Posted on 08/14/2018 8:21:22 PM PDT by SamAdams76
YouTube is such a time capsule.
When I was growing up, one of the shows my father used to watch was "Hogan's Heroes." I had not actually watched the show since the early 1970s so the show itself was long forgotten but the theme music was always a bit of an earworm, popping up randomly in my head from time to time during the decades since.
About a week ago, I noticed that entire episodes of Hogan's Heroes was on YouTube and decided to click on one.
As the opening credits played, everything was instantly recognizable to me even though it has been maybe 45 years since I last saw it. From the prisoners slipping in the snow outside their barracks to the prison camp searchlights to the monocled Colonel Klink surveying the scene, it was if I last saw it just yesterday!
Even more surprising was the content of of the show itself. When I last saw the show, I was just a 10 year old kid so none of it made much sense to me. I was not able to put things in the context of World War 2 because other than a few bare facts, I knew nothing back then about that war. I guess I actually thought that the Germans in real life actually were the bumbling, easily manipulated fools as portrayed in the show.
But now, nearly half a century later, it all came into focus. During the time since, not only did I actually serve a hitch in the military (Marines) but I became a bit of a WW2 history buff, having read at least a hundred books on the subject over the years.
Now the Hogan's Heroes show, campy as it is, has some relevance to me as I can now put the plots of the show into historical perspective. Also, with my military experience, I can now relate to the soldiers and the arrogance of many of the officers that rule over them.
Also, knowing the horrors of World War 2 and the way that the Germans actually did conduct themselves in that war, I'm surprised that such a show even made it on television in the first place. As that show ran from about 1965-71, the WW2 generation would have been still in their prime, just reaching middle age. How did they react to the light-hearted portrayal of their mortal enemy? I mean, as a kid, I actually thought Sgt Schultz was a likable character, kind of like Curly in the Three Stooges.
I guess back then, people were able to have more of a sense of humor and not take things so seriously.
As I researched the main characters in real life, it was a sobering experience. All of them are dead now. And though I won't go into details here, the main character Hogan (Bob Crane) had a rather sordid life that ended on a scandalous note.
As a classical music fan, I was rather surprised to find out that Colonel Klink was played by Werner Klemperer, son of the world-famous conductor Otto Klemperer (of whom I collected many recordings, not aware of his son's role in the TV show).
I know but I couldn’t get it on digital broadcast in my area.
Bob Crane married Patricia Olson, who played Hilda under the stage name Sigrid Valdis.
As for Bob Crane, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Crane.
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