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DVD Hogan's Heroes - The Complete Third Season
"What is this man doing here?" an increasingly agitated Major Hochstetter of the Gestapo demands of Col. Klink (Werner Klemperer) in "War Takes a Holiday," one of the best episodes of Hogan's Heroes' third season (or any season, for that matter). "This man," of course, is Senior P.O.W. Officer Col. Hogan (Bob Crane), who, by now, has the run of Stalag 13, and seemingly, all of Europe. The beginning of the episode, "D-Day at Stalag 13," finds Hogan in London to receive his orders on how his barracks operation will further "tie up" the German general command to distract them from the planned Normandy landing. "You have quite a reputation for the offbeat and the bizarre, and for pulling it off," Hogan is told. And he more than lives up to it over the course of season 3. In "War Takes a Holiday," Hogan and company convince their captors that the war is over. But sabotaging the German war effort is not all fun and games. In "One in Every Crowd," Hogan is threatened with exposure by a barracks traitor, and in "Two Nazis for the Price of One," a top Gestapo officer likewise learns of Hogan's operation, and demands information about the Manhattan Project. These excellent episodes belie Hogan's Heroes unwarranted reputation as a series that treated life in a prison camp as a lark.
This season welcomed back several recurring characters, most notably, Bernard Fox's Col. Crittendon, "the most incompetent British officer in the entire British Navy." Reprising her role as the very suspect White Russian, Nita Talbot was nominated for an Emmy for her performance in "The Hostage." For his commanding performance as Klink, Klemperer was honored with an Emmy this season. As lovable oaf Sgt. Schultz, John Banner enjoyed some of his character's most memorable episodes, including "Sergeant Schultz Meets Mata Hari" and "The Ultimate Weapon." (In "War Takes a Holiday," it is revealed that Schultz was the owner of Germany's biggest toy company!) This five-disc set contains a short but sweet excerpt from a Pat Sajak Show appearance by Klemperer, who reveals one of show business's most fascinating ironies; how a man whose family fled Hitler's Germany became television's most famous and oddly beloved Nazis. --Donald Liebenson
Review(s): DVD Hogan's Heroes - The Complete Third Season
ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS EVER
I only discovered "Hogan's Heroes" in the mid-'90s through french-dubbed reruns while living in France. I very quickly found the plots and characters hilarious, and the fake german accents incredibly funny. I also found the concept extremely bold: even though the series took place in a pseudo-POW camp and not an extermination camp, swastikas and SS uniforms were all around, and the situations and nazi organizations portrayed were bound to shock more than one. AND the series was originally aired about 20 years after the liberation of the concentration/extermination camps. How could they pull off introducing the project to studios, having it accepted, and then airing it? I don't know, but I'm certainly grateful they did. This is one of my favorite shows if not THE favorite, along with "Sanford & son", "Barney Miller", "Taxi" and "Seinfeld"... Now viewing them in their original English version is great, since some of the humor in the storylines was lost during the translation to French, although I find the german accents less ridiculous in the US version. Anyone fluent in French and having access to French-dubbed episodes should look out for Hochstetter's and Burkhalter's appearances.
I'm sorry nothing as good has been made in recent years; any TV series' attempt at being funny lately has only turned out ridiculously retarded, save for a very few...
Third Season Still Packed with Laughs
The introductory CBS logo is gone, but the show remains in top form. Season three of HOGAN'S HEROES is the point at which the actors have become inseparable from their roles.
More Col. Crittendon, Hochstetter, but less of Hilda. This season featured larger roles for Ivan Dixon, Larry Hovis, Robert Clary, and Richard Dawson.
Some of the best shows of the series appear in this season. Included this this collection are episodes about the snowman tunnel, Schultz conveniently misplacing his rifle while under fire, and Crittendon's assignment to replace Hogan at Stalag 13.
Yes, it is still perpetual winter at Stalag 13. Despite the lush California greenry in the background we still believe that it is freezing cold outside. The actors must have been roasting in their jackets and overcoats. Additionally, you do not have to look too carefully in some of the season three episodes to spot a soundstage or studio warehouse in the background -- towering over the barracks set. Then again, after three years it was becoming difficult to find new camera angles from which to shoot.
Klink still reports to General Burkhalter. Leon Askin, as usual, is great in this role. However, throughout the series' six-year run there was always a question as to why a Luftwaffe colonel reported to a Heer general. We will just have to assume that Burkhalter, whose military duties were never fully described in the series, was the local non-combat Wehrkreis commander. The SS and Gestapo, who should be wearing field gray uniforms in wartime, continue to don their pre-war black attire. I suppose that it made them more readily identifiable as the bad guys. Season Three marks the first time we find Burkhalter and Hochstetter together in the same episode. According to Brenda Scott Royce's book HOGAN'S HEROES: BEHIND THE SCENES, the Hochstetter character was used almost interchangabley for Burkhalter when Leon Askin was unavailable for a show.
