TV Guide, as if that’s ever been a magazine you should be proud to read, came out a few years ago and named Hogan’s Heroes the second worst television show in the history of the medium. Really? Are we that politically correct now? Do people really think this show is in such bad taste that it spirals ahead of Mama’s Family and Small Wonder on the dreck landscape?
Let’s get one piece of nonsense out of the way quickly. It did not take place in a concentration camp. It took place in a World War II Prisoner of War Camp.
Now, as a young Jewish boy (not that this really affected how I viewed the show much) I loved Hogan’s Heroes. I used to literally sing out the cast member’s names as they came on the screen. Remember LeBeau sneaking out of that Doberman’s dog house! OK, I had issues, but who doesn’t?
Watch it again sometime. The show was funny, clever, and almost unique among sitcoms in its addition of fairly exciting action. Yeah, they blew a lot of stuff up!
Bob Crane, if you can forget the ugliness of Paul Schrader’s overly dark and inaccurate Autofocus, was a tremendously charismatic leading man. Col. Robert Hogan was heroic, smart, empathetic, brave, suave, and funny. Cool under fire, he was a great personification of the truly unique American character.
Hogan’s company additionally showed amazing cooperation between men of both different nationalities and different races. Show me another sitcom in the '60s to have a major Black character in its cast. In fact, as a character Ivan Dixon’s Kinch was treated with dignity and respect at all times. He was seen as an intelligent, brave equal in 1965.
Of course, the real question at hand is the following: Is there anything funny about the Nazis or the Holocaust? I went to a Jewish Sunday School until I was 17 (truth be told I was late a lot) and I basically learned 1000 times as much about the Holocaust as I did about the Jewish religion. I’m not really sure if I’m supposed to believe that a messiah is still coming, but I can tell you all about Kristallnacht.
One day Robert Clary, who played the short Frenchman, LeBeau, came to talk to one of our classes. Clary was actually a survivor of a concentration camp and lost most of his 13 siblings to the Holocaust. Somewhat buying the hype at that point, I almost asked Clary how he could do Hogan’s Heroes after being in a concentration camp, but decided that the question would be too rude. If I had the chance again, I’d tell him how much I loved the show and ask him to discuss the misguided criticism of it.
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Article comments
1 - Jet in Columbus
Hogan's Heroes is one of my favorite shows and I own all the DVDs.
Favorite scenes:
A car explodes and Klink, Hogan and Schultz hit the dirt. Klemperer in his wonderful downtrodden voice moans, "If Berlin only knew one tenth-ONE TENTH of what I have to put up with!"
LeBeau and his trained and often chastized guard dogs.
"WHAT IS THIS MAN DOING HERE???????"
...and of course the episode that convinced me that Gen. Burkhalter was an allied spy, the time "Nimrod" trumped Hogan!
A drunk Shultz playing a General in Paris who can't finish his drink because of everyone saluting him.
I enjoyed this article...
Other than that, I know nothing, I see nothing and I say nothing!!!
2 - Jet in Columbus
You asked... Show me another sit-com in the '60s to have a major Black character in its cast...
Mission Impossible
Mannix
Julia
3 - Ray Ellis
Let's not forget I Spy.
4 - Brent
Well Jet, setting aside the fact that "Mission Impossible" and "Mannix" weren't sitcoms, or that "Julia" came after "Hogan's Heroes" (and I Spy is debatable, except that Bill Cosby won the Emmy for "Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series") the Kinchloe character wasn't just treated as an equal, you might say that he was treated as the first amongst equals; he was effectively Hogan's second in command (come on, would you want Carter or Newkirk running things while you were away in Paris with LeBeau). And the fact is that he would never be in such a situation in real life because the US Army Air Force was thoroughly segregated and there were no African-American bombing units in combat.
At the show's heart, Schultz represents the idea of the "good German" who at worst wants the Kaiser back, may have voted Socialist and just goes along to get along. At best Schultz is someone who knows more than a little about what's going on and if he can't really help at least isn't going to hurt them. Unlike Hochstetter and Burkhalter, and yes even Klink, Schultz is likable.
5 - Tom Mourgos
TV Guide is insane... Hogan's is the best sitcom in history, for all the reasons you described. I saw it from the beginning when I was 8 years old. I have the whole DVD collection and to this day I always get a good laugh. Now where's that movie?
6 - Brad Laidman
I have to admit a slight error - I double checked and TV Guide named it 5th worst - but still.
7 - Jet in Columbus
Oh....
well...
That makes a difference!