'Sliders' Co-Creator Tracy Tormé Dead At 64
Born a son of singer Mel Tormé, the writer started out in sketch comedy before moving into sci-fi, including on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'
A cry has gone out across the multiverse. Tracy Tormé, writer, ufologist, and son of two-time Grammy winner Mel Tormé, has died. Probably best known for creating the science fiction series Sliders, he was 64.
Tormé died Thursday, January 4, from diabetes complications in Escondido, California, his siblings Daisy and James Tormé confirmed. Daisy is an actress who can be heard on Superman & Lois as the Irons family’s AI devices, where Natalie calls hers Hedy. James is a jazz musician. Tracy was born in Los Angeles on April 12, 1959. His mother, model Arlene Miles, was Mel’s second of four wives, this marriage lasting from 1956 to 1965. James has said Tracy was rather heavily influenced by films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Planet of the Apes. He was considered by his brother and sister to be an expert on football and baseball, especially the Angels, and a dedicated animal activist.
Tormé attended Beverly Hills High School and film schools at USC and Loyola Marymount; he got his first TV gig while still in college. He sent samples of his writing to producers at the Canadian sketch comedy series he was a big fan of, Second City Television, better known SCTV and he was hired. Some time later, he became a writer for the eighth season of Saturday Night Live, a season which featured Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Joe Piscopo. Tormé’s death was reported just a few hours after Brian McConnachie, whose credits also included SNL and SCTV, was revealed to have died at the age of 81 a day after him. He was also on staff for the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as the executive story editor for season 1 and creative consultant for season 2. He had teleplay or writing credit for six episodes: “Haven”, which introduced Lwxana Troi, “The Big Goodbye”, the franchise’s only Peabody Award winner, “Conspiracy”, “The Schizoid Man”, “The Royale”, and “Manhunt”. He wrote the screenplay for the film Spellbinder, starring Tim Daly and Kelly Preston, released during this time.
After writing the screenplay for the 1993 film Fire in the Sky, Tormé would co-create his own science fiction series Sliders with Robert K. Weiss for Fox, about four people who travel amongst the Earths in the multiverse by sliding, and due to a device malfunction and an unfortunate error in judgment must do so to find their way home…again. It starred Jerry O’Connell, Sabrina Lloyd, Cleavant Derricks, and Jonathan Rhys-Davies, at least for the 2+ seasons he was writer and executive producer for before leaving over creative differences, though not before putting his dad in one episode. The series would run for 88 total episodes across 5 seasons from 1995-2000, the final two being on the Sci-Fi Channel. O’Connell tweeted in mourning “Tracy Tormé was the smartest dude I had ever met, when he cast me in SLIDERS. Rest In Peace Genius.”
He would move on to write for Showtime’s The Outer Limits revival for its final four seasons, the last of which was also spent on Sci-Fi, and go back to Showtime for Odyssey 5, created by Manny Coto, a fellow Trek alum who died in July. He also worked on HBO’s Carnivàle, and his original treatment on the 2007 Will Smith film I Am Legend earned him co-producer credit. His last credit was as a producer on the 2020 documentary The Phenomenon.
Tracy’s survivors, along with Daisy and James, include his other siblings, Steve, Melissa, and step-brother Kurt, and his second wife, Robin. Donations can be made to The Gentle Barn sanctuary or any animal charity in his memory.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Memory Alpha, Arrowverse Wiki, Jerry O’Connell