Product Details

• Actors: Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner, Richard Dawson, Robert Clary
• Directors: Bob Sweeney, Bruce Bilson, Edward H. Feldman, Howard Morris, Irving J. Moore
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 19, 1998
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304928254
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,037 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Hogan's Heroes was a hit from the beginning of its televised run, from the fall of 1965 through the spring of 1971. This video, volume 1 of a three-volume collection, comprises two uncut episodes from the venerable Bing Crosby Productions series on CBS television: the black-and-white pilot episode, "The Informer," and a color episode, "Kommandant of the Year," from the first season. With good transfers and no commercial interruptions, these shows make for some charming, nostalgic, laugh-track-filled family viewing.

"The Informer" introduces all of the series' regulars, Colonels Hogan (Bob Crane) and Klink (Werner Klemperer) and Sergeant Schultz (John Banner), as well as Hogan's multinational, multiethnic group of heroes: Kinch (Ivan Dixon), Carter (Larry Hovis), Newkirk (Richard Dawson), and LeBeau (Robert Clary). We even get a glimpse of a short-lived Russian character, Sam (a.k.a. Vladimir Minsk, played by Leonid Kinskey), whose tailoring duties would later be adopted by LeBeau. An even shorter-lived prisoner, Wagner (Noam Pitlik), joins the group and ingratiates himself with Hogan--but is he really who he claims to be? Hogan reveals to Wagner a number of underground operations, including a mint, a communications center, a steam room, and machine shops. Wagner, however, has a hilarious time later trying to expose these operations to a skeptical Gestapo (represented here by character actor Leon Askin). Meanwhile, all the set props familiar to baby boomers--the tunnel entrance under the cot, the coffee-pot tap into Klink's office, the hidden periscopes, and the prisoner-friendly dogs--are introduced for our benefit only.

In "Kommandant of the Year," the easily flattered and distracted Klink is given a phony awards ceremony in order to allow the Heroes and their collaborators time to gather information about a new German V-bomb and then direct it away from England. Carter has returned from his abortive embarkation there ("He escaped in!") to remain as a dimwitted regular nevertheless effective with munitions. And the constant threat of transfer to the Russian front ensures that Schultz will continue to turn a blind eye ("I see nussink!") to those who are really running the show: the prisoners. --Robert Burns Neveldine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first is most often the best., March 23, 1999

By	Timothy E. Jones (Phila., PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hogan's Heroes is among the best of the military comidies ever made, and to all of those who thought they've seen every episode...think again! This tape contains the first (and formally unseen) episode "The Informer" in its entirety. Although it is in black & white, it is in my opinion, one of the best stories in the series, and of course has become the model for the rest of theseries to follow. Great laughs all around.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must have' for every Hogan's Heroes fan, July 3, 2001

By	bandit2008 (münchen) - See all my reviews

The Hogan's Heroes 3 Video Gift Set is unfortunately not available in Germany so I had to come to the U.S. to buy it here. Although the price for postage & packing was higher than the price of the gift set itself, it was a good idea to do so, because I had the pleasure to see the original series and not the german version with the german translations. It is a 'must have' for every Hogan's Heroes fan even though the price in total was extremely high and the were some difficulties with the U.S. NTSC video system.