'Alias' Ending Its Run
From Tribune Media Services
April 24, 2006
There was a time, not so very long ago, when ABC didn't have a lot to feel good about. It didn't have many shows that got critical buzz, and to make matters worse, it didn't have many shows that had ratings high enough to make good promotional platforms for other shows.
But it did have "Alias." Although never a highly rated show by the standards of, say, CBS, creator J.J. Abrams' spy drama was often about as good as it got on ABC. And better yet, the critics loved it, and the fans who loved it really loved it, like crazy mad loved it.
After a hiatus to allow series star Jennifer Garner some leave after giving birth to her first child, "Alias" returned last week with a two-hour episode that saw her character, CIA superspy Sydney Bristow, also have her baby, fathered by allegedly slain love and CIA partner Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan).
This week, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, "Alias" celebrates its 100th episode with "There's Only One Sydney Bristow," which features a return appearance by original series regular Bradley Cooper as former journalist Will Tippin, who's been off in witness relocation. (Cooper shot the episode just before heading to New York to begin rehearsals with Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd for "Three Days of Rain," which opened on Broadway last week.)
The series continues on Wednesdays until its blowout two-hour finale, airing on May 22, a Monday.
Cast and crew have known since the end of last year that this season would be it.
"For all of us, as storytellers, this feels like the year the show should end," executive producer Jeff Pinkner says. "Of course, it could have gone on longer, but to a degree, it would have been treading water. This feels like the proper end to what the show was when it started out."
"It definitely feels appropriate," Garner says. "To me, this show had a finite amount of stories that we could tell. The only reason I say that is not because of the writers, because they're geniuses, but part of their genius is that they shove a ton of story into every episode. So we've told, in five years, what some people would do in seven seasons.
"So, it feels like it's time. We've done Sydney right, and now it's time for her to go off into the sunset. But that does not mean that my heart doesn't break, and I'm not going through a total identity crisis, because I am."
