With "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone" you mostly see the half hour long episodes in syndication. However, both made hour long episodes (the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" show being renamed "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour") and the hour long ones are often problematic. This is because although both were quite good as half hour shows, some of the one hour ones are not...mostly because they felt like half hour episodes which were heavily padded to meet the new running time.
A good example of an hour long episode that is too padded is "Captive Audience", a show that seems to have some irrelevant details added just to make it an hour in length...though running 40-45 minutes would have worked well for this particular show.
When the story begins, a troubled book publisher has his friend listen to a series of tapes delivered to him from one of his writers. Sending tapes is weird...but they turn out to be a confession as the man is contemplating murder.
What follows is a series of flashbacks. The writer (James Mason) explains how several years ago, he was married and on his honeymoon. During this trip, he and his wife made the acquaintance of another couple. Shortly after, there was an accident and the writer's wife was killed. This entire portion really was NOT necessary or even relevant...other than to set the stage for the writer meeting the other woman...something he easily could have done later. It also established that the man had a head injury in the accident. Either way, it was too long and took attention away from the plot.
In a later tape, the writer meets the woman he met on his honeymoon (Angie Dickenson) and they have an affair. Eventually, she pleads with him to kill her husband....no realizing she's setting up a trap. What's next? See the show.
The idea of an unreliable narrator is cool...and after a while it's clear the writer is imbalanced and his narration isn't necessarily the truth...though it is to him. A clever idea. And, the double cross is also very interesting. In fact, the entire episode is decent...just awkwardly written and heavily padded. Overall, it's worth seeing but nothing more.
