Hogan's Heroes: Difference between revisions

* [[Angry Guard Dog]]: Inverted -- the dogs are always angry to the Germans, but the prisoners have them trained to a T.

* [[Anti-Advice]]: A bomb lands in Stalag 13. Hogan asks Col. Klink [[Wire Dilemma|which wire to cut to disarm it]], then cuts the other one.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Carter. In the pilot he was one of several escaped prisoners passing through Stalag 13, but become a major cast member during the rest of the show.

** And Baker, who replaced Kinchloe as radio specialist after Ivan Dixon left the show. Before that he was just a background prisoner.

* [[Batman Cold Open]]: They do it occasionally, with Hogan & co. out on sabotage missions.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: The show is fueled by them.

* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: In at least half the episodes, Hogan and his crew use this to complete their missions.

** In one case, the crew actually impersonated a German fire brigade to do it!

* [[The Boxing Episode]]: "The Softer They Fall".

* [[But Not Too Evil]]: None of the main German cast, and only one of the recurring quest characters (the SS guy) is a member of the Nazi party.

*** John Banner made a point of this in an interview, stating that he felt Schultz represented a bit of good found in every generation.

** Also, apparently [[Truth in Television]]. According to [[The Other Wiki]], Officers of the regular German armed forces were forbidden from joining any political party, which at that time was pretty much the Nazi Party.

'''Hogan:''' [checking his watch] Thirty-one seconds early! Why can't these Germans learn to be methodical?}}

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Lady [[Meaningful Name|Chitterley]] (falsely) implies very heavily that she spent a summer ''ménage à trois'' with Hogan and her husband. It's never specifically said, but everyone else gets what they mean -- and are disturbed by it. LeBeau comments "We're French! We can all be friends!", referring to a (somewhat) love triangle that's sprung up with him, Hogan, and another [[Girl of the Week]]. Apparently this show likes its threesomes.

** In "To The Gestapo, With Love", while Klink is hopelessly trying to flatter the female Gestapo interrogators and give them his phone number (while none of them write down), he says:

{{quote|"It's amazing how you never write down those facts. But of course--you ladies were chosen for your fantastic mammaries..." (Okay, maybe he did say 'memories'. Maybe.)}}

* [[Girl of the Week]]

* [[Glad I Thought of It]]: Colonel Klink -- Colonel Hogan uses this to manipulate him.

'''Schultz''': Be a good fellow and take me with you.}}

* [[Guile Hero]]: Hogan.

* [[Hollywood Darkness]]: Gets especially funny when an officer uses a flashlight to read a map and it's dimmer than the light around him.

* [[Homage]]: The episode where Hogan & Co. trick a visitor into thinking he's flying in an airplace was a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Batman: The Movie]]'', where the United Underworld tricks the kidnapped Commodore Schmidlapp into thinking he's still aboard his yacht.

* [[I Can't Believe I'm Saying This]]

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Carter occasionally puts it down and becomes competent. In one episode he can barely manage speaking German, in another he can impersonate Hitler and fool someone who'd actually met him. In at least one episode Hogan draws attention to the fact that he's been spending some time on a ruse for Klink and decides to use it for the heist of the week. It's very possible that Hogan has several stunts going at any one time for fun as well as profit.

* [[Impersonating an Officer]]: Hogan often does this, Kinchloe uses this tactic over the phone and Carter sometimes [[Refuge in Audacity|impersonates]] [[Adolf Hitler]].

* [[Indy Ploy]]: Because nothing ever, ''ever'' goes exactly as planned.

* [[Miles Gloriosus]]: Klink, at times Schultz, Col. Crittendon.

* [[Minion with an F In Evil]]: Schultz all the way.

** In the [[Batman Cold Open]] of another episode, the guys are meeting an Underground agent who was a [[Wholesome Crossdresser|female impersonator]] before the war. Jokes fly, then Germans crash the meeting, fire at the good guys and take off in pursuit of the Underground agent. Hogan and his men get up again, Newkirk cracks a joke at the expense of the French... and they realize that LeBeau is still on the ground and has actually been shot. Cue one of the most dramatic moments in the (usually) comedic series when Newkirk [[OOC Is Serious Business|does a 180 from]] his usual [[Deadpan Snarker]] persona and says quietly, "Colonel, my little mate's been hit."

* [[Name Drop]]: In one season-one episode ("German Bridge is Falling Down"), a pilot says "Hogan's Heroes...I wonder ''how'' they [get away with shit like this all the time]?"

* [[A Nazi by Any Other Name]]: The fictional version of Stalag 13. Their activities were slapstick, nothing compared to those of the real-life version.

* [[No Swastikas]]: Sort of. Mention of the Bad Old Days on German TV is illegal, so the German dub replaces much of the discussions with talk of Klink's unseen housekeeper, and Nazi salutes become comedically contrived gestures. None of the main German characters are members of the Nazi party, Klink outright stating he doesn't like them a few times.

* [[Not So Different]]: Klink says this one to Hogan a few times.

** Marya acts the part of an oversexed materialistic flirt, but her plans often run circles around Hogan himself.

** Schultz is supposed to be a fool, and always claims to know "noth-ink!", but he's the only German soldier aware of the heroes' activities. When he actively helps the heroes his competence occasionally jumps, even if he still sounds like a fool. In peacetime he owns and runs the biggest toy company in Germany.

** At one point Hogan convinces Klink that LeBeau is psychic. In another episode, that Schultz is psychic. In another episode, he convinces Klink that ''Klink'' is psychic!

* [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]: Colonel Klink.

** To maintain comedy, the show avoids mention of the more horrifying aspects of the Nazi regime. In the psychic-LeBeau episode mentioned above Hogan bolsters his claim by saying that LeBeau has gypsy blood. And we all know how much the Nazis liked gypsies...

*** Not quite; Hogan says that [[Le Beau]] has Basque blood--which is a whole different ethnicity from the Romani.

** Also when the German brass get upset that Kinchloe can outbox the luftstalag champion. Klink doesn't see the problem until Burkhalter brings up that ''other'' African-American who was known for athletically outperforming Nazi contestants.

*** This is the only episode where anyone actually brings up that Kinchloe is black, and it's jarring since (to maintain a comedic atmosphere) the intense race-consciousness that most of the characters would have had in real life was otherwise ignored entirely.

** Prison camp commandant ''Klink's'' name as a pun on "clink," slang for a prison.

* [[Put on a Bus to Hell]]: Anyone who gets sent to [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|the Russian Front]]

* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: Klink.

* [[Snow Means Cold]]

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To [[Billy Wilder]]'s ''Stalag 17''. So much so, that the producers of ''Stalag 17'' sued Bing Crosby Productions for plagiarism. They lost.

* [[Staff of Authority]] - In addition to his [[High-Class Glass|monocle]], carrying around a swagger stick tucked under one arm is the trademark of Colonel Klink.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Military and Warfare Television]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Sitcom]]