“When it premiered on CBS on October 2, 1955, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was an instant hit destined for long-term popularity. The series' original half-hour anthology format provided a perfect showcase for stories of mystery, suspense, and the macabre that reflected Hitchcock's es­tablished persona. Every Sunday at 9:30 p.m., the series began with the familiar theme of Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette” (which would thereafter be inextricably linked with Hitchcock), and as Hitchcock's tra­demark profile sketch was overshadowed by the familiar silhouette of Hitchcock himself, the weekly “play” opened and closed with the series' most popular feature: As a good-natured host whose inimitable presence made him a global celebrity, Hitchcock delivered droll, dryly sardonic introductions and epilogues to each week's episode, flawlessly written by James Allardyce and frequently taking polite pot-shots at CBS sponsors, or skirting around broadcast standards (which demanded that no crime could go unpunished) by humorously explaining how the show's killers and criminals were always brought to justice… though always with a nod and a wink to the viewer.

This knowing complicity was Hitchcock's pact with his audience, and the secret to his (and the series') long-term success. It's also what attracted a stable of talented writers whose teleplays, both original and adapted, maintained a high standard of excellence. Hitchcock directed four of the first season's 39 e­pisodes, including the premiere episode “Revenge” (a fan favorite, with future Psycho costar Vera Miles) and the season highlight “Breakdown,” with Joseph Cotten as a car-accident victim, paralyzed and motionless, who's nearly left for dead; it's a perfect example of visual and narrative economy, executed with a master's touch. (The fourth episode, “Don't Come Back Alive,” is also a popular favorite, with the kind of sinister twist that became a series trademark.) Robert Stevenson directed the majority of the remaining episodes with similar skill, serving tightly plotted tales (selected by associate producers Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd) by such literary greats as Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, Dorothy L. Sayers, and John Collier. Adding to the series' prestige was a weekly roster of new and seasoned stars, with first-season appearances by Cloris Leachman, Darren McGavin, Everett Sloane, Peter Lawford, Charles Bronson, Barry Fitzgerald, John Cassavetes, Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, and a host of Hollywood's best-known character players. With such stellar talent on weekly display, Alfred Hitchcock Presents paved the way for Thriller, The Twilight Zone, and other series that maximized the anthology format's story­telling potential."–Jeff Shannon

Episodes

1. REVENGE
A prima ballerina leaves the dance world following a nervous breakdown. After she?s assaulted at home one evening, her husband decides to get revenge on her attacker.
STARRING VERA MILES AND RALPH MEEKER,

2. PREMONITION
John Forsythe stars as a world famous pianist who?s returned to his hometown with his wife hoping to find the man whom he thinks murdered his father ? only to discover that the killer is someone he knows all to well.
STARRING JOHN FORSYTHE AND CLORIS LEACHMAN

3. TRIGGERS IN LEASH
A local man challenges a cowboy to a shootout. Agreeing to draw when a mantel clock strikes the hour, the timepiece mysteriously stops when its owner removes a holy cross from underneath, forcing the men to give up their plans for a duel.
STARRING GENE BARRY AND DARREN McGAVIN

4. DON?T COME BACK ALIVE
In need of money, an older couple hatch a scheme in which the wife will disappear for seven years and be declared legally dead so they can collect on her life insurance. The plan backfires when she returns two days before the deadline and declares show doesn?t love her husband anymore.
STARRING SIDNEY BLACKMER AND VIRGINIA GREGG

5. INTO THIN AIR
While on a trip to the 1899 Paris World?s Fair, a young woman and her mother check in to a local hotel. When the mother becomes ill, her daughter does to get medicine, only to return and discover her mother has disappeared and no one at the hotel claims to know her.
STARRING PAT HITCHCOCK AND ALAN NAPIER

6. SALVAGE
After getting out of prison, a ruthless gangster plots vengeance against a nightclub singer indirectly responsible for the death of his brother. Finding her in need of work, the hood gets her a job at a local club in order to lure her into his deadly trap.
STARRING GENE BARRY AND NANCY GATES

7. BREAKDOWN
A hard-hearted businessman, William Callew gets into a near-fatal car crash and becomes completely paralysed. Seeing no signs of movement, the police send the body to the morgue where the coroner pronounces the alive man dead on arrival.
STARRING JOSEPH COTTON AND RAYMOND BAILEY

8. OUR COOK'S TREASURE
A successful real estate agent hires a cook only to learn the police are searching for a woman posing as a cook who?s responsible for the death of three people. He suspects his new help is the culprit after discovering his cocoa has been laced with a fatal dose of arsenic.
STARRING EVERETT SLOANE AND BEULAH BONDI

9. THE LONG SHOT
A compulsive gambler (Peter Lawford) finds himself in serious debt. Forced to flee New York, he answers an ad from a fellow Brit looking for a traveling companion to San Francisco. One the way, the gambler decides to change identities with his fellow traveler ? with bad consequences.
STARRING PETER LAWFORD AND JOHN WILLIAMS

