User reviews

This is a hilarious, side splitting comedy that baby boomers such as myself grew up with. Although it has been criticized, personally, I don't think it trivializes the evils of the Nazis or the genuine suffering during the war. Most people can accept this wildly ridiculous program for the total nonsense it is. Frankly, I can hardly believe that anyone would actually get their views of prison camp life from this drivel, or genuinely consider the German military as real life incompetent idiots based upon this crazy show. In short, no one could possibly take this tomfoolery seriously.

The series revolves around the wacky goings on at Stalag 13, a German POW camp for Allied soldiers. The assorted prisoners, led by Colonel Hogan, are actually using the camp as a base for sabotaging the German war effort and assisting the Allies. They have a wealth of tunnels underneath the camp going virtually everywhere and are in constant contact with Allied command via radio communication. These POW's are unwittingly aided in their efforts by those in charge at Stalag 13, the incompetent Colonel Klink and his assistant, the even more bumbling Sargent Schultz.

Of course the entire premise is absurd, which is what makes the series so hugely entertaining. The whole point is that these soldiers aren't really prisoners at all. They can escape whenever they wish...and frequently do so whenever it suits their purpose. I seem to recall they've even made it to France and back.

The actors portraying the Allied POW's are all charmingly competent in their roles, including Bob Crane as the smug American Colonel Hogan, Richard Dawson as the British Newkirk, Robert Clary as the little French Le Beau, and Larry Hovis as the bumbling Carter.

However, the real stars are the German roles. Werner Klemperer is absolutely brilliant as the endearing fool Colonel Klink, scrutinizing his charges with his monocle. Klink simply wants to give the impression to his superior officers (especially General Burkhalter) that all is running smoothly and thus avoid being sent to the dreaded Russian Front. Even more lovable is the simple minded Sargent Schultz, played by John Banner. He is easily manipulated by Hogan and friends to unknowingly set up ideal conditions for various secret operations planned by the POW's. His stock phrase is 'I know nothing' whenever he witnesses the prisoners' shenanigans and finds them too unsettling or troublesome to report. The villain of the piece (though none of it's taken very seriously) is the evil, mustachioed Major Hochstetter, an ardent Nazi and Gestapo officer.

Nothing is the least plausible about this tale, which I believe is the reason it serves as no threat to the actual historical record. The series is quite simply a hoot. It's especially fun observing that Hogan and Company are actually good friends of a fashion with the bumbling Klink and Schultz, though of course they chuckle at them behind their backs. The POWs depend upon the ongoing incompetence of this pair for their own anti Nazi endeavours, and their greatest fear is that these two German officers will be replaced by others they can't so easily hoodwink. Wonderful fun series...turn off your brain and enjoy.

This was a sitcom that began airing in 1965 and starred Bob Crane as American Col. Hogan, prisoner in a POW camp that has an adjective hardly ever used with such an environment - "wacky". The POWs also include the British (Richard Dawson as Newkirk) and the French (Robert Clary as LeBeau),. There's even some racial diversity with Ivan Dixon as Kinchloe. But no Russians! I guess in retrospect, and especially during the Cold War and at the height of the Vietnam War, those Russians were not as much our allies as originally thought.

The Germans are shown as completely incompetent and servile, and thus the POWs of Stalag 13 just come and go at their leisure on espionage missions for the Allies, with nobody the wiser.

This would probably cause an uproar today, but I think laughing at the Germans and making them look ridiculous is pretty effective. The show was abruptly cancelled in 1971, as "All In the Family" started TV steering away from light innocent fare - and believe it or not, this show was that! - and turning to harder hitting more socially relevant material.

Hogan's Heroes was a great series which still stands up today, as funny as it ever was. Mainly due to the great interplay between Bob Crane as Colonel Hogan, head of the US prisoners of war, and Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink, commandant of Stalag 13 (where there have never been any escapes, ever), this series really does succeed.

Zany, improbable, inventive, silly, and hugely influential on many comedies which followed, this showed the Germans constantly outsmarted while not presenting them as mindless psychotic thugs - although it was clear who was on the 'right side', as Hogan and his troops prove with their underground operation, beautifully showcased in a couple of the early episodes.

My grandfather was a survivor of Auschwitz and several other concentration camps. Hogan's Heroes was one of his favorite shows, because it made the Nazis look like buffoons. So to those who complain that Hogan's Heroes is insensitive, I say that there is always room for a little humor.

