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Date: 4 Mar 1996 23:53:52 GMT
From: gharlane@ccshp1.ccs.csus.edu (Gharlane of Eddore)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: "DOORWAYS," was Re: Sliders
Rtk@gnn.com (Rae-Ann) writes:
> I've seen a lot of mention of this "Doorways"; what is it?
"DOORWAYS" was a TV series that George R. R. Martin created about half a
decade back. There was a pilot film shot, and it's not bad. It's never
been aired on TV in the U.S., although it did a few movie theaters in
Europe, and has been on TV there, and is rentable on tape outside the U.S.
Here are George R. R. Martin's comments on the subject of "SLIDERS" and
"DOORWAYS."
Mr. Martin has specifically given permission for this entry to be copied on
other networks.
SFRT II RoundTable
Category 15, Topic 18
Message 244 Mon Apr 17, 1995
G.MARTIN15 [GRRM] at 22:11 EDT
I had vowed not to discuss the DOORWAYS/SLIDERS situation any further, but
a great deal of rumor and misinformation is getting passed around here, and
the more things get repeated, the more distorted they become. GEnie and the
Internet obviously function like the old game of "telephone" here, with
people paraphrasing bits of news they've heard, and the facts malforming
further with every repetition.
So... sigh... let me set some facts straight.
I have never been asked to write for SLIDERS. For obvious reasons... at
least they are obvious to _me_. My reply, if asked, would likely be
unprintable.
Tracy Torme, the writer/creator of SLIDERS, was never involved in DOORWAYS,
nor did he ask to write for the show... at least not directly. At the time
when it appeared that DOORWAYS would be on the ABC Fall 1993 schedule,
Torme's _agent_ approached me while I was visiting my own agent (we are
both represented by ICM) and said that his client had read the script,
loved the concept, and would be interesting in writing for the show if we
went to series. A mutual friend (named Harlan Ellison) has subsequently
told me that Torme says he has "never" read the DOORWAYS script and never
expressed any interest in writing for it. I have no way of knowing, one
way or the other. I have a great deal of respect for Harlan and if he says
that Torme says this, I believe that Torme says this. It was not Torme who
approached me: it was Torme's agent, speaking on behalf of Torme. I have
been in the business long enough to know that agents sometimes, well...
embroider if they smell a job.
At any rate: I was never involved in any aspect of Torme's show and he was
never involved in any aspect of mine.
DOORWAYS was pitched to the Fox network on the same day it was pitched to
ABC; at that time, the Fox execs told me they loved it, it was very
original, they'd think about it. ABC bought it before they finished
thinking. Almost two years later, when DOORWAYS was complete, we showed
the pilot to Fox after ABC chose to go with LOIS & CLARK. Fox passed at
that time. The six back-up scripts were also shown to Fox, but I have no
idea whether they read them.
DOORWAYS has been released in many foreign countries on video, but not in
the US. Nor has ABC screened it. Someone above posted that they had
scheduled it for ninety minutes but cancelled it when they realized it was
two hours long. This is _almost_ correct, except for the lengths. ABC paid
for and has the rights to telecast the ninety-minute version. They
scheduled it for a _one hour_ slot, well over a year ago, and had to pull
it. Ninety minute slots are very hard to program. A two-hour version of
DOORWAYS does exist; that is the version released in Europe, Mexico,
Australia and elsewhere on video. ABC does not have rights to that
version, as they paid only for the ninety-minute and refused to up the ante
when we ran over budget and Columbia asked them for more money.
I hope that DOORWAYS will someday be seen, but I can't say how or when.
The chances of it becoming a series are extremely remote. It pains me
vastly to say that, since I believe DOORWAYS is as good as any work I have
ever done, and had it aired, it would have bid fair to be one of the best
SF series in the history of television. The writing was damn fair too. We
had six back-up scripts ordered - a very high number, ABC was _very_
gung-ho about this show once - by some very fine writers, including Michael
Cassutt, Edward Zuckerman, and Steve deJarnett, and our lead actors were
sensational. George Newbern is a very fine and likeable young actor, as
those who have seen in FATHER OF THE BRIDE and DESIGNING WOMEN and his many
other roles can testify. And Anne LeGuernec was simply magic, a French
actress utterly unlike anyone on television. If DOORWAYS have gone, I
believe Anne would have become a major star.
