| Hogan's Heroes | |
|---|---|
| Format | Military sitcom |
| Created by | Bernard Fein Albert S. Ruddy |
| Starring | Bob Crane Werner Klemperer John Banner Robert Clary Richard Dawson Ivan Dixon Larry Hovis Kenneth Washington |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 168 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 23 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Alfran Productions Bob Crane Enterprises (1970-1971) Bing Crosby Productions CBS Productions |
| Distributor | CBS Films (before 1971) Viacom Enterprises (1971-95) Paramount Domestic Television (1995-2006) CBS Paramount Domestic Television (2006-07) CBS Television Distribution (2007-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Picture format | 4:3 SDTV 16:9 HDTV |
| Original run | September 17, 1965 – March 28, 1971 |
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war (POW) camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, who coordinated an international crew of Allied prisoners running a Special Operations group from the camp. The program also featured Werner Klemperer as Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the commandant of the camp, and John Banner as the inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Schultz.
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The setting was a fictional version of Stalag 13 (Camp 13 in early episodes), a POW camp for captured Allied airmen located north of the town of Hammelburg in the Bad Kissingen woods and run by the Luftwaffe. Its location was on the Hammelburg Road (now known as E45), on the way to Hofburgstraße and eventually Düsseldorf. One episode mentions they are 106 kilometers from Heidelberg, but that measurement is actually aviation miles; it would have taken 199 km (124 mi) by car.
Stalag 13 bore no resemblance to its real-life counterparts, Oflag XIII-B and Stalag XIII-C, which were prison camps for Allied ground troops. It had rather more similarities to the real-life Stalag Luft III, which was the scene of a famous mass prisoner escape involving an elaborate tunnel system. The show's premise was that the POWs were actually active war participants, using the camp as a base of operations for Allied espionage and sabotage against the Germans or the German Armed Forces. The prisoners could leave and return almost at will via a secret network of tunnels and had radio contact with Allied command. They were aided by the incompetence of the camp commandant, Colonel Klink, and the rather more complex motivations of Sergeant of The Guard Sergeant Schultz.
Colonel Hogan would routinely manipulate the incompetent Klink and get Schultz to look the other way while Hogan's men conducted secret operations. Klink and Schultz were in constant terror of being transferred to the Russian Front, and Hogan took pains to keep the hapless German duo firmly in place. Schultz was quite aware that the prisoners were carrying out some sort of mischief, but deliberately ignored it in order to maintain the status quo.
Klink had a perfect record of no escapes while he commanded the camp. Hogan actually assisted in maintaining this record, and made sure any prisoners who needed to be spirited away had been transferred to someone else's authority before their escape was enacted or replacements were provided to maintain the illusion that no one had escaped.
United States Army Air Corps Colonel Robert E. Hogan (Bob Crane), senior ranking POW officer, was the leader of the group. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but considers Cleveland, Ohio, his home, though it was mentioned in episode 33 "Hogan Throws a Birthday Party" that Hogan was from Indianapolis. He was shot down while on a raid on Hamburg in an operation masterminded by Luftwaffe Colonel Biedenbender, who was promoted to general for this achievement (though Hogan gets even by framing Biedenbender for bombing a German refinery, thereby ruining his military career in the episode Hogan Throws a Birthday Party). In contrast to Colonel Klink, Hogan graduated third in his military class. The character was named by series creator Bernard Fein after his friend, the American soap opera and character actor Robert J. Hogan, who appeared in two episodes of Hogan's Heroes.
The presence of Colonel Hogan in a Stalag is an anachronism since Stalags were only for enlisted personnel. Officer POWs were held separately in Oflag camps.
United States Army Staff Sergeant James (a.k.a. Ivan) "Kinch" Kinchloe (Ivan Dixon) was primarily responsible for radio, telegraph, and other forms of electronic communications. In the series pilot, Kinchloe was introduced as Hogan's chief of staff, and, in addition to his communications expertise, was observed speaking fluent French to Corporal LeBeau. This was a large step for a 1960s TV show, to have a black actor identified in such a manner. In the fifth episode of the first season, when it looks like Colonel Crittendon (Bernard Fox) was going to be the new senior Prisoner of War officer, Hogan introduces his men, with Kinchloe cited as Chief of Operations. A talented mimic, Kinchloe easily imitates German officers speaking over the radio or telephone. When Hogan needed a strictly audio impression of Adolf Hitler, the men generally agreed that Kinchloe was the better choice for the job over Technical Sergeant Carter.[1]
Kinch was from Detroit and had worked for the telephone company. In one episode, he mentions that before the war he fought in the Golden Gloves. In an episode that had General Burkhalter (Leon Askin) making reference to the Jesse Owens victories during the 1936 Olympics and Adolf Hitler not being happy that a Black American won events over German athletes, Kinchloe knocks out the heavyweight champ of Stalag 13 (Battling Bruno) while Burkhalter was in the camp. Kinchloe winds up fighting Bruno again, drawing out the fight in a delaying action while Hogan and the others accomplish their usual sabotage. Upon completion of the mission, Hogan yells to Kinch to end the fight, and Kinch lays the German out with one punch whereupon Hogan throws in the towel and surrenders the fight to prevent the obvious disaster of a Black POW defeating the "master race's finest boxer." At the end of the episode, Kinch says to Klink that he'd like to tell Bruno he was still the champion of Stalag 13 "as soon as he wakes up."
As a black man in the middle of wartime Germany, Kinchloe's ability to participate in some undercover activities outside of the camp was limited. In one operation that took the protagonists outside of Germany, Kinchloe plays the role of a doorman at a nightclub in Paris in order to get close to the owner. He also impersonated an African prince (also played by Ivan Dixon).
Following Dixon's departure from the show, the producers replaced his character in the sixth season with another black man, Sergeant Richard Baker (Kenneth Washington). The tasks assigned to Sergeant Baker are identical to those of Staff Sergeant Kinchloe, aside from impersonating German voices. However, Newkirk was elevated to the Chief of Operations role (despite being subordinate to both SGT Baker and TSGT Carter). The details of Kinch's departure were never explained on the show. As with Kinchloe, Baker's race prevents him from having active field duties outside the camp, but he is able to assist the group on sabotage missions while managing communications.
United States Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Andrew J. Carter [Lieutenant in the pilot episode] (Larry Hovis) is in charge of ordnance and bomb-making. He also shows talent in chemistry and can produce formulas as needed. Carter is often called on to impersonate German officers and, most convincingly, Adolf Hitler. Carter, as Hitler, responds to a group of German officers saying "Heil Hitler" with "Heil Me."
While bright and enthusiastic at his specialties, Carter often shows a lack of common sense otherwise. He formerly worked at a drug store in Muncie, Indiana; in one episode, he bragged that he had won a snowman-building contest in Bullfrog, North Dakota. His awards include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Commendation Medal and Good Conduct Medal. Carter is a Native American; his Sioux name is Little Deer Who Goes Swift and Sure Through Forest. Hovis was married, and refused to remove his wedding ring while filming the show as the bachelor Sergeant Carter. Thus, Carter is usually shown wearing gloves, and his left hand is rarely shown in the show.
As a technical sergeant, Carter is the senior non-commissioned officer and, after Colonel Hogan, the senior prisoner, regularly depicted on the program. Despite this, he is never shown to exercise authority over the other prisoners, and Corporals Newkirk and LeBeau are routinely insubordinate toward him.
Free French Air Force Corporal Louis LeBeau (Robert Clary) was a chef and notoriously patriotic Frenchman, often referring to Nazis and Germans generally as "pigs". LeBeau was also a master of covert operations, and has taken the precaution of befriending the camp's guard dogs. As a result, he was able to enter their compound through a secret entrance under a doghouse without the dogs raising the alarm. The opening credits show him opening the secret entrance under the doghouse - with a dog in it. He also could hide in small spaces, such as the safe in Colonel Klink's office and crates. In many episodes, LeBeau bribes Schultz with food, especially LeBeau's apple strudel. Schultz and Klink (but mainly Klink) refer to LeBeau as "Cockroach." In the first two seasons (excluding the pilot), LeBeau made the uniforms and suits, although this job increasingly went to Newkirk. In fact, by the fifth season episode "Gowns by Yvette," it is suggested that LeBeau cannot even sew a stitch, though he claims creative responsibility for the dress Newkirk eventually sews; but later, he once again began to sew and mend the clothing alongside Newkirk. In the show, LeBeau suffered from hemophobia, possibly from claustrophobia, and is seldom seen without his scarf. He also may have been the first POW at Stalag 13.
