During my mid-morning reading session this morning, I came across two bits of disheartening news:

1. “Alias” has been cancelled
2. “Mr. Miyagi” - Pat Morita - died yesterday

As for #2, I’ll have to watch The Karate Kid yet again. It’s been in heavy rotation on AMC over the last month. And although I know he’s been acting for some time now, I had no idea that he was in 103 movies - I only knew of the 3 KK movies, plus “Happy Days”. Oh, and the cab driver in “Honeymoon in Vegas”. (OK, I just scanned the list a little bit further - he was also in “Reggie’s Prayer“!)

Alias has really been up and down over the last few seasons. This year, in particular, has been a bust (for me). With Garner/Sydney being pregnant, the storylines have really been affected. Michael Vartan’s character was killed off in the first or second episode, and they’ve introduced a few new characters. Balthazar Getty — who I only know from the Billy The Kid-wanna-be from Young Guns 2 — is onboard, as is Rachel Nichols, who plays Rachel *Gibson*. She was last seen on Fox’s “The Inside” — which I liked very much. The new blood just isn’t working out, and the plotlines have been more or less recycled from a previous season. Step 1 - Introduce sinister secret organization; Step 2 - send pretty girl undercover in slinky outfits; Step 3 - take down said organization.

The good news, however, is that the series producers plan on actually wrapping things up. There have been a number of loose threads that were never resolved over the years, and I can only hope we get *some* kind of answers before they pull the plug.