Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Poison
TV Flash files “Poison” as a desk essential hour — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 4, episode 1, aired 1958-10-05, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E01: listed hour 118 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, first listed hour of season 4. It aired 1958-10-05 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Little White Frock” (S03E39). Next is “Don't Interrupt” (S04E02).
Essential hour: “Poison”. Poison starts year four on a one-word threat: twist architecture as weekly drop, censors waiting for the 'correction.'
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
In Malaya, ex-plantation owner Harry Pope, who has lost his share in the business due to drunkenness, discovers that, while reading in bed, a deadly snake has slithered under the sheets to rest upon his stomach. When his ex-partner Timber Woods enters, Woods tries to take advantage of the situation.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Poison sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S04E01 is listed hour 118 of 268 — first listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 1.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S04E01 air?
Poison aired 1958-10-05 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…