Plot

A indicate's unlikely assumption was that a Allied prisoners of war at Stalag 13 were using a camp as a base of operations for sabotaging a German war effort & assisting the Allies. a captive operated a secret network of tunnels that led outside a camp, placed touching the town of Hammelburg, Germany, and got radio call for by having Allied command. It were aided per fact that a campy commanding officer was a left-handed Colonel Klink (played by Werner Klemperer), who habituation proclaimed that "no one has ever escaped from Stalag 13", non caring (or even probably non caring) that his captive habitually come & went when it supprised vithe a secret burrow (peradventure inspired by that portrayed in The Great Escape). Hogan besides easy manipulated Klink & Sergeant Schultz (played per stout John Banner) into creating ideal situations for the secret operations conducted per men at Stalag 13.

Possible inspiration for series

Numerous own besides seen a interaction between a captive when existence at least somewhat inspired per black comedy motion picture about a Globe War II German POW camp, Stalag 17. This motion picture possibly experienced the Sergeant Johann Sebastian Schultz, who appeared mental however was actually within league by owning a traitor among a captive. There was such of a similarity, that the producers of Stalag 17 sued a producers of Hogan's Heroes for infringement; & won.

As well, there was the realistic Stalag 13, & an Offlag 13 (which contained officers), placed touching the very German village of Hammelburg. A senior Our contries captive on this text was Lt. Colonel Waters, world health organization was a boy-within-law of General George S. Patton. Inside April, 1945, General Pattin sent a project inflict on a raid to rescue the prisoners of Stalag 13. A project inflict had inside, however everthing of the vehicles were destroyed inducing out. Couple of the soldiers managed to produce it back to U.s. lines. the Stalag was freed all about a year late. Books write on this effort include "The Raid" & "48 Hours to Hammelburg".

The German Officers

Klink was the loyal German & old-line German Air Click officer likewise as a social climber. Klink was non the Nazi Person member or even even malicious or evil although he was somewhat self-self-centred, & was inside point of fact likable in his have way. Because he was & then well manipulated by Hogan and his fellow captive, a worst tool that stand happened for a captive was for Klink to exist as transferred away; this in point of fact was the source of an occasional storyline. Across the course of the series a reciprocal respect & potentially pseudo-friendship developed between Hogan & Klink.

Hogan was besides aided by Klink's handless & extremely incompetent guard Schultz, a fundamentally expert-kindly human world health organization, when confronted by with imaginable shenanigans per captive that he would like non suppose or even stay away from the complications of having to report it, would just repetition, "I know nothing! Nothing!" & "I see nothing! Nothing!" 1 rule out the indicate Klemperer insisted upon was that Hogan would universally win (Klemperer was of Jewish extraction). Inside 1 episode, Schultz confided around Hogan that he was the Social Democrat. A left-of-left-wing SPD (Social Democratic Party) was a merely a single among pre-1933 parties that refused to go along sustaining Hitler's "legal" coup within early 1933. It never ceased opposing a Nazis & see exile like than Gleichschaltung or "coordination" with the Nazi line. Peradventure this secret of Schultz's would tell you his turning a blind eye to the obvious Allied activities.

Although this was never explicitly referred to in the series, two Colonel Klink & Sergeant Schultz bore uniforms that implied it each experienced illustrious World War I careers; Schultz wore a Iron Cross, Germany's highest decoration, for bravery in the trenches, and Klink bore a Pour le Merite ("Blue Max"), awarded to aces. Around 1 episode, it were discussing what it would launder when a war. Schultz said he would last back to the Schotzy Toy Company. Klink was impressed since it was a big toy company within Germany, thus he asked, "Do you think your boss will give you your old job back?" & was dumbstricken while Schultz said, "Why not? I am the boss!"

extra members of the German military machine were more threatening. General Burkhalter (Leon Askin) frequently tired of Klink's incompetence & typically threatened to send Klink to the Russian Front, mentioned repeatedly throughout the indicate when the worst tool that can happen to a German soldier. "Klink," he it used to be that told a ham-handed commanding officer, "you will be Court-martialed, shot, and sent to the Russian front!"

Complicating Burkhalter's life—Klink & Burkhalter apparently got known both more for years—was that his sister Gertrude thought Klink would produce a good hubby. Klink, yet, did non rather her.

