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Hogan’s Heroes
Hogan’s Heroes (title card)
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Bernard Fein & Albert S. Ruddy
Starring	Bob Crane Werner Klemperer John Banner Robert Clary Richard Dawson Ivan Dixon Sigrid Valdis Cynthia Lynn Larry Hovis Kenneth Washington Leon Askin
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	168
Production
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 17, 1965 – July 4, 1971
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Hogan’s Heroes was a satirical American television situation comedy that ran from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971, on the CBS network for 168 episodes. Starring Bob Crane as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, the show was set in a German prisoner of war (POW) camp during World War II. The program was a Bing Crosby production.

Contents 1 Premise 2 Cast 2.1 Allies 2.1.1 Colonel Robert E. Hogan 2.1.2 Staff Sergeant Kinchloe 2.1.3 Technical Sergeant Carter 2.1.4 Corporal LeBeau 2.1.5 Corporal Newkirk 2.2 Germans 2.2.1 Colonel Klink 2.2.2 Sergeant Schultz 2.2.3 Helga and Hilda 2.3 Recurring characters 3 Jewish actors 4 German popularity 5 Series controversies 6 Series pilot 7 Series timeline 8 DVD Releases 9 See also 10 Wikia 11 References 12 External links

The setting was a fictional version of Stalag 13, a POW camp for captured airmen located near the town of Hammelburg and run by the Luftwaffe. It bore no resemblance to its real-life counterparts, Oflag XIII-B and Stalag XIII-C.

The show’s premise was that the POWs were actually active war participants, using the camp as a base of operations for Allied espionage and sabotage against the Nazis. The prisoners could leave and return almost at will via a secret network of tunnels and had radio contact with Allied command. They were aided by the incompetence of the camp commandant Colonel Klink and his aide Sergeant Schultz. Hogan would routinely manipulate the incompetent Klink and get Schultz to look the other way while his men conducted secret operations. Klink and Schultz were in constant terror of being transferred to the Russian Front, and Hogan took pains to keep the hapless German duo firmly in place.

American Army Air Forces Colonel Robert E. Hogan (Bob Crane), senior ranking POW officer, is the leader of the group. He was from Bridgeport, Connecticut and born in Cleveland, Ohio. In contrast to Colonel Klink, he graduated third in his military class. The character was named by series creator Bernard Fein after his friend, the American soap opera and character actor Robert J. Hogan, who appeared in two episodes of Hogan’s Heroes.

American Staff Sergeant James (aka Ivan) “Kinch” Kinchloe (Ivan Dixon) is primarily responsible for radio, telegraph, and other forms of electronic communications. A talented mimic, Kinchloe easily imitates German officers speaking over the radio or telephone. When Hogan needed a strictly audio impression of Adolf Hitler, the men generally agreed that Kinchloe was the better choice for the job over Sergeant Carter.

Following Dixon's departure from the show, the producers replaced his character with Sergeant Baker (Kenneth Washington). The tasks assigned to SGT Baker are identical to those of SSG Kinchloe.

American Technical Sergeant Andrew J. Carter (Larry Hovis) is in charge of ordnance and bomb-making. He also shows talent in chemistry and can produce formulas as needed. Carter is often called on to impersonate German officers and, most convincingly, Adolf Hitler. While bright and enthusiastic at his specialties, Carter often shows a lack of common sense otherwise. He formerly worked at a drug store in Muncie, Indiana. His awards include the Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, Commendation Medal and Good Conduct Medal.

French Army Corporal Louis LeBeau (Robert Clary) is a chef. LeBeau is also a master of covert operations, and has taken the precaution of befriending the camp’s guard dogs. As a result, he is able to enter their compound through a secret entrance under a doghouse without the dogs raising the alarm. In many episodes, LeBeau bribes Schultz with food, especially LeBeau’s apple strudel. LeBeau is also in charge of creating disguises.

Royal Air Force Corporal Peter Newkirk (British actor Richard Dawson) is the group’s conman, pick-pocket, forger, marksman, and occasional impersonator of German officers. He also assists in distracting the Germans and performing other sabotage. This series marked Dawson’s American debut. Dawson auditioned for the role of Hogan, but was told he didn't sound American enough.

Oberst (Colonel) Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer) is an old-line Luftwaffe officer of aristocratic (Junker) Prussian descent, as well as a social climber. He has a pretentious coat of arms with the letter “K” in his living quarters. Klink is never mentioned as a formal member of the Nazi Party and is portrayed as a bumbling self-serving bureaucrat rather than someone evil. He has never read Mein Kampf, Hitler’s manifesto.

