Alfred Hitchcock Presents
On the Nose
TV Flash files “On the Nose” as hour 98 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 3, episode 20, aired 1958-02-16, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E20: listed hour 98 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 20 of 39 in season 3. It aired 1958-02-16 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Equalizer” (S03E19). Next is “Guest for Breakfast” (S03E21).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Fran is a housewife addicted to gambling. Her bookie threatens to tell her husband if she doesn't pay up a loan by five that afternoon. She needs to raise 25 dollars fast. She manages to scrape up five dollars and then tries to shoplift the rest. She is caught by a store detective. As they drive off in his car the detective listens to her story and offers her twenty dollars in exchange for a little romance. She refuses and the car crashes. She flees the scene of the accidnet but accidently leaves her purse and the money. She returns home and is surprised to have her purse returned by the police. It now contains twenty dollars which they found in the car and assumed was hers. She now has enough money to pay off the loan. After her husband calls to say that he must go to Chicago on business, Fran calls her bookie. Instead of paying him the money she tells him to put twenty-five dollars on a horse named Chicago Flyer.
Viewer FAQ
Where does On the Nose sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S03E20 is listed hour 98 of 268 — hour 20 of 39 in season 3, season 3 episode 20.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S03E20 air?
On the Nose aired 1958-02-16 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…