Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Invitation to an Accident
TV Flash files “Invitation to an Accident” as the last listed hour of season 4 — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 4, episode 36, aired 1959-06-21, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E36: listed hour 153 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, last listed hour of season 4. It aired 1959-06-21 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Touché” (S04E35). Next is “Arthur” (S05E01).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A scaffold falls on a new bride, after her husband accuses her of rendezvousing with an old flame. Another former suitor suspects the husband faked the accident, and urges her to cut off the affair. When she persists, he fears the unbalanced husband will again try to kill her, so he devises a plan to protect her.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Invitation to an Accident sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S04E36 is listed hour 153 of 268 — last listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 36.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S04E36 air?
Invitation to an Accident aired 1959-06-21 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…