Whatever the deficiencies of Altman's first feature, The Delinquents was apparently an assured enough debut to catch the eye of Alfred Hitchcock. Whether he was simply prescient (possible) or was impressed more by the younger director's ability to turn in a competent thriller on a paper-thin budget (more likely), Hitch recruited Altman to direct for the third season of his TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which would inaugurate a decade of work for the small screen.
Altman ended up directing two episodes for the series. The first, "The Young One," was a natural progression from his J.D. films. It stars Carol Lynley as a seductive teen who picks up a drifter (Vince Edwards) at a roadhouse and frames him for the murder of her aunt (Jeanette Nolan). The second, "Together," features Joseph Cotten (no doubt a treat for Altman, who greatly admired Orson Welles' films) as a man who locks himself into an office with the body of his mistress, who he's just murdered, on Christmas Eve.
While neither episode is among the series' best, both are well acted and confidently directed. Evidence of Altman's gift for filling the frame with character details begins to emerge in the down-on-their-luck denizens of the roadhouse in "The Young One" or in an early example of a boisterous Altman party scene at the opening of "Together." In Cotten's character he also has one of his first unredeemable protagonists, sharing drunken banter with a friend in the manner of so many Altman characters to come.
In addition to these two directorial efforts, Altman also served as "production consultant" for an episode of Hitchcock's other series at the time, Suspicion, which would prove even more significant to his later career. "Heartbeat" stars David Wayne as a heart patient who has lived in fear of sudden death since the age of twelve, too nervous to even bend over to pick up an old lady's dropped knitting. But thanks to a file mix-up, his new doctor (a young Pat Hingle) gives him a clean bill of health, leading to a day of chance-taking at Coney Island. Altman was essentially a second-unit director, shooting footage at Coney Island that is fascinating to see in our more litigious age, given rides like the Human Pool Table, which looks like a) tremendous fun and b) an extremely efficient child-mangling apparatus:
The episode features a bit part for future McCabe Warren Beatty and co-stars Barbara Turner, who would later marry Combat! star Vic Morrow (and later, Altman confidante Reza Badiyi), give birth to Kansas City and Short Cuts star Jennifer Jason Leigh, and write the screenplay for Altman's 2003 film The Company.
In later interviews, Altman suggested that his tenure with Hitchcock was cut short when he openly criticized a script that turned out to have been written by the show's producer, Joan Harrison. Biographer Patrick McGilligan says that this is likely apocryphal - believable given Altman's tendency to exaggerate his maverick attitude during his TV years - and that an ill-advised interview blasting the extortionist tendencies of Hollywood teamsters is just as likely a cause. In any event, he soon moved on to the less prestigious television studios of Desilu.
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