For sale: Hogan's Heroes

- Original DVDs
- No scratches on Disc
- Not a rental movie,
- Like new condition
- Viewed only once!

Please note: Discs are no longer in their original boxes!
                     They are in CD envelopes to protect them

Hogan's Heroes
The Complete First Season (1965) / 5 DVDs
Selling for $42.39 in store, yours for $20.00
or will trade for other movies (must be in "Like new" condition

Phone: (250) 514-9799

Contact seller: Click here to e-mail the seller

Location of goods: Sidney, Vancouver Island, Canada
                               I will ship worldwide at your cost!

You can pay by: Cash, Visa, MasterCard & Paypal




I will accept any reasonable offer on any item(s)

Click here to view other items I'm selling

Even though I can't top another reviewer's title "A Blitzkrieg of Laughs," I can certainly add my two cents regarding one of TV's funniest shows. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Hogan's Heroes before getting my hands on this Season One collection. I would have loved to have been in the room when the idea guys pitched this show to network executives: it's a comedy, see, set in a WWII German prisoner of war camp, and naturally we'll have some Heil Hitlers thrown around but, really, what could be funnier than that? It's a sure thing. Whatever might have been said in that meeting, the truth is that this improbable idea of a show was indeed a sure thing that hit its mark from the very start. Bob Crane was born to play Colonel Hogan, John Banner ranks close to the top when it comes to supporting actors in a comedy series, and the irrepressible Colonel Klink (played perfectly by Werner Klemperer - who picked up two Emmys for Best Supporting Actor for his trouble) is truly a character for the ages. It's hard to believe this show is now forty years old, some of its star players long dead. I swear, though, I think it's funnier now than it's ever been.

You don't get any special features with the Season One DVD set (although it appears Season Two will include some extra goodies), but you do get all 32 (count 'em, 32) complete episodes from that magical first season of 1965-1966. The pilot episode is in black and white, but all of the other episodes are in color (as CBS boasts at the start of every broadcast). It would be wonderful to hear some commentary by the main players, but the most prominent members of the cast are no longer alive. John Banner died in 1973, Werner Klemperer in 2000; Bob Crane, of course, was brutally murdered in 1978. It's very interesting to note that John Banner was a Jew who fled Austria after the Anschluss (but not before spending some time in a concentration camp - as did Robert Clary, as well) and that Werner Klemperer and his family (his father was the famous conductor Otto Klemperer) left Germany for America just after Hitler came to power. The fact that they both played bumbling German soldiers on the show proves that irony does not always travel without a sense of justice. General Burkhalter and Major Hochstetter were also played by Jewish men.

As for the show, I hardly need describe it. Hogan and his men are not your normal POWs; no one has ever escaped Stalag 13 precisely because it is these prisoners' mission to stay there and help the Allied war effort in innumerable ways: helping other prisoners escape, securing valuable intelligence, engaging in acts of sabotage, etc. There's really no limit to the military hijinx they pull off, all under the nose of the self-possessed Colonel Klink. Sergeant Schultz, for his part, wants to know Nothing! Nothing !! Klink unknowingly helps Hogan and his men more often than not. He has no clue that Hogan and his men are anything more than Allied solders broken at the hands of the Iron Colonel - despite the fact that secret German weapons have a habit of disappearing and reappearing elsewhere in camp, German anti-aircraft guns have a tendency of moving out of the way for local Allied bombing runs, scientists have a tendency to disappear after visiting the camp, and all sorts of other shenanigans are nothing short of routine. Of the 32 episodes in the first season, there's only one weak story in the bunch (the switcheroo episode in which Ivan Dixon plays an African prince as well as Kinch). Since I can't describe every episode, I'll make special mention of only one: The Great Impersonation. This is a true classic in which Sergeant Schultz is talked into impersonating Colonel Klink in order to get three of Hogan's men out of captivity and back to Stalag 13.

Trips to Klink's office were especially enjoyable in the first season because of the presence of Cynthia Lynn as Klink's secretary Helga. I don't know why she didn't continue in the role, but Hilda (Sigrid Valdis, who would marry Bob Crane right there on the set) couldn't hold a match to Helga in later seasons. Season One also featured some notable guest appearances. William Christopher (Father Mulcahy from TV's M.A.S.H.) appeared in two episodes, Bernard Fox showed up twice as the thoroughly British Colonel Crittendon, and - best of all - Gavin MacLeod appeared as nothing less than a Gestapo officer.

Hogan's Heroes is just an incredibly funny show, but it's more than that. It took talented writers to think up so many crazy capers week in and week out, and Season One is a testament to their skills. These characters are as well-defined as any you will find anywhere else, thanks to a fantastic cast (Colonel Klink is one of my favorite characters of all-time). Everything about this show works, and I'm sure that you'll still be hearing Schultz's catchphrase and seeing children walk around with quarters in their eyes pretending they're monocles a hundred years from now.

Reviewer: Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA)