Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Four DVD Review - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TJ · 11-24-2009, 02:57 AM

Murder and suspense are coming to your living room once again with Season Four of Alfred Hitchcock Presents! All 36 episodes of the fourth season of the anthology series hosted by the master of suspense himself are now available on DVD on a four disc set. For those not familiar with the series, it is the anthology series hosted by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock that told a different story of suspense (and often murder) each and every week, like a movie of the week, with different guest stars every week. It featured many guest stars who later went on to bigger and better things as well as some who were finishing up their careers. The stories almost never had a happy ending, and often left the viewer with questions and without a true conclusion at the end of the episode, part of the key to the success to the series.

Read our review by Skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/alfredh...dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

gilligan103fan · 07-07-2014, 12:11 PM

On two of the Season 4 episodes ("Murder Me Twice" and "the Avon Emeralds"), Universal chose to use the British version of Alfred's concluding remarks instead of the original American network TV version. Such is life. If anyone has a copy of "the Avon Emeralds" from an early Nick-at-Nite broadcast or from a 16mm film print where Alfred's postscript is a 2-Parter (with commercials in between the 2 Parts) where Part 1 begins with Alfred saying "My friend seems to have been disturbed by something he discovered in my trunk ... " then you should hold onto it. I've been searching for a copy but I guess I'm not prepared to pay those ioffer prices just for 1 episode.

1960'sTVfan · 06-25-2021, 09:02 AM

I just recently purchased the DVD's of Alfred Hitchcock Presents seasons 1 thru 5. I had assumed that all the episodes are uncut but sadly that does not appear to be the case as some episodes clock in with a shorter than normal run time. Most episodes run about 26 minutes but there are a few that run under 25 minutes. I suspect that some of these shorter episodes have been edited and that is very unfortunate.

gilligan103fan · 06-25-2021, 11:58 AM

A studio usually claims that "edit cuts" are needed if they can't get legal clearance for something like background music or if some actors don't want to appear on the DVD release even though they had no say about TV syndication reruns. Another reason is that for the DVDs, Universal just reused the same film sources that they used for making their most recent TV syndication versions since this is most likely the "best available" source material (which may be true in terms of picture and sound quality but not neccessarily what was originally broadcast before it was re-edited for TV syndication). Hitchcock filmed many versions of his intros and epilogues (the US network versions included jokes about the sponsor and assumed that there would be commercials between the two parts of his epilogue whereas the "international" versions sometimes used a more generic topic for his jokes if the sponsor joke was too "American specific"). For some episodes the TV syndicated version used the "international" epilogue because it was much shorter than the original US network epilogue and it didn't lead off to any commercials. ps. The "international" epilogue usually ends with Hitchcock saying "Next Time ..." instead of "Next Week...".

1960'sTVfan · 06-26-2021, 09:48 AM

That's unfortunate if the DVD's have the "international" version of Hitchcock's epilogues for some episodes instead of the USA versions. This probably accounts for the shorter run times in some episodes.

On the season 1 DVD, the episode titled The Baby Sitter does not have Hitchcock's opening intro, the intro is missing.

gilligan103fan · 06-26-2021, 11:30 PM

Yes, leaving out the intro for "the Baby Sitter" is just sloppy. No excuses for that one.

1960'sTVfan · 07-29-2021, 11:07 AM

Last night, MeTV aired "The Baby Sitter" episode, I recorded and saved it on my DVR and I'm glad I did because MeTV's airing included Hitchcock's opening intro for the episode. The opening intro for this episode is missing on the DVD, shame on Universal for deleting it.

The DVD episodes seem to have the story parts of the episodes intact, nothing appears to be missing, but in some episodes, Hitchcock's opening/closing comments appear to be shortened or edited, and in the case of The Baby Sitter episode, the opening intro is completely missing.

