of course, played Sallah in the first and third movies.