Just look at Sgt Schultz's facial expressions, how could any one NOT laugh at that?!?!?! I think my all time favorite is when he is impersonating a General and shouting orders to every one, CLASSIC! One of those rare moments that causes uncontrolled beverage expulsion!
John Banner was a great actor, great person, WWII (US) vet. Always loved him in anything he did. John Banner - Wikipedia
Hogan had US and allies backing him, Klink had Nazi's backing him, Schultz was totally on his own and only was the only one with enough sense to know that this will pass and his only goal was to survive another round of mass insanity. Banner and those that wrote his part created the ultimate survivor and outsider who made the most profound statements on life as it really is rather than that seen the eyes of the systems participants.
I am a h-u-g-e fan of the show! I watch it on Me-TV every night. The success of HH was that the Germans were portrayed as idiots. Even the guard dogs were dumb asses! The only German character who was not a total dipstick was General Burkhalter. He had some sense but always seemed to be derailed. That Klink had no escapes despite being an incompetent dope was a running gag on the show. I tell non-fans that HH is like the Three Stooges, except with Nazis.
Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink) refused to do the part unless the Nazis were portrayed as fools. His family escaped Hitler's Germany when he was a kid. He had no love for the Nazis.
I think it says something when a actor can take a dismal part of history and make light of it through comic genius! Schultz is the ultimate work of art! We have had War movies for ever, but to take the villain out of it and make him human first, and likable second, is simply amazing! John Bannor was one of the greats, in fact, many on that show were greats who some how have been passed over by history! I still enjoy watching Hogans Heros when ever I get a chance! Between that show and M.A.SH. we have some of the best comedy ever produced for T.V. and certainly better then todays crap!
A young John Banner in a recruiting poster from WW2. It barely looks like the jolly man we remember from a few decades later. His family were Austrian Jews. He was in Switzerland when Hitler annexed Austria, then fled to the US to become a citizen and served in the Air Force.
Klink, Schultz, LeBeau, Hoffsteadder, and I think Burkhalter were all Jews who fled the Nazis. They all insisted that the Germans be portrayed as morons as a condition of doing the show
It was probably an easy condition to fulfill...and in so doing, made Hogan's Heroes enormously enjoyable, even though Laager Life was, on the whole not a particularly enjoyable experience. The Germans in 'Allo 'Allo, suffered the same treatment...and deservedly so. But that's what makes both shows funny...if the Germans were portrayed as ruthless and efficient...it would have been less funny.
