The sitcom Hogan's Heroes debuted on CBS on September 17, 1965. It is then sixty years and one week old. From the beginning, Hogan's Heroes has been a polarizing show. Depending upon whom one asks, it is either one of the most brilliant comedies of the Sixties or a tasteless show that desensitized people to Nazis and the horrors they committed. Either way, not only is Hogan's Heroes remembered to this day, but it is still widely available.
Hogan's Heroes centred on Colonel Robert Hogan of the United States Army Air Forces, a prisoner of war in a fictionalized Stalag 13 during World War II. Colonel Hogan was the leader of a group of Allied prisoners who operated as a covert team of spies and saboteurs using Stalag 13 as a base. Unknown to their captors, Colonel Hogan and his men not only had secret radios with which they communicated with Allied command, but several network tunnels through which they could leave the camp any time they chose. It was in this way that they gathered intelligence and disrupted the Nazi's operations.
Colonel Hogan's men were a diverse group. Hogan himself was both charismatic and charming. He was also a master of manipulation, a skill that came in useful in keeping his captors from ever discovering the Allied cell of spies operating from their own camp. French Corporal Louis LeBeau (Robert Clary) was a gourmet cook and an extremely patriotic Frenchman. He was also a master of covert operations and was good with animals, so good that he was able to befriend Stalag 13's guard dogs.
Royal Air Force Corporal Peter Newkirk (Richard Dawson) was the con man, pickpocket, card sharp, magician, forger, and safe cracker of the group. American Staff Sergeant James "Kinch" Kinchloe (Ivan Dixon) was the team's electronics expert. He was responsible for the group's communications through radio and telegraph. He was also multilingual, able to speak both French and German. Kinch was a revolutionary character at the time. He was not only one of the few Black supporting characters on television at the time, but one of the earliest Black characters to be portrayed realistically and not as a stereotype. Technical Sergeant Andrew J. Carter (Larry Hovis) was the team's chemistry, explosives, and demolitions expert. Ivan Dixon left the show before its sixth season. Kinch was then replaced by Sergeant Richard Baker (Kenneth Washington).
As to the Germans, the commandant of Stalag 13 was Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer). Colonel Klink was rather incompetent and always fell for Hogan's schemes. Often Colonel Hogan and his steam had to ensure Klink remained in command of Stalag 13, lest someone more competent be put in charge of the camp. Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz (John Banner) was the Sergeant of the Guard. Schultz was good-hearted and, unlike Klink, suspected Hogan and his men were engaged in covert operations, but chose to ignore it ("I know nothing" was his catchphrase).
Today many might be surprised to learn that some of the actors on Hogan's Heroes playing Germans were Jewish, and there was one cast member who had served during World War II. Werner Klemperer was the son of conductor Otto Klemperer and the first cousin of scholar Victor Klemperer. His family moved from Germany to the United States in 1933. Werner Klemperer took the role of Colonel Klink on the condition that Klink would always lose. If Klink ever won, he would leave the show. John Banner was also Jewish. He left his native Austria after Nazi Germany annexed the country. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. Sadly, Mr. Banner lost many of his family members back in Austria in the Holocaust. Leon Askin, who played the recurring role of General Burkhalter, belonged to a Jewish family in Austria and fled to the United States in 1940. Sadly, his parents were murdered in the Treblinka concentration camp. Robert Clary was a Jewish Frenchman who was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Other members of his family were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Sadly, he was the only one of his family to survive.
Hogan's Heroes did not begin its life as a military comedy, let alone one set in a POW camp. Its creators, Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy (both of whom were Jewish), developed an idea for a television series titled The Heroes set in a penitentiary. Messrs. Fein and Ruddy spent four years trying to sell the show with no luck. Bernie Fein often told a story that they changed the premise after he saw a fellow passenger on a plane reading Von Ryan's Express, a novel about Allied POWs during World War II. In truth, the premise appears to have been changed because of another prospective show. In 1964 there was news of a prospective sitcom created by Von Ryan Express author David Westheimer. Campo 44 was set in an Italian POW camp and would centre on the American and British soldiers held there. It was planned to air on NBC in the 1965-1966 season. It was apparently after news of Campo 44 came out that Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy changed the setting of their prospective sitcom from a penitentiary to a German POW camp during World War II. As to Campo 44, a pilot was shot and would later air on NBC in 1967. It is unknown why NBC did not pick up Campo 44, but it seems quite likely that it was because CBS picked up Hogan's Heroes first.