This remains one of my favorite shows. The acting is great, and it's clear that the actors are having fun with what are admittedly silly story lines.

This is a classic show. I wish we saw more of HH on reruns, but I will be going out to get the DVDs.

"For security reasons I cannot tell you the exact location. The request was no names please, but somewhere in Germany an American officer is operating a sabotage and rescue unit from of all places, a POW camp. These men saved my life. For me they are among the unsung heroes of this war."

Bob Crane pacing in perfect step with a chimp -- an unforgettable image from an all-time TV classic.

I have seen more repetitions of Hogan's Heroes than I have seen cycles of any other TV series. Watching the entire series, viewers will see that most episodes were wacky and certainly unrealistic. Silly, zany comedy was the norm. However, other episodes were much more sober and more filled with tension and suspense (check out the "North Star" episode from one of the early seasons). Some episodes added twists upon twists upon twists. Most were story driven rather than simply character driven.

The cast was top notch and worked well together in front of the camera. Charisma and chemistry -- and mighty funny too! Check this series out.

I won't waste time going over the premise of the show; that has already been done more than adequately by nearly every reviewer here.

I will agree that the argument the show being "offensive" is weak. As others said, it was a POW stalag, not a concentration camp. And I'll add that "Hogan's Heroes" played during a period of multiple service comedies, yet it was the best of them, not the worst. Sgt. Bilko was a film-flam man. Cmdr. Quinton McHale occasionally did battle with the Japanese, but you never got the feeling that he or his crew were in danger from anyone but their immediate superior, Capt. Binghamton.

The POWs of Stalag 13, however, were another story. Yes, 95% of the time the focus was on Hogan and his men pulling scams on the Nazis and having fun sabotaging their work, but the remaining 5% of the time things could get uncomfortable. A decent number of stories contain scenes in which Hogan's life (or those of his men) are in peril. And as the show went on, characters like Maj. Hochstetter did not fail to notice that many of the Nazis' worst defeats were centered around Stalag 13.

Of course, this being a '60s sitcom, you know and I know that nothing really bad is going to happen to Hogan or his crew. Yet these moments always had a genuine tinge of tension to them.

But overwhelmingly the focus of the show was around conning the Nazis, disrupting their war plans and in general making fun of them. Bob Crane played Col. Hogan as a born con artist, able to come up with bold, brash scams at the drop of a hat. However, as many actors can tell you, playing the villain is infinitely more fun than playing the hero, and that seems to go doubly well for comedies.

How Werner Klemperer must have loved playing the pompous, cowardly Col. Klink! And John Banner as the pacifist, food-loving teddy bear, Sgt. Schultz...watching the two of them together (or separately with Crane), you begin to realize that it was they, not Bob Crane, that had the best roles in the show. Watch Schultz say something lovably idiotic, and Klink snap from a smile to a frown in an instant barking, "Dummkopf!"

It is these two, and to a lesser degree the various actors who played the heroes, that made the show so good, I am convinced. Each week Klemperer and Banner virtually put on a comedy acting clinic -- they were that good. And when you added the piggish Gen. Burkhalter and that ultimate Angry White Man, Maj. Hochstetter, things only got funnier. All of these characters were played so well that they remain hysterically memorable more than 40 years later.

Try not to concentrate on the inherent absurdity of pulling this stuff off on the Nazis week after week, year after year, and getting away with it, and concentrate more on the exquisite comedic performances, and you will have yourself one hell of a good time.

This has got to be one of the funniest shows that ever aired on TV! It was perfectly cast and well written. It is amusing to see how the show incorporated real events like D-Day into some of the episodes. The thing I find most ironic was that Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz were both played by Jewish actors! Werner Klemper is indisputably the best part of the show and Leon Askin is perfect a frequent guest star General Burkhalter.

Colonel Hogan is a very interesting character in his own right. It is amazing how he managed to control, what at times seemed like half the German army all because of his flattery. And of course there's Corpral Newkirk the lovable sneak thief, Le Beau the vertically challenged chef, cater the bumbling demolition expert, and Kinch the serious communications officer. All together the make a wild group that will make you laugh hysterically! An excellent family show and well worth the time to watch!

