The True Story Behind ‘The Woman of The Hour’ Dating Show Serial Killer

Anna Kendrick‘s directorial debut “Woman of the Hour” premieres on Netflix Oct. 18, telling the true story of how American serial killer Rodney Alcala won “The Dating Game” in 1978.

Alcala, born in San Antonio, Texas on Aug. 23, 1943, was a serial killer and sexual predator who committed most of his crimes in California and New York. As an amateur photographer, he often took photos of his victims either before or after he killed them. At age 35, when Alcala appeared on the popular show “The Dating Game,” he already killed around five women and had been arrested twice for the rape of 8-year-old Tali Shapiro and the assault of a 13-year-old girl.

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“The Dating Game,” which first premiered in 1965, paired a bachelorette with three eligible bachelors who were obscured behind a wall. The young lady would ask a series of saucy questions to each potential suitor. At the end of the show, she picked her favorite contestant to take on a date.

In his 1978 episode, Alcala was introduced by host Jim Lange as a “successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed.” Cheryl Bradshaw, the bachelorette, asked Alcala questions like, “I’m serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like?” Alcala responded, “I’m called the banana and I look good.”

“Can you be a little more descriptive?” Bradshaw asked again.

“Peel me,” Alcala responded.

David Greenfield, a producer on the show during the ’70s, later told ABC News, “In retrospect, it sounds horrible. But a -

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t the time, that’s a good, solid answer. We were looking for raunchy, sexy answers, and that was one. Take it in context now, it’s like, ‘Oh my God.’”

Bradshaw selected Alcala as that episode’s lucky bachelor. Although the pair was awarded tennis lessons and tickets to Los Angeles amusement park Magic Mountain, they never made it to the date. After the taping, Bradshaw called contestant coordinator Ellen Metzger calling off her plans with Alcala.

“She said, ‘Ellen, I can’t go out with this guy. There’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I am not comfortable. Is that going to be a problem?’” Metzger recalled. “And of course, I said, ‘No.’”

The following year, Alcala was charged with the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980. However, in 1984 Alcala appealed his case and was granted a re-trial, which led to a second death sentence in 1986. That ruling was overturned yet again in 2001. In the following years, Orange County investigators found DNA evidence that connected Alcala to the deaths of five women all murdered between 1977 and 1979.

Finally, in 2010, Alcala was convicted a third time and sentenced to death for five counts of murder in the first degree. His final kill count remains unknown. Some authorities believe it could be in the hundreds.

On July 24, 2021, Alcala died of natural causes at 77 years old while on death row in California.

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