I am absolutely shocked to see this show ranked so low. This was without a doubt my favorite show when I was growing up. Yeah, Bob Crane was a whack job, but still, this show was nothing but laughs from start to finish. Werner Klemperer was an interesting person to cast for Colonel Klink. He had said before he signed the contract to play the part that he would in no way ever play the part of a German in a positive light. Quite interesting considering his heritage. Anyway, I still love the reruns and will always rmember Sergeant Schultz say: "I know nothing!"

Harmless fun. John Banner was my favorite.

um.
nazis arent funny.

Imbecilic and rather tasteless.

I'm surprised they didn't do a spin off called Goldberg's Giants which took place in Auschwitz.

Another show that was in prime reruns during my youth, "Hogan's Heroes" gets an extra star (at least) for some relative harmless entertainment back in the day. If anything, the producers should get some respect for taking the risk in setting a comedy in a Nazi prison camp. Clearly, the longevity of the series was based on the chemistry between Hogan (Bob Crane) and Colonel Klink (Werner Klemperer) as well as the imaginative and funny ways the prisoners fulfilled their clandestine assignments, which could have gotten more repetitive than it did, helped by guest appearances by Crittenden (Bernard Fox). Of course, the show did get some criticism, but there were several Jewish actors on the show who defended the concept. My biggest problem was that the character of Kinchloe (Ivan Dixon) was obviously a token black that didn't fit the show's concept.

My father and uncles fought in WW2, and absolutely adored this show despite one of my uncles having been in a PoW camp for better than a year. The humor involved helped to soften the blow of a world agast at the realization of the horrors commited by nazi Germany, and helped many of our veterans recover a sense of humor about a tragic time in human history.

The comedy itself is good, the writing while unrealistic is meant to be just that - unrealistic. That's part of the humor involved. They didn't want to show tragic deaths, shooting people for lining up too slow, or for not having their caps on straight. They wanted to show up HUMOR during a time when memories of Nazi Germany were still that of astonishment and horror.

They performed admirably in the eyes of my father and uncles who lived it. They performed equally as well in my eyes. it was one of the few shows that made my former PoW uncle laugh. He never analyzed it, only laughed and wished he had been at that camp....

"I see nothing!!"

Col. Robert Hogan (Bob Crane) and his fellow WWII POWs were fortunate in that by some weird natural selection process, they wound up in a prison camp run by a double distilled gaggle of really stupid Germans. The prison camp was more like a vacation condominium. They had all the comforts of home and could leave the camp at will. For some reason, the German High Command used this camp to spill all of its highest secrets to the every watchful Heroes who passed it on to Allied HQ in London. It was all great fun.

A great classic show!

Any thing that can find humor in a war deserves 5 stars. Lets face it this show was fantasy but very funny. We have to laugh at things because what is the alternative.

this was funny to watch even though i was a kid and didn't really understand much about ww2 at the time

Not that great a show, but you people need to get your facts straight: it was set in a Prisoner of War (POW) camp, not in a concentration camp. The prisoners were working for the resistance. Don't get on your high and mighty soapbox about how offended you are by references to WWII. Remember, the show aired when the survivors of that war were around to see it, and I do not recall people at the time getting in a huff about it. Maybe they knew their history and were not just balled up in self-righteous semi-factual legends and propaganda.

Easily the standard by which all sitcoms are judged. And a note to all you one-star types: It was set in a POW camp, not a concentration camp. Hogan's was well-written, produced and acted, not to mention blissfully PC-incorrect. It's available on DVD and VHS from Columbia House. Why are any other military comedies given a pass?

That is one of the best old shows ever!

I have to agree with Irishgit on this one!

Another classic comedy from the 60s. Somewhat different, but still amusing, this show highlighted the exploits of the allies against the idiot Nazi runners of Stalag 13. The main Nazi characters (Klink and Schultz) provided most of the humor. The show featured little offensive or lewd content.

This is another crappy less-than-satisfying sitcom from the 1960's that I have hated with a passion. It bewilders me why an individual would find a mindless military show so entertaining? Oh well, it isn't my time that's being wasted over some piece of garbage. Good luck to you!

FUNNY NAZIS. IT'S HILARIOUS TO SEE HOGAN AND THE TROOPS JERK THE GERMANS' CHAINS WHILE PEOPLE ARE BURNING IN OVENS. INSENSITIVE AND NOT THAT FUNNY!

Col. Hogan was great!

This show is just too corny for me. I remember my dad's friend saying he never had it that easy in POW camp (he was a POW in a german camp). Anyway it just real stupid to think that a German officer is such a pushover (even when the SS soldiers show up no one is frightened).

