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 seasons 6
No. of episodes 168
Production
Running time 23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run September 17, 1965 – July 4, 1971 

 

Hogan’s Heroes is a satirical American television situation comedy that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971, on the CBS network.

Starring Bob Crane as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, the show was set in a German prisoner of war (POW) camp during the Second World War. The program featured Werner Klemperer as the Commandant of the camp, Colonel Klink and John Banner as the portly inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Schultz, as well as a crew of Allied prisoners who assisted Hogan in running a Resistance group from the camp.

Hogan's Heroes was a Bing Crosby production.

 Premise
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. Klink had a perfect record of no escapes while he commanded the POW camp.

Hogan actually assisted in maintaining this record, and made sure any prisoners that needed to be spirited away had been transfered to someone else's authority before their escape was enacted.

 Cast

 Allies

 Colonel Robert E. Hogan
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.

He was shot down while on a raid on Hamburg in an operation masterminded by Colonel Biedenbender, who was promoted to General for this achievement. 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.

 Sgts. Kinchloe and Baker
African 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 Sergeant Baker are identical to those of Staff Sergeant Kinchloe.

As Kinchloe and Baker were black, their ability to participate in covert activities outside of the camp were limited.


 Technical Sergeant Carter
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, Bronze Star , Purple Heart, Commendation Medal and Good Conduct Medal.


 Corporal LeBeau
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 also makes the occasional outfit or uniform.

Corporal Newkirk
Royal Air Force Corporal Peter Newkirk (British actor Richard Dawson) is the group’s conman, magician, pick-pocket, forger, and impersonator of German officers. He also is in charge of making uniforms and assisting in distracting the Germans to perform 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. Curiously, in the version translated for broadcast in Germany, Newkirk's pronounced British accent was replaced by a simulation of stuttering.

 Germans

 Colonel Klink
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 member of the Nazi Party and is portrayed as a bumbling self-serving bureaucrat rather than an evil person. His vanity makes him an easy target for Hogan's flattery.

 Sergeant Schultz
Feldwebel (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 activities of the prisoners, will simply look the other way, 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. In civilian life, he is the owner of a highly-successful toy & novelty company. Schultz carried a Krag-Jørgensen rifle.

In the second season episode "Killer Klink", Schultz is described by Klink as being "in his forties". In reality, Banner was in his late fifties.

Helga and Hilda
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.

Pilot episode
The pilot episode, “The Informer,” was produced in black-and-white. As with many pilot episodes, 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.


 Series timeline
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: "Great 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 of 1944.

In one case, Hogan makes reference to a kamikaze, whose operations began in mid-to-late 1944.
In the episode "Monkey Business," a sign outside the barracks reads December 13, 1944.

In another episode, Hogan says to Klink, "But you know, sir, you can't believe all the rumors you hear around here. We even heard the Russians won at Stalingrad." The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from July 1942 to February 1943.
As with some other war-related series such as M*A*S*H, the program lasted longer than the actual events. While the series ran for six seasons, U.S. involvement in the Second World War was less than four years (Dec. 1941 - May 1945).


 Controversies
There are similarities between Hogan's Heroes and the 1953 feature film Stalag 17, a World War II prisoner of war film released by Paramount Pictures (which now owns the DVD rights to Hogan's Heroes). The producers of the film sued Bing Crosby productions for infringement; the suit was unsuccessful.


Hogan’s Heroes (book cover)In 2002, TV Guide named Hogan's Heroes the fifth worst TV show of all time, despite the fact that the series ran for 6 years and was three times nominated for the Emmy for Best Comedy Series.

Jewish actors
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 and his family was exterminated during the war. Leon Askin was also in a pre-war French internment camp and his parents were killed at Treblinka. Howard Caine (Hochstetter) was also Jewish (his birth name was Cohen), and Jewish actors Harold Gould and Harold J. Stone played German generals.

As a teenager, Werner Klemperer (Klink) (son of the great conductor Otto Klemperer) fled Hitler’s Germany with his family in 1933. 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 and Askin in the US Army Air Corps and Klemperer in a US Army Entertainment Unit.

return to

NOCS HOMEPAGE