Sliders Slid.

It is a safe argument that most shows are not consistently good, most have at least some down points in their runs. Even the critically beloved Sopranos had its fourth season, and, frankly, the first half of its sixth. Arrested Development is probably the closest any show I can think of ever came to being perfect, I can not think of any point in its 3 seasons that the show wasn't as good as any other point. The phrase Jumping the Shark exists for a reason. But I can think of no other show that had such a significant switch and decline in quality, than the Fox sci-fi series, Sliders.

Premiering in 1995, Sliders had a fairly simple premise. Stripping away the science fiction elements that explained how it worked, Sliders was simply this: four people travel together through parallel Earths. To give more background, Quinn Mallory, played by a then-only-known-for-'Stand By Me,' Jerry O'Connell, had discovered a way to open wormholes between worlds, and brought along with him on his trip his girlfriend Wade, Quinn's college professor Arturo, and Rembrandt "The Crying Man" Brown, a struggling blues singer who happened to be driving by. During their first "slide," Quinn's device was damaged and they were no longer able to control where they slid to, thus creating the driving force of the show, not unlike Quantum Leap, of hoping each "slide" would be the one to take them home.

The series started off very strong, presenting several interesting versions of what history would be were it not for a few important details. Some episodes dealt with alternate outcomes of wars, presenting an earth where the Russians had taken over during the Cold War, and one where we had lost the Revolutionary War. Others were more socially concerned, like a world where women were the dominant sex. Some were a little more complicated, for example a world where corporate negotiations are handled with western style gunslinging, and a world where following the assassination of JFK, J. Edgar Hoover was elected president and declared martial law, creating a present day where Rock and Roll never happened, the Constitution has been banned, and police offers all wear pleated skirts in honor of the alleged-crossdressing of Hoover. Despite the absurdity, they were good episodes with some really interesting points about the fabric of history. It was even possible to overlook the fact that far too often, they would "happen" to land on a world where one of the four sliders was really famous, including a world where Rembrandt was basically Elvis.

Then the Kromaggs came. In late season 2, the sliders encountered a world that was under an alien invasion by a race called the Kromaggs. By the end of the episode, we discover that the Kromaggs are actually sliders themselves, and come from an alternate earth where they evolved to be the dominant species on earth instead of humans. It was a fairly decent episode, however it is considered by most fans of the show to be the moment when the show jumped the shark. By the end of the series' 5 season-run, the Kromaggs went from being a one-episode indulgence to being the dominating storyline on the show. They became the main antagonist, something which really had not even existed in the original premise, as the conflict was always focused on the world being visited.

In Season 3, FOX took control of the show away from its creators, moving production from Vancouver to LA and shifting the focus of the show to become far more action-oriented, eventually forcing out show creator Tracy Torme (Mel's Son). Wanting to make the show appeal to a younger audience, FOX fired John Rhys-Davis, who played Arturo, killing off his character and replacing him with the younger, hotter, Maggie Beckett, played by sexploitation star Kari Wuhrer. The absence of input by the original creative staff was obvious as the majority of alternate earths in Season 3 were blatant ripoffs from movies and books, including the Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Anaconda. After doing unspeakable damage to the show, FOX promptly cancelled it.

Two more seasons aired on the SciFi channel, but despite occasional attempts to restore the show to its original premise, the damage had been done. Cast changes were rampant, with Sabrina Lloyd, who played Wade, left to do Sportsnight, and was replaced for a season by Jerry O'Connell's real-life brother Charlie, who played Quinn's long-lost brother Colin. Then both brothers left the show, Colin being written off as simply "lost in the vortex," and Jerry being replaced by another actor, creating the most complicated example ever of the "Darrin Syndrome." The details are still a little fuzzy to me, but it involved an alternate double of Quinn whose mind was merged with the original Quinn, creating a new character referred to as "Mallory." Only Rembrandt Brown lasted the entire run of the series, odd as he was also the only character on the show who had not slid willingly.

The show that started with a simple, creative premise, devolved into one of the most convoluted messes to ever be unleashed onto the television viewer, and I don't think any other show has ever made me as angry at its fall from grace. It is because of my experience with Sliders that I have developed a much weaker tolerance for shows that fall out of my favor, why I stopped watching Prison Break as soon as the premiere of season three showed me nothing I wanted to see, and why I took Grey's Anatomy off my DVR in the mess of storylines that followed the "ferry crash" storyline.