The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy
Quinn becomes a folk hero when he stumbles his way into a gunfight and kills the most feared gunslinger in all of Texas. In this America, violence is an accepted means of conducting business and lawyers have been replaced with sharp shooters. The dead man’s company, Drexel Bullock, immediately attempts to recruit a guilt-ridden Quinn. The only trouble is that Quinn missed by a country mile; Priscilla Hardaway, a woman with motive and opportunity did the shooting. Her husband had been killed by Drexel Bullock’s men, and now she’s fighting off a hostile takeover. While Rembrandt fights to keep the company solvent over a game of poker, Wade tries to convince the authorities to do their jobs. Quinn must show Priscilla’s son Jamie that violence is not the answer, especially as he has no chance at winning a showdown with Drexel’s newest attorney, one Billy “the Kid” Gates.
Worlds Visited
 | Dust WorldLittle is known of this world except for Arturo’s quip that they’ve come “from a world of dust to a world of dung” as he lands on the ground next to a horse stable. |
 | Lone Star WorldThe state of Texas quietly took over the western portion of what is to us the United States while the North fought the South in the Civil War. |
Details
- Jamie shoots 11 caps at a poster of a cover of Texas Financial magazine featuring a picture of Jack Bullock with guns drawn.
- Stores on the main drag include a mercantile bank, a store that sells “guns made to order,” and a place called Golf, Golf on the Range.
- The Wall Street Saloon menu features at the Wall Street Saloon include:
- Steak and Potatoes ($14.50)
- Steak and Eggs ($15.50)
- Flank Steak, Rib-Eye Steak, T-Bone Steak, 24 oz Texas Steak, 18 oz New York Steak, and Armadillo Steak.
All meals come with either rice or potatoes and salad.
- Quinn is grilled by the sheriff in the Interview Room at the police station.
- On the city sidewalk, the bottom of the red ‘Lamp Lighter’ sign advertises a 24 hour cafe.
- Billy Ray asks if Quinn is going to give his “Jim Bowie” (rather than his John Hancock) on the dotted line.
- Names on Jamie’s gunslinger cards include Sam Bass, Kid Curry, Ben Thompson, and Kit Carson.
- Priscilla says that “Bullock’s just a modern day pirate in a pair of Tony Lamas.”
- Cliff Sutter hangs himself in a hotel next to a store called “Moe’s Imports.”
- Rembrandt’s winning hand is a full house, Kings over sevens. He folds.
- The cocky player’s four threes hand also contains an ace. He thinks he’s got the pot cold — until Cryin’ Man Slim bites back with four jacks. Rembrandt doesn’t even divulge his fifth card.
- As Hank Arnette slinks into the darkness after threatening Priscilla, he crosses the street in front of the Georgia Hotel.
Character Information
- Rembrandt doesn’t much care for country music, or “hillbilly caterwaul” as he calls it.
- Wade takes cream in her coffee.
- Rembrandt excels at poker and used to be called “Cryin’ Man Slim” when he played on the bus that drove him and the rest of the Spinning Topps to their gigs. “I know every form of poker known to man,” he boasts.
Money Matters
- The Sliders check into the Dominon for two nights.
- At the stock exchange, Rembrandt wins $40,000 for Hardaway Computers.
Notable Quotes
- “Thank you, Quinn Mallory, for inventing sliding!” — A sarcastic Arturo after yet another bumpy slide.
- “It scares me that you know that.” — Wade, referring to Quinn’s knowledge about Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas.
- “One thing about staying in this hotel on every world, it kind of defeats the purpose of stealing towels.” — Rembrandt’s insightful musing about life in the Dominion.
- “If you’d stop wittering for a moment, woman, I might have a chance to think.” — Arturo to Wade, who’s worrying about what their next move is in this law-forsaken world.
Arturoisms
“Forewarned is forearmed.” — his take on the value of a gun in an armed world.
Nitpicks/Errors
- For some reason, there is a lot discrepancy as to places that the Sliders go and their names. For instance: While Jamie tells the four of the Wall Street Saloon, they actually stop at an Old West version of the Lamp Lighter (as evidenced by the menu out front). On the same note, Arturo, Wade and Rembrandt say they are going to check into the hotel but walk away from the hotel and around the corner (the hotel’s sign is hanging in the foreground while Wade is in the phone booth). They then meet Jamie and Priscilla on the street in front of what’s supposed to be the hotel but there’s a sign in the background that says “Bunion’s Silver Horseshoe Welcomes (unreadable) Series.” Later, while Rembrandt is playing cards in the stock exchange, another sign on the wall reads “Bunion’s World Series of Poker.” So, it’s obvious that the concept was to have the stock exchange in a casino called “Bunions” and that the Sliders meet Jamie and his mom in front of the casino rather than in front of the hotel.