Klink gained entry to a military academy only because of an uncle’s influence; the uncle was barber to a mayor. Not only did he graduate last in his class, but he was also the only one in his class who had not reached the rank of general, remaining a colonel for twenty years, longer than any other in the German Army with an efficiency rating “a few points above miserable.” In the D-Day epsiode Hogan cons the German General Staff and Klink into thinking Klink has not only been made a General but will also be the Officer to decide what the German response to D-Day will be-Klink's only decision is order more champagne! Klink wears an Iron Cross and has been seen wearing a Blue Max. In his only known World War I exploit he panicked and crashed and caused his passenger "The Blue Baron" to have a limp! In the only direct reference to World War II service prior to his becoming the camp commandant, he claims to want to pilot a Heinkel again. The men of his bomber command supposedly referred to Klink as the “Iron Eagle.”

He fancies himself a musician, but plays a horribly screechy violin. In real life, Klemperer was a noted concert violinist, and his father was famed conductor and composer Otto Klemperer. In one episode when Klink does play a song correctly on the violin, it is the theme song of the US Army Air Corps. He also allegedly tried to flatter Sgt Schultz for a position as a bookkeeper in Schultz's Toy factory. He has a mother and a brother who is unemployed-he was fired after accidentally blowing up the factory he worked in! Klink is in his mid-forties and fancies himself a Don Juan with women -- as usual he fails. His worst nightmare is the prospect of being married to General Burkhalter's sister; when Hogan mentions Klink being married to the General's sister -- as part of a bigger plot -- Klink vows to have Hogan shot and claims no court-martial in the world would find Klink guilty of murder! In one epsiode when Hogan and the other POWS see allied fighter planes above the camp-Hogan realizes that these are piloted by Luftwaffe pilots-otherwise Klink would be hiding under his bed! In the comedy trio of Hogan, Klink and Schultz, Klink plays the poor sap who gets the butt of the joke-for example once after Hogan sabatoges Klink's hot water pipes-to help a resistance leader-and the pipes are "fixed"-Klink has Schultz try the water faucets-which work perfectly; then Klink tries the faucets and gets a face full of water! A variation of this gag is when Klink tries to protect his closetful of cucuko clocks during a fake fire, and gets another faceful of water.

Eventually Klink became aware that Hogan and his men were more than just ordinary prisoners -- in one late episode Hogan rescued Klink from a transfer to the Russian Front; afterward, Klink sat in a westbound train with Hogan (who was wearing a German officer's uniform), frightened of what seeing Hogan in that uniform implied. Hogan calmly explained to Klink that he would be kept safely in his command of Stalag 13 as he was far too important to Hogan in that role to be allowed to be transferred anywhere else.

Similarly, in the episode "Easy Come, Easy Go," in the sixth season of the program, Klink and Hogan are allowed to "escape" to England to steal a new secret P-51 aircraft for the Germans -- one which has a Bf-109 engine.

Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) Hans Schultz (John Banner) is Klink’s bumbling, highly unmilitary sergeant of the guard. Schultz is a basically good-hearted man who, when confronted by the shenanigans of the prisoners, will simply look away, repeating “I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!” or, more commonly as the series went on, simply “I see nothing, nothing!” in order to avoid becoming involved in any way. This eventually became a catch phrase of the series.

LeBeau once insinuated that Schultz was a Social Democrat, but in the episode “The Prince from the Telephone Company,” he says “It was so much better when we had an Emperor,” implying that he is a Monarchist. In “War Takes a Holiday,” it is revealed that he owned a famous German toy factory, and that he longs for nothing more than to return to his previous profession. Although Schultz is a coward at heart, he supposedly taught a young German lieutenant how to "survive" in World War I and thus earned the lieutenant's everlasting gratitude when he became a General. This friendship also results in Schultz being awarded a fictitious medal, the Iron Cross 4th Class! (Iron Crosses only came in 1st and 2nd class.)

Although usually shown to be incompetent as a guard, Schultz proved more capable when put in a position of authority. He was often called upon by Hogan to impersonate German officers, usually proving effective in his mock role. He proved to be truly effective at running Stalag 13 when, on the occasion of Klink's ouster, he was named as the new commandant.

Banner played an equally easy-going, if much less bumbling, German border guard named Sergeant Ernst in the 1965 war film 36 Hours.

Helga (Cynthia Lynn, 1965 to 1966) and Hilda (Sigrid Valdis, 1966 to 1971) served as secretaries to Colonel Klink. Both were portrayed as having an ongoing romantic relationship with Colonel Hogan. Both also assisted Hogan and his men in various ways, including providing tidbits of information or access to papers or equipment.

Sigrid Valdis and Bob Crane were married in 1970.

