Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Kind Waitress
TV Flash files “The Kind Waitress” as hour 142 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 4, episode 25, aired 1959-03-29, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E25: listed hour 142 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 25 of 36 in season 4. It aired 1959-03-29 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Avon Emeralds” (S04E24). Next is “Cheap Is Cheap” (S04E26).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Thelma Tompkins is a waitress in a hotel restaurant. She's a good waitress and has always been kind to old Mrs. Mannerheim who eats in the restaurant every evening. Thelma is shocked when Mrs. Mannerheim tells her that she is her closest friend and has left her a considerable legacy in her will. In the interim, she gives Thelma a brooch. Over the following months, Mrs. Mannerheim becomes ever more demanding and Thelma's musician boyfriend Arthur suggests that maybe the time has come for the old lady's demise to accelerated somewhat. Thelma poison's her tea but without any obvious effect. Thelma takes matters into her own hands and the subsequent coroner's inquiry reveals some interesting information about the poison she was using.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Kind Waitress sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S04E25 is listed hour 142 of 268 — hour 25 of 36 in season 4, season 4 episode 25.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S04E25 air?
The Kind Waitress aired 1959-03-29 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…