ALIAS: TRUTH BE TOLD {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere in this dramatic action series about Sydney Bristow, who leads a double life as a graduate student by day and a CIA double agent by night. Sydney's back story is explained through several temporal leaps throughout the episode; snippets of the interrogation of a disguised Sydney by Taiwanese thugs interrupt the main storyline. As the episode plays out, these snippets begin to have more to do with the story that is unfolding. When Sydney's boyfriend of two years, Danny, proposes marriage, she feels that she must inform Danny of her true occupation: she works for the CIA, in a top-secret group of special operatives called SD-6. She was recruited, she tells Danny, during her freshman year. She learned martial arts and espionage tactics and was always on call for dangerous missions in exotic lands. The night after Sydney tells Danny of her secret life, she returns home to find him brutally murdered. Her boss at SD-6, Sloane, immediately admits that he had Danny murdered, telling Sydney that she was warned of the absolute need for secrecy, and that her breach of security was careless and risky. Sydney is horrified and makes plans to disappear from the agency for a while. Before she can get away, however, assassins attempt to murder her because she could be a liability. Sydney is rescued from the attackers at the last minute by her father. As the two speed away from the scene in a car, Jack Bristow tells his daughter that he also works for SD-6. He goes on to divulge to Sydney that SD-6 is not, in fact, related to the CIA. It is a rogue group of trained spies who are actually working against the United States. Shocked that she has been working for the enemy for so long, Sydney decides to complete a dangerous mission for SD-6 in order to earn back Sloane's trust, then attempt to dismantle the organization from the inside as a double agent for the real CIA. She visits the CIA and is sent to an agent named Vaughn. Vaughn says that the CIA would definitely be interested in using Sydney's expertise to infiltrate SD-6. He also mysteriously alludes to the presence of another double agent "already placed" within that organization. Includes one commercial at the very beginning of the broadcast.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: September 30, 2001 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:04:54
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:67943
- GENRE: Drama, action/adventure
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, action/adventure; Mystery/Suspense; Spies
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2001-2006
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Nokia cell phones
CREDITS
- John Eisendrath … Executive Producer
- Ken Olin … Executive Producer
- Alex Kurtzman … Executive Producer
- Roberto Orci … Executive Producer
- J.J. Abrams … Executive Producer, Director, Created by, Writer, Theme Music by
- Michael Haro … Coordinating Producer
- Jesse Alexander … Producer
- Sarah Caplan … Producer
- Jeff Pinkner … Producer
- Chad Savage … Producer
- Daniel Arkin … Co-Producer
- Vanessa Taylor … Co-Producer
- Robyn-Alain Feldman … Associate Producer
- Jennifer Garner … Cast, Sydney Bristow
- Bradley Cooper … Cast, Will Tippin
- Merrin Dungey … Cast, Francie Calfo
- Carl Lumbly … Cast, Marcus Dixon
- Victor Garber … Cast, Jack Bristow
- Ron Rifkin … Cast, Arvin Sloane
- Michael Vartan … Cast, Michael Vaughn
- Kevin Weisman … Cast, Marshall Flinkman
- Edward Atterton … Cast, Danny Hecht
- Vicki Davis … Cast, Intern
- Erik Betts … Cast, CIA Agent
- Lorenzo Callender … Cast, Messenger
- Greg Collins … Cast, Kenny
- Jay Gerber … Cast, Professor Mizzy
- Raymond Ma … Cast, Taiwanese Businessman
- Lo Ming … Cast, Agent
- Miguel Najera … Cast, Agent Gonzalez
- Angus Scrimm … Cast, Agent McCullough
- Greta Sesheta … Cast, CIA Receptionist
- Philip Tan … Cast, Taiwanese Security Officer
- Emily Wachtel … Cast, Beth
- William Wellman … Cast, Priest