Before Hogan’s Heroes was cancelled in 1971 after six seasons, Bob Crane, who played Col. Robert E. Hogan, was working on a live version of the TV series called Hogan’s Heroes’ Review. In addition to comedy skits and music, the show would have revealed what happened to each of Hogan’s main characters after the war ended. Sadly, it never materialized.
Sixty years ago, television audiences were introduced to the charming residents of fictional Stalag 13 and their inept camp guardians.
“The show focused on the ingenuity of the prisoners and the humor that came from them outwitting their captors,” Brenda Royce, author of Hogan’s Heroes: Behind the Scenes at Stalag 13!, exclusively tells Closer. “They poked a lot of fun at Hitler too.”
Larry Hovis, Bob Crane, Richard Dawson
Initially, the idea for the comedy raised eyebrows. When pitched the series, both Bob and Werner Klemperer, who played Germany’s Col. Klink and was one of the show’s several Jewish actors who served in the American military during World War II, assumed Hogan’s Heroes would be a drama. But although loosely based on the 1953 film Stalag 17, it played the situation for laughs while staying mindful of the people who suffered during WWII.
“[The writers] wanted to make fun of the war, but not the atrocities committed,” explains Royce, who notes that the Holocaust is never mentioned on the show.
Inside the Set of Hogan’s Heroes
Hogan’s Heroes shared its Culver City, California, studio set with The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, The Andy Griffith Show and other popular series of the era. The latter’s Ron Howard recalled riding his bicycle to the Hogan’s set.
“These sets and villages mesmerized me,” he said in The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family. “They seemed to hold stories, secrets.”
In keeping with its tales of espionage, the Hogan’s set had trap doors including a tree stump with a secret room below it.
“The actors would sometimes tell a guest star, ‘Just wait down there. We’ll be there soon,’” Royce says. “And then they would just walk away!”
Richard Dawson, Larry Hovis
That kind of hijinks was common among the close-knit cast. “Larry Hovis and Richard Dawson were always pulling pranks,” Royce tells Closer.
Hogan’s Heroes never tried to be historically accurate. Despite its winter setting, palm trees sometimes can be seen in the background. Extras were also fluid.
“You’d have supporting players doing more than one role,” Royce says. “A guy is German in one episode and American in the next.”
The medals on officer’s uniforms were often not correct. “It was a comedy. They were just looking for props that looked like they could be right,” Royce says.
It really didn’t matter because Hogan’s Heroes succeeded in its mission to make viewers laugh.
“The writing was just so sharp and funny,” says Royce, who notes that the cast was skillful too. “As a kid, I loved the broad humor of Sgt. Schultz and the camaraderie between the heroes. At its heart, it’s a show with sharp writing and great acting.”