I won't waste time going over the premise of the show; that has already been done more than adequately by nearly every reviewer here.
I will agree that the argument the show being "offensive" is weak. As others said, it was a POW stalag, not a concentration camp. And I'll add that "Hogan's Heroes" played during a period of multiple service comedies, yet it was the best of them, not the worst. Sgt. Bilko was a film-flam man. Cmdr. Quinton McHale occasionally did battle with the Japanese, but you never got the feeling that he or his crew were in danger from anyone but their immediate superior, Capt. Binghamton.
The POWs of Stalag 13, however, were another story. Yes, 95% of the time the focus was on Hogan and his men pulling scams on the Nazis and having fun sabotaging their work, but the remaining 5% of the time things could get uncomfortable. A decent number of stories contain scenes in which Hogan's life (or those of his men) are in peril. And as the show went on, characters like Maj. Hochstetter did not fail to notice that many of the Nazis' worst defeats were centered around Stalag 13.
Of course, this being a '60s sitcom, you know and I know that nothing really bad is going to happen to Hogan or his crew. Yet these moments always had a genuine tinge of tension to them.
But overwhelmingly the focus of the show was around conning the Nazis, disrupting their war plans and in general making fun of them. Bob Crane played Col. Hogan as a born con artist, able to come up with bold, brash scams at the drop of a hat. However, as many actors can tell you, playing the villain is infinitely more fun than playing the hero, and that seems to go doubly well for comedies.
How Werner Klemperer must have loved playing the pompous, cowardly Col. Klink! And John Banner as the pacifist, food-loving teddy bear, Sgt. Schultz...watching the two of them together (or separately with Crane), you begin to realize that it was they, not Bob Crane, that had the best roles in the show. Watch Schultz say something lovably idiotic, and Klink snap from a smile to a frown in an instant barking, "Dummkopf!"
It is these two, and to a lesser degree the various actors who played the heroes, that made the show so good, I am convinced. Each week Klemperer and Banner virtually put on a comedy acting clinic -- they were that good. And when you added the piggish Gen. Burkhalter and that ultimate Angry White Man, Maj. Hochstetter, things only got funnier. All of these characters were played so well that they remain hysterically memorable more than 40 years later.
Try not to concentrate on the inherent absurdity of pulling this stuff off on the Nazis week after week, year after year, and getting away with it, and concentrate more on the exquisite comedic performances, and you will have yourself one hell of a good time.
I will agree that the argument the show being "offensive" is weak. As others said, it was a POW stalag, not a concentration camp. And I'll add that "Hogan's Heroes" played during a period of multiple service comedies, yet it was the best of them, not the worst. Sgt. Bilko was a film-flam man. Cmdr. Quinton McHale occasionally did battle with the Japanese, but you never got the feeling that he or his crew were in danger from anyone but their immediate superior, Capt. Binghamton.
The POWs of Stalag 13, however, were another story. Yes, 95% of the time the focus was on Hogan and his men pulling scams on the Nazis and having fun sabotaging their work, but the remaining 5% of the time things could get uncomfortable. A decent number of stories contain scenes in which Hogan's life (or those of his men) are in peril. And as the show went on, characters like Maj. Hochstetter did not fail to notice that many of the Nazis' worst defeats were centered around Stalag 13.
Of course, this being a '60s sitcom, you know and I know that nothing really bad is going to happen to Hogan or his crew. Yet these moments always had a genuine tinge of tension to them.
But overwhelmingly the focus of the show was around conning the Nazis, disrupting their war plans and in general making fun of them. Bob Crane played Col. Hogan as a born con artist, able to come up with bold, brash scams at the drop of a hat. However, as many actors can tell you, playing the villain is infinitely more fun than playing the hero, and that seems to go doubly well for comedies.
How Werner Klemperer must have loved playing the pompous, cowardly Col. Klink! And John Banner as the pacifist, food-loving teddy bear, Sgt. Schultz...watching the two of them together (or separately with Crane), you begin to realize that it was they, not Bob Crane, that had the best roles in the show. Watch Schultz say something lovably idiotic, and Klink snap from a smile to a frown in an instant barking, "Dummkopf!"
It is these two, and to a lesser degree the various actors who played the heroes, that made the show so good, I am convinced. Each week Klemperer and Banner virtually put on a comedy acting clinic -- they were that good. And when you added the piggish Gen. Burkhalter and that ultimate Angry White Man, Maj. Hochstetter, things only got funnier. All of these characters were played so well that they remain hysterically memorable more than 40 years later.
Try not to concentrate on the inherent absurdity of pulling this stuff off on the Nazis week after week, year after year, and getting away with it, and concentrate more on the exquisite comedic performances, and you will have yourself one hell of a good time.