Seemed to trivialize WWII, and insult the people who fought in it for worldwide freedom. A big milestone on the stupification of the television audience.
Today, more Americans probably know more about Hogan's Heroes than WWII history. Will this idiocy end up being what passes for Western Civilization?
It's a parody. It's not meant to be taken seriously.
shareI just remember it being not very funny.
Schulz and Klink were just a collection of annoying tics -- "I see nothing", "H-o-o-g-an!" -- that were repeated ad nauseam. Same with the British character who popped up from time to time.
The plotlines were so generic as to be instantly forgettable.
I think our family watched it only because in those days we only received 3 TV stations, so we took what we could get.
Yeah, we must be from the same era. We had an old wood console black and white TV where fine tuning was done by banging on the side. First TV did not even have UHF on it. But - they were both American made!
shareHumor is subjective. I always, and still do, love this show. My parents lived through WWII. My father fought in western Europe. Both of them thought the show was hilarious.
Laughing at tragic events, creating humor from them, is on of the hallmarks of comedy. It helps to deal with trauma and horrific events. That is normal human nature. Not everyone will like it, but a great many people did.
I will back this. Sure, it's a grim situation in reality, but the show is a Comedy.
It's supposed to be Funny and is finding a situation to find Humor in.
I've always hated the concept of the movie Life Is Beautiful, a guy in a Concentration Camp trying to convince his kid it's all a Game.
That's repugnant to me, trivializing the experience. (And I didn't like Bengini's overall persona much.)
But on a different level, maybe for someone else, it might bring Solace and Hope.
There's always been wartime comedy. What annoyed me was that officers and men wouldn't have been in the same POW camp.
shareI'm not going to claim I didn't think it was funny when I was a kid, but I think I also recognized it was taking difficult circumstances and trivializing them, and it all felt very shallow. Plot devices for lovely women to be involved. The sole Black guy has no funny lines or quirks, he's just there. At least he's handsome and has a good build and seems a little smarter than the rest so no one can complain. Very few of the bad guys seemed to be any sort of threat at all, so the whole thing was a funny lark set in a prison camp. Couldn't take it any more seriously than an episode of I Dream of Jeannie.
shareAlways loved this show with a passion. I whistle the intro tune on occasion and it cheers me up.
shareI'm in the camp of I have no problem setting a comedy in the middle of the biggest war in the history of humanity. I do have an issue with how dumb Klink, Schultz, and Co were written to be. It was a typical 1960's show that was not going to be sophisticated by any means so no multi-episode arcs with give and take between the Allies and Axis characters. I don't think that anybody confuses HH with what actually took place. Most older people have a basic knowledge of the war including principle leaders, theaters of operation, basic weapons, and so forth. Watching HH did not stop anybody who was curious from learning about the war. You know what has been from the time of the Roman Empire in terms of bread and circuses. HH should not be the basis for anybody's education but certainly won't lead to the end of Western civilization.
shareWell, if one is going to try to make a comedy out of WWII ... something along the lines of Inglourius Basterds would be close to something acceptable. Hogan's Heroes was just one of so very many shows that were so stupid I'd surprised if they did not cause actual brain rot.
So ... I think you criticism is off the mark, because if they had fixes all the really insignificant, not the problem, things that you mentioned ... it still would have been a S-show.
It can only rot your brain if you let it. There is no substitute for reading an honest historical account of any event in history. Unless you are under the age of 10 it should be obvious that television for the most part is written for the lowest common denominator. Greater choices have put pressure on to create more intelligent material unlike 40 years ago when a person's viewing choices were limited to just a few channels literally. I'm not a HH fan but saw the series many times over due to very limited viewing options decades ago while a kid.
share> I'm not a HH fan but saw the series many times over due to very limited viewing options decades ago while a kid.
Yeah, same, usually after school.
If I had used that time to watch something else or do my homework ... hence, rots your brain.
You may be right, but I still nurse a fondness for the show. It was an extension to the point of parody of elements of a number of movies set in WWII POW camps where the clever allied prisoners outwit the Germans, one of whom is likely a loveable anti-Nazi or grubbing goon who knowingly or unknowingly aids the prisoners.
The best refutation of Hogan's Heroes was the Mad Magazine parody which, on the last page, proposed a sequel series set in a Nazi concentration camp with the Hogan's Heroes crowd in striped pajamas, engaging in similar mischief.
I realize that not everyone agrees with me in matters of taste, and there are some things I think I should not like, but I do.
shareIt should also be considered that Werner Klemperer and John Banner were both Jews who escaped from Nazi Germany. They agreed to the show only if their characters, and the Nazis in general, were portrayed as buffoons. If they had no problems with this show, why should anyone else?
Author of the Sodality Universe
The Road from Antioch
In the Markets of Tyre
Flight to Lystra
The Theater of Ephesus (coming soon)
The Council on Jerusalem (coming 223)
> It should also be considered that Werner Klemperer and John Banner were both Jews who escaped from Nazi Germany.
Why should that matter in any way? Sounds like to you that sounds like a major negotiating achievement. To me it falls far short.
> If they had no problems with this show, why should anyone else?
Again, why should the people who are being paid not have a problem with it. Certainly not because of their ethics - they are biased by being paid, and yet you hold them up as role models? Why? Why do you care and defend this show with such ridiculous reasoning?
You know, you seem to be one of those folks who will tell someone of a particular group that they must think and feel in a particular way about something; and if they don't then they are either dishonest, greedy, or not really part of that group.
It is a common technique in comedy to use terrible and despicable events, people, and situations, and make fun of them; to denigrate them as ridiculous, stupid, and unacceptable. Hogan's Heroes is one of those things, as are films like Blazing Saddles.
Klemperer and Banner were interviewed on these topics before. Part of their reasons for agreeing to be part of this project was to ridicule the Nazis. The population that lived through World War II generally enjoyed this program, despite the horror they had been through. Why do you, who likely did not live through it and has no personal experience with the Nazis, imply that the people who did should not like this show?
And ridicule is what they did; Klink was an idiot. Schultz was a brown noser and easily fooled. Burkhalter and Hochstetter could be led around by the nose by a prisoner of war.
Author of the Sodality Universe
The Road from Antioch
In the Markets of Tyre
Flight to Lystra
The Theater of Ephesus (coming soon)
The Council on Jerusalem (coming 2023)
I remember watching it with my dad, who was a wwii vet. He never complained about it, not once.
shareYour Dad probably hated you, so he never talked when around you, or told you his deepest feelings.
That is about as insightful with respect to you as "you seem to be one of those folks who will tell someone of a particular group that they must think and feel in a particular way about something; and if they don't then they are either dishonest, greedy, or not really part of that group."
I'm not telling other people how they must think and feel in any way, and being a fairly intelligent person with some life experience no one can tell another person who they should think and feel, unless that person believes them and accepts their ideas. The worst people on here are these kind of folks who make these exacting descriptive comments about others based on their own psychosis.
I believe that judging others is a part of being a social animal.
That being said, making fun of nazis and/or doing humor about dark subjects, are both normal and healthy.
And Robert Clary, LeBeau, was a concentration camp survivor. He loved doing the show.
shareI always liked it but my dad who grew up during WWII did not because it made too light of the war.
shareAmericans know more about Hogan's Hero's than WWII because teachers would rather spew their liberal tranny loving ways on TikToc. Teachers would rather talk about pronouns and lesbian love affairs. Just teach the shit you were hired to teach.
shareShut up you sub-goon.
shareAre you devastated at being labeled a “sub-goon” or what? You got hit with the heavy artillery there JSully.
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