Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)

I've seen the first three seasons. At 39 twenty-five minute episodes per season it has taken me years to get through them as part of my morning exercise bike rotation. The DVDs are quite good considering the age of the material.

Some serious plots, but many episodes are pretty whimsical. Few are very memorable, although not many are positively bad. I don't recall seeing any of them before. My memories are of the later Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which had a much darker tone. Hoping it will appear on DVD someday.

Not much Hitchcock content. He directed a few episodes and in the beginning picked directors and stories, but had less to do with the show over time. But a lot of the actors from his films appear in the series.

An old TV show is fascinating not just for the cars, houses, fashions and period technology, but for the way these things are presented, what they are supposed to mean to the viewer. How homes and offices are supposed to look, what is elegant and what is shabby, what bankers and policemen and gamblers look like. All on a budget, of course.

For me, it is time travel back to my early childhood when I was barely aware of the world at all.