50 Fun Facts About Hogan's Heroes

On which American network did Hogan's Heroes originally run?

It ran for six seasons, from September 1965 to April 1971, and has been in reruns ever since.

How many episodes were made?

Six seasons at roughly thirty episodes a year, all set in the same permanent winter.

Who created the series?

Both men were Jewish, as were several of the leading actors playing Germans.

What is the fictional camp called?

It sits just outside a real Bavarian town, though the geography never quite matches.

Near which real German town is the camp supposedly located?

Details in the show are inconsistent with the real Stalag XIII and the town's location in Franconia.

Who played Colonel Robert Hogan?

He had started out as a drummer, and played the drums on the recording of the theme tune.

Which branch of the US military does Hogan belong to?

His staff of experts are all prisoners of war running an operation from inside the camp.

Who played the camp commandant, Colonel Klink?

He won two Emmys for the part, from five nominations in the same category.

Whose son was the actor who played Klink?

He came from a Jewish family and called the role a double-edged sword.

What did the actor playing Klink initially not know about the role?

His agent failed to mention it, and he found the whole thing a double-edged sword afterwards.

Which sergeant of the guard is famous for seeing nothing?

John Banner played him as clumsy, affable and endlessly bribable.

Why do the prisoners never worry about that sergeant reporting them?

They regularly do their subversive work in plain sight of him.

What nationality is Corporal Louis LeBeau?

He is a gourmet chef, and both Germans call him 'the cockroach'.

What was the real-life history of Robert Clary, who played LeBeau?

He said singing and dancing in shows, plus reasonable health, is what kept him alive.

Which skills does Corporal Peter Newkirk bring to the group?

Richard Dawson played him, and later became famous hosting Family Feud.

Which earlier film role reportedly won Richard Dawson his place in the cast?

He plays the group's tailor, responsible for the German uniforms they use as disguises.

What is Sergeant Kinchloe's job in the operation?

Ivan Dixon's casting as a positively portrayed African-American character was a real step for mid-1960s television.

Who replaced Ivan Dixon for the final season?

He played Sergeant Richard Baker, and was the last surviving regular cast member when he died in July 2025.

What is Sergeant Carter's speciality?

Larry Hovis had appeared in the pilot as a completely different character.

What did Larry Hovis do in the pilot episode?

He became a regular once the show was picked up.

Whom did Sergeant Carter once impersonate as a distraction?

Another scheme had the team pulling an agent out of Gestapo headquarters in Paris.

Why is the commandant considered a success by his superiors?

Hogan's men work hard to protect that record, because it keeps the military away.

Why do the Germans hold high-level meetings at that camp?

The Allies would never bomb a POW camp, and nobody has ever escaped from it.

Which two officers is Hogan constantly outwitting above the commandant?

One is a general, the other a Gestapo major, and neither ever quite catches on.

What are the resistance contacts collectively called in the show?

Defectors, spies, counterspies and disloyal German officers all feed into it.

How do escaping Allied prisoners get in and out of the camp?

The tunnels run directly under the commandant's nose for six seasons.

In which year does the pilot episode take place, according to a title overlay?

The orders the group works under are recited from memory in a third-season episode.

How many Emmy Awards did the series win?

Both went to Werner Klemperer, in 1968 and 1969, out of twelve nominations for the show.

Which cast member won both of the show's Emmys?

He was nominated in the same supporting category in 1966, 1967 and 1970 as well.

Who composed the theme music?

He later added lyrics to it for an album of Second World War songs recorded by the cast.

Which cast member played drums on the theme recording?

He had begun his career as a drummer before moving into radio and television.

Which 1951 play's authors sued over the show's premise?

The jury found for them, but a federal judge overruled the verdict.

How did that infringement lawsuit end?

The judge pointed to the striking difference in dramatic mood between the two works.

Whose production company made the series?

Rights to the library later passed to Rysher Entertainment.

Which magazine parodied the show as 'Hokum's Heroes'?

A second one-page parody moved the premise to Buchenwald, which made the point rather sharply.

Which company produced a 66-card trading set based on the show in 1965?

Dell Comics also ran nine photo-cover issues between 1966 and 1969.

How many comic book issues were published between 1966 and 1969?

All of them carried photo covers, with artwork by Henry Scarpelli.

What did the group's standing orders tell them to do?

They were also to assist escaping prisoners and cooperate with all friendly forces.

In which season does Hogan recite those orders from memory?

The episode is called 'The Collector General'.

Which German weapons programmes do the prisoners interfere with?

The camp's apparent security is exactly why those projects keep turning up there.

What was notable about several actors who played Germans on the show?

The show's two creators were Jewish as well.

On what date did Hogan's Heroes premiere on CBS?

It aired Fridays at 8:30 pm for its first two seasons.

Where were the show's outdoor camp scenes filmed?

Indoor sets were at Desilu Studios; the cast had to pretend to be cold in warm California.

What was used to fake snow on the ground during the first several seasons?

By the fourth season the designers switched to cheaper, more permanent white paint.

Which 1975 exploitation film destroyed the standing Stalag 13 set during its final scenes?

The set had remained standing after the series ended in 1971.

What condition did Werner Klemperer set when taking his role as the commandant?

His agent initially failed to tell him the role was meant to be comedic.

Under what title did the show finally air on German television from 1994?

It means 'A cage full of heroes'; the 1992 Sat.1 debut had used the title Stacheldraht und Fersengeld.

In the German dub, Klink and Schultz were given which two regional accents?

The dub also invented an unseen character, Frau Kalinke, as Klink's maid and mistress.

What was the identity tattoo number Robert Clary bore from his time in a concentration camp?

Clary spent three years in a camp; his parents and other relatives were killed there.

Which artist drew the nine Dell comic book issues based on the show?

All nine issues, published 1966-69, had photo covers.