"Sliders"

-created by tracy torme and robert k. weiss

1995-2000

Oh great googily. The humynity. The utter humynity.

Hindenburg.

Titanic.

Mondale.

Can you look away?

Well, perhaps, as it turns out. Obey that instinct! The first time i tried to watch, a decade or so ago, i bailed within a few episodes. It was patently clear there was no brilliance on the writing staff - a show with middling writing and nothing to say. The best you can hope for is an occasional "not awful".

Sorry, all you second- and third-rate would-be franchises. Life ain't fair when TREK rules the roost.

But what you won't see if you only catch the first season, is the carnage to come. Like rats jumping ship, cast regulars fall away with shocking...regularity. By the end, there's only one original clinging to the side. And in this case, it's ringo...or rather, rembrant (cleavant derricks - MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON, THEA), the least-resonant lead (through no fault of his own - as originally written, the character embodied cringeworthy racist tropes).

The story? Science prodigy accidentally invents a portal to parallel worlds, in his basement. Four reluctant travelers discover they can't get home, as they leap from alternate Earth to alternate Earth.

Tracy (SNL, STAR TREK TNG) and robert (POLICE SQUAD!, THE NAKED GUN) are long-gone by the end as well. Other casualties include the almost-adequate jerry o'connell (STAND BY ME, JERRY MAGUIRE), the redoubtable sabrina lloyd (SPORTS NIGHT, ED), and the ripping john rhys-davies (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, STAR TREK VOYAGER).

In other words, ample potential. Well-funded, with at least half the cast capable of nuanced work. But alas...