“I see nothing, I hear nothing….” Wartime TV comedies aren’t exactly a dime a dozen even in our channel ridden age. MASH of course stands tall offering emotional resonance, food for thought and moments of high hilarity. Hogan’s Heroes? TV doesn’t get much dumber, and dumb comedies don’t get too much funnier. It’s as if someone distilled the essence of The Dirty Dozen and mixed it with Gilligan’s Island. Add actors like Werner Klemper (who won an Emmy for his role as Col. Klink during the fourth season) and a minor classic emerges.
What really kept the show afloat wasn’t the war time tension it was the character work of it’s cast. Bob Crane made a great smart-alec leader but he was never as interesting as the revelations that later surfaced about his sad personal life. People watched the show mainly to watch Col. Klink’s reaction to being hoodwinked one more time. His inevitable cry “Ho-Gan!” may be too reminiscent of the skipper shouting “Gilligan!” But even if it was a guilty pleasure it was still pleasurable. Less guilty were the broad antics of John Banner as Sgt. Schultz has there ever been a more likeable Nazi? You may prefer Allo Allo but Season 4 of HH was pretty good by any stretch focussing on the insane bond that developed between the captors and their captives.