There are a couple additional faux pas in this season. In one episode we find Klink summoned to report to a high ranking SS general. He tries on hats trying to decide which one to wear for the visit. The peaked cap he dons for one moment is not his usual Luftwaffe hat, but is a field-green German army (Heer)cap. Additionally, the mystery is solved as to how Sergeant Schultz's cartridge belt remains level around his equitorial girth. Most German soldiers wore leather Y-suspenders to support their heavily laden belts. In one show, while Schultz is temporarily in charge of the Luft Stalag, we see that his overcoat is tailored with metal clips on each side so that his overcoat actually supports his belt.
By the way, doesn't anyone find it peculiar that the French underground is operating so deep inside Germany? Luft Stalag 13's fictional location is in the middle of Germany by Hammelburg. During World War Two, Hammelburg was actually the site of a Yugosloav and American POW camp that housed General George S. Patton's son in law after his capture in North Africa.
In Season Three there are numerous clues that it is 1944 as there is talk of an impending D-Day invasion, two episodes about rocket fuel, and General Hammerschlag's plan for the destruction of Paris prior to its capture by the Allies. In fact, the title of the Paris episode, "Is General Hammerschlag Burning?" is a direct reference to the Larry Collins and Dominique Lepierre book (and later movie of the same name) IS PARIS BURNING? However, a few episodes later, Hogan tries to persuade Klink to play his violin in a POW camp stage production of "Escape Follies of 1943." Much like M*A*S*H, the actual chronological date is not important.
Remember too that this was the year that Desilu Studios was absorbed into Paramount. Some episodes credit Desilu, while others list Paramount. The original STAR TREK likewise shared this change.
Once again the DVD set is of exceptional quality.
A classic!
This was perhaps one of the best TV shows produced and is still as entertaining today as it was then.
Related DVD's Hogan's Heroes - The Complete Third Season
Probably the most successful bad idea in television history, Hogan's Heroes took an appalling premise--the suffering of World War II prisoners-of-war played for laughs--and turned it into a hugely popular series that ran for six seasons. Wily Colonel Hogan (Bob Crane, previously a regular on The Donna Reed Show) and his merry multicultural band of P.O.W.s--including cocky cockney Newkirk (Richard Dawson, pre-Family Feud), softhearted Frenchman LeBeau (Robert Clary, later to appear on Days of Our Lives), clumsy explosives expert Carter (Larry Hovis), and steadfast radio operator Kinch (Ivan Dixon), one of the first black characters on television to be treated as an equal by his peers without any self-congratulatory comment--carried out spying and sabotage... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Marc Daniels - Howard Morris - Irving J. Moore - John Rich - Robert Butler DVD Release Date: Released the 15 August 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A top 10 show in its first season (a top 20 show in its second), Hogan's Heroes, like Gilligan's Island, got little love from critics during its seven-year run, but it would come to be ranked among TV's guiltiest pleasures. Hogan's Heroes has gotten something of a bad rap. It is not a situation comedy set in a concentration camp. It is, instead, set in a P.O.W. camp, where Col. Hogan (Bob Crane, a former top radio jock, in his star-making role) and his men "trick the dumb Germans," to quote the late Crane's former wife, Sigrid Valdis, in her enlightening commentary on the episode, "Hogan Gives a Birthday Party." While Valdis reveals that the film Von Ryan's Express was a key inspiration for the series, the show seems to takes its cue from Billy Wilder's... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Howard Morris - John Rich - Robert Butler - Edward H. Feldman - Bob Sweeney DVD Release Date: Released the 27 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Get ready for another season of wacky antics and laughs from the gang at Stalag 17. The guys are up to their old tricks to sabotage and subvert the Nazi efforts, along with the bungling Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz. Here's what you can expect in Season 5.
The 26 episodes with original telecast dates include:
Episode 1: Hogan Goes Hollywood (9/26/1969)
Episode 2: The Well (10/3/1969)
Episode 3: The Klink Commandos (10/10/1969)
Episode 4: The Gasoline War (10/17/1969)
Episode 5: Unfair Exchange (10/24/1969)
Episode 6: The Kommandant Dies at Dawn (10/31/1969)
Episode 7: Bombsight (11/7/1969)
Episode 8: The Big Picture (11/14/1969)
Episode 9: The Big Gamble (11/21/1969)
Episode 10: The Defector... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Marc Daniels - Howard Morris - Irving J. Moore - John Rich - Robert Butler DVD Release Date: 19 December 2006
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Two years after 1963's The Great Escape thrilled movie audiences with a tale of Allied soldiers working cooperatively to flee a World War II-era prisoner-of-war camp, CBS found a hit situation comedy in the loosely similar Hogan's Heroes. Initially dismissed by critics as being in poor taste, the half-hour show starred Bob Crane (previously known for a supporting role on The Donna Reed Show) as Colonel Robert Hogan, leader of a resourceful band of French, British and American guests of the German Luftwaffe. Rather than sit out the war with his fellow captives, Hogan essentially used the POW camp, Stalag 13, as a base for sabotaging Nazi operations whenever possible, helping important prisoners escape, supporting the Resistance, gathering intelligence for the Allies,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Howard Morris - John Rich - Robert Butler - Edward H. Feldman - Bob Sweeney DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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