Perchance potentially other sinister was evil Major Hochstetter (Howard Caine) of the Gestapo, who was an ardent Nazi & never understood how come Hogan would just barge into Klink's professional & hang out there when in case he experienced the privileged role like than only existence the prisoner of war. "Who is this man?" or even "What is this man doing here?!" Hochstetter would require. Klink was with reason afraid of him, however Burkhalter, world health organization was non easy intimidated, was does'nt. Another time Klink told Burkhalter, "I despise that man!" astir Hochstetter. Burkhalter replied, "So do I". In an additional occasion whilst Hochstetter, lacking social skills, took dancing lessons from either Lebeau, Burkhalter told the guard, "Arrest that man!'. Hochstetter: "In vat charge?" Burkhalter: "Dancing by using the captive."

Klink the Bureaucrat?

Noteworthy on a sitcom, a subtle subplot of the show often displayed Col. Klink as a hapless bureaucrat, constantly slaving on meaningless paperwork. During an age when most white-collar sitcom characters were never shown actually "working for the residing", Klink's attention to his endless paperwork served to both display Klink as a "mere cog in the machine" and to illustrate the rote rule-following familiar to the bureaucrat. Klink seemed in tune with his role in the world, apparently understanding the fundamental mindlessness of his work tasks. One exchange between Klink and Hogan shows Klink fretting about the amount of paperwork that he has to complete. Hogan offers a solution: label each document 'Attention Col. Johan Schmidt', a common name (i.e. "John Smith"), and ship it off to Berlin. Once Hogan departs, Klink uses the tactic and clears his desk.

Plot holes?

The plots of most episodes of Hogan's Heroes were wildly implausible in nearly every respect, but this is arguably par for the course for a sitcom. However, some unrealistic aspects in particular have struck some viewers as at least bearing comment.

The show made no attempt to resolve the language problem of the Germans and the Allies. All the German characters in the show simply spoke English with a German accent, although they used certain stock German phrases like Heil Hitler and Jawohl, Herr Kommandant. Because many of the plots involved prisoners impersonating German military, it appears that all of the prisoners spoke perfect unaccented German, and that none of the guards found this to be remarkable. Also, Corporals LeBeau (Robert Clary) and Newkirk (Richard Dawson) were often disrespectful of Sergeant Carter (Larry Hovis), addressing him by his surname and generally abusing him, while real-world army discipline would be unlikely to tolerate this level of disrespect for a superior non-commissioned officer. It could also be suggested Major Hochstetter's abuse of the higher-ranking Colonel Klink was likewise impermissible; however Gestapo personnel often had a nerve-wracking effect on personnel of the regular German Armed Forces, due in large measure to their generally-stronger links to power centres of the Nazi Party; this was sometimes used to great effect by the Gestapo, so this relationship could be considered somewhat unremarkable. Some have stated that true enjoyment of this program, in any event, requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief. That is arguably the case for a significant number of television programs. No one would argue that the contemporary hit show Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. was intended to be a documentary about the United States Marine Corps, for example.

There's also the matter, rarely addressed in more than a cursory fashion as an occasional episode, of why, as the series progressed, the German government never investigated more vigorously the unusually high number for sabotage incidents and military setbacks that occur in or in close proximity to Stalag 13. While there are individual episodes of Hogan's team diverting small scale investigations, the sheer number of incidents should have sparked a major search that the saboteurs would have had considerable difficulty countering. Arguably, such an investigation would have brought the series to a close with the saboteurs being forced to escape.

Jewish actors played most of the German parts

Some of the actors, including Werner Klemperer, John Banner and Leon Askin (né Leo Aschkenasy) were Jews who had fled the Nazis during World War II. Robert Clary, who played the Frenchman LeBeau, and John Banner, who played Hans Schultz, had actually spent time in a Nazi concentration camp. Howard Caine, who portrayed the malevolent SS Major Hochstetter, was also Jewish. The show also starred Richard Dawson, who later became famous as the host of Family Feud.

Askin had a particularly illustrious career. Before emigrating to the United States in 1940, he had already spent nearly two decades starring on the Viennese stage, where he became known as "the human of the thousand faces." When he and Banner left Austria, they spoke little or no English, and until they mastered it, they had their scripts spelled out for them phonetically.

