Talk:Thriller (American TV series)

Incorrect premise

The assertion that NBC's decision to air the hour-long version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents led to their cancellation of Thriller is incorrect. The hour-long version ran on CBS from 1962 to 1964 and on NBC from 1964 to 1965, as the Wikipedia article shows.Robert O'Rourke (talk) 21:40, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

The above assertion is half-correct. Thriller was NBC, the Hitchcock hour CBS for its first two seasons. Both the Hitchcock series (half-hour and hour long) and Thriller were made for Revue television, a subsidiary talent agency MCA, which had been moving heavily into TV production for a decade.

At the time, MCA chief Lew Wasserman was in the process of taking over what was then Universal-International (formerly,--and subsequently--Universal pictures). As it so happened, one of Wasserman's major clients was Alfred Hitchcock, who had just enjoyed a huge success (and the biggest hit of his career) in 1960 with his feature film, Psycho.

Apparently Hitchcock wanted to move his series closer to horror and away from the for the most part genteel suspense that had been its trademark; and he wanted to expand it to an hour. He was by many accounts I've read jealous of Thriller's success, albeit modest; and he wanted his newly expanded show to in effect replace it at MCA-Revue, thus Wasserman canceled Thriller as a favor to one of his most valued clients.

I'm inclined to believe this, as the expanded Hitchcock series moved increasingly toward horror, often featured outright horror episodes, and in at least one episode that channeled Psycho, even going so far as using the sets, interior and exterior, of the "Psycho house". The final season is heavily horror-oriented. If one doubts my assertion, watch a bunch of them yourself. Many of these later episodes could easily have aired on Thriller, have the feel and mood of the earlier series.

For all intents and purposes the hour long Hitchcock series replaced Thriller as TV's leading series dealing with macabre subject matter on a regular basis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Telegonus (talk • contribs) 11:11, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Hitchcock involvement

This isn't correct! Hitchcock moved to NBC with the 1960-61 season, still in a half-hour format. His show was scheduled right before "Thriller" on Tuesday nights. He seemed to be unhappy with the way "Thriller" imitated his own series (although later in the season, there was a shift away from crime-oriented Hitchcock-style shows to more horror/fantasy stories.) Hitchcock was unhappy enough to move back to CBS in 1962, with an hour show (maybe inspired by "Thriller"?) But by then, NBC had already canceled "Thriller." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.130.143.84 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

That may all be true but I respectfully submit that there could have still been a Hitchcock connection to the Thriller cancelation due to Hitchcock's relationship with MCA, his longtime friendship with MCA's Lew Wasserman, the fact that both the Hitchcock and Thriller series were made for the same studio, the MCA owned Revue. To the best of my knowledge there's no smoking gun, as such, no memo that's been discovered to verify Hitchcock's having a role in Thriller's cancelation, however that his hour long series, which premiered in the fall of 1962, a few months after Thriller went off the air, moved strongly toward darker and more macabre tales than had been the norm when Hitchcock's show was a half-hour series, during which time the tone was often playful. The three seasons of Hitchcock hours are not merely padded versions of the kinds of tales one found in the half-hours. They're far more grim, tense, with the suspense ratcheted up to an at times near guresome level. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Telegonus (talk • contribs) 06:59, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

Moved comment questioning Hitchcock involvement to talk page

I have moved this comment made by 70.130.143.84 (talk · contribs) out of the article to this talk page in the #Hitchcock involvement section below. 64.40.54.132 (talk) 16:32, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Remove Boris Karloff from "cast"

Someone needs to go through every episode cast listing and remove Karloff's name from all but 5 of them. The article itself points out that he only starred in five episodes, but some OCD sufferer decided that since he is the host of all of them then he should be credited as well. – 172.248.214.103 (talk) at 18:29, September 11, 2015

2 years, 7 months and 26 days without follow up action. – Conrad T. Pino (talk) 01:25, 7 May 2018 (UTC)