Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?
TV Flash files “Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?” as hour 179 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 5, episode 26, aired 1960-04-10, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E26: listed hour 179 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 26 of 38 in season 5. It aired 1960-04-10 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Little Man Who Was There” (S05E25). Next is “The Cuckoo Clock” (S05E27).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
John Crane is a mother's boy. He goes to Vermont and falls in love with Lotte Rank. They decide to get married. Later, John's mother, Claire, arrives. She obviously dislikes Lotte and John is reluctant to tell her that they want to marry. Lotte and John plan to kill Claire. They take her up to a cliff, but John has a change of heart. He shoves someone to her death, but it is not his mother; it's Lotte.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Mother, May I Go Out to Swim? sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S05E26 is listed hour 179 of 268 — hour 26 of 38 in season 5, season 5 episode 26.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S05E26 air?
Mother, May I Go Out to Swim? aired 1960-04-10 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…