Alfred Hitchcock Presents
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
TV Flash files “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” as hour 166 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 5, episode 13, aired 1959-12-20, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E13: listed hour 166 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 13 of 38 in season 5. It aired 1959-12-20 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Specialty of the House” (S05E12). Next is “Graduating Class” (S05E14).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
After the Battle of Shiloh a confederate prisoner Peyton Farquhar is taken to Owl Creek Bridge to be hanged for his Southern sympathies. When the trap is sprung his rope breaks and he escapes. He manages to make it home and is almost in the arms of his wife Melissa when his neck snaps suddenly and he dies at the end of the hangman's rope having imagined the entire escape in the seconds before his death.
Viewer FAQ
Where does An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S05E13 is listed hour 166 of 268 — hour 13 of 38 in season 5, season 5 episode 13.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S05E13 air?
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge aired 1959-12-20 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…