Hogan's Heroes would result in a plagiarism lawsuit. The 1951 play Stalag 17 was written by playwrights Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. After playing on Broadway, it was adapted as the classic movie Stalag 17 (1953), directed by Billy Wilder. It was in January 1967 that Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski filed a lawsuit against CBS and Bing Crosby Productions (the production company behind Hogan's Heroes). They claimed that in 1963 they had based a one hour script based on Stalag 17 that CBS rejected. They further claimed that CBS then hired other writers to create a similar series, saving the network money. The case would not go to trial until after Hogan's Heroes ended its original network run. The jury actually decided in favour of Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, only to have the judge reverse their decision. Quite simply, the judge found "striking difference in the dramatic mood of the two works." Of course this would be expected given Stalag 17 was a drama and Hogan's Heroes was a comedy.
As mentioned above, Hogan's Heroes would prove controversial because of its setting. Many feared the series would make light of Nazism and, as a result, trivialise the horrible truths behind Nazi Germany. In its "television and radio" reviews from September 18, 1965, The New York Times commented, "There's something a little sick about Hogan's Heroes..." The controversy would only be made worse by remarks from Bob Crane in an interview with Stan Freberg published in the September 19, 1965 issue of The Sunday Times. Asked by Mr. Freberg what some of the other amusing aspects were, Bob Crane replied, "German police dogs, machine guns, the Gestapo..." Unfortunately, Mr. Crane's quote would later appear in Newsweek.
While there were those at the time who thought Hogan's Heroes was in poor taste, the show proved to be successful nonetheless. During its first season, it ranked no. 9 for the year. What is more, it was nominated for awards and even won a few. In its first season alone, Hogan's Heroes was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and Bob Crane was nominated for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series, and Werner Klemperer was nominated for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy Series. It would go on to be nominated for nine more Emmys, of which it won one (for Werner Klemperer for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy Series). In August 1967, at the first annual NAACP Image Awards, it was recognized for "the furtherance of the Negro image" alongside Daktari, I Spy, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek
Hogan's Heroes would also continue to do well in the ratings for much of its run. It ranked no. 17 for the year in its second season. It moved from its original time slot on Friday night to a new time slot on Saturday night. There it aired opposite NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, which ranked no. 10 for the year. As a result, ratings for Hogan's Heroes tumbled to no. 38 for the season. Its ratings would remain more or less steady for its fourth and fifth seasons. It ranked no. 39 both seasons. For its final season, Hogan's Heroes was moved to Sunday nights, where its ratings dropped once again.
While Hogan's Heroes dropped in the ratings in its sixth and final season, this was not the only reason that CBS cancelled the show. Quite simply, Hogan's Heroes was cancelled as part of the Rural Purge. It was in the 1970-1971 season that CBS decided to cancel shows whose audiences were too rural, too old, or too young (children don't count when it comes to the Nielsen ratings). Much of the audience for Hogan's Heroes was children, and so the show was cancelled as part of the Rural Purge. Of course, much of the reason for the Rural Purge was the FCC regulation known as the Prime Time Access Rule, which would take effect starting with the 1971-1972 season. Because of the Prime Time Access Rule, the networks lost three hours of programming once considered part of prime time.
While Hogan's Heroes ended its broadcast network run, it did not disappear. It went on to a successful run as a syndicated rerun. In addition to local stations, it has also aired on such cable stations as WGN, TBS, Nickelodeon, TV Land, and the Hallmark Channel. It has aired for many years on MeTV. Hogan's Heroes is also available on streaming on Prime Video and Pluto TV. The series's first season was released on DVD in 2005 and the following seasons would be released over the coming years. A boxed set of the complete series was released in 2009, with a repackaged box set of the complete series released in 2020.
Despite the success of Hogan's Heroes, the controversy over the series upon its debut in 1965 has never quite gone away. In its October 25, 1998 issue, when the possibility of a movie based on Hogan's Heroes was being discussed, The Boston Globe stated "...under no circumstances should a film of Hogan's Heroes be made," claiming it "...presented the Nazis as the biggest cutups since the Keystone Kops." In his 2000 book The Powers That Be, David Halberstam's examination of the rise of modern media, the author referred to Hogan's Heroes as a "...program with an almost obscenely comic view of the Third Reich..." In 2002, despite the fact that the magazine had given Hogan's Heroes good reviews in the Sixties, TV Guide ranked it as the fifth worst show of all time, primarily because by that time they thought the show was offensive. The Forward recently published an article, "Did critics of the POW sitcom Hogan's Heroes actually have a point?," that examines the various points of view regarding Hogan's Heroes.
Chances seem good that people will always argue over whether Hogan's Heroes is offensive, but it seems as if the show isn't going anywhere soon. For better or worse, it seems likely it will still be on the air or on streaming sixty years from now.
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