TTCoBS: The Start of the Season 5 Debate

Date: 08/23/2001
From: Brand_S

The Start of the Season 5 Debate

In a lot of ways, I feel sorry for actors.

Since many of them were children, actors have led a paradoxical existence. Their life's work is to be somebody else. The try to form an exoskeleton of ambiguity and mystique, but beneath all the pretenses, all the rumors, and all the bullshit, inside each of those people is a stifled, suppressed real human being who mourns his/her lost childhood (Case in Point: Judy Garland, whose whole life was this way.) and, moreover, craves approval. Nothing hurts an actor worse than being told that he or she does a poor job at being somebody else. That's why there could never be a solid celebrity edition of "Survivor." Rejection on national television in front of millions of viewers... It would ruin an actor's life. And what's in it for a winner? A bunch of cash goes to some charity that the actor only endorses on advice from his/her agent. Big frickin' deal. So maybe the audience would have fun, but the contestants would be traumatized. Look what "Survivor" and its backlash did to Debb Eaton, and she's not even an actress!

So, when I see an actor get slammed, my first instinct is to defend him or her. Maybe they'll never read it, but it's the principle of it that's important to me. The only exceptions to this rule are actors who let fame get to their head. These are people who deserve to be taken down a peg, if only for the holier-than-thou way they treat others. These include Jerry O'Connell, William Shatner, Raquel Welch, and Leonardo Dicaprio, among many others.

Those who were around in those days remember the season 5 debate rather vividly. Once "The Unstuck Man" aired, the shit hit the fan. Everyone either loved the show's new image or hated it. And there were endless waves of people dropping in to talk about how much the show sucks. Most of the people who hated it never even gave the show a chance. They naturally assumed that without Jerry O'Connell, the show had to suck. In that Newtonesque "equal and opposite reaction," a small group of fans ardently defended the show. These included buffyboy, HunterD_Raven, and SexualChocolate69.

· buffyboy
buffyboy was actually one of the first people I befriended here. He seemed nice enough. Granted, he was a bit overzealous, but he was just a little kid compared to me (3 years younger, I believe), so I didn't mind. It was just everybody else on the face of the earth who didn't like him. Everyone thought he was annoying. I never really saw why, and besides, I'd rather have him being annoying than those once-ubiquitous idiots who had nothing better to do than come to this board to talk about how much they hate "Sliders." But to a degree, I'm glad he's not around anymore. With time I've started to understand why people got tired of him (even if I wasn't), and I'm afraid if he stayed I would have been just as annoyed with him as everyone else was.

· HunterD_Raven
Ah, Mr. Magee, should I let you off easy or not? ... As time progressed on this board, HunterD_Raven and I became buddy cops in the tradition of "Starsky & Hutch," "Bad Boys," and "Lethal Weapon." Instead of crime, we fought people who attacked "Sliders." And fight we did. I always enjoyed launching verbal salvos. Teaming up with him just made it all more fun. Sure, the guy can't spell to save his fucking life, but reading his attacks on trolls, censorship, and Informant yielded hours of free entertainment and flat-out fun. I just wish he didn't have the nasty habit of getting on the bad sides of TemporalFlux, SpaceTime, and darkslider, because they yielded hours of giving HunterD_Raven a taste of his own medicine... and hell, I'll be honest, as much as I like the Hunter, reading that could be fun too.

· ElectricPeterTork
The man of many titles with various degrees of shock value himself. Of all the people to successfully leave this hellhole, EPT is the one I miss the most. Also known as SexualChocolate69 and other various handles, ElectricPeterTork's influence in any incarnation can't be denied. But then, that's what they said about Giga Pets. Now look where they are. At any rate, EPT is the only person I've seen who can flame a person to tears. I've never seen it done, but judging by the attempted acrimony in the replies he gets, it's the probable result. He's also a smart guy and a big wrestling fan. This board is worse off without him. MUCH.

The constant attacks on "Sliders'" fifth season got worse and worse. It wasn't so much that these people were wrong. They were just annoying as all-fuck-all. So I among the aforementioned three others flamed them away as best we could. After all, as effective as it may be to ignore them, scaring them away works wonders as well.

Contrary to popular belief, I didn't get my hands into this until well into the fifth season. I kept missing "Sliders" episodes for the first three weeks, so I had no idea what the show was actually like. I eventually started watching it. I never thought it was the greatest television in the world. In fact, I considered it extremely lackluster compared to "Sliders'" early days, but I thought it was still good. The thing that really annoyed me were the morons who attacked Robert Floyd and Tembi Locke. These two were clearly trying and doing their best. I felt that slamming these two well-meaning actors was like throwing your Christmas present in the giver's face just because it's clothes and not that Serial Killerz action figure you wanted. I could go on forever about how annoying all this was, how stupid some people acted in this time, and various other things, but I really don't feel like even thinking about how ANNOYING it was (although I must confess that I once played a prank on this board by slamming season 5 under the moniker "sliderssuxwojerry," which was fun, but someone quoted me out of context and that handle ended up being associated with racism, or "raceism," if you will; fucking morons).

