Alfred Hitchcock Presents - "Summer Shade" (1961)

After portraying a cynical tough-guy private eye on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the episode "40 Detectives Later" in 1960, Franciscus returned to the show a few months later, in January 1961, as a wholesome, preppie suburban husband and father in the supernatural tale "Summer Shade." Franciscus's character, Ben Kendall, is househunting in rural New England with his wife, Phyllis (Julie Adams), when they chance upon their dream home. But, as always in tales like this, if something looks too good to be true, there's a catch - in this case one that may involve witches and ghosts.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents - "Forty Detectives Later" (1960)

In this episode of the famous mystery series, Franciscus plays William Tyre, a hard-boiled private detective who takes a job he comes to regret (don't they always?) - a client named Munro Dean (George Mitchell) hires him to find the man who murdered his wife (played by Jack Weston), and the client's motive is seemingly to exact a violent revenge. But of course nothing is ever that simple in Detectiveland, and the plot contains the twists one expects of a Hitchcock production. The story takes liberties with the genre, by turns respecting its conventions and parodying them.

Although only 26 at the time, Franciscus made his P.I. as cynical and mercenary (but in the end, as rock-bottom ethical) as the genre demands. (Having already played the part of a New York City police detective in Naked City, he no doubt found the role relatively easy.) It was hardly the last time he would play a detective; he later starred as a private investigator in two of his T.V. series, The Investigators (1961) and of course Longstreet (1971).