# Alfred Hitchcock Presents season 1
The first season of *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* is the initial run of the American anthology television series hosted by [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock), broadcast on CBS from October 2, 1955 to June 24, 1956 in 39 episodes of roughly 25 minutes each.[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1) Each week the series presented a freestanding story of suspense, mystery, or crime, introduced and closed by Hitchcock himself in filmed bookend segments.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/alfred_hitchcock_presents/s01)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Network and run | CBS, October 2, 1955 to June 24, 1956[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1) |
| Episode count | 39 episodes, each about 25 minutes[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1) |
| First and last episodes | "Revenge" (October 2, 1955) and "Momentum" (June 24, 1956)[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1) |
| Host and format | Hitchcock opened almost every episode with "Good evening," followed by a joke, usually about the evening's sponsor[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/alfred_hitchcock_presents/s01) |
| Monologue writer | Hitchcock's introductions were written for him by James B. Allardice[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour) |
| Theme music | Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette," suggested by Bernard Herrmann[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour) |
| Hitchcock's direction | He directed four of the season's episodes, including "Breakdown"[4](https://reviewsfrommycouch.com/2024/12/television/alfred-hitchcock-presents-season-1-review/) |
## Format and presentation
The season established the format the series kept for a decade. A title sequence showed a line-drawing caricature of Hitchcock's profile while Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" played; Hitchcock then walked into silhouette and delivered his greeting.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour) After the title sequence he introduced the story from a mostly empty studio or from the set of the current episode, and he closed each show by tying up loose ends rather than joking. He told *TV Guide* that his reassurances that the criminal had been apprehended were "a necessary gesture to morality."[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour)
At least two versions of the opening were shot for every episode. The American version often spoofed a recent commercial or poked fun at the sponsor, leading into the commercial break, while an alternative version for European audiences included jokes at the expense of Americans in general.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour) The monologues were written by James B. Allardice, and a later analysis of the first episode's lead-in and lead-out argues that Allardice got the tone right from the outset.[5](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467756/1/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents_Psycho_Final_copy_with_copyright.pdf)
## Production
Although Hitchcock's name and presence were central to the series, he neither initiated it nor involved himself deeply in day-to-day production. His main ongoing involvement was script supervision: selecting about forty scripts for each season from the hundred or so submitted to him.[6](https://hitchcock.tv/HFAQ/FAQ.html) The running of the series fell to his long-time collaborators [Joan Harrison](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-harrison), the pioneering writer-producer associated with *Rebecca*, and [Norman Lloyd](https://www.edgepedia.org/norman-lloyd), the actor-producer-director associated with *[Saboteur](https://www.edgepedia.org/saboteur)*, working for Hitchcock's Shamley Productions.[7](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/good-evening-alfred-hitchcock-on-television-01-20-24/)
As executive producer, Hitchcock primarily left directing duties to others, personally helming only a small share of episodes across the series' run; in season 1 he directed four episodes, among them "Breakdown" (November 13, 1955), in which [Joseph Cotten](https://www.edgepedia.org/joseph-cotten) plays a businessman injured in a car crash and believed dead who fights to signal that he is alive.[4](https://reviewsfrommycouch.com/2024/12/television/alfred-hitchcock-presents-season-1-review/) • [8](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/alfred-hitchcock-presents/6231083507338548112/seasons/1) A critic later described "Breakdown" as "a well-nigh Beckettian vision of doom, shot in grotesque close-ups," with an inner monologue that anticipates the ending of *Psycho*.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/alfred_hitchcock_presents/s01)
## Episodes
The season's 39 episodes aired weekly on Sunday evenings on CBS, all in the 25-minute format.[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1) The premiere, "Revenge," stars [Ralph Meeker](https://www.edgepedia.org/ralph-meeker) as a husband who seeks revenge when an unstable woman, played by [Vera Miles](https://www.edgepedia.org/vera-miles), identifies an alleged attacker.[8](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/alfred-hitchcock-presents/6231083507338548112/seasons/1) Other early episodes included "Triggers in Leash," with [Ellen Corby](https://www.edgepedia.org/ellen-corby) trying to prevent a shootout between two gunslingers, and "Into Thin Air," featuring Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock as a woman whose ailing mother vanishes from a Paris hotel room.[8](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/alfred-hitchcock-presents/6231083507338548112/seasons/1)
