Hogan's Heroes Seasons One and Two

Another show that I enjoyed watching in the 1960's was Hogan's Heroes. I even enjoyed the reruns but at some point, like on most childhood favorites, I started wondering why I liked this and stoped watching it. Years later when they started bringing it out on DVD I really wanted the first two seasons. Well I actually only wanted the first season. For some reason I had this memory of William Christopher, who played Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H, as Carter in the pilot episode. Of course everyone knows Larry Hovis played the part but I really believed that William Christopher played the part. Well he didn't. He did play on the show as a allied solider that they helped to escape but never as part of Hogan's gang. Hovis was in the first episode but not as Carter. He too was an allied officer that Hogan's men helped escape. Then in the second episode he was back as Carter. I guess someone on the show liked him. The first episode was filmed in black and white. Back then it saved money to film in black and white as color was expensive. You didn't want to spend that money unless you had a show that was going to be a series and not just a failed pilot. As I mentioned with Bewitched they should colorize the pilot so it can be included in a better syndication package for the series.

I later bought the second season as it was full of extras. For some reason it was left off of the first season. Perhaps it was because of the extra cost to get them as season two cost more. It had variety show apperances that the cast memebers made and and apperance that Bob Crane and John Banner did on the Lucy Show. It also had the audio of Bob Cranes old LA radio show where his guest was Dickie Dawson and they talked about the TV pilot they had just filmed. That was of course Hogan's Heroes.

What surprised me most was that Sgt. Schultz and Colonel Klink were usually in on what they were doing. Mostly Schultz. I remembered them as not knowing anything but Schultz did know. He just didn't care. All he wanted to do was his job and then go home at the end of the day. Klink helped him out but he was in the dark more often then Schultz. I had to wonder how dumb Klink could be. Hogan was always listening in on what was going on in Klink's office or apartment without Klink knowing. Suddenly Hogan would burst in and practically tell that he heard everything and soon Klink was volunteering to help Hogan and never asking how Hogan knew what was going on. How dumb can you be Colonel Klink?

I really enjoyed these two seasons of the show but I doubt I will get the rest. Unless some one wants to send me a free copy to review. The series was a one joke show but it was fun to watch and see how they could make the same plot seem new and fresh all the time. They kept this going for 6 or 7 years so they must have been good at it. The cast members were all severly typecast. Bob Crane tried for a movie career but that never took and he spent the rest of his life doing dinner theater. John Banner was cast in a new TV show the Chicago Teddy Bears but the show didn't do well and Banner died a couple of years later. Werner Klemperer became a guest conductor. Ivan Dixon became a respected TV director and we all know that Richard Dawson made a TV career out of getting families to feud.