Alfred Hitchcock Presents
I'll come right out and say it, I'm a freak. Not so much in regards to my visage, but more towards my Walter Mitty-ish fascination with being things that I'm not. One of these vicarious pursuits dawned on me quite recently, when we finally cut the cable cord and switched to a Amazon Prime, Netflix, and You Tube provided entertainment complex in the home. This alternative to cable company provided content is more participatory and it is in that function where I found my latest fantasy vocation. That is the job of director of network programming here in casa Mc. Q. Generally the work day ends around eight or nine o' clock around here and snoring sets in around ten-thirty so there's not a hell of a lot prime time scheduling that needs to be done. The old Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes from the fifties are working like a charm. Each "play" as our host calls them is twenty some minutes long and feature a cavalcade of stars from the forties, fifties, and sixties. The other night, I saw one that could of come straight outta the pages of DC''s Weird Western Tales with a fresh faced actor of Night Stalker and A Christmas Story fame named Darren McGavin. The plots so far, and I've watched a bunch, have been a hoot. For fans of the horror/sci-fi anthology shows of the late fifties and sixties this show is perhaps old news and the more obscure 13 Demon Street or Boris Karloff's, "The Veil" offer a fresher alternative in that they haven't made the rounds in syndication as much. Admittedly, I hadn't realized that I watched this show as much as I must have as a kid until I started recalling the plots and endings to the episodes, but that hasn't dissuaded this network vice president from putting the show in the regular line-up. Indeed, my inclusion of Alfred Hitchcock Presents along with Gerry Anderson's U.F.O., and movies that one would see on Chiller Theater is akin to the old WWOR channel's schedule for a likewise Saturday night. The only thing missing from my line-up, as it stands now, is classic wrestling matches from the Felt Forum. Not to worry however, a quick search on You Tube will fix that.