SLIDERS is utterly unlike DOORWAYS in its characters, stories, tone, and
general intelligence level. SLIDERS is relentlessly dumb; DOORWAYS tried
at least to be smart. DOORWAYS had humorous moments - I believe humor is
essential in television but, we strove to be witty and quirky, and the main
thrust of the show was drama and action/adventure. SLIDERS has a lot more
humor and that humor is broader, louder, and, well, dumber. If we were
trying for a touch of Woody Allen, they are trying Benny Hill. That's a
very crude metaphor, but it gives you the idea.
They are two very different shows, but the _concept_ is pretty much
identical. Each week the lead characters travel to another alternate world.
Unfortunately, in television, concept is all. If I did a show about a pair
of FBI agents investigating paranormal activity, the characters and tone
would likely be utterly different from X-FILES, but the series would still
never get on the air, because the executives look only at the concept. In
that sense, SLIDERS has effectively killed whatever small chances I have
remaining to launch DOORWAYS... but those chances were one in a million
anyway.
I said that the concepts were "pretty much" identical. There _is_ a small
difference. In DOORWAYS, the heroes were being pursued by a bad guy from
Cat's original world. On SLIDERS, I guess they are just adventuring
around, without the pursuit element. Alas, in the judgment of people I
trust, the distinction is not sufficient to distinguish the two shows in
the minds of executives.
There is currently no lawsuit. At one point I strongly considered suing,
and a number of lawyers felt I had a good case, but I was finally put off
the thought of the time and money involved. Subsequently, I have been told
that Torme was "thinking and talking" about SLIDERS well before I did
DOORWAYS. If indeed he could produce sufficient witnesses to prove that,
he would likely win in court... and it would be wrong of me to file. If he
could not prove it, my lawyers say I would likely win. I am presently
disinclined to gamble $50,000 to $100,00 on the result.
I have met Tracy Torme only once in my life, at a panel we were both on at
the Writer's Guild. I have no idea how truthful he is. We have one mutual
friend who assures me that Torme is a "stand-up guy" who would never do
anything unethical. We have another mutual friends who thinks, well, quite
otherwise. Me, I don't know what to think.
I will go back and check and see if I've corrected all the mistatements.
If not, I'll add a few further remarks to get the facts straight. If so,
however, let this be my last word on the subject. I know that people are
curious, and I do appreciate all the support I've gotten from friends, but
I feel like a recently bereaved mother whose friends keep saying, "So,
could you tell us again how your baby died?" I will be glad to discuss
DOORWAYS, but I am sick unto death of SLIDERS. I hope it goes away soon.
GRRM
[That's the end of GRRM's comments; this is me typing again.]
I recently got to see a version of the "DOORWAYS" pilot film again.
Then I went home and dug out my tape of the pilot movie for "SLIDERS," so I
could compare them with both fresh in mind.
The difference is huge; "DOORWAYS" had a couple of very interesting,
sympathetic characters. They were well-written and well-acted. The movie
was obviously done a *MUCH* smaller budget than the "SLIDERS" pilot, but
it's something you want to see again, and you want to see more of the
characters.
Remember scripts like "MASQUES," that George R. R. Martin did for "BEAUTY
AND THE BEAST?"
Well, he'd gotten better.
Even shooting a low-budget pilot movie, under great time pressue and
stress, he'd gotten better...
"DOORWAYS" is capable of competing, on an equal footing, with material shot
on a budget vastly larger; and demonstrates what WOULD have been a
wonderful series with great imagination and potential.
Mr. Martin's comments are professional, and non-inflammatory; he does not
seek to start a flame war or a huge discussion filled with non-productive
bile and spite, because he knows that kind of negativity just doesn't get
any MORE movies and TV shows written and into production.