Royal Air Force Corporal Peter Newkirk (British-American actor Richard Dawson) is the group's conman, magician, pick-pocket, card shark, forger, bookie, tailor, lock picker, safe cracker and impersonator of German officers (and on one occasion, Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during the war); on numerous occasions Newkirk also impersonates women to fool the Germans and help the underground movement. He also is in charge of making uniforms and assisting in distracting the Germans to perform other sabotage. This series marked Dawson's second appearance on American television (he had earlier appeared on an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1963). Dawson auditioned for the role of Hogan, but was told he did not sound American enough. In the version translated for broadcast in Germany, Newkirk's pronounced British accent was replaced by a simulation of stuttering. Newkirk is also a skilled tailor, often called upon to make or alter uniforms and other disguises. Newkirk was also teamed with Carter and his irritation at Carter's bumbling antics and lack of common sense was often used for comedic effect. Newkirk is called "the Englander" by Schultz and sometimes even Klink in some of the episodes. It can be argued that he was the first POW at Stalag 13. Richard Dawson has stated in an interview that he had initially used a Liverpool accent for the Newkirk character, but had been told by Mike Dann (the then-president of CBS) to switch it to a Cockney accent, as Dann felt that the Liverpool accent was not accessible to the American TV audience.
Kommandant Oberst (Colonel) Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer) is an old-line Luftwaffe officer of aristocratic (Junker) Prussian descent, and a social climber. He was born in Leipzig in the 1890s, though he refers to Düsseldorf, where he attended the Gymnasium (high school) (graduating 43rd in his class), as his home town.[2] After failing the entrance exams to study law or medicine,[2] he received an appointment from Kaiser Wilhelm II to a military academy, through the influence of his uncle, the Bürgermeister's barber, and graduated 95th in his class – the only one who has not risen to the rank of general. However, when questioned by Colonel Hogan, Colonel Klink admits that many of his higher-ranking classmates have been killed in action or shot by Hitler. The nearest he ever comes to General is when Hogan tricks the German General Staff into thinking Klink will be the General to repeal the D Day invasion-when faced with a decision as to move the German reserves to Normandy or not Klink can only order more champagne!
He has fencing armor in his dining room and wears a monocle. In one episode it shows him sleeping with the monocle in, but in another, he wakes up and puts it on. One episode has a brief shot of his office showing that Klink has a pompous coat of arms on his wall. In another episode when he thinks he is going to be rich, he claims his 500-year-old name will finally have some money as well. A veteran aviator of the First World War, Klink happily lives out the end of his military career in the relative comfort and safety of a prison camp commandant's billet - although in one episode he wished he was piloting a Heinkel bomber again. {Even as a pilot his skills are suspect-during World War I he panicked and crashed which resulted in his passenger ace "The Blue Baron" {a parody of The Red Baron} with a permanent limp}. He has been stuck at the rank of colonel for 20 years with an efficiency rating a few points above "miserable". On a few episodes Klink is seen wearing the Pour le Mérite (or The Blue Max); Iron Cross and the Parachutist Badge.
In one episode, Klink tried to flatter Schultz, a businessman in civilian life, hoping to be hired as a bookkeeper with Schultz's toy company after the end of the war. Klink is portrayed as a vain, bumbling, self-serving bureaucrat, rather than as an evil Nazi. Indeed, officers of the German military (as opposed to the Nazi party's SS forces) were prohibited from joining any political party, including the Nazis. With his innate skills as a hustler, Hogan is able to manipulate Klink (which Klink doesn't even notice, though occasionally he wonders who is really in command of Stalag 13) through a combination of appealing to his vanity through a lot of flattery, and playing with Klink's fears of being sent to the frigid and bloody Eastern Front war with the Soviet Union, or of being hauled off by the Gestapo.
In one episode, Klink is told by General Burkhalter that to climb higher socially, he would need to marry into an important family. Burkhalter next tells him that his niece and widowed sister will be arriving at Stalag 13 soon. Klink initially thinks that Burkhalter's lovely niece is the one to whom Burkhalter is referring, but Klink finds out that it is actually Burkhalter's homely and gruff sister, Frau Linkmeyer, whom Burkhalter is trying to marry off - and this becomes Klink's worst nightmare. Klink narrowly escapes from this fate with the help of Colonel Hogan. In a later episode, it is revealed that the two other Stalag commandants under Burkhalter's command also narrowly escaped marriage to Frau Linkmeyer. In the episode "The Missing Klink", Klink is nearly shot by both the Underground {because he isn't high enough rank to trade for an Underground leader prisoner} and the Gestapo (because they think he is allied super-spy "Nimrod" (né Stefan Rosenberg, alias Stephen Rigby, alias Stéphane Dubillier).
