This barracks sitcom, produced by Bing Crosby's production company, premiered on CBS on September 17, 1965, and ran in prime time until July 4, 1971. Taking place in Dusseldorf in the middle of World War II, the premise of this series was that American prisoners of war would have no desire to escape from a German prison camp if they could use their superior intelligence to aid other allies in escaping from the camp, while making their surroundings as comfortable as a luxury resort. Naturally, in order to accomplish all this, the Nazis running the camp, which included the Commandant, Colonel Klink (Werner Klemperer), and his main prison guard,  Sgt. Schultz (John Banner), would have to be fairly incompetent, inept and somewhat silly.
Much of the show's popularity had to do with the appealing quality of the American soldiers, particularly the suave, coolly intelligent Colonel Robert Hogan (Bob Crane), who led his multi-ethnic band of men on a never-ending series of comic capers, all of which had the purpose of defeating and humiliating the enemy in only the most pleasurable ways possible. Yet much of the show's humor was dependent on the ridiculous idiocy of Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz who, in spite of their relentless bravado, were nothing more than putty in the hands of a soldier as clever as Hogan. |