Doorways (1993)

Interesting facts

Doorways is a proposed science fiction series from writer George R. R. Martin. The story is about people traveling through parallel universes to escape hunters working for aliens. A pilot was shot in May 1992, starring George Newbern, Anne Le Guernec, Robert Knepper, Kurtwood Smith, Hoyt Axton, Max Grodenchik, and Carrie-Anne Moss, but was not picked up, and the project was shelved.

Production

George R. R. Martin pitched the concept for Doorways in 1991 to various television networks, and ABC agreed to pick up the show. The pilot was produced with Columbia Pictures. Martin spent much of 1991 redrafting and polishing the pilot script. This process continued until, in January 1992, production was given the green light.

The series was originally called Doors (the portals that Tom and Cat travel through are always called Doors rather than Doorways), but this was changed after ABC expressed concern that it may be confused with either the rock band The Doors or the Oliver Stone biopic The Doors.

In August 1992, a rough cut of the show was shown to ABC executives, who reacted enthusiastically and ordered six additional scripts for the show. Martin worked on those scripts for the next six months with Michael Cassutt, Ed Zuckerman, Steve De Jarnatt, and J. D. Feigelson. In May 1993, ABC announced that they would not be picking up Doorways.

There has been speculation that Sliders was inspired by Doorways, in which the main cast also were fugitives fleeing through parallel worlds, while carrying a device that tells them where and when the next Doorway opens. At the time of Sliders' launch, Evelyn C. Leeper noted the similarities to Doorways.

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