I started watching Hogans Heroes because of my interest in POW camps, but I kept watching because it was extremely fun and entertaining. I quickly realized that this show wasn't realistic, but who cares? Why be concerned about the realities of war, when you can sit down, and see the brilliant solution Hogan comes up with next. It brought me a smile on gray days, and I think it has a M*A*S*H feel about it. Very entertaining indeed.

You don't have to be a history-buff to enjoy this, as I previously mentioned, the show is mostly comedy and fiction. I recommend this to everyone.

A lot of great artists have tried to use humor against the Nazis: Chaplin, Lubitsch, Wilder. If you want to see mockery, though, real mockery and scorn, you really can't beat this TV show. Even more than Wilder's original film, Stalag 17, this show ridicules Nazis without mercy. It's a subversive and light sitcom about a bunch of POWs who operate as spies behind enemy lines.

The show manages to capture the dark side of Nazis, specifically the SS. Periodically they come in and threaten to send Col. Klink to the eastern front. Meanwhile, Sgt. Schultz knows the prisoners are up to something, but to acknowledge it would open up a huge can of worms. "I see nothing!" Klink and Schultz are caught between a rock and a hard place, between the evil SS and those damn sneaky POWs. Klink begs Hogan to cooperate and be nice. Meanwhile, instead of escaping to safety--which they could do anytime they wanted to--the POWs sacrifice their own liberty to stay in the prison camp and spy on the Germans.

Hogan's Heroes is broad to be sure. Many of us underrate it. It's not particularly funny or dramatic, but it is enjoyable in the way many TV shows are, and you can easily lose yourself in an episode. What makes it worthy of our time, I think, is that it captures perfectly the mindset we should have about Nazis. Nazis are stupid, stupid, stupid. Over and over the show relishes an attack on the intelligence of Nazis. Oh, you stupid morons, look what we are doing right under your noses. No way are you going to win this war.

You see a lot of Nazis in art. They are our default bad guy, even today, 65 years after the war. But you would be hard-pressed to find any more withering scorn for Nazis than in any random episode of Hogan's Heroes. It is perhaps one of the finest examples of pure mockery in art.

I think much of our pleasure from this show is on that simple basis. "Let's outsmart the Nazis." And yet if you think about it, Col. Klink is a fascinating creation. He's a weak man, a coward, and stupid. But he is not actually evil in the way of the SS. Klink and Schultz are not Nazis so much as nihilists, people who just want to get along in life. "I see nothing!" It's a metaphor for a type of person who wants to avoid conflict at all costs. The repression in that line fascinates. It is, perhaps, an oblique reminder of the German refusal to see what was happening to the Jews. Klink and Schultz avoid seeing what the POWs are so obviously up to, for the same reason they avoid seeing what the Nazis are up to: to see such things would cause problems for them personally. So Klink chooses, on some level, to be a buffoon, and Schultz loves his strudel. They are likable and yet in a certain way reprehensible. It is the humanity of Klink and Schultz-- their weakness, their fear, their basic decency--that makes this show so interesting. We watch as they bounce back and forth between the evil of Nazi Germany and the heroism of the POWs.

While the show undoubtedly works on the cheap level of adolescent thrills--watch as we upstage authority and mock the Nazis--the show also works on a more complicated level of subversion and repression and masks. The POWs often corrupt Schultz with strudel, and then he refuses to see what he has in fact seen. The POWs go further, on occasion saving Klink from the Nazis so as to keep him as commandant. The conceit is that no Nazi can possibly be as dumb, or as complicit, as Klink. Klink in turn defends his own perfect record, how no one has ever escaped from his prison camp. Which is true enough, but only because it is headquarters of a massive spy ring.

The show works on both simple and complex levels. Nazis are mocked without mercy. And yet too the show is all about masks and self-deceit and repression and subterfuge and denial. Much of this swirls around the character of Col. Klink, the buffoon with a monocle and a riding crop. He is unable to be good and unable to be evil. He is too weak to please the Nazis and too weak to stand up to them. He is not a Nazi so much as a facade of a Nazi. His whole camp is a facade. And yet he wants to be liked by the Nazis and liked by Hogan. He wants everyone to like him and he wants all problems to disappear. It is Klink's desire to avoid all conflicts and problems and disharmony--his desire to keep his beautiful facade up at all costs--that makes Hogan's Heroes unusual and fascinating. While it is a simple, even a simple-minded sitcom, it is also one of the more layered comedies you will ever see. In fact that's exactly what it is, since half the show takes place in an underground tunnel.