- As Quinn gets into Billy Ray’s BMW, there’s a Canadian Royal Bank building in the background across the street.
- On the final hand, Rembrandt throws down four jacks with no fifth card in his hand, however on the front camera shot he is definitely holding five cards as he begins to lay them on the table.
- When Jamie steals Quinn’s gun, the holster is buckled around Quinn’s waste, but seconds later, after Wade realizes it’s missing, Quinn seems to pick up the folded holster and belt from the bench beside him.
- As the Sliders enter the vortex at the end of the episode, watch both Quinn’s position standing behind Jamie and his mother and the ever-changing position of Jamie’s hat from one jump cut to the next.
History Lesson
The Lone Star State. Bring thoughts of Texas to you? It should. But not here – it might be more appropriate to call it the Lone Star Country. Why? Because Texas is its own nation, and it’s taken a couple states with it.
During the Civil War, when the North was embroiled in bitter fighting with the Southern States, Texas, which was barely a state and was still hotly contested territory with the Mexicans, solidified its hold as a sovereign nation and began gobbling up land north and west of its borders. Without the troops to stop them, the United States and the Republic of Mexico let this formidable country expand in size and power to the state it is today.
In this San Francisco, legal battles have taken on a whole new level, as lawyers settle their difference with the Code of the West — basically, a gunfight. The fastest on the draw is the winner. If a man shoots another man, a preemptive move, they must go before a district judge while the Bar Association gets a hand in the matters. Lawyers are called ‘negotiators.’
The largest employer in the company, Drexal-Bullock, has 1,300 gunfighters on his staff with offices in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and is headquartered in San Francisco. Industrialist Bullock put more people back to work during an unspoken depression than any other in his region — including Silicon Valley.
Bullock’s risk arbitrage division is dubbed the ‘Outriders’ because they always are on the lookout for the best companies to take over. The S.E.C. (Securities Exchange Commission) holds power and jurisdiction over the lawyers.
Lawyers man the stock exchange by playing poker by betting equities and stocks. At the present, Compaq Computers sells for $35 a share while Pacific Richfield sells for $16.20 per share.
A magazine called “Texas Business Day” has the story about Billy the Kid, and the main source for news on this world is the Business News Network (BNN).
It seems as if Texas has its own senate, as evidenced by Billy the Kid saying he testified before a Senate Subcommittee in Austin (Texas).
On this world, instead of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series, it’s the Mighty Morphin Texas Rangers.
The Inside Slide
“‘The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy’ was a show we just didn’t pull off that well production-wise,” says Tracy Tormé. ” Was it a Western world or a modern world? The idea of corporate gunslingers looked really good on paper, but it just didn’t work as well as we had planned.”
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This episode’s parallels to the classic film Shane are no accident. Tormé says that he added them to the screenplay.
“It wasn’t initially based on Shane,” he says. “All the Shane stuff was stuff that I specifically put into the existing script — especially the ending — after the first draft.”
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Tormé adds that one interesting plot line that was never fully developed for the screen was to have the Billy the Kid character as an alternate of Microsoft C.E.O. Bill Gates. In fact, a Fox press release even bills Lochlyn Munroe’s character as “Billy ‘the Kid’ Gates,” but the idea was never brought to the screen.
“Originally we were going to see if Bill Gates would do it himself and then we realized that he probably wouldn’t,” Tormé laughs. “Then we were going to get a look-alike for him and the idea was that this guy with glasses and kind of near-sighted… gets off the train and it’s Bill Gates!”
Guest Stars
- Karen Witter as Priscilla [Hardaway]
- Jamie Denton as Jack Bullock
- Kent Faulcon as Billy Ray [Bledsoe]
- Keegan MaacIntosh as Jamie [Hardaway]
With
- Peter LaCroix as Sheriff
- Lochlyn Munro as Billy “the Kid” [Gates]
- Stephen Fanning as Cliff Sutter
- Greg Thirloway as Hank Arnette
- Barry Levy as Jed Dalton
- Adrian Hughes as Deputy Joe Bob
- Bart Anderson as Lonnie Skayler
- Roger Barnes as Exchange Official
- Jackson Cole as Poker Player
- April Telek as Honey Sue
- Dean Allan Hinchley as Crooner
Unaccredited
- The man who informs Quinn he has until the customary count of three.
- The actor who plays Jim Bob who is the partner of the cocky Poker Player.