Hogan's Heroes WTF?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

Okay - I have been around for fucking ever and I also have been a comedy writer for TV. What i want to know is this:
How the fuck did the brains behind Hogan's Heroes pitch that show?

I will try -

"It's a free for all romp through a Nazi prison camp with a ne're-do-well man of the world at the helm, Hogan! His jaunty gang is made up of cute and funny characters! They cook! They sing! They have accents that American's will LoVE!
Hogan has limitless supplies of everything, including PUSSY! And the German's are the dumbest twits to ever live!!!! It is a hoot."

Does that work? I mean... I have never understood that tv show!

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. It was based on 'Stalag 17'

for which William Holden won the Best Actor Oscar.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/

[QueenOfCalifornia]

2. But still

I know that... but the tv show and the movie were about as much alike as shit and Shinola.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. And teevee execs know the difference between those?

:D

I dunno — my best guess would be that it made fun of the Wehrmacht, and maybe in 1965 the war was still fresh enough (and we weren't so sensitive about stereotypes) that it worked — sort of a silly medium between "Combat" and "Gomer Pyle, USMC."

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

13. Mad Magazine...

Year ago (mid-1970's) did a Hogan's Heroes parody where the location was a death camp. Pretty edgy stuff, even for them.

[Indi Guy]

4. OK We come from a similar era

At the time, Hogan's heroes was far more believable than identical cousins & a flying nun ;)

[QueenOfCalifornia]

5. It was?

I thought they were all bad. Identicle cousins???? Show me the DNA.

[Indi Guy]

6. I don't have access to Patty Duke's medical records

:(

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Not to mention a talking horse and woman who was reincarnated as

"A 1928 Porter, that's my mother dear..."

http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/my%20mother,%20the%20car-732399.jpg



But then, there was "Fractured Flickers." :bounce:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxxNu49NjCY

[Indi Guy]

8. And "Fractured Fairy Tales"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ0XCz0Wi9s ;)

[QueenOfCalifornia]

12. Edward Everet Horton

is GOD I tell you!

[meegbear]

9. I LOVE Mr. Ed ...

that was a show with panache!

[JoDog]

17. A horse is a horse,

a horse, of course. Unless that horse is in a Porche. And if that horse is in a Porche, it's Mr. Driver's Ed!

[Richardo]

14. You get today's Congressional Medal of Freedom...

...for the shout-out to 'Fractured Flickers' :applause:

[NewJeffCT]

10. And, the Germans will speak only English with German accents

except for "Javohl, Herr Commandant"

[CGowen]

11. I loved the German voice and accent of Klink...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW1RZhD68Ao

Just realized someone uploaded all German episodes on youtube

[unpossibles]

15. on the bright side, some TV writing has improved

as far as Hogan, I think someone should do a parody with Cheney as Klink and Bush as Shultz. Maybe Gore or Howard Dean as Hogan?

[Orsino]

16. I love that Werner Klemperer took the part of Klink...

...on the condition that he would always be a loser.

[Swede]

20. I never new that.

nt

[Orsino]

24. Not sure where I first heard that, but Wiki has the dirt...

A "Halbjude" (half-Jew), Klemperer fled the Nazi regime with his family in 1933; they all made their way to Los Angeles, where his father obtained a conducting post. Klemperer began acting in high school and enrolled in acting courses in Pasadena before joining the United States Army to fight in World War II.

While stationed in Hawaii, he joined the Army's Special Services unit, spending the next few years touring the Pacific entertaining the troops. At the end of the war, he worked on Broadway, and the advent of rapid growth in the television industry opened new doors to him...

Klemperer was very conscious of the fact that he was playing a German officer under the command of Nazis, and agreed to play Klink only on the condition that he would be portrayed as a fool and that he never succeeded. For his performance, Klemperer received six Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actor, winning in 1968, and again in 1969.

[formerrepuke]

18. ..and the actor playing 'LeBeau' (Robert Clary) was in German concentration camp..n/t

[Deep13]

19. Yeah, that's pretty much how I see it.

Ah, those wacky Nazis!

It is also based on Colditz, a prison camp for allied fliers. By the time it was liberated, the prisoners had built a printing service for forging Nazi documents; a network of lit, ventillated tunnels; a clothing service for making fake German uniforms; and, to top it off, a working aircraft factory in a hidden attic. They were building a glider to allow two men to escape from the hill-top prison to the town below. The war ended before it could be used, but subsequent tests showed it actually worked.

[Deja Q]

23. Same here. There's something inherently perverse about that show.

It's like Sarah Silverman of the 1960s; trying to camp up and turn something really disgusting and depraved into something one could laugh at.

However, anyone who got even a D in history class would know there's nothing funny about the Nazis or what they did.

The humor in "Hogan's Heroes" still eludes; it only comes across as a mockery -- but for all the wrong reasons. Did a Nazi after the war create the show? I mean, American sitcoms usually make a mockery of American government, and that's the only template that would fit HH - a Nazi or related person mocking his government. Even then, the context just isn't there.

[Orsino]

25. I think of it like Halloween...

...an attempt to take the greatest horror in living memory, and diminish it by laughing at it.

I love that premise, but I also liked That's My Bush and Li'l Bush. I can understand why it is so offensive to some.

[HughBeaumont]

21. I remember when Mad Magazine satirized it . . .

I read something about why it was a bit more than heavy-handed: the writer (Larry Siegel) was over there and took serious issue with the premise of that show.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

22. Interesting

I knew none of this.

Thanks.