Colonel Klink had received the Citation of Merit-Second Class (fictitious) from General Stauffen during World War II. The general had visited Stalag 13 to get a briefcase from Hogan filled with explosives and a 30-minute timer in a plot to murder Adolf Hitler, all under the unsuspecting eyes of Klink. This is typical of the scenarios in which Hogan would entangle Colonel Klink, where Klink's ego is used against him. A running gag in Hogan's Heroes is that Klink gets doused in the face with water at times for comedic effect. Another running gag is that Klink is an inept violinist, too, and is only able to play the U.S. Army Air Forces Song (in real life, Werner Klemperer was a skilled violinist, and son of the famous orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer). The World War I Pickelhaube that sits on his desk is frequently played with by Hogan and his fellow prisoners to the constant annoyance of Colonel Klink. A third running gag is that Klink often forgets to give the Hitler Salute at the end of a phone call, usually asking "what's that?" and then saying "Yes of course, Heil Hitler."
Oberfeldwebel (Master Sergeant) Hans Georg Schultz, serial number 23781 (John Banner) is Klink's bumbling, highly unmilitary 300-pound Sergeant of the Guard. Schultz is a basically good-hearted man who, when confronted by evidence of the prisoners' covert activities, will simply look the other way, repeating "I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!" (or, more commonly as the series went on, simply "I see nothing–NOTHING!") to avoid being blamed for allowing things to have gotten as far as they already had—which might see him given a one-way trip to the Eastern Front. This eventually became a catchphrase of the series. Though generally shown as being borderline incompetent, he has (on occasion) proven his mettle, as can be seen in episodes such as "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London", where he catches Hogan assisting another man attempting to escape; he even goes so far as to stand up to Hogan, moving him along at gunpoint.
Schultz, in the sixth season, receives a temporary promotion to Kommandant of Stalag 13. In the episode "Kommandant Schultz", Burkhalter brings an order from Berlin to all Luft Stalags to begin officer training for their most senior non-commissioned officers. Schultz does so well in the job that Hogan and Klink have to join forces to discredit Schultz and get him reduced back to sergeant-of-the-guard.
In another episode "Hogan Goes Hollywood"—which was a satire on the movie/TV Industry—an ego-driven movie star with the US Armed Air Forces (his contract says that if captured, he must be exchanged for three Generals) is sent to Stalag XIII where he makes a propaganda movie—with Schultz as the Kommandant and Klink as a Sergeant. The movie star ordered this change, insisting that Schultz had a more commanding presence and greater charisma when pretending to be the Kommmandant than Klink did at his own job.
Like Colonel Klink, he is a veteran of World War I. His hometown is Heidelberg, and in civilian life he is the owner of Germany's biggest and most successful toy manufacturing company, The Schatzi Toy Company.[3] With the onset of war, Schultz was involuntarily recalled to military duty and lost control of his toy factory as it was converted to military use. He has a wife, Gretchen (played by Barbara Morrison in Season 2, Episode 24) and five children whom he sees only on infrequent leave. However, many times he is unfaithful to his wife, for instance in the Season 3 Episode 2 episode, "Sergeant Schultz Meets Mata Hari," in which he dates Mata Hari.[4] LeBeau once refers to Schultz as a Social Democrat, a party which the Nazis banned in 1933, and Schultz on several occasions is shown to be very disgusted by Hitler in particular and the Nazis in general.
Schultz carries a Krag-Jørgensen rifle, which he never keeps loaded and tends to misplace or even hand to the POWs when he needs to use both hands ("Give me back my gun, or I'll SHOOT!"). He wears a fictitious version of the Iron Cross (4th Grade) awarded by General Kammler, a friend from World War I, who addresses Schultz by first name, and whom Schulz addresses as Lieutenant Kammler.[5] Schultz needs glasses to read[6] and is described by Klink as being "in his forties."[7] In reality, Banner was in his late fifties.
The pilot episode, "The Informer", was produced in black-and-white.[8] As with many pilot episodes, there are several differences from the series proper, such as Burkhalter being introduced as a colonel, instead of a general. There were many changes to Larry Hovis's character of Carter. In the pilot, he was credited as a guest star and is shown as a lieutenant, rather than a sergeant. "Lt. Carter" had recently escaped from another camp and at the end of the episode, is en route to England.
Leonid Kinskey appeared in the pilot episode as Vladimir Minsk, a Soviet POW who specializes in tailoring. Kinskey ultimately turned down a contract to become a permanent character, contending that the subject matter was being treated too lightly.
In the pilot, Col. Klink's secretary is actually part of Hogan's team, and she has access to the tunnels. In the actual TV series, she is merely willing to look the other way in exchange for a warm kiss from Hogan, or some other form of affectionate gesture. Eventually, during the run of the TV series, it is implied that she and Hogan have a running romance, especially when she hints at getting a diamond engagement ring in exchange for her help. Another difference is that the word "Stalag" was avoided in the pilot; it was simply referred to as "Camp 13."
The theme music for Hogan's Heroes was composed by Jerry Fielding. The title of the theme music is "March" or "Hogan's Heroes March". There are lyrics[9] to the title music. While they were never sung in the show, they were performed on an album titled "Hogan's Heroes Sing The Best of World War II".
The actors who played the four major German roles—Werner Klemperer (Klink)[10], John Banner (Schultz), Leon Askin (Burkhalter), and Howard Caine (Hochstetter)—were Jewish. Furthermore, Klemperer, Banner, Askin, and Robert Clary (LeBeau) were Jews who had fled the Nazis during World War II. Clary says in the recorded commentary on the DVD version of episode "Art for Hogan's Sake" that he spent three years in a concentration camp, that his parents and other family members were killed there, and that he has an identity tattoo from the camp on his arm ("A-5714"). Likewise John Banner had been held in a (pre-war) concentration camp and his family was exterminated during the war. Leon Askin was also in a pre-war French internment camp and his parents were killed at Treblinka. Howard Caine (Hochstetter), who was also Jewish (his birth name was Cohen), was American, and Jewish actors Harold Gould and Harold J. Stone played German generals.
As a teenager, Werner Klemperer (Klink) (son of the conductor Otto Klemperer) fled Hitler's Germany with his family in 1933. During the show's production, he insisted that Hogan always win over his Nazi captors. He defended his playing a Luftwaffe Officer by claiming, "I am an actor. If I can play Richard III, I can play a Nazi." Banner attempted to sum up the paradox of his role by saying, "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?" Ironically, although Klemperer, Banner, Caine, Gould, and Askin play typecast World War II German types, all had actually served in the US Armed Forces during World War II — Banner[11] and Askin in the US Army Air Corps, Caine in the US Navy, Gould with the US Army, and Klemperer in a US Army Entertainment Unit.
During the original run of the program, Hogan's Heroes was three times nominated for the Emmy for Best Comedy Series.[12] The television academy's faith in the show is generally confirmed by most modern viewers. As of 2008[update], online participants overwhelmingly deemed it a show that "never jumped the shark".[13] Likewise, about 93% of respondents at tv.com rated the show as "good" or better, as of 2008.[14]
The producers of the 1953 feature film Stalag 17, a World War II prisoner of war film released by Paramount Pictures (which now owns the DVD rights to Hogan's Heroes), unsuccessfully sued Bing Crosby Productions for infringement.[15] In his book, My War, Andy Rooney, who was a friend of Don Bevan and Ed Trzcinski—the authors of the original Stalag 17 play—relates that "...someone at CBS apparently ripped off their idea and made a television series called Hogan's Heroes of it. The television program had too many similarities in character and plot to be coincidental, and when Don and Ed sued the network they won a huge award."[16]
In spite of its three Emmy nominations, TV Guide in 2002 named Hogan's Heroes the fifth worst TV show of all time (p 180, Running Press, Philadelphia, 2007).[17] The listing for Hogan's Heroes in particular accuses the show of trivializing the suffering of real life POWs and the victims of the Holocaust with its comedic take on prison camps in the Third Reich.
Comedian Tony Figueroa has offered a possible explanation for the disparate views of "Hogan's Heroes" by modern audiences. He believes that some viewers look badly upon the show because they erroneously think it trivializes war atrocities, having sadly misapprehended the setting of the show.
