Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Don't Come Back Alive
TV Flash files “Don't Come Back Alive” as hour 4 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 1, episode 4, aired 1955-10-23, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E04: listed hour 4 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 4 of 39 in season 1. It aired 1955-10-23 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Triggers in Leash” (S01E03). Next is “Into Thin Air” (S01E05).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A determined detective uncovers a man's scheme to have his "missing" wife declared legally dead.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Don't Come Back Alive sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S01E04 is listed hour 4 of 268 — hour 4 of 39 in season 1, season 1 episode 4.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S01E04 air?
Don't Come Back Alive aired 1955-10-23 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Hitch's hosted half-hours rather than assuming he directed the lot. Sample the dry intros and the snap endings; the silhouette is the franchise.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Alfred Hitchcock Presents made the director himself the franchise: silhouette, dry intro, murder with a wink, and closings that sometimes 'corrected' crime to soothe censors. Watch it in 2026 as branded anthology swagger — Joan Harrison's engine, Hitch's persona, and twist endings as moral architecture you can still hum.
Calendar first: CBS, October 2, 1955. Then a later NBC window. Original half-hour run through 1962 — **268 episodes, seven seasons** — before the expansion as *The Alfred Hitchcock Hour* (1962–1965). That is not nostalgia cosplay. That is a branded anthology with a host who was the franchise, a silhouette you could hum, and a weekly drop of murder with a wink. Rex can keep the three-network hymn. This was already a logo, a window, and a closing card that sometimes reversed the crime to soothe Standards & Practices.
Filed against
- Alfred Hitchcock as Host
Alfred Hitchcock made himself the franchise on Alfred Hitchcock Presents — silhouette, dry intro, murder with a wink, closings that sometimes “corrected” crime to soothe censors. Branded anthology swagger, Joan Harrison’s engine, twist…