Alfred Hitchcock presents

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Television series
German title Alfred Hitchcock presents
Original title Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1955-1965
length 30 or 60 minutes
Episodes 266 (268) (Alfred Hitchcock Presents)
93 (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour)
genre Thriller , crime , mystery
production Alfred Hitchcock , Joan Harrison , Norman Lloyd (Alfred Hitchcock Presents)
Joan Harrison , Norman Lloyd , Gordon Hessler (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour)
First broadcast October 2nd, 1955 (USA) on CBS
German-language
first broadcast		 1959 on German television

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Original title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents , from 1962 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ) was a weekly television series produced by Alfred Hitchcock , which ran from October 2, 1955 to 1965 on the US television channel CBS (from 1960 to 1962 and 1965 by NBC) was broadcast. In total, there were 266 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 268 half-hour episodes (a story aired in three episodes), and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour had 93 one-hour episodes.

From 1985 to 1989 a new edition of the series was broadcast.

background

The series began with a stylized silhouette of Hitchcock's face, to which Charles Gounod's funeral march for a puppet in D minor was played as the theme music . Crime stories were shown in the Edgar Allan Poe tradition, often with a melodramatic or mysterious character and often with a macabre punch line , which were usually based on literary models, mostly short stories. Each episode began with an appearance by Alfred Hitchcock, who addressed the audience and gave a short story, joke, anecdote or commentary on the following story or even the following commercial. These appearances always had a humorous, often macabre touch. These short appearances were all written by the playwright James B. Allardice .

Alfred Hitchcock gave the series his name, played the short appearances and personally directed 18 episodes between 1955 and 1962. Otherwise, he took off the scripts, but left the day-to-day business to the executive producer, his former personal assistant Joan Harrison , and the respective directors. The series was co-produced by actor Norman Lloyd , who had worked for Hitchcock years earlier. Harrison and Lloyd were responsible for selecting the fabrics. Lloyd directed several episodes of the series himself and was succeeded by Joan Harrison in 1963 when she quit the series as executive producer after marrying writer Eric Ambler .

Between 1955 and 1960, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was one of the most popular television shows in the United States.

The episode "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" did not appear in its original broadcast on NBC at the request of a sponsor, but it was licensed to local television networks.

Episodes directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock directed a total of 18 episodes in the series himself, usually choosing the scripts himself after Joan Harrison had made a preselection. In contrast to his movies, Hitchcock did not work on the script. One episode directed by Hitchcock took two or three days to shoot (all other episodes usually take a day or two).

(until 1961: Alfred Hitchcock Presents ; 1962: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour )

Rod

actor

The following well-known actors appeared in the series, some several times:

Director

Within the series there were a number of directors who staged a number of episodes over a period of time. Among them was the actor Paul Henreid , who played the resistance fighter Victor Laszlo in Casablanca . The directors with the most contributions to the series were:

In addition to Paul Henreid, another star of classic Hollywood cinema, Ida Lupino, directed two episodes of the series.

In addition, individual episodes were staged by directors unknown at the time who subsequently became successful Hollywood directors, for example by Sydney Pollack (two contributions for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ), Robert Altman (two contributions for Alfred Hitchcock Presents ) and William Friedkin (one contribution for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ).

Literary templates, script

A total of 41 films in the series were based on templates by the author Henry Slesar . Slesar also wrote the script for most of his stories , as well as for five other episodes in which he did not originate. Other authors who used stories several times were Roald Dahl , who also  wrote the screenplay for one of his stories - Mordwaffe: Lamb to the Slaughter -, Cornell Woolrich and Robert Bloch , who also served as the literary source for Hitchcock's feature film Psycho had written. Also by Eric Ambler and Patricia Highsmith , author of filmed by Hitchcock 1951 novel Strangers on a train , ever filmed a short story. By Thomas Burke , the template came hands of horror (The Hands of Mr. Ottermole) for the same result on 5 May 1957 and directed by Robert Stevens.

Awards

  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents was nominated for eleven Emmy Awards , including four times for Best Series. Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for an Emmy for the director of "Mordwaffe: Lammkeule" ( Lamb to the Slaughter ). The series received an Emmy three times.
  • In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock Presents received a Golden Globe for best television show.
  • In 1955, 1956 and 1960, Alfred Hitchcock Presents received a Television Champion Award for Best Mystery Program , The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 1963 , a television prize awarded by the choice of American television critics.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Sorcerer's Apprentice . In: snopes.com , August 16, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.