These Hogan's Heroes critics who confuse the POW camps with the concentration/death camps speaks more about the quality of the general public's level of historical awareness than the quality of what William Shatner would call, "Just a TV show!"[18]
Universal HD broadcasts Hogan's Heroes in 1080p High Definition, with the picture being mildly cropped to better fit 16:9 television screens, rather than being fully "pillarboxed" as most non-widescreen programs are when viewed on high-definition TV. The picture is cropped only slightly from the top, and more from the bottom, so that the tops of characters' heads are not usually affected. (This series was filmed in the 4:3 TV ratio; the cropping used by Universal HD leaves a narrow vertical black strip at each side of the picture, each about 1/3 the width of the black strips normally seen with unaltered 4:3 content on a 16:9 screen.) [19]
Hogan's Heroes was not broadcast in Germany on German television until 1992. The original German-language dubbed version was titled Stacheldraht und Fersengeld ("Barbed Wire and Turning Tail"). The program was next re-dubbed and re-broadcast in 1994 as Ein Käfig voller Helden ("A Cage Full of Heroes"), which gained considerable popularity. Hogan's Heroes had been broadcast over the American Armed Forces Network in Germany in 1974 for one or two episodes, but the German government strongly requested its removal, and the management of American Armed Forces TV complied with this request and took it off the air.
In the newer German-language version of Hogan's Heroes, the Germans and Austrians speak in a number of different accents. It amplifies the contrast between Colonel Klink (who portrays the Prussian stereotype but has an accent from Saxony) and Sergeant Schultz (who portrays the Urbayern Bavarian stereotype), which gives the German version of Hogan's Heroes another slapstick element. Furthermore, Klink's choice of vocabulary and memorable quotes add more gags that would not be possible in a direct translation of the original English-language version of Hogan's Heroes.
All of the American characters in Hogan's Heroes speak High German (Standard German). General Burkhalter speaks with strong Austrian accent, especially to go along with the fact that the actor who played this role, Leon Askin, was born in Vienna, Austria.
A major change to the German version of Hogan's Heroes is that Corporal Newkirk, who speaks with a British accent in the original, has his voice changed to that of an exaggerated stutterer in the German version. Another change that was made is in Sergeant Schultz's first name. This is "Hans" in the English version, but they changed this to "Georg" in the German version.
Apart from all of the above, there are numerous departures from the original stories, which introduce factors that are not present in the English Hogan's Heroes. Among other things, the German version introduces a new character, "Kalinke", who is Klink's cleaning lady and also his perennial mistress. Of course, she is referred to, but never seen, because she was nonexistent in the films of the TV program. Colonel Klink describes her as performing most of her cleaning duties in the nude.[20]
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all six seasons of Hogan's Heroes on DVD in Region 1 & 4. The series was previously released by Columbia House as individual discs, each with five or six consecutive episodes.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 4 | ||
| The Complete First Season | 32 | March 15, 2005 | July 30, 2008 |
| The Complete Second Season | 30 | September 27, 2005 | November 7, 2008 |
| The Complete Third Season | 30 | March 7, 2006 | March 5, 2009 |
| The Complete Fourth Season | 26 | August 15, 2006 | June 3, 2009 |
| The Complete Fifth Season | 26 | December 19, 2006 | August 4, 2009 |
| The Sixth & Final Season | 24 | June 5, 2007 | September 30, 2009 |
| The Complete Series (The Kommandant's Collection) | 168 | November 10, 2009 | December 3, 2009 |
In 1965, Fleer produced a 66 trading card set for the series. Between 1966 and 1969, Dell Comics produced 9 issues based on the series, all with photo covers. In 1968, Robert Clary, Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon, and Larry Hovis cut an LP record, Hogan's Heroes Sing the Best of World War II, which included lyrics for the theme song. The record did not sell well and as a result is today considered a collector's item.
In 1968, MPC (Model Products by Craft Master, Model Products Corp.) released a model jeep in 1/25 scale with spurious markings labeled as "Hogan's Heroes World War II Jeep". In 2003 another model (from the same mold, but with slightly different—though still spurious—decals) was released by AMT/ERTL. It cannot be built as a correct World War II military jeep, regardless of markings, without body work due to the fact it has a tailgate opening; but it includes alternate parts to build a correct CJ-2A. A decal on the model read, "If found, return to Colonel Hogan".