by Informant At some point in my many travels across the internet, I came across this fake interview that I am just now writing, by a pathetic sci-fi magazine, with a very devoted Sliders fan. Enjoy! |
An Interview With The Biggest Sliders Fan Ever
As I pull up to the house of the person that I am to interview today, I can't help but notice the signs of his fandom spread across his front yard. I am at the house of Sliders fanatic Bob Swindle. A 37-year-old investment banker from Iowa who claims to be the most devoted fan of the series to ever exist. And if his front yard is any indication, he may be right. In the yard, glass sculptures stand for the world to see. Created by Bob himself, and made to look exactly like the various "vortexes" (the gateways through which the characters would "slide" to other moments in time) from the series. There are four variations in the yard. Bob walks out of his house to greet me. I take the chance to comment on the sculptures, and mention how interesting they are. "When I first saw the series, the thing that really stood out for me was the vortex," Bob explains. "So I couldn't get the idea of recreating it out of my head. And each time they would have a new one on the show, I had to make a new one for my yard." So which vortex sculpture is his favorite? "The really deep blue one, from the later seasons. I love the way the sunlight shines on it. It was always my favorite vortex."
As we walk into Bob's house, pictures from the show line the walls. Framed stills that he captured from his own episode collection, and printed on his own computer. Also displayed is memorabilia from the show, including actual props. He points to one prop from the show: a newspaper, which he says "was one of the papers that blew around on the ground in season two." Other conversation pieces in the house include paintings that Bob painted himself. "In the last episode of the series, there were all of these paintings that a character, The Seer, painted of the sliders. I really loved the way they looked, so I started to try to recreate them myself."
Finally, we settle down in the living room to chat about his love for the show. I sit on a couch that looks like the back seat of an old red Cadillac. Bob tells me that "the red Caddy is the Cryin' Man's love machine." We discuss Bob's love for the show first. I ask him what drew him to the show, and what he loved about it. "I first saw the series when it debuted on Fox. I loved the idea of the show, but the first couple of seasons didn't really grab my attention too much." So what did grab his attention? "The third season just blew me away. It was everything that I thought the show was meant to be. For the first two seasons, they were playing with history and things like that, which is fun to watch now in reruns, but it didn't impress me at the time. I thought that with a show like this, where you're on a new world every week, but it's really the same world, you could explore so many ideas. The third season really started to do that." He goes on to explain, "I also wasn't a big fan of the Professor. I mean, most shows have that English guy who is always yelling at people and acting all smart. He just never really added anything to the mix. So when they killed him off and brought in Maggie Beckett, I thought that they were finally moving in the right direction. But at the same time, they killed off the Professor in a way that was really dramatic and allowed him to really shine one last time, which is important to do for a main character, even when they aren't the best." But then the series was canceled. Fox decided that it was no longer interested in the show, so it was not placed on their schedule for the following season. "I was horrified," Bob tells me. "The series was finally becoming so great, and then it just ended. I couldn't believe it." "As time went on, I started to move on. What could I do about it? But then I read that the Sci-Fi Channel was going to pick it up, and I couldn't have been happier. Who could give the show a better home?" There was a long wait for the new season. But finally, in June of 1998, the show's fourth season debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel. "I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire night. The fourth season was when everything changed. And it was all so amazing. Earth was invaded by the Kromaggs. Wade was taken off to breed with them. Quinn was revealed to not be from our dimension. And then there was Colin. It was one long roller coaster, and it blew my mind." Bob claims to have the largest collection of Colin (Charlie O'Connell) memorabilia in the world. "I do," he confirms. "I have three still photos of him, and a mouse pad that I got on eBay. For some reason, Charlie was never really recognized for the brilliant actor that he was. I never understood that."
And then there was the fifth and final season of the show. "When it started, I couldn't believe that Jerry and Charlie were gone. I wrote letters to the network about it, and tried asking where they were on the internet boards a few times, but I couldn't get any answers." Finally, it was revealed that the O'Connell brothers had decided to move on from the show, to explore other options for their careers. "I understand that. They're very talented, so I can see why they'd want to move on." And what did Bob think of the new season without the O'Connells? "It was okay. It started off really slow. There was another alternate history episode that kinda worried me, but there were also some really good episodes in the season, so it made me happy. I got to see what happened to Wade, and they really let her character sign off with dignity. That was something I really respected the writers for after what I heard Sabrina did to them when she left." I tried to ask Bob what it was that Sabrina did to get off of the show, but Bob didn't want to talk about it. "I don't want to give her more press than she deserves." The show ended in February of 2000 with the episode The Seer. "It was a great episode," Bob tells me. "One of the best. It provided enough closure for the series to be a good finale, but at the same time, it left the door open for TV movies. I loved it." As our interview winds down, I have time to ask Bob only a few more questions before I have to leave to type this interview up for publication. One of those questions is about his status as the most devoted Sliders fan in the world, and all of the other fans he's met. "I love being the biggest fan in the world. It's great. A lot of the fans that I've seen [online] are nowhere as devoted as I am. I've seen them bashing the show more than I've seen them praising it for the brilliance that it was. And there is one website that wants to make it seem like there was all of this ugliness behind the scenes. But I've been assured by David Peckinpah [the show's creator] himself that those are all lies." As I pack up my things and prepare to leave, Bob turns on his TV (with his "timer" remote control, of course) and settles in to watch some of his favorite episodes. Which are his favorites? "Those would have to be the classics. The Exodus. The Seer. Revelations is my
And so the interview ends, and I go out to my car. As I pull away, I know in my heart that this man is really the most devoted Sliders fan in the world. |