Coincidentally, Askin and Banner both had memorable guest appearances in the popular syndicated 1950s TV series, The Adventures of Superman, playing characters that somewhat anticipated their roles in ''Hogan's Heroes.

Popularity
Years after its American debut, the show became popular in Germany. In response to both sensitivities over Nazism and German laws which prohibit Nazi symbolism, when German characters raised their arms and said "Heil Hitler" in the original version, the dubbed German version would bowdlerise that line into something ridiculous, such as "A wheat grows this high". The show is currently running in Germany, with a newly dubbed soundtrack without such bowdlerism.

It also introduced a new character, the cleaning-lady, who is referred to but never seen, as she was not in the English-language original. She was probably invented to fill up space where the characters were still talking but the meaning had already been conveyed due to the differences between the languages.

Frequent pop culture references to the show are a testament to its popularity. For example, it is referred to in multiple episodes of The Simpsons. In one episode, Col. Klink appears to Homer Simpson in his dreams and is actually voiced by Werner Klemperer.

Criticisms

While Hogan's Heroes'' was, and remains, a popular show, it has had many critics. Beyond the usual criticism of the show's quality, there were many who were disturbed by the portrayals of the Germans as funny and incompetent. Many felt this trivialized the evil of the Nazis and the war. But Klink was a career soldier, and many real-life members of the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht, even among the officer corps, were historically not Nazis, and Klemperer certainly believed that the show portrayed Nazis badly enough; otherwise he would have pulled out. Leon Askin's parents died in a Nazi concentration camp, and as Robert Clary and John Banner were in concentration camps as well, it is unlikely they would have trivialized the Holocaust. Besides, historically the Luftwaffe stalags provided the best treatment of Allied prisoners of war, which put them at the other end of the spectrum from the death camps.

Beyond any 'political incorrectness' in the setting of the series, there are many admirable qualities about the show. The most important is alluded to in the early paragraphs – in the series, Sergeant James Kinchloe, a black American (played by Ivan Dixon), not only lived in the same barracks with the other prisoners but was an integral part of the team, serving as an apparent, if not actual second in command. If one watches the program carefully, it can be noted that Colonel Hogan almost always relied on Kinch's (as the character was known as) opinions and his character usually provided relevant facts in helping resolve their situation. And in many other subtle ways, the show was ahead of its time (to the point of serious anachronism) – people would pour coffee FOR Kinch and the other characters would even physically lean or drape their arm around him. In a time in America where civil rights issues (trivial and major) were still being resolved and fought over, Kinch was actually quite a groundbreaking character as ''Hogan's Heroes was in the AC Nielsen Top 10 for the first two seasons. This is in contrast this with other popular TV sitcoms such as The Andy Griffith Show'' where no black character/actor ever even appeared to exist in the town of Mayberry. What's more is that as with most sitcoms, Kinch actually got to "star" in his own episodes and even more daring, he got to kiss a girl. While today, it seems laughable to most modern Westerners that scenario would even merit mention, at the time the few other regular black actors on American TV (Bill Cosby in I Spy and, Greg Morris of Mission: Impossible, for example) were much more chaste. While the young lady in question was an African-American actress (American TV's first interracial kiss would have to wait for the science fiction series Star Trek, later in the decade) the show served to illustrate how Kinch was written as a well-rounded "normal" character.

Another appealing aspect of the series is the talent of the regulars - with the ironic exception of Bob Crane, every other actor usually got to summon up a different persona every episode ... Carter would go from the meek and mild Carter character to imitating the lunatic rant of Hitler; or lovable Sgt. Schultz would bark in a gruff and authoritative manner - but then they would immediately switch back to his old self. It was a series filled with great "hams", but all talented in many ways.

The series is also interesting in that the characters regularly killed people – even if they were 'enemies' and even for a worthy cause, not a lot of series – even dramas – manage to pull off this feat and still leave the characters as sympathetic.

Fan fiction
Some writers of Hogan's Heroes fan fiction portray Klink and/or Schultz as being smarter than they appeared, and mildly in opposition to the worst of the Nazis. As examples, in one work, Schultz's family is portrayed as being part of the Confessing Church, an underground Protestant church that opposed the Nazis, but to which he obviously wouldn't want anyone to know he belonged. Some fans even hope for a feature film in the future. In other fan fiction, Klink is portrayed as being a master spy, his apparent bumbling incompetence being part of his cover.