But having seen the two pilot movies, and looked at the dates on them; and
having seen elements of many classic SF stories, prose and script, used in
Mr. Torme's products in the past, I honestly feel that Mr. Martin has been
ill-served by his so-called "peers" and competitors. GRRM has proven, time
and time again, that he can *produce* decent material out of thin air, on a
tight budget, with original concept and treatment. The work he did with
Ron Koslow on "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST," his movie version of "NIGHTFLYERS"
(made on considerably less than the cost of most major TV shows!), the work
he did on the new "TWILIGHT ZONE..." GRRM's track record speaks for
itself.
I have respect for Tracy Torme's work, too; while invariably highly
derivative, it *is* normally competent, and I'll always be pleased at the
way he sneaked the "BlueGills" into Goddenberry's sweetness and light
universe, and steamed G.R. off so badly that we never heard of BlueGills
again... But working in the field, even working WELL in the field, doesn't
give you a license to re-write other people's work, or to market their
concepts, and from where I sit, it *appears* that's what he did...
Parallel time tracks are old-hat in SF; travel between them is a hoarily
ancient concept. But a TV series based on jumping to a new parallel world
each week, now THAT's a fairly recent schtick, and if we're to believe
Torme's agent, one that MARTIN came up with first...
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Date: 5 Mar 1996 00:17:38 GMT
From: gharlane@ccshp1.ccs.csus.edu (Gharlane of Eddore)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-tv@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: Re: "DOORWAYS," was Re: Sliders
Just discovered I had some other G.R.R.M. comments on file, copied (with
the author's permission) over from "GENIE."
George R. R. Martin was queried on GENIE, and responded with the following,
and permission to repost it here:
SLIDERS: well, people will think what they want to think, but
let me say a few things.
A lawsuit is still an option, and will remain one for some time. I am not
proceeding right now, but I could go ahead tomorrow, or next week, or six
months from now, if I choose. I may do just that, depending on other
factors.
I am trying to purchase a large and rather expensive piece of land, as most
of you know.
You also know of the difficulties I've had there. Doing an expensive land
purchase and an expensive lawsuit simultaneously would have stretched me
pretty thin... but if the land purchase falls through, as it threatens to
do, well...
Of course, I would much prefer that SLIDERS die all by itself, and I think
the chances of that are good.
Whether or not you believe it is original, it is undeniably _awful_: badly
written, badly acted, and aimed at the lowest common denominator. Parallel
worlds for morons. If there is any vestige of taste remaining in the TV
viewing audience, SLIDERS will be gone within six episodes. It makes SPACE
RANGERS look like MASTERPIECE THEATER by comparison.
The notion of alternate worlds is indeed common in books... but _not_ in
television. Also, most alternate world stories involved a single parallel
Earth. The only previous alternate world show in TV history, the
short-lived OTHERWORLD (I _think_ that was the title) was of that nature.
DOORWAYS was designed around a format that took the characters to a
different alternate earth every week, a concept that was absolutely new for
television. I had various expert witnesses lined up to testify to that,
including network and studio executives, and even the SFRT's own Bill
Warren, with his encyclopedic knowledge of SF television and film.
SLIDERS has the same format, and its "creator" is a writer whose agent once
approached me to inquire about a staff position on DOORWAYS if it went to
series. The agent told me the writer had read my script and "loved" the
idea. Indeed he did...
So what you have is this. In the entire forty-year history of network
television, there had been exactly _one_ previous parallel world show, and
there had _never_ been a series pilot that proposed taking a set of
characters to a different alternate world every week. DOORWAYS was the
first. A year later comes a second, SLIDERS, with the same series format,
created by a writer who read the DOORWAYS script and wanted to write for
DOORWAYS. Perhaps this was purely a coincidence. I shall let the folks on
Internet make up their own minds, but I know what _I_ think.
(( OH, and for what it's worth, the Fox network was pitched DOORWAYS in the
concept stage, and were quite interested, although ABC moved faster. They
did _not_ tell me, "Oh, this is a common idea, we get variants pitched to
us every week." They _did_ say, "Wow, this is something really different
and unique, we don't have anything like this."))
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