I’ve been watching Archie Bunker lately myself.
I used to watch Hogan’s Heroes every day after school. My dad would come in and watch a few minutes with me as he would find something to putz around with in the TV room (he worked from home).
At the next commercial he would leave and EVERY time would chuckle and say “Oh those crazy guys.”
That’s all he would say - he was a WW II vet. Looking back I appreciate that. I would have probably explained to my kids how bad the NAZIs were, told them about the concentration camps, etc.
You are a FR old timer and ever connected what the Sgt Schulz defense was all about???
The most likable. Schultzie pretty much made the show, dominating every scene he was in.
Robert Clary (French Corporal Louis LeBeau) lives! He was actually in a concentration camp during World War II.
On Saturday afternoons I would watch “The World at War” with its fiery opening. Real serious stuff. I got the full understanding of what WWII was all about, so much so that I do not need to go to the Holocaust Museum in DC to understand the Holocaust.
When I watched “Hogan’s Heroes” was like a bit of needed comic relief.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War
It was pure sitcom corn! And we all loved it, quoting lines from it the next day in junior high
Werner Klemperer, himself was a refugee from Nazi Germany, two Emmys for his role as inept camp commander Klink.
Read about the rest of the cast, it’s pretty interesting (Pay no attention to the title):
https://www.neatorama.com/2014/05/05/Hogans-Heroes-TVs-Most-tasteless-Sitcom/
Im watching an episode right now on DVD! You can buy all six seasons on DVD at FYE, a chain store in most malls for $100 give or take. Great show.
I watch Hogan’s Heroes every Mon. through Fri. night on MeTv on the DISH Network. It comes on at 9:00PM and 9:30PM Central on channel 247. It’s fun to watch.
Bob Crane was one of the first TV stars I recall seeing move from one top show into another. I used to watch him on Donna Reed as one of her husband’s golfing buddies. Definitely a second banana, peripheral character role. Some of the smartest TV actors know just when to move on and take a big chance on being successful. Bob became far more famous and wealthy than he ever would have become on the Donna Reed show. So for him, the gamble paid off big time.
Then you get someone like Shelly Long, who used to be the bartender’s girlfriend on Cheers. She left that, and her career took a nosedive, from which it never recovered.
Suzanne Sommers career also rode a Teeter-Totter after she left Three’s Company. Suzanne did okay though, because she was able to sing and entertain. Suzanne remained sexy and desirable for quite a few years. She also promoted the
infamous Thigh-Master, which added Millions to her bank account.
Just got through watching it. 2 episodes nightly on METV that plays the classics from the 60’s and 70’s. I never watched Perry Mason when I was a kid but I’ve kind of found interest in it lately mostly to see stars that have gone on that I remember when I was a little kid.......;)
It’s on every night on MeTv.
My favorite bit is how whenever Klink gets into trouble Hogan always finds a way to pin it on Burkhalter so he will clean it up lest he get sent to the Russian Front.
Baby Boomers went from hating WWII vets to calling them “The Greatest Generation”. Real WWII vets weren’t such simpletons. They knew war sucked & they were fighting human beings. The pop culture of their day mocked the bureaucracy of the military and especially “The Brass”. They didn’t strut around like McCain, waiting to be worshipped as “heroes”. There was no obligatory “Thank you for your service!” They did their jobs & came home. They knew most Germans were not NAZIs, they were just guys like Schulz & Klink who didn’t want to be there any more than we did. Today, a lot of us don’t understand that. HOGAN’s HEROES was probably more realistic than the stuff they are making today.
Major Hochstetter played by Howard Caine was my favorite. The best episode IMHO was the Nimrod episode, when Hochstetter gets duped into thinking Colonel Klink is a British agent.
Regards,
Not all of them are dead. Robert Clary who played Corporal LeBeau is still alive. Born in 1926, he was an actual inmate of the nazi concentration camps.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Clary
Bob Cranes dad was a Waterbury Connecticut police detective who lived on Greenwood Avenue. I delivered the newspaper to him.