10. THE CASE OF MR. PELHAM
Albert Pelham discovers that someone has been impersonating him. Fearing his life is being taken away from him, Pelham confronts his double, only to begin doubting his own sanity.
STARRING TOM EWELL AND RAYMOND BAILEY

11. GUILTY WITNESS
Annoyed by the constant fighting of their next-door neighbours, grocery store owners Stanley and Dorothy Krane become suspicious when they don?t see the husband for a few days. After overhearing a detective say he man might have been murdered, Dorothy gets involved in the deadly case.
STARRING JUDITH EVELYN AND KATHLEEN MAGUIRE

12. SANTA CLAUS AND THE 10TH AVENUE KID
Hoping to rob a department store, ex-con Stretch Sears hooks up with a young juvenile delinquent hoping to get help with the heist. But when Stretch stars taking his role as Santa seriously, all bets are off.
STARRING BARRY FITZGERALD AND VIRGINIA GREGG

13. THE CHENEY VASE
A woman fights to protect her priceless vase from a shifty museum curator who will stop at nothing to obtain it.
STARRING DARREN McGAVIN AND PATRICIA COLLENGE

14. A BULLET FOR BALDWIN
After being fired from his investment firm, Benjamin Stepp decides to kill his boss ? until he discovers the next day that his employer has been replaced by an imposter. Stepp goes along with a plan to defraud the investors ? until he learns he?s been sacked by the new boss.
STARRING JOHN QUALEN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT

15. THE BIG SWITCH
In order to get away with murder, Sam Dunleavy contacts a man who specialises in providing alibis – for a price. Problems arise, however, when a detective friend of Sam?s begins to suspect that something is amiss.
STARRING GEORGE MATTHEWS AND BEVERLY MICHAELS

16. YOU GOT TO HAVE LUCK
After breaking out of the state pen, convict Sam Cobbett holes up at a nearby farm house. There, he intimidates the lone occupant into helping him elude a manhunt, only to discover that there is something very odd about the woman hiding him.
STARRING JOHN CASSAVETES AND MARISA PAVAN

17. THE OLDER SISTER
Despite being acquitted of the axe-murder of her husband, Lizzie Borden is continually hounded by people who think she is guilty. After a reporter begins digging deeper into facts surrounding a series of brutal slayings, she discovers the real truth is much more than she bargained for.
STARRING JOAN LORRING AND CARMEN MATTHEWS

18. SHOPPING FOR DEATH
Theorising that most murders occur in hot weather, two retired salesmen pick out a longshoreman?s shre­wish wife as a potential victim ? only to learn their theory may be all too true.
STARRING JO VAN FLEET AND ROBERT H. HARRIS

19. THE DERELICTS
When Ralph Cowell learns an old creditor is out to collect on a huge debt, he kills the man, only to learn two bums have witnessed the murder and found the IOU. Cowell retrieves the IOU, but not before the derelicts have pawned the murdered man?s belongings ? which the police may trace back to Ralph.
STARRING ROBERT NEWTON AND PHILIP REED

20. AND SO DIED RIABOUCHINSKA
Claude Rains stars as John Fabian, a vaudeville ventriloquist with a mysterious past. Soon after a man id discovered murdered outside Fabian?s theatre, a detective begins pulling together the threads of a case.
STARRING CLAUDE RAINS AND CHARLES BRONSON

21. SAFE CONDUCT
A young woman returns from the East following a meeting with an Iron Curtain official who?s given her a safe conduct pass. She befriends a cover player on the train, but soon realises the man wants her to use her pass to help smuggle a valuable watch across the border.
STARRING CLAIRE TREVOR AND JACQUES BERGERAC

22. PLACE OF SHADOWS
A man shows up at a remote monastery pretending to be the friend of an accident victim convalescing there. Unbeknownst to the head priest, the man is actually there to murder the patient ? only to make a startling discovery before he commits the crime.
STARRING EVERETT SLOANE AND SEAN McCLORY

23. BACK FOR CHRISTMAS
Before leaving on a long holiday to America, a man murders his wife and buries her in the basement of their quaint English home. Once in the States, the man receives a postcard addressed to his spouse containing some incriminating information.
Note: This was the second episode to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
STARRING JOHN WILLIAMS AND ISOBEL ELSOM

24. THE PERFECT MURDER
Two brothers inherit a sizeable sum of money from a recently departed uncle, only to learn that they will receive even more money upon the death of their aged aunt. But their plot to kill the old lady results in trouble they never imagined.
STARRING HURD HATFIELD AND MILDRED NATWICK

25. THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN
Frank Bramwell and his wife Lorna decide to rob a rich, eccentric old woman who habitually hangs funeral wreaths on her door at the passing of an imaginary family member. Thinking the crime will be a piece of cake, the couple soon discover they?ve bitten off more than they can chew.
STARRING ESTELLE WINWOOD AND CHARLES BRONSON