Regular cast and characters
Bob Crane - Colonel Robert Hogan Werner Klemperer - Colonel Wilhelm Klink John Banner - Sergeant Schultz Robert Clary - Corporal Louis LeBeau Richard Dawson - Corporal Peter Newkirk Ivan Dixon - Sergeant Kinchloe (1965-1970) Sigrid Valdis - Hilda, Klink's secretary (1965-1966) Cynthia Lynn - Helga, Klink's secretary (1966-1971) Larry Hovis - Sergeant Andrew Carter Kenneth Washington - Sergeant Richard Baker (1970-1971) Leonid Kinskey - Vladimir Minsk (pilot only)

Frequent or recurring guest characters
Leon Askin - General Albert Burkhalter Howard Caine - Major Wolfgang Hochstetter, Gestapo Bernard Fox - Colonel Crittenden Kathleen Freeman - Gertrude (Burkhalter) Linkmeyer Nita Talbot - Marya Arlene Martel - Tiger

Series Pilot
The series pilot was produced in black-and-white. According to TVGuide, it was broadcast as the first episode of the series but never repeated on the network. It differed from the regular series in several ways, the most obvious being that Klink was not a buffoon. He is stern and describes himself as being of Prussian stock and "different from either a fresh choose."

Also, Burkhalter was only a colonel, not the general he was in the series.

Larry Hovis is a guest star. He is credited as "Lieutenant Carter" rather than "Sergeant Carter." He plays a POW who had recently escaped from another camp. He escapes with the help of Hogan and his men, presumably on his way to England.

The pilot also features Vladimir Minsk (played by Leonid Kinskey), a Soviet POW who specializes in tailoring costumes. When the pilot sold, Kinskey was offered a regular part in the series, but turned it down because he felt that the program portrayed the Nazis too lightly. So, obviously, the regular series did not feature the Soviet ally in the camp at all, let alone among Hogan's core crew. However, a Soviet pilot shot down over Germany was brought in by the Underground, and aided in returning east with a clever ruse.

The pilot's other background POW's seem to be from many different (allied) armies - while in the regular series, most of the uniforms and background prisoners all appeared to be Americans.

In the pilot, Klink's secretary was actually part of Hogan's team and had access to the tunnels. In the series, she was merely willing to look the other way in exchange for some nylons or a kiss from Robert Hogan.

The year is also noted as 1942 — in the regular series, the year is never mentioned (as every series wants to run at least 7 years — longer than Americans' involvement in WWII).

(The only dateable episodes contain clues: one episode is set at D-Day, the operation actually known as Operation Overlord, with Hogan undertaking a crucial task to retard the German response. Another episode involves Hogan providing a German with an explosive intended to kill Hitler. One could assume that the six seasons covered events over a two-and-a-half year period from spring 1942 until very early 1945, at which point the Germans were clearly losing.)

Noam Pitlik is in another guest role. He plays a German spy pretending to be a new American POW. He learns the truth about Hogan's operations but Hogan feeds him false information, and tricks him into making a fool of himself. He is thus discredited, and dismissed. Pitlik makes several appearances on the series over the years, each time as a different character.

''Hogan's Heroes in the European Parliament?

Hogan’s Heroes'' was peripherally but bizarrely involved in a political row in July 2003, involving Italian prime minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi was speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, when he was questioned by German Euro-MP Martin Schultz, about ongoing conflicts of interest. The outspoken billionaire lashed out: "Mr Schulz, I understand there is the producer around Italy world health organizatiin is making a film on Nazi concentration camps. We may indicate we for the role of commander. Wise shoppers'd exist as hone." Uproar understandably followed, and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder demanded an apology (which was never given, although the two leaders exchanged a frosty phone conversation.) Berlusconi later claimed he was referring to the Sergeant Schulz character from ''Hogan's Heroes'', a series that was broadcast by one of his television channels. "There was a Sergeant Schultz world health organization shouted much however in the prevent was a good sort, population were ingesting the mickey away from him day and night," Berlusconi said.

Links

[http://www.hogansheroesfanclub.com/ Hogan's Heroes Fan Club homepage]

de:Ein Käfig voller Helden