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).
Yeah great show... I don’t have cable and it is on one of the oldie channels on free tv over the air... Don’t know what network it is, but I am amazed at how many channels we get for free...
Yeah, well, if Stalin hadnt made that deal with Hitler in the first place he wouldnt have had to worry about the second front.
My mother is German and hated that show. Not a Nazi sympathizer or anything. Just didnt like the way it was portrayed.
She let me watch it though!
Here's one for you, there was a short-lived show in the mid 1970s called "James At 15". That show resonated with me because I too was 15 the year that show came out and it was filmed in Boston, where I lived at the time. In fact, I remember walking past a scene as it was being filmed in Cambridge near Harvard Square.
This is the theme to James at 15.
I wonder how the kids recognized a swastika if it is banned everywhere.
That’s neat.
Wow. I’m sure he paid for a new door.
My old man was a guest of the Wehrmacht from about Dec 20th 1944 until the Canadians liberated him in the Spring of 1945. He was part of the 110th Regiment of the 28th ID, and while they were trying to get back to the lines after they’d been smashed and run over by the initial German attack he woke up one fine day to see a grinning German engineer pointing an MP40 at him, who announced that “For you, the war is over!”
He thought the show was drivel, but he wasn’t insulted by it, he probably figured anybody dumb enough to take it seriously couldn’t be taken seriously.
He did comment, several times, that whoever laid out the camp and sets did some research or was a POW. He also admired Bing Crosby’s ability to make money off of sugar coated misery.
Klemperer was a flaming lib.
And thus Churchill always had the perfect comeback.
"The very people now clamoring for a Second Front were not so long ago indifferent about England, leaving her to her fate and willing to share the spoils with the barbarians now knocking at their own gates."
I paraphrase of course...I'm sure Churchill said it more elegantly than that.
Well we all know how kids are about things that are "banned"! It makes them want to seek them out all the more.
When I read that Baby Boomers went from hating WWII
vets to referring to them as “the greatest generation”
the hair on the back of my neck stood up. As the son
of a WWII combat wounded paratrooper I knew none of my
neighborhood pals hated their old man because they were
WWII Vets. I certainly loved and revered my dad. After a
little thought it occurred to me if there was an issue
between boomers and their dads it was about the famous
“generation gap” and not so much about fighting
the evil fascists. Even the lefty college profs did
not complain until it came to analyzing how the Japanese
were dispursed.
“Stop doing that or you’ll go blind”.
“Baby Boomers went from hating WWII vets to calling them The Greatest Generation.
I’m a Baby Boomer born in 1951 and my Dad was a WW II combat vet. I never heard of Baby Boomers hating WW II vets. Never.
It was the Vietnam vets that got all the flack from the hippies on the left. Led by creeps like Jane Fonda and John Kerry.
“Baby Boomers went from hating WWII vets to calling them The Greatest Generation.
Why did you make up that load of crap? Come on, tell me.
That’s right, no one ever disrespected WW II vets. They were looked up to.
Me and my buddies went through some “Baby killer” crap when we came back from Nam but not too much.
I just posted this to him:
Baby Boomers went from hating WWII vets to calling them The Greatest Generation.
Why did you make up that load of crap? Come on, tell me.
See this CNN article from 2009 about it, with pictures.
-PJ
We did they same thing.I used to do a pretty good Klink and a a buddy of mine could mimic Hochstadder really well.We loved that show.
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