26. WHODUNIT
After being murdered, a man convinces an angel to let him return to earth so he can learn his killer?s true identity. Once back, the man begins to question his list of suspects, finally drawing them into his home library for an ultimate confrontation.
STARRING JOHN WILLIAMS AND AMANDA BLAKE

27. HELP WANTED
Needing money for his wife?s operation, Mr. Crabtree answers an ad fro a mysterious party named Mr. X, who wants Crabtree?s help in murdering a blackmailer. After receiving instructions and a secret phrase from Mr. X, Crabtree confronts the blackmailer ? with dire consequences.
STARRING JOHN QUALEN AND LORNE GREENE

28. PORTRAIT OF JOCELYN
Having murdered his first wife, Jocelyn, five years ago, the newly re-married Mark Halliday is shocked when he discovers a painting that resembles his deceased spouse. Learning who the artist is, Halliday questions the painter, who contends that Jocelyn posed for the portrait ? and is still alive!
STARRING PHILIP ABBOTT AND NANCY GATES

29. THE ORDERLY WORLD OF MR. APPLEBY
Antique dealer Laurence Appleby owes his business associates thousands of dollars. When his wife refuses to let him borrow against her insurance policy, he murders her. Marrying a wealthy widow, Appleby?s problems seem to be over, until his new wife learns how her husband committed his ?perfect? crime.
STARRING ROBERT H. HARRIS AND MEG MUNDY

30. NEVER AGAIN
Karen Stewart doesn?t realise how serious her drinking problem is until she goes to a party with her boyfriend. Once there, she drinks heavily and leaves with another man. Her boyfriend confronts her, but Karen remembers nothing the next morning ? when she awakens in jail accused of murder!
STARRING PHYLLIS THAXTER AND LOUISE ALBRITTON

31. THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA
An American visiting England takes a bet from two locals that he?ll be able to stay the whole night in a ?haunted? mansion ? alone. After encountering the ghost described in the history of the manor, the man later learns that the story was only a hoax?much too late to prevent an irreversible tragedy.
STARRING BIFF McGUIRE AND RALPH CLANTON

32. THE BABY SITTER
Lottie Slocum is grilled by police following the murder of a woman she was baby-sitting the night before. Convincing the law she wasn?t involved in the crime, Lottie confides to a neighbour that the dead woman?s husband is actually in love with her ? setting off a fatal chain reaction.
STARRING THELMA RITTER AND MARY WICKES

33. THE BELFRY
Clint Ringle builds a house for his tue love, Ella, only to learn she?s engaged to another man. During a jealous rage, Clint kills the fiancé and hides out in the school?s bell tower. He eludes capture until the morning of the funeral ? when the school bell is rung in her honor.
STARRING JACK MULLANEY AND PAT HITCHCOCK
NOTES: Alfred Hitchcock?s dau­ghter makes her third guest appearance in the series.

34. THE HIDDEN THING
When Dana Edwards? fiancée is killed in a hit-and-run accident, he unsuccessfully struggles to recall the licence number of the car. But when a man appears claiming his son was killed by the same driver, the two are able to piece together the plate number, with bizarre consequences.
STARRING BIFF McGUIRE AND ROBERT H. HARRIS

35. THE LEGACY
Traveling to Palm Beach with her unfaithful husband, a woman meets a prince who falls in love with her, vowing to commit suicide if she doesn?t leave her spouce. But before this torrid triangle can get out of control, tragedy befalls the price in this tense episode packed with twists.
STARRING LEORA DANA AND JACQUES BERGERAC

36. MINK
Paula Hudson purchases a mink coat only to discover it?s stolen property. After fending off questions from the police, Paula meets a man interested in talking to her about the fur, only to discover he?s the person who originally stole the coat ? and now wants it back!
STARRING RUTH HUSSEY AND VINTON HAYWORTH

37. DECOY
Secretly in love with a married singer, Gil Larkin learns that she is being abused by her husband. Confronting the man in his office, Gil is knocked unconscious, only to awaken and learn he?s being framed for the husband?s murder ? and must now discover who is really behind the crime.
STARRING ROBERT HORTON AND CARA WILLIAMS

38. THE CREEPER
A strangler known as The Creeper is terrorising a New York neighbourhood. For safely, a woman orders a new lock put on her door ? only to find out that The Creeper has been using his job as a locksmith to get into the homes of his victims.
STARRING CONSTANCE FORD AND STEVE BRODIE

39. MOMENTUM
When his boss informs him that their firm is close to bankruptcy, Dick Paine agrees to work for half his salary. But egged on by his wife, Beth, Dick goes back to work demanding money he has not been paid, only to find himself doing something he never thought possible.
STARRING SKIP HOMEIER AND JOANNE WOODWARD
In need of money, an older couple hatch a scheme in which the wife will disappear for seven years and be declared legally dead so they can collect on her life insurance. The plan backfires when she returns two days before the deadline and declares show doesn?t love her husband anymore.
STARRING SIDNEY BLACKMER AND VIRGINIA GREGG