Ever since I was a kid, I always wondered, who likes this show ... - Hogan's Heroes (1965) Discussion

[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

5 for me. I remember when the show originally began reruns back in '69. Throughout the '70s it was one of the funnier shows. I also liked McHale's Navy and F Troop (which were both pretty silly - like Gilligan's Island, which was superior to both), but HH was much greater. It had a serious side (but didn't go overboard like MASH).

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[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

Funny, I could watch an occasional F-Troop or McHale's Navy, but Gilligan's Island was my goto braindead show and in my own mind anyway, I could sink no lower. I never to this day have watched an entire Hogan's heroes, I just hated that show.

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[–] FlushingCaps 9 years ago

The best answer I can give you Bruce is: Millions of people, young and old, who are/were smart enough to realize that you can have a series that shows some of the serious aspects of people in wartime--the many scenes where the Heroes were engaged in working for the war effort--and have other scenes involving these characters that involve humorous activities.

I rank Hogan's and McHale's Navy among the funniest sitcoms in history because the incidents at their respective camps/bases were very, very funny.

If you think that people who had any involvement with war would not likely have laughed at these series, I can give you my dad as evidence of the opposite. He was shot on a South Pacific island, losing a lung. But even though he only liked about one-fourth the shows my sister and I did, he loved McHale and company, and he also liked Hogan's Heroes.

Maybe if you try a full episode you will understand how funny this series was. If you still don't like it, that's fine. There are plenty of other funny old series to enjoy--either on DVD or one of the growing number of channels that feature them--Cozi, Antenna, ME, etc. Most series before 1970 were vastly funnier than almost everything that has aired in the last 20 years. Not because they every one was ALL that good, but because the shows of the last two decades--mostly--are terrible.

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[–] MrMime2015 9 years ago

I don't go by the era the series was produced. I always thought the Dick van Dyke Show was the most inventive, cleverest, and funniest sitcom of all until Seinfeld came along. No show since has supplanted it, but that could happen next year...who knows?

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[–] FlushingCaps 9 years ago

MrMime, I have to respond. You "always thought Dick Van Dyke was the funniest sitcom of all until Seinfeld came along." That mirrors my thoughts exactly.

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[–] dinerfood-901-211557 9 years ago

I watched it as an adult as I was very young at the time it aired. I think the best way is to watch all six seasons at once. One of the best shows and no one does Bob Crane like himself, he's a genre onto himself that someone like Tim Matheson would emulate years later.

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[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

Thanks, I know some people like this show, I just want to know who, what kind of people and why. I remember in my channel surfing even back then wondering why Richard Dawson who seemed much smarter than the others would be in such a dumb show ... but that was before Family Feud and other game shows. LOL, thanks.

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[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

In 1971 Hogan's Heroes was among the group of CBS's "rural shows" that got the axe, along with The Beverly Hillbillies et al. Not exactly taking place in rural America, the show was watched by the same audience that were fans of Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and the Hillbillies.

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[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

LOL, that figures! Don't forget Mr. Ed.

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[–] Fletcherj119 9 years ago

Mr. Ed was sent to the glue factory years before the other rural shows were cancelled.

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[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

In short, CBS cut all the hick shows, because they had undesirable demographic appeal to advertisers.

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[–] activista 8 years ago

To the OP:

To be fair, if you've never watched the show then how do you know whether it's stupid or not? I don't understand how people can claim a show or movie is bad if they're never even sat down to watch in the first place. Give it a chance (it's on the new digital channel Heroes & Icons now.) There's been a few shows from my childhood I thought were lame as hell, only to find out that the show wasn't as bad as I thought. Just watch an episode and see if you actually like it from there.

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[–] darryl-tahirali 9 years ago

Ever since I was a kid, I always wondered, who likes this show ... and why? - bruce-129

I first watched HH when I was in grade school in the early 1970s. Even by Grade Three I was already interested in World War Two, so I was naturally drawn to it, particularly as it was in large measure a madcap comedy that appealed to a young boy.

I think it is an insult to the victims of WWII, and even worse than McHale's
Navy which was awful as well.

Why don't you explain why you think HH is an "insult to the victims of WWII"?

You've posted your comment in early 2015, and that war has been over for nearly 70 years. When the show premiered, the war had been over for only 20 years, and it was much fresher in far more minds, with more effects that were much more evident in 1965 than in 2015. In other words, the show's creators, participants, and audience were much better acquainted with the content and context of the show than we are 50 years after that.

Here's my anecdote: My mother was British, and she was a young war bride in southern England during the war working in a munitions factory. They were attacked by German V1's and V2's several times. She had two brothers who fought in the war, one who flew Spitfires in the RAF and one who was a "Desert Rat," in the Eighth Army, and was captured by the Italians in Libya. Her first husband was in RAF Coastal Command.

My mother used to talk about the war a lot--the bombings, the shortages, the people she knew who were killed, missing, wounded, and, at least until 1943, whether the Allies would ever win. But she would also say that, despite the horror and misery of the war, it was, paradoxically, a remarkable time to be alive, and that she actually never felt more alive except during the war years. And hers is not an unusual opinion among the "Greatest Generation"--many have expressed this view.

So, I would suggest that making service comedies such as HH or McHale's Navy that were set during the war a generation after the war was perhaps a way to capture that feeling in a harmless, non-threatening way, to recognize that the era occurred and had a significant impact on them, but without focusing on the tragic elements.