• Major Wolfgang Hochstetter (Howard Caine) of the Gestapo. Hochstetter is an ardent Nazi who never understands why Hogan is often allowed to barge into Klink’s office at will. Hochstetter frequently demands “Who is this man?” or “What is this man doing here?!” with increasing stridency. Klink is justifiably afraid of him, but Burkhalter is not easily intimidated. In “War Takes a Holiday,” Hogan tricks Hochstetter into lending his car to several underground leaders (presented by Hogan as potential captains of industry), who use it to escape just as Hochstetter’s superiors arrive. Howard Caine played several other German officers in the show before becoming Major Hochstetter. Throughout the series, the rank insignia on Hochstetter's collar is that of a Standartenführer which translates to Oberst (Colonel) in the Wehrmacht

• General der Infantrie Albert Burkhalter (Leon Askin), Klink’s superior officer who frequently tires of Klink's incompetence and threatens to send him to the Russian Front. Burkhalter loved the good life, even in war, and was scared to death of Mrs. Burkhalter. This fact he testified to several times during the series, after Hogan managed to get a few photos of the general with very attractive women. However, in the end, Burkhalter, like the others, came to depend upon Hogan to get them out of trouble with the High Command when one scheme or the other ran off the tracks. In one epsiode when Hogan cons the Germans into turning the POW camp into a "movie Studio" and has Schultz as the Kommandant and Klink as a Sgt, Burkhalter shows up and remarks if Berlin has finally wised up about Klink. In the last epsiode of the series Hogan sabotages a V-1 rocket which blows up Burkhalter's house! Although Burkhalter threatens to send Klink to the Russian Front, he doesn't dare to do so; in one episode when this almost happened Klink and Schultz incompence nearly result in the POW camp almost being demolished & Burkhalter realizes that if he sent these two stooges to the front he would be shot for treason!.

• Colonel Rodney Crittendon (Bernard Fox), DSO, CBE, MC and Bar, DFC, AFC an RAF Group Captain. In an early episode, Klink has him transferred from another camp because he is senior to Hogan, putting him in charge of the POWs. Crittendon believes that a POW’s only focus should be escape and spy-type work should be carried out by professional spies. Therefore, he promises more than once that he would report any spy-type work he might observe to the Nazis. Also known for developing and attempting to execute various forms of prison camp escapes that never worked. Also developed the secret “Crittendon Plan,” which turned out to consist of planting geraniums along the sides of runways to cheer up returning British pilots.

• Marya (Nita Talbot), a Russian spy who works occasionally with Hogan, but whom he doesn't entirely trust. Her trademark line is an exaggeratedly drawled “Hogan, Dahling.”

• Tiger (Arlene Martel), a French Underground contact.

• Corporal Langenscheidt (John Cedar), one of Klink’s men. Langenscheidt often informs the distraught Colonel Klink when an important guest arrives, much to Klink’s displeasure. Langenscheidt often arrives at the worst of times. In one episode Langenscheidt gets involved in one of Hogan’s schemes to forge a priceless painting which General Burkhalter intends to give to Hermann Göring. Klink sends Schultz and Langenscheidt to keep Hogan from escaping while they are in Paris.

Some of the actors, including Werner Klemperer (Klink), John Banner (Schultz), Robert Clary (LeBeau), and Leon Askin (Burkhalter), were Jews who had fled the Nazis during World War II. Clary says in the recorded commentary on the DVD version of episode “Art for Hogan’s Sake” that he spent three years in a concentration camp, that his parents and other family members were killed there, and that he has an identity tattoo from the camp on his arm. Likewise John Banner was in a (pre-war) concentration camp. Leon Askin was also in a pre-war French internment camp and his parents were killed at Treblinka. Howard Caine (Hochstetter) was also Jewish, and Jewish actors Harold Gould and Harold J. Stone played German generals.

As a teenager, Werner Klemperer (Klink) fled Hitler’s Germany with his family. During the show’s production, he insisted that Hogan always win over his Nazi captors. He defended his playing a Nazi by claiming, “I am an actor. If I can play Richard III, I can play a Nazi.” Banner attempted to sum up the paradox of his role by saying, “Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?” Ironically although Klemperer, Banner, and Askin play typecast World War II German types-all had actually served in the US Armed Forces during World War II-Banner [[1]] and Askin in the US Army Air Corps and Klemperer in a US Army Entertainment Unit.

The show was not broadcast in Germany over German TV until 1992. The original dubbed version was titled Stacheldraht und Fersengeld (barbed wire and turning tail). The series then was redubbed and released in 1994 as Ein Käfig voller Helden (a cage of heroes). This version gained considerable popularity. (Note that the show was broadcast over US Armed Forces TV in 1974 for about one week. The German government strongly requested its removal, and the request was acted upon by the management of Armed Forces TV.)

