Today Bob Crane would be considered an amateur

He would probably be a TV evangelist or a reporter on Fox news channel.

Actually he was scheduled to star in a made-for-TV movie, called Crash I believe, and was talking to his priest and such about rehabilitation when he was killed. Besides, that COULD be the reason he was killed, since Carpy probably didn't want Crane to clean up and stop getting him the girls if he in fact killed him (and yes I strongly believe Carpenter did kill Crane).

It's unlikely Crane would have ever returned to the same level of success as James Garner for one simple reason: Garner is a much better actor than Crane ever was. Crane could never have pulled off something like The Rockford Files; he just wasn't good enough.

That was the real story of Bob Crane. He simply lucked-out with Hogan's Heroes and achieved fame and fortune without having much talent or skill. He was a mediocre television actor (at best) with an unorthodox, dehabilitating addiction which was noteworthy for the level of sophistication it required at the time. The videotaping was just an extension of his photography which brought him into contact with Carpenter.

Even without Carpenter, though, Crane would certainly have continued with his self-destructive lifestyle, regardless. Crane's eventual gruesome murder and the accompanying revelations about his sexual perversions brought him a type of immortality he never would have achieved otherwise, making him a kind of pervert's version of James Dean.

In fact, Hogan's Heroes itself was a foreshadowing of Crane's destiny in that watching the show itself was a sort of 'perversion'. The show wasn't actually funny at all but the premise (wacky, zany Nazis) made it interesting to watch, just like the old horrific car wreck analogy. In that respect, Crane was the perfect choice for the lead role.

QUOTE

I disagree. Caruso's recordings sound thin and scratchy because of the technology of that era. Does that mean that if he had lived in the modern era, that he wouldn't have kicked Pavarotti's ass?

Babe Ruth hit his 714 home runs in an era when players' schedules weren't as hectic (no night games), there wasn't as much pressure from an intrusive press corps, travel demands weren't as severe, and a lot of good competition was being kept out of the major leagues by the color barrier. Does this mean that if he had lived in the modern era, he'd be some two-bit schmuck who never made it out of the city Parks and Recreation league?

When Charles Dickens wrote his stories, there was no such thing as word processing software. For that matter, there was no such thing as software, and a "computer" was a person who made a living adding up figures for bookkeepers. Does that mean that if he had lived today, he'd be writing infomercials and Star Trek novels?

No. The great ones are timeless. Bob Crane's accomplishments in, and contributions to, obsessive sexual excess are legendary, and they transcend any momentary fads and quirks of technology. To compare him to mere pretenders like Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton, etc. is to do him an injustice, for next to him they fade into insignificance. He properly belongs among the titanic horndogs like Casanova, John Holmes, JFK; for he is their equal, he is and always will be one of them.