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).
Ever watch a Norman Lear TV show?
I definitely remember the dog (Scruffy) barking at the end of the credits.
James R. Schlesinger took over the CIA and purged the “broken down WWII vets”. Trust me, there was no respect back then.
Caine played an inept lawyer in the first version of Helter Skelter.
Gene Reynolds directed episodes and would go on to produce MASH.
Series did not air on German TV until 1992.
It was a blend of spy comedy, military service comedy etc
That’s because virtue signaling and Nazi cards weren’t in use back then ironically by folks who’d actually lived it
Unlike today where folks run anything through such silly prisms
Without looking it’s a good bet that show was produced by Jews
Most sitcoms are
Colonel Kline and Schultz were both Jews too btw.....
If they weren’t hand wringing over Nazis why should you
Hattip The Producers....another era again....Jews...a very funny one having a light go at nazis
Considering the enemy our nation and culture is facing from within we damn sure better quit worrying about 70 year old bigot bait
It’s got our hands tied behind our backs
As you said, most of the Germans were played by Jewish actors. I seem to recall reading or hearing interviews where the actors took great delight in portraying the Nazi’s as idiots.
“Reach for the Sky” is about Douglas Bader, WWII’s legless British ace squadron leader and Wing Commander. Imprisoned in several camps, he was the instigator of numerous escape attempts, including the huge breakout upon which the “Great Escape” was based. Bob Crane’s character has some aspects of Bader’s activities.
Sgt. Schultz, has incorporated aspects of the Czech folk hero “Good Soldier Svejk.” He was a likeable, bumbling character who screwed up his Austro-Hungarian betters in WWI by following their instructions to the letter. He was a bit like the American cartoon character Beetle Bailey, who also grew out of WWII situations and made WWII American vets laugh.
Somehow, I knew both of these things when Hogan’s Heros originally aired. I think I laughed better knowing this stuff.
Werner Klemperer, the son of conductor Otto Klemperer, was a cousin of scholar Victor Klemperer of Dresden, Germany.
Victor survived the war with his non-Jewish wife, even during the firebombing of Dresden, before fleeing to American lines. He kept a massive diary which became two books.
I have the first part, “I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-41”, Random House, 1995/1998. Translated by Martin Chalmer. A second part was due out in 1999.
A really interesting family.
My grandfather was a WWII vet, fought against Rommel in North Africa, and LOVED Hogan’s heroes. It was his favorite show.
It wasn’t disrespectful at all. The entire point of the show is that the Nazis looked like clowns, the prisoners were smarter than them, and they didn’t want to escape because they were helping the resistance from inside the prison. The prisoners never wanted Klink to be reassigned, because he was so clueless that he allowed the prisoners to run a huge resistance operation right under his nose.
Klemperer only agreed to do the show because the producers promised that the Nazis would look like buffoons and would never be allowed to seem victorious at the end of any episode.
And yes, the show was based on Stalag 17, though the producers always denied this in court for legal reasons. But it was.
Stalag 17? Now THAT’S a great movie...
Hochstedder was very funny as the over zealous gestapo man.
Every nite between 9-10PM on ME-TV, it’s an addiction....
Werner Klemperer’s brother is a well received author. You should GOOG his works.
HH was the true genesis of the Hollywood “catch phrase”. From Schultz’s “I know nothing!”, to “Whatchoo talkinbout Willis?” to Joey’s, “How YOU doin’?”.
Sitcom gold.
My first wife was a German girl; on a visit here by her mother, I was watching “Hogan’s Heroes” on day, and even though my MIL couldn’t understand a word of English, she exploded in anger when it was on, saying we were “making fools out of Germans”.
I said, well, “Yeah”. After all, we did fight the NAZIs in a war.
She didn’t see that show as “comedy”, at all.
But that was back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and the girl and I have long-since been divorced.
I’ve been married to my current wife (America) for 41 years now.
Now that I know of Bob Crane’s sordid private life I find myself wondering whether he was “Weinsteining” each female on the show.
Whatever Schlesinger may or may not have done inside the CIA, you're making the mistake of over-generalizing that institutional sub-culture to the rest of American society at large. The other posters are correct, there was no general disrespect of WW II vets in our culture.
The Japanese POW camps were certainly much more akin to the German concentration camps, that is for sure. I recall reading the death rate in the Japanese POW camps approached 40%.
He also played one of the defendants in Judgement At Nuremberg. Klemperer would agree to play Nazis on TV only if they were A) obviously evil, or B) comically inept.
You forgot her topless appearance, “getting shot while swimming” in one of the Dirty Harry movies.
My wife is distantly related to Sommers. Third cousin or something. She knows her real name. I forget.
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