In the newer German version, the Germans speak in various different accents which makes it funnier to a German audience than Standard German would. It amplifies the contrast between Klink (who portrays the Prussian stereotype) and Schultz (who portrays the Urbayern Bavarian stereotype). Furthermore Klink’s choice of vocabulary and memorable quotes add jokes which would not be present in a direct translation of the English language original. Another major change is that Newkirk, who speaks with a British accent in the original, is changed to an exaggerated stutterer in the German version. Apart from that there are numerous deviations from the original plot, introducing elements which were not present in the original. Amongst other things it introduces a new character, Kalinke, who is Klink’s cleaning lady and permanent mistress. She is referred to, but never seen.

In 1968, Robert Clary, Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon, and Larry Hovis cut an LP record, Hogan’s Heroes Sing the Best of World War II, which included lyrics for the theme song. The record did not sell well and as a result is today considered a collector’s item.

Similarities between Hogan's Heroes and the 1953 feature film Stalag 17, a World War II prisoner of war film released by Paramount Pictures, the producers of the film sued Bing Crosby productions for infringement; the suit was unsuccessful.

While Hogan’s Heroes was (and remains) a popular show, it has been the target of criticism. As with the later British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, 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.

The show has come under fire by Neo-Nazi groups who felt it was a lampooning of their founding fathers, and occasionally some of the cast and crew members would be subject to threats of violence from such groups. Other groups which were critical of the show were some Jewish, and (to a lesser extent) Gypsy organizations, both of whom had lost significant numbers of their people in the Holocaust, and not yet a generation had passed since the genocide and the premiere of Hogan’s Heroes. Most complaints of these groups felt the show was taking the subject too lightly. However, although the show focused on a POW camp, no episode ever mentioned the concentration camps or Hitler’s final solution. Some groups which were the biggest fans of the show were the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans' groups, many of whose members were actual POWs, and had thought that the humor had been a good way to put their suffering in perspective. ^[1]

In 2002, TV Guide named Hogan's Heroes the fifth worst TV show of all time, based mainly on these criticisms. ^[2]

The first episode, “The Informer,” was produced in black-and-white and was not aired in reruns of the series. There are several continuity errors with the series proper, such as Burkhalter being introduced as a Colonel, instead of a General. But most continuity problems revolve around Larry Hovis' character of Carter. In the pilot, he was credited as a guest star and is shown as a lieutenant, rather than a sergeant. “Lt. Carter” had recently escaped from another camp and at the end of the episode, is en route to England.

Leonid Kinskey appeared in the pilot episode as Vladimir Minsk, a Soviet POW who specializes in tailoring. Kinskey ultimately turned down his contract, contending that the subject matter was being treated too lightly.

In the pilot, Klink’s secretary is actually part of Hogan’s team and had access to the tunnels. In the series, she is merely willing to look the other way in exchange for a kiss from Hogan or some other form of affectionate gesture. Eventually, during the series run, it is implied that she and Hogan have a running romance, especially when she hints at getting a diamond engagement ring in exchange for her help.

The exact chronology of the series was never established, but references are made in certain episodes.

• The pilot gives the year as 1942
• One episode is set at D-Day
• One episode shows Hogan holding up a sign that reads "Colonel Klink and his magic violin presents: The Escapes of 1943."
• Another episode involves Hogan providing a German with an explosive intended to kill Hitler, referencing Claus von Stauffenberg’s failed July 20 Plot.
• In one case, Hogan makes reference to a kamikaze, which began operations in mid-to-late 1944.
• In the episode "Monkey Business," a sign outside the barracks reads is dated December 13, 1944:

CBS Home Entertainment has released all six seasons of Hogan’s Heroes on DVD in Region 1 as full season sets. The sixth and final season was released on June 5, 2007. [2] The series was previously released by Columbia House as individual discs, each with five or six consecutive episodes.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete 1st Season	32	March 15, 2005
The Complete 2nd Season	30	September 27, 2005
The Complete 3rd Season	30	March 7, 2006
The Complete 4th Season	26	August 15, 2006
The Complete 5th Season	26	December 19, 2006
The Complete 6th Season	24	June 5, 2007

• Stalag 17
• The Great Escape
• Stalag XIII-C
• OFLAG XIII-B - real-life officers camp located outside Hammelburg

• Hogan’s Heroes Wikia
• W31 6wheeled Merceds-Benz

• Hogan’s Heroes at the Internet Movie Database
• Hogan’s Heroes Fan Club
• Hogan’s Heroes show summary at TV.com