Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Summer Shade
TV Flash files “Summer Shade” as hour 206 of 268 in the TV Flash guide — Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962) on CBS/NBC, season 6, episode 15, aired 1961-01-10, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S06E15: listed hour 206 of 268 in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide, hour 15 of 38 in season 6. It aired 1961-01-10 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Changing Heart” (S06E14). Next is “A Crime for Mothers” (S06E16).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Ben and Phyllis Kendall move to Salem, Massachusetts with their 9-year old daughter Kate. Ben and Phyllis become deeply worried when their daughter starts playing with an imaginary friend named Letty. Kate's parents get help from a local minister when Kate shows up one day with a magic charm to ward off evil spirits. The Minister tells them that a girl named Letty died in 1692. Ben and Phyllis become worried that their daughter is possessed, but are relieved when Kate befriends a girl in the neighborhood named Judy. When the two girls are alone, however, Judy begins to speak in colonial English. Kate tells her to stop and warns her that she might be exorcised.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Summer Shade sit in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents guide?
S06E15 is listed hour 206 of 268 — hour 15 of 38 in season 6, season 6 episode 15.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents S06E15 air?
Summer Shade aired 1961-01-10 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…