I remember when I was a kid and I first heard of "the French underground." I figured they were actually under the ground, like the guys in Hogan's Heroes. Good guys in secret tunnels under bad guys is a wonderful and comic visual, a manifestation of id against ego, of rebels against tyranny and oppression. It's silly, yes, but kinda brilliant too.

When this came out, WW2 vets were a prime audience and hollywood couldn't crank out the 'we were better than those buffoon Germans' movies fast enough. Perhaps Col. Hogan was even supposed to be an archetype, cool ww2 vet.

I loved seeing ww2 stuff but felt conflicted about the characters. Schultz was lovable, while Klemperer tried to hide it, his Col. Klink was a nice guy. He was always horrified when someone died. His mouth would be agape while Hogan hit us with that smarmy ear to ear callous smile.

Hogan reminded me that tormenter in school. The bully with his gir and entourage who wasn't happy unless he made you miserable. I guess this makes boomers like me a whimp. Again, not cheering for the Germans, just talking about how the character portrayals. I wanted to see someone wipe that silly grin off of Hogan's face, just once. I bet I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

(snare drum, flute) Doo-dee-doo-dee, doooo-dee-DOO-dee-DOOOO....

Its a Comedy-War show, not like MASH which has elements of Drama in it. This is a comedy and a damn good one at that. It gets funnier each episode

This show has little to do with World War II, German POW camps, or war history except it uses these elements as a kind of superficial backdrop. It is pure fantasy created strictly for laughs and amusement. But maybe a tragedy like World War II needs to have its lighter side and in that sense Hogan's Heroes fits the bill. My guess is that this show was inspired partially by two films, both of which idealized certain aspects of German POW camps in their own way: "Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape". However, the sense was that in both films the Americans and British were somehow really in charge of the whole operation. The English-speaking peoples were ultimately the superior over their German-touting captors. Hogan's Heroes takes this idea, turns the German colonel in charge of the camp and his guards into wining idiots, gives the Americans and British superior intelligence, and adds a laugh-track. The result is Hogan's Heroes, and oddly enough it works on its own terms.

This show is essentially a comic strip with live actors. All the characters are rather cartoonish. The lovable but scatter-brained Colonel Klink, played with bumbling foolishness by the great Werner Klemperer, is no match for the sly and shrewd Colonel Hogan, played by the immortal Bob Crane who will best be remembered for this show. In many episodes, the Americans, British, and French POW's played by Larry Hovis, Richard Dawson and Robert Clary outwit, outdo and humiliate their Nazi adversaries. The POW's don SS uniforms, constantly bribe and flatter the top guard, Sargeant Hans Schultz, and intercept numerous messages. And the most fun is when Klink will be visited by the high command and he turns to Hogan for help. It seems Klink's line, "Hogan you've got to help me!" recurred throughout the show. Of course the biggest mystery of the show is why Klink doesn't just shoot them? In fact Werner Klemperer played a German/Nazi judge defendant in the award-winning "Judgement at Nuremberg" which has to be a 180-degree shift from Hogan's Heroes. In Nuremberg, Klemperer's character sent many innocent people to their deaths.

The show which lasted for a remarkable 7 seasons is nearly a theater of the absurd. The little situations are good, clean and inoffensive fun, unless of course you are of German descent. That I can't help. But I guess that's the price Hitler's Germany paid for trying to conquer Europe: they get mercilessly and shamelessly spoofed for the rest of eternity. But after the laughter's over, we should not forget that the Nazi ideology caused the deaths of millions of people and the suffering of millions more. The only consolation is that if Klink had been in charge, maybe this could have been avoided. Oddly, Klink's character appears to be a victim as well. In one memorable line, Klink says to Hogan, "Col Hogan, if you ever escape, be a good fellow and take me with you!" Not even Klink liked the Nazi high command.

According to Brenda Royce's excellent biography of Hogan's Heroes, the notion that the series was based on "Stalag 17" was "a popular misconception." The original Hogan's Heroes pilot was set in a minimum-security prison, not a German POW camp. The character of Sgt. Schultz didn't even exist the Bernard Fine and Al Ruddy script. (Yes, the same Al Ruddy who went on to produce The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby.)

