Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Escape to Sonoita
TV Flash files “Escape to Sonoita” as hour 190 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 5, episode 37, aired 1960-06-26, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E37: listed hour 190 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 37 of 38 in season 5. It aired 1960-06-26 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Letter of Credit” (S05E36). Next is “Hooked” (S05E38).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Bill and Andy Davis drive a tanker truck through the Arizona desert. When their car overheats, they see another car get into an accident. They go to help out, but discover a kidnapping victim and her kidnappers: Marshall and Lemon. The kidnappers pull guns on Bill and Andy and then take their truck. Bill, Andy, and the kidnapping victim are left in the desert. Andy knows there is a nearby town. At night they travel and are rescued. Later, there is a search for the kidnappers. They find Lemon's body. He had been shot in a fight over the waterbag. Later, the tanker truck is located. Marshall lies dead outside it. Next to him in an empty waterbag. Later, it is revealed that the tanker truck stolen by the kidnappers was hauling water: two thousand gallons of it.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Escape to Sonoita sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S05E37 is listed hour 190 of 268 — hour 37 of 38 in season 5, season 5 episode 37.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S05E37 air?
Escape to Sonoita aired 1960-06-26 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…