One of the funniest and most creative series ever! If the networks still made shows like this, they wouldn't be losing their audiences to cable.

One of my guilty pleasures.This show was hilarious.Klink,Schultz,LeBeau and Burkhalter were all held in concentration camps. If they felt this show was worth doing you must respect their opinions as people who were there.Lighten up this was a pure farce and should be enjoyed as such.LeBeau always wore a long shirt to cover up his concentration camp number.

It does not stand up and looking back the idea of making any joke about even something coming close to the Germanys was being lovable fools is sick.It does the memory of those that gave their lives and lost their live no servie.this is a country who not once but twice started World Wars. And conducted itself unlike any others in history and making the German people out to be innocent plays in all that is crime.They approved and promoted the horror and only thought ill about it when it all then against them.

One of my favorite shows!

In really bad taste. Why didn't they do a comedy about those hilarious days in the concentration camps as well? This show was about as funny as a turd in a punchbowl.

I stared watching this show when I was in Kindergarden, home from school sick. It is timeless and priceless. I still get a laugh fromthe show decades later, as I did when I was a kid. More then that, the characters have become well known enough that paroties and illusions to the show have made it over into other shows (ie. the simpsons). Granted it had a nationalistic purpose as propaganda when it was created but it has evolved into a timeless (and sometimes mindless) show for all generations to enjoy.

Good comic relief for it's time. Wouldn't be enough sex and violence for today's audience.

I have never liked this show. I could never find the humor in it. A "funny" show about prisoners of war? I know there are others who will say they just loved this show, I am not one of them.

I never saw the humor of this show. Didn't find it funny at all. Can't give a deep explanation of it, I just didn't find it funny.

This has to be the dumbest idea for a comedy show ever. A very talented cast did their best with it, so I gave it a 2.

This really is one of my all-time favourite shows. I love the characters, and even if the plots do require one to set aside a sense of reality for thirty minutes, they're just a lot of fun. I understand if the concept makes you uncomfortable; it that case, just don't watch, and let the rest of us laugh in peace. :-)

I don't care what anyone says about how can a show about Nazi POW camps be funny. This show was hilarious. Made the Germans look like the idiots they were. Bob Crane was born to play Hogan. Richard Dawson stole the show!

Can't some of you ever be entertained? Get a life and stop getting so worked up about everything! It was an innocent, funny show. Stop looking for something deep and laugh for once!

Silly, confusing little sitcom takes place in a jail, and never, ever changes. It's always the same, dry humor.

It's a really funny show. The setting is unrealistic, but who cares! Great character developement and hilarious dialogue. Just don't take it seriously! One of my favorites.

Yeah, yeah we all got the concept; Allies are good, Nazis are dumb. My argument is that it's a little dangerous and ignorant to make Nazis seem almost sweetly stupid at times. I watched the show as a kid not realizing what atrocities they were actually making light of. Not that they said anything against the victims - they just ignored the whole thing - you know, like the world did at first. I don't think we can ever aford to go there again so, in retrospect, I don't see anything very tastefull or funny about it. And here's an FYI hywmaster3 - you don't have to be Jewish to realize this.

the best TV sit com ever

I love this show for the sheer goofiness of it, which was the whole point. The late Werner Klemperer, who played Col. Klink, was himself a Jew who escaped from Nazi Germany and specified in his contract that he would leave the show if the Nazis ever got the best of the Allied POWs in Stalag 13. So they poked serious fun at the bad guys and praised the ingenuity of "Papa Bear" Hogan and his pals who could have escaped at any time but chose to stay put so as to help other Allies escape from other camps. Pretty cool concept, if you ask me.

It is a very funny series that should be taken in its context and not War or atrocities of war. Otherwise we have to get rid of all comdedians from our planet.Those who have difficulties should seek medical help.

see several people didn't like this show..must be jewish.funny from start till end.made the nazi look like what they were,morons.what people realy miss here is the point that what hogan and gang were doing accually di happen in camps,read your history.acting wasn't all that great but was a catchy show idea.love watching reruns.timeless classic

one othe ten most underrated shows of all time

OF COURSE the Nazis aren't funny -- but my grandfather (who fought @ Normandy) and others of the WWII generation tune in to reruns of 'Hogan's Heroes', and LOVE them. I've also heard that 'Hogan's' reruns have been shown in Germany, and that people there LOVE them, too! This show doesn't satirize the atrocities of war -- just the idiocy of the ideas that START wars.

Sorry, but Nazi's arent funny.

This series proved that a horrid concept cannot be saved by good writing or performances. The Nazis and prisoner-of-war camps were not, are not, will not be funny. Probably one of the most offensive shows in recent TV history.

another good 60s comedy that is still worth watching