Schultz was added to the pilot by the series' most inspired writer, Richard M. Powell, to serve as a bridge between Klink and Hogan. Powell borrowed the name from the character of Capt. Schultz, in the 1942 Jack Benny film, "To Be Or Not To Be." He claimed not to have seen Stalag 17 at the time. According to Royce, Bob Crane said Col. Hogan was based on James Garner's character in The Great Escape.

If the version of Hogan's Heroes greenlighted by CBS was "lifted" from anything, it was an NBC pilot called Campo 44, about American soldiers in an Italian POW camp during World War II. The "dim-witted" second in command was more interested in avoiding the front lines and preserving his own skin than winning the war.

Ruddy claims he and Fein read that NBC was considering Campo 44, and immediately decided to change the setting of their own show to a German POW camp. (Copycatting has always been a TV staple -- witness I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched, to name just one example.) CBS was sold, and the rest, as they say, was six seasons of sitcom history.

P.S. Ironically, two actors from Campo 44 made repeat appearances in Hogan's Heroes. The "dim-witted second-in-command" was played by Vito Scotti, who portrayed war-hating, pizza-loving Major Bonacelli on Heroes. The other actor was Powell creation Col. Crittendon, played by Bernard Fox.

P.P.S. The jury in a lawsuit filed by the "Stalag 17" scribes ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Their verdict was overturned by the presiding judge.

P.P.P.S. With the exception of Baer & Joelson's note-perfect "War Takes A Holiday" (Hogan convinces Hochstetter, Klink, and Schultz the war is over) Powell's 29 scripts are usually the series' best. In addition to Schultz and Crittendon, Powell created blonde underground hottie Tiger, Russian dazzler Marya, and dauntless Gestapo Major Hochstetter. Powell episodes remain brilliant today. They're consistently creative and memorable, and worth seeking out.

In the years that Hogan's Heroes was in first run I wonder did anyone stop to think about just how all this came together. POWs who had their own underground running from prison camp Stalag 17. And a commander who was both a fatuous fool and a moron. How did all that come together?

Well if you don't think about these things you can enjoy Hogan's Heroes which was a really funny show. The title role of Colonel Hogan was played by Bob Crane, ranking POW in the camp. Part time Army Air Corps flyer fulltime conman. Each week he had to put something over on the commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink.

Werner Klemperer was Klink as fatuous as they come. Part of the con was to keep a dope like this in charge so they could run rings around him. As for Klink he and the other Germans had one great fear, the Russian front. Just go along and pretend not to notice certain things.

Even more afraid was Sgt.Schultz, John Banner. He knows his commandant is an idiot and he knows the prisoners are pulling something. But best to feign ignorance. Hence the tagline, "I know nothing",

Hogan's crew are Larry Hovis, Ivan Dixon, Richard Dawson, and Robert Clary. Each had a useful talent necessary for underground sabotage. Dawson was British and Clary Free French. A good bunch of second banana comedians.

Both Klemperer and Banner dealt with real Nazis in real life. I always thought it odd they did this show.

Hogan's Heroes was a funny show. But you really have to suspend disbelief to enjoy it. More than for most shows.

Yeah, OK: a 5'2" Gestapo soldier . . . maybe I just thought it was funny at the time (?)

Yes, it was a parody of then-popular entertainment about World War Two, and several of the performers had suffered persecution by the Nazis. And it probably was funnier in its time.

But taken on its own, why does it offend people? For starters, the people are just too stereotypical. Sergeant Schulz is just too stupid. But what certainly offends people most is Colonel Klink. He's supposed to be a vain camp commandant. Unfortunately, he's quite unconvincing as a villain. He's too nice and genial, and this personality isn't a mask disguising a monster. He's about as realistic as a Nazi officer as Elmer Fudd. He's completely nonthreatening and doesn't seem capable of harming a fly. But he's not a secret anti-Nazi either. The show could have been better if Colonel Klink had shown at least a little bit of menace.

I can't see how TV Guide could say that this was one of the all-time worst shows on television. This show was pretty much Mission: Impossible with a laugh track. The crazy schemes that Hogan and his men would think up to thrawt the Nazi war machine were what made this show great. Also, Werner Klemperer will always be loved for his portrayal of the most bumbling officer in television history. But the thing that really made it special was that it was one of the first series to treat an African-American character as an equal to the white characters. Ivan Dixon, who would later go on to become a great director, would often prove to be the smartest member of the cast and perhaps was the most level headed as well. TV Guide needs too look at this show again.