Alfred Hitchcock Presents originally ran for seven seasons between 1955 and 1962, before rebranding as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The popular anthology series was hosted by—who else?—Alfred Hitchcock, and featured the legendary director’s trademark dark humor throughout, as he’d introduce and comment on the stories of mystery and suspense featured in each week’s episode.
After greeting his viewers with the help of Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette,” Hitchcock would ease them into the show with a number of macabre jokes. Here’s a pretty audacious gag of his from 1955 that’s still eerily relevant today:
One of the more groundbreaking aspects of Hitchcock’s show was his attacks on the sponsors. “Keeping with the theme of tonight’s program,” Hitchcock says in his introduction to an episode set aboard a train, “I must warn you that, before you get a look at the pleasant scenery, we must first pass through one of those dismal tunnels,” he continues, just prior to the commercial break.
In a later broadcast, Hitchcock introduces a story entitled “Ride the Nightmare,” about a man whose past comes back to haunt him. “And speaking of nightmares,” he tells the audience, “here is our first commercial.”
Alfred Hitchcock Was Making Fun of TV Ads Nearly 70 Years Ago
Now, this was all in good fun back when Alfred Hitchcock Presents was sponsored by Bristol-Myers, who ran ads for things like toothpaste. However, in modern syndication, vintage shows never air with their original commercials. They also don’t get shown on major networks that feature annoying ads worthy of mockery. Instead, Hitchcock and his contemporaries have been relegated to appearing on retro channels like MeTV and Antenna TV.
Interesting side note about those networks: They’re both heavily sponsored by St. Jude. Not for nothing, but with Hitchcock’s sarcastic remarks serving as the lead-in for such commercials, it makes for some really uncomfortable coincidences. Hearing Hitchcock revel in the idea that the sponsor’s upcoming words could possibly be “his last ones” hits a little different when they immediately cut to a shot of a young boy dying from cancer.
The post The TV Host Who Openly Mocked His Own Sponsors Decades Before It Was Cool appeared first on VICE.
