The term 'Jump The Shark' was coined by Howard Stern Show producer Jon Hein and his colleague in the 1980s. It was a clear-cut reference to the time Fonzi water-skied over a shark on Happy Days, the moment when the show started to go downhill. Every series has this moment (or storyline) whether it knows it or not. Games of Thrones absolutely had a moment or two that 'jump the shark' as many fans wish things turned out differently before the end. So did The Walking Dead and many other series people generally think are great. And that same is true for J.J. Abram's and Jennifer Garner's Alias.

The series ran for five whole seasons and became a cult-hit. It's the show that propelled J.J. into Lost and set up Jennifer Garner's career for life. While the series had some complicated moments, such as the Rambaldi plotline, it generally avoided moments that could turn things sour... That is until season 4, otherwise known as the season that set up the beginning of the end for Alias.

Thanks to a fantastic article by TV Line, we now know precisely when the cast believes the show 'jumped the shark' and why it was ultimately canceled. Let's take a look...

Alias Jennifer Garner (1)
Amazon

It 'Jumped The Shark' In Season 4

Alias' ratings were never all that great. But it did have a very dedicated cult-like following that made the network want to keep the show alive. However, by season 4, the show was moved from a coveted Sunday night spot to Wednesdays at 9 PM. This move was basically ABC telling J.J. and his team of writers that their time with Alias was coming to an end unless they could change things up. So, they tried. They had Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow and the other main cast members joined a black ops division of CIA run by the villain of the previous seasons, Sloane. This opened up the door to some fun storylines that caused the show to start to expire.

"One day, I found myself as a vampire," Jennifer Garner said of the moment she felt the show jumped the shark. "And I thought, why am I a vampire? Where has the mythology taken us? How have we come to this?"

Victor Garber, who played Sydney's father Jack Bristow, completely agrees that this was the moment things really started to suck on Alias: "I was on board with anything. Except, yeah, I think we had vampires one episode and thought we had jumped the shark then."

Related: How Jennifer Garner's 'Felicity' Created 'Alias'

"Victor and I joked about it… There was a scene where we jump over a Russian city, and there’s a huge red ball hovering over us. We looked at each other and said, 'Dude, we didn’t jump the red ball. We just jumped the shark,'" Michael Vartan, who played Vaughn, said.

Luckily, the writers managed to come up with some great storylines after this vampire fiasco. Unfortunately, it was far too late.

ABC Got Tough On Alias For Season Five

The final season of the show featured new castmembers Rachel Nichols and Balthazar Getty as well as featured Jennifer Garner's real-life pregnancy written into the show. Regardless, ABC made the decision that the season's episode numbers were to be trimmed. Therefore, the cast of the show knew that their time on Alias was coming to an end. And they found many ways to celebrate, including awarding a crown to 'the best crew member of the week'.

Related: Jennifer Garner Tears Up While Talking With The Cast Of 'Schitt's Creek' About Show Endings

"I think we all knew from the beginning that at a certain point, it was a story that would end and had to end," executive producer Jeff Pinkner told TV Line for the interview. "And then the specifics of how it was going to end were sort of dictated by larger business decisions and Jennifer, where she was in her life [wanting to start a family]. But I think the five seasons felt like a really natural, appropriate amount of time."

Related: Why The First Season Of 'Alias' Was A Nightmare For Jennifer Garner

The truth is, there would be no Alias without Jennifer Garner. But completing the show was quite tough on cast and crew members who found a home there for many years.

"When that show wrapped, the final shot of the final episode… I saw guys who were tough as nails, dolly grips and lighting guys, everyone was just bawling. The goodbyes lasted three hours," Michael Vartan, who played Michael Vaughn, said.

It's safe to say that many of the show's diehard fans felt the same way that it was canceled. However, there's always time to go back and binge it from the beginning.

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