I got the Alfred Hitchcock Presents companion book this Christmas, after requesting it, and discovered that it has the text for the intro to the babysitter, which is skipped on the first season DVD's. I thought I would share.

Hitchcock: "Good evening. Tonight's story is called "The Baby Sitter." You know, I don't think taking care of a baby is any great chore at all, if you are properly prepared. I bring my comforts with me. A portable radio, a few books, a hot lunch, a cold drink, a heavy mallot, and if that fails, ear-plugs. Good heavens, I forgot the baby. Stay right where you are, I'll be back."

Interesting. I wonder if this was censored by the networks because of child abuse implications?

Interesting. I wonder if this was censored by the networks because of child abuse implications?

I had actually thought that as well, but what's bizarre is that in the season 2 dvd set, there is another intro in which it is implied that Hitch was abusing a child, and that intro was left in. I think it was the episode 'A Man Greatly Beloved', but I'm not entirely sure on that. Basically what happens, is that a boy enters a box, then Hitch does that magic trick where he sticks a bunch of saws at various places in the box, then he opens the box and gives a suprised look, and says something to the effect of "I guess I better practice some more."

What's also bizarre is that while most of the intros for shows that have made it onto dvd's so far have been chopped off slightly, the ones on the second season had Hitch's not so subtle jabs at the sponsors removed, whereas they were present on the first season. I reallly enjoy those. Gotta love Hitch for finding clever ways to make shots at the sponsors while not getting in trouble for it. He was the master of implying things, in addition to being the master of suspense.

I uploaded the intro on YouTube. Here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0UdfKXRFCg

thanks!

Hitchcock filmed a few different versions of his intros and epilogues, one for American TV and the others for UK and Canada TV (eg. he would replace American slang words like "kibitzers" with "onlookers". Also, he would make fun of some other organisation instead of the Sponsor). For some unknown reason, the later TV broadcasts and the DVDs use the non-American versions (one reason may have been that they don't usually lead to a commercial break). I've been trying to track down the American versions and the last time they were "reliably" used were in the early 1990s, eg. in Nick-at-Nite and SciFi channel broadcasts. Unfortunately, most of my TVland and BookTelevision (from Canada) broadcast recordings either use the non-American versions or they've been chopped (a word or two are missing before AH exits to a commercial break or when he returns from a commercial break). There's a bit of that with the SciFi channel broadcasts but generally they are more "intact" than the TVland and later broadcasts. So if you still have your old Nick-at-Nite tapes (or copies on DVD-R), you should hang onto them even if you have the Universal DVDs.

Interesting. I wonder if this was censored by the networks because of child abuse implications?

I agree that Hitchcock's opening comments for "The Baby Sitter" episode might have been deleted from the DVD because it suggests child abuse. MeTV ran this episode a few months ago and they showed Hitchcock's opening comments, his comments were not deleted.

I have the DVD's of seasons 1-5 and while I enjoy watching the episodes, it seems that Hitchcock's opening and closing comments in the episodes are a mix of American and International versions. This is unfortunate and I don't know why this happened but I would much prefer every episode to have the American versions.

When watching the DVD's, I've also noticed that Hitchcock's comments seem to be slightly edited in some episodes, and I suspect that Universal might have deleted the sponsor references in some of the episodes, such a shame.