Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Cream of the Jest
TV Flash files “The Cream of the Jest” as hour 63 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 2, episode 24, aired 1957-03-10, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E24: listed hour 63 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 24 of 39 in season 2. It aired 1957-03-10 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “One for the Road” (S02E23). Next is “I Killed the Count (1)” (S02E25).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Broken-down actor Charles Gresham, who has a weakness for booze, demands that playwright Wayne Campbell give him a part. When Campbell refuses, Gresham resorts to blackmail.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Cream of the Jest sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S02E24 is listed hour 63 of 268 — hour 24 of 39 in season 2, season 2 episode 24.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S02E24 air?
The Cream of the Jest aired 1957-03-10 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…