Another dormant ’90s classic might find its way back to TV in the near future. John Rhys-Davies appeared at Toronto Comicon this weekend and revealed that talks are underway to revive the series ‘Sliders’, on which he starred for three seasons, from 1995-97.
Rhys-Davies portrayed the arrogant Professor Maximillian Arturo, the mentor of the show’s hero, Quinn Mallory played by Jerry O’Connell. Along with their fellow “Sliders,” Wade Wells (Sabrina Lloyd) and Rembrandt “Cryin’ Man” Brown (Cleavant Derricks), they “slid” to various parallel universes, constantly trying to find their way home. Professor Arturo was seemingly killed at the end of Season 3, however, due to all of the dimension-hopping, particularly in the Season 2 episode “Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome,” there is the possibility that the Arturo that died isn’t the same as the one that started the journey.
At Toronto Comicon, Rhys-Davies said:
“Jerry had been pestering me for a number of years and we’re actually talking to NBC at the moment to see if there’s any possibility of rebooting the series. They’re looking into the basic question of who actually owns it. At the moment we don’t seem to be able to find that out.
“I would do it again, if just to show how it should be done. It could have been the best show on television, it could still be on the air. I think maybe if we got another chance at doing it with the new technology, but also new stories, I think we could do something quite extraordinary. I wouldn’t want to do it for the rest of my life, but I would do it for a season or two if it was right.”
‘Sliders’ was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé, and counted John Landis as an executive producer. The series first aired on FOX before “sliding” over to the Sci Fi Channel (now known as Syfy) for its last two seasons. Cleavant Derricks was the only cast member to remain on all five seasons, as the fourth was expected to be the last, and O’Connell became unavailable to return for the fifth.
However, the fifth season ended on a cliffhanger with Derricks’ character Rembrandt Brown infecting himself with a disease to wipe out their enemies the Kromaggs before sliding to Earth Prime to take on the enemy by himself. Fans of the original series would likely welcome a resolution, especially with the original cast members involved.
However, as Rhys-Davies stated, the rights are currently murky. Hopefully, they can be sorted out.
Were you a fan of ‘Sliders’? Are you excited that there is at least talk of reviving it?
Source: TV Web