11-24-2009, 02:57 AM	#1
TJ Site Owner Administrator Forum Star Join Date: Feb 03, 2000 Location: Marietta, GA Posts: 10,664	Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Four DVD Review Murder and suspense are coming to your living room once again with Season Four of Alfred Hitchcock Presents! All 36 episodes of the fourth season of the anthology series hosted by the master of suspense himself are now available on DVD on a four disc set. For those not familiar with the series, it is the anthology series hosted by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock that told a different story of suspense (and often murder) each and every week, like a movie of the week, with different guest stars every week. It featured many guest stars who later went on to bigger and better things as well as some who were finishing up their careers. The stories almost never had a happy ending, and often left the viewer with questions and without a true conclusion at the end of the episode, part of the key to the success to the series. Read our review by Skees53 here: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/alfredh...dvdreview.html Please post any questions or comments about this set.

07-07-2014, 12:11 PM	#2
gilligan103fan Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jul 05, 2013 Location: canberra australia Posts: 6	On two of the Season 4 episodes ("Murder Me Twice" and "the Avon Emeralds"), Universal chose to use the British version of Alfred's concluding remarks instead of the original American network TV version. Such is life. If anyone has a copy of "the Avon Emeralds" from an early Nick-at-Nite broadcast or from a 16mm film print where Alfred's postscript is a 2-Parter (with commercials in between the 2 Parts) where Part 1 begins with Alfred saying "My friend seems to have been disturbed by something he discovered in my trunk ... " then you should hold onto it. I've been searching for a copy but I guess I'm not prepared to pay those ioffer prices just for 1 episode.
	Last edited by gilligan103fan; 07-07-2014 at 12:13 PM. Reason: fix up typo

06-26-2021, 09:48 AM	#5
1960'sTVfan Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 30, 2009 Posts: 6,071	That's unfortunate if the DVD's have the "international" version of Hitchcock's epilogues for some episodes instead of the USA versions. This probably accounts for the shorter run times in some episodes. On the season 1 DVD, the episode titled The Baby Sitter does not have Hitchcock's opening intro, the intro is missing.
	Last edited by 1960'sTVfan; 06-28-2021 at 08:15 PM.

07-29-2021, 11:07 AM	#7
1960'sTVfan Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 30, 2009 Posts: 6,071	Last night, MeTV aired "The Baby Sitter" episode, I recorded and saved it on my DVR and I'm glad I did because MeTV's airing included Hitchcock's opening intro for the episode. The opening intro for this episode is missing on the DVD, shame on Universal for deleting it. The DVD episodes seem to have the story parts of the episodes intact, nothing appears to be missing, but in some episodes, Hitchcock's opening/closing comments appear to be shortened or edited, and in the case of The Baby Sitter episode, the opening intro is completely missing.
	Last edited by 1960'sTVfan; 07-30-2021 at 08:48 AM.

06-25-2021, 09:02 AM	#3
1960'sTVfan Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Sep 30, 2009 Posts: 6,071	I just recently purchased the DVD's of Alfred Hitchcock Presents seasons 1 thru 5. I had assumed that all the episodes are uncut but sadly that does not appear to be the case as some episodes clock in with a shorter than normal run time. Most episodes run about 26 minutes but there are a few that run under 25 minutes. I suspect that some of these shorter episodes have been edited and that is very unfortunate.

06-25-2021, 11:58 AM	#4
gilligan103fan Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jul 05, 2013 Location: canberra australia Posts: 6	A studio usually claims that "edit cuts" are needed if they can't get legal clearance for something like background music or if some actors don't want to appear on the DVD release even though they had no say about TV syndication reruns. Another reason is that for the DVDs, Universal just reused the same film sources that they used for making their most recent TV syndication versions since this is most likely the "best available" source material (which may be true in terms of picture and sound quality but not neccessarily what was originally broadcast before it was re-edited for TV syndication). Hitchcock filmed many versions of his intros and epilogues (the US network versions included jokes about the sponsor and assumed that there would be commercials between the two parts of his epilogue whereas the "international" versions sometimes used a more generic topic for his jokes if the sponsor joke was too "American specific"). For some episodes the TV syndicated version used the "international" epilogue because it was much shorter than the original US network epilogue and it didn't lead off to any commercials. ps. The "international" epilogue usually ends with Hitchcock saying "Next Time ..." instead of "Next Week...".

06-26-2021, 11:30 PM	#6
gilligan103fan Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jul 05, 2013 Location: canberra australia Posts: 6	Yes, leaving out the intro for "the Baby Sitter" is just sloppy. No excuses for that one.