Two of the WORST people were DonProc and rdwebster... who, in retrospect, are probably the same person. That I ever listened to this person was a huge mistake on my part. I'm extremely happy that they're no longer here. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

There was also sliderfanone, this moron who kept posting his dislike of "Sliders." I responded with my now-famous catchphrase: "Try living up to your name, prick. <END>" Somehow, that ended up ruining the little fucker's life. He kept returning over and over and over and over again, and every single time I fired off one little flame, and he went ballistic with anger. The funny thing is, I wasn't even trying! This guy gave me a taste for blood... metaphorically speaking. Largely because of this, I enjoyed verbal attacks more and more and more...

In all this flaming there were some pretty cool people, though. At one point, a troll known as "I_AM_SCIFI" started flaming people. When he attacked a certain "darkslider," I leapt to the latter's defense. The two of us have been friends since.

· darkslider
In all my 2+ years here, befriending darkslider is the best move I have ever made. I will always maintain that he is the epitome of cool, smart, and funny. Hey, he invented a whole style of flaming! I can't say enough good stuff about dark. He and I have always had a pact to back each other to the end. I've done my level best to make good on it, and I always will... at least until the two of us are hot for the same woman. Then all bets are off... unless the woman in question doesn't have a problem with being a time-share...

Fortunately, many of the people who were morons then have had the sense to leave and pave the way for the new, more moronic moron. sliderseth, I'm talking to YOUR pathetic ass.

Is this necessary? <END>

Date: 08/23/2001
From: Blink_S

I would think you could attract sufficient attention with one enormous string of replies instead of flooding out the board this way.

S

Well

Date: 08/23/2001
From: HunterD_Raven

Ok, first off as you said earlier, I'll admit it, you have the On-Topic rants under your belt.
but I am the one who made it a BBoard catchphrase ;)

I gotta say this, The Triple Threat, You, Me & EPT, ahh, those where the days, I kinda miss the S5 early days, we had a focus, we had a ideal, we had a hundred posts a day (and that's a SLOW day!)

As for my 'rivalries' with TF,EPT, & DS, well.
I regret nothing, as I've said before one of my greatest assests, and my greatest flaws, is that I simply don't shut up, I keep saying what's on my mind, if it offends you too bad.
Although part of me does kind of wish that a certain poster had informed me of the place I now 'rant' a while back....before the big Holocause deal with ST & DS.
Would have avoided a lot of crap AND still been able to bitch.

TF-i still have nothing but respect for him, I know he took most of the crap about the old AEL, and I regret that, if there was ONE thing I could change, it'd be the formation of the AEL, because I honestly don't think I would have done it had I had even the slightest idea the crap that would fly.
and TF was caught in crossfire, I came up with AEL, I mentioned the idea, a few others agreed, but it was my idea, my mistake.
Everyone slammed TF for it, because of his old battle with Exec they all assumed he was behind it.
I did try to tell people "HEY, I was the one who brought it up, not TF" but it seemed like everyone on Execs side already had their guns aimed at TF.
If TF is still upset in the slightest about it, I am sorry.
--
ST-Well, we have our differances, but I think we have a certain respect for each other.
We're both very staunch in what we believe, and honestly I think we both have Egos bigger than is best for us.
Although I will admit I did get annoyed with his fics making me gay & haveing me crap my pants & stuff like that.
But at the same time I can understand how people would get upset at my constant ranting on the Sliders board.
--
DS-I don't exactly consider him as 'close' as TF or ST, but DS is a good guy, again nothing against him.
I gotta admit the guy forced me to rethink some of my positions and ideas.
I respect DS, and even when his...welll...dark-side was directed at me, I could read his posts from a 3rd party position and enjoy them.
---

And guys, do I really spell THAT badly?
I mean come on we've all seen those
"Jerri Rulz, Sliderz Suks witout Jerri" posts.

I admit Spelling isn't my best area, I learned to read through Phonics and still spell that way a lot, but atleast most of the time you don't need a decoder ring to understand me!

Eh, I'll probably reply more in another post in this 'thread'
--
D

OMG! I remember most of this!

Date: 08/23/2001
From: stuslide

I remember that time so well, too. I used to annoy me to no end. I used to do reviews for all the episodes up to Waiting for Beckett (sorry, I can't never call that episode by its other name because I just think S3 Maggie. Nuff said. BTW, remember the Wade lookalike in TUM?)

I thought s5 was great. I just started to watch it again and I realized that it gives me a sense of awe when I watch episodes for it as oppose to most of S3 and S4 in which I just cringe now when I watch them.

I guess what I'm trying to say S, is that I know where you'll coming from and I like these columns. Keep them coming.

Stuslide
SLIDERS: ALTERNATE SPIN
www.angelfire.com/ky/sliderspinoff & this board
"Just think of the possibilities."

LOL Hunter :P

Date: 08/24/2001
From: SpaceTime

"Although I will admit I did get annoyed with his fics making me gay & haveing [sic] me crap my pants & stuff like that."

Nothing but love, dude. I made Brand_S do it, too, and at least you're under a real kind of hypnosis - a hypnosis that will elevate the Hunter character to deity status if I ever get around to finishing part 3. Brand_S just did it because he thought it was funny. :P And Tf was a fecalphiliac! You got off easy in the long run. ;)

Peace,
ST

Original URL http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/26582
Nominated by Joey_Starr