The guest cast mixed established film names with newcomers and Hitchcock regulars. [Claude Rains](https://www.edgepedia.org/claude-rains), Joseph Cotten, Barry Fitzgerald, Thelma Ritter, and [Claire Trevor](https://www.edgepedia.org/claire-trevor) appeared, alongside then-promising performers Vera Miles, Joanne Woodward, John Cassavetes, and [Charles Bronson](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-bronson), and Hitchcock film regulars such as John Williams and Pat Hitchcock.[9](https://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2020/07/hitchcock-presents-season-one-review.html) The season finale, "Momentum," aired on June 24, 1956.[1](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1)
## Reception and place in the series' run
The first season set the pattern for a series that ran for seven half-hour seasons on CBS and NBC from 1955 to 1962 before expanding to 50 minutes as *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour*.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour) • [10](https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474482042.003.0002) The show's ratings rose after the first year: it finished at number 6 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1956–57 season, then at number 12 in 1957–58, number 24 in 1958–59, and number 25 in 1959–60.[3](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour)
Retrospective critical reception of the season has been strong. On Rotten Tomatoes, season 1 holds a 100% Tomatometer from 15 reviews and a 92% Popcornmeter score from fewer than 50 ratings, with a critics' consensus crediting the anthology with Hitchcock's storytelling prowess and "flair for the shocking reveal."[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/alfred_hitchcock_presents/s01) Reviewers comparing the series with *The Twilight Zone* have generally judged it less consistently brilliant but a high point of prime time television, with the Hitchcock bookends, sometimes better than the stories they frame, a distinctive attraction.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/alfred_hitchcock_presents/s01) • [9](https://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2020/07/hitchcock-presents-season-one-review.html)
The season also fed directly into Hitchcock's film work: he later deployed his *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* television crew and the show's Universal backlot to make *Psycho* (1960).[7](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/good-evening-alfred-hitchcock-on-television-01-20-24/)
## Home video and streaming
Universal released the complete first season on DVD in the United States in 2005 as a three-disc, double-sided set in a Digipak case.[11](https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents%3A_Season_One_-_Universal_%28USA%2C_2005%29) As of recent listings, season 1 streams on Amazon Prime Video and Peacock Premium, and free with ads on [The Roku Channel](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-roku-channel), Xumo Play, and Tubi; it can also be purchased digitally on Amazon Video and Fandango At Home.[12](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/alfred-hitchcock-presents/season-1)
## References
1. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents – Season 1 episode list, TheTVDB.com](https://thetvdb.com/series/alfred-hitchcock-presents/seasons/official/1)
2. [Season 1 – Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/alfred_hitchcock_presents/s01)
3. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents aka The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/alfred-hitchcock-presents-aka-the-alfred-hitchcock-hour)
4. ['Alfred Hitchcock Presents' Season 1 (1955-56) brings the macabre into living rooms, Reviews from My Couch](https://reviewsfrommycouch.com/2024/12/television/alfred-hitchcock-presents-season-1-review/)
5. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents 'Psycho', University of Southampton eprints](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467756/1/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents_Psycho_Final_copy_with_copyright.pdf)
6. [Alfred Hitchcock – The Master of Suspense, FAQ](https://hitchcock.tv/HFAQ/FAQ.html)
7. ["Good Evening": Alfred Hitchcock on Television, UCLA Film & Television Archive](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/good-evening-alfred-hitchcock-on-television-01-20-24/)
8. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1, Peacock](https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/alfred-hitchcock-presents/6231083507338548112/seasons/1)
9. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season One, Classic Film and TV Café](https://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2020/07/hitchcock-presents-season-one-review.html)
10. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Subverting Anthology TV Series, Edinburgh Scholarship Online](https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474482042.003.0002)
11. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season One – Universal (USA, 2005), The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki](https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents%3A_Season_One_-_Universal_%28USA%2C_2005%29)
12. [Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1 streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/alfred-hitchcock-presents/season-1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Seasons, episodes, and installments › Screen seasons › American scripted drama series seasons*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license