Before the multiverse there was Sliders. This is really a topic that’s usually overstated at least among the Sliders community. Multiple movies and shows that dive into the parallel dimension topic have been made since Sliders. But it’s ironic. It’s exactly the opposite way you would expect things to happen. Out of all the reboots, and out of all the possibilities in the universe Sliders is seemingly the only one out of them all to remain shelved. We all keep tabs on other various reboots.
Let’s not be too closed minded and think Sliders was the first to think outside of the box. Rod Serling was one of the first to present the topic in the 1959 scifi anthology series “The Twilight Zone”. “Little Girl Lost” (Season 3) and “The Parallel” (Season 4) are a couple of episodes that discuss it. They’re great episodes and I’d highly suggest them for viewing. In a sense the entire series of “The Twilight Zone” can be seen from a view of parallel universes.
Although Einstein and Rosen proposed the existence of space-time of a tunnel connecting to a mirror universe, they didn’t come up with the many-worlds interpretation. Hugh Everett III, a physicist, mathematician, quantum theorist, and defense contractor to military secrets presented his theory in the July 1957 physicist journal, “Nature”. In layman’s terms his idea was that these dimensions do not collapse and are rather physical. After his publication he was heavily scoffed at and disregarded about his ideas before his death at 51 years of age.
The limelight of the topic in entertainment was Sliders running for 5 seasons. It’s creator intended the series to be scifi, but also comedy. He didn’t want it to take itself too seriously. But as the series went on it did become more serious, but ludicrous at the same time. The fact remains however that Sliders laid the solid groundwork for the topic. It wasn’t a one off episode but rather a show dedicated entirely to the idea of multiple universes.
Some shows have occasionally paid homage to Sliders like “Family Guy” and “Rick and Morty”. As time went along the multiverse has practically become a genre itself. It’s thrown everywhere from “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse”, more “Spider-Man”, “Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)”, Loki, “The Flash” and many more. Most notably “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022) actually references red means go, green means stop. I’ll be honest I had to look these up and someone told me a couple.
You can call me an old codger for not watching these new multiverse TV shows and movies. To me they’re mostly all comic book characters and if they’re not, it’s seemingly over the top action movies. In many aspects Sliders taught us that we ourselves are the Sliders. Our politics, laws, pop culture, you name it are continually changing. That’s what Sliders showed. The early episodes of Sliders is often laid back, thought provoking and comical. It peers into our own lives, not comic book characters. It takes into account everything all around us. It dares to push the boundaries of pop culture, just barely to the point where you think it couldn’t be possible and no further.
If my recollection is correct, at the time of it’s airing the production would occasionally get letters from Democrats upset at the show. They would look at the next letter and they’d see the same from Republicans. At times the show would appear to lean to the left, to the right, or to the center. But what often upset people and the network was the comedy, and Sliders dared to make fun of it all. From Bill Clinton being called a loud mouth ruled over by her Presidential wife Hillary Clinton (The Weaker Sex) and who can forget the infamous book by Rush Limbaugh “See, I Told You So” being played off as “Everything I Say Is Right” (Prince of Wails).
Many say Sliders was before it’s time. But perhaps it wasn’t. The political divide between America almost makes it impossible to have a civil discussion among anyone. Dare make comedy of anything, you just might hurt someone’s feelings. One of my favorite TV shows called “Christy” barely skirted through the cracks back in 1994 because the heads at CBS were changing hands. To the creators of the show it was a miracle. I believe that’s just what we need. Right now there’s a complete upheaval with the 2023 actor and writer strike. Who knows, after all of the confusion we may just get something. There’s before, there’s after and there’s that window of opportunity.