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson

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[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

>> I was already interested in World War Two, so I was naturally drawn to it,

That's a good one.

>> making service comedies such as HH or McHale's Navy that were set during the war a generation after the war was perhaps a way to capture that feeling in a harmless, non-threatening way, to recognize that the era occurred and had a significant impact on them, but without focusing on the tragic elements.

I just do not think that is a good idea. Apparently there are people who disagree with me, that's why I posted, in order to understand why. I can't really think you like HH because you were interesting in WWII, because as a kid when it was actually playing, WWII was on everyone's mind like Iraq. You don't see that kind of show about Iraq, or Vietnam.

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[–] darryl-tahirali 9 years ago

>> I was already interested in World War Two, so I was naturally drawn to it,

That's a good one. - bruce-129

Why is it "a good one"?

I just do not think that is a good idea.

That not a response as to why is the show is "an insult to the victims of WWII." That's an evasion.

I can't really think you like HH because you were interesting in WWII, because as a kid when it was actually playing, WWII was on everyone's mind like Iraq. You don't see that kind of show about Iraq, or Vietnam.

I don't even know what you're trying to say there. And are you actually telling me that I cannot think as I do because of your say-so? How presumptuous of you.

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson

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[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

Because "Hogan Heroes" has about as much to do with WWII as ABBA has to do with the battle of Waterloo.

I don't feel like arguing with you, I wasn't trying to be evasive or insulting it you took it that way. I think to treat a serious subject with triviality is not a good idea.

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[–] darryl-tahirali 9 years ago

Because "Hogan Heroes" has about as much to do with WWII as ABBA has to do with the battle of Waterloo. - bruce-129

RE: ABBA and Waterloo: A little literal-minded, aren't you? Do you know what the word "metaphor" means? Or is ABBA also trivializing a tragic event?

My take is that we live in a world in which the profound and the trivial are interrelated. It's also why people make jokes about death: It's a coping mechanism, an attempt to get a handle on the subject.

Oh, well. I tried to answer your original question because it was an interesting one. Otherwise, I would not have responded in the first place.

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson

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[–] Zebra 3 9 years ago

Batman and Robin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHD_53UqBeA

'Huuutch!' - Starsky

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[–] CSM_Model_101 9 years ago

Well my grandparents loved the show. They introduced me to the show and they BOTH were involved with World War II.

So if they can see the humor in the subject why can't you?

Allot of the Germans in the show, also felt the effects of World War II and yet they could put it past them to make the show.

Grow up.

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[–] dialixii 9 years ago

Different times back then. You are applying todays standards to the 60's. If you notice, all of the Germans are portrayed as easily defeatable, inept, bumbling or downright stupid. All allied forces are portrayed as the Heroes.

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[–] radioriot 9 years ago

Comedy comes from tragedy and WWII was the greatest tragedy of all time. But it was also the greatest triumph of good people. My father was in WWII and was very proud of his service in the Pacific. As kids he told us very funny stories about the war and as we got older he told tragic stories of the war too. I am still drawn to WWII stories: funny or tragic. HH was a family event each week and then I watched it in reruns after school. I still watch today. I love the characters and the situations they get into. It reminds me of my Father's stories. Shultz shows the goodness of the German people led by a ruthless leader. Klink, a military bureaucrat. And the Generals were just what the real German Generals were: Social climbers who would step on anybody to get ahead but too weak to say no to Hitler out of fear. The Allied Soldiers were always the good guys. What's not to love. It's little boys playing Cops and Robbers.

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[–] amyghost 9 years ago

I recall HH being somewhat my introduction to WWII when I was a kid. I knew the show had a war setting, and figured out it wasn't Vietnam, obviously--but I had to do a little digging to find out more about where the Heroes were and why...so in an odd sort of way, the show might have served as a little bit of a history lesson to the young of that time, opening the door to getting some of them interested in finding out the real background of the show's setting.

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[–] uber_geek 8 years ago

That wasn't just the times, it was a specific requirement of Werner Klemperer that Klink would always come off as the loser--he would never win. His family fled Germany and Robert Clary, who played LeBeau, was an actual prisoner in a concentration camp for a time. There were several major players in the cast who were Jewish actors and who knew first hand about what the Germans did.

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[–] RBONZOBOY5 8 years ago

You have a point...but some might say-if you can t make fun of the Nazis then who CAN you make fun of!?.

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[–] Schweinepriester 8 years ago

I grew up with this show, and I like it.
Why?

Because the setting is unique, and it is a comedy, in a tough terrain,
they tried something and they found the perfect cast.

the main reason why I like the show, despite the age is the wonderful and extremely funny german dubbing.
It's sad that no amercian and others can't get their hands or better ears on the hilarious german dubbing of the show.
That outstanding dub made the show way funnier.
Sure I watched a few episodes in english but growing up with the funny german dub,
sorry there is nothing which is better.

I mean the added so much nonsense and street talk that is now common knowledge here,
if you start quoting HH in germany, there is always someone who knows lines too.

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[–] stevenackerman69 8 years ago

Yeah, you sort of wonder about it. They cancel Gilligan's Island but not this in 1967, although it was eventually cancelled anyway. I think it is like with The Producers, where Mel Brooks made the Nazis and Hitler into buffoons, so it is showing them as fools and dupes. There were people who complained at the beginning, but it all died away when it was shown what I just said about the way the Nazis were treated.

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