ABSTRACT
Almost every response to the 1965 premiere of Hogan’s Heroes (1965–1971) on primetime CBS referred to the show’s World War II historical setting. Most reviews found the situation comedy’s conceit of a group of prisoners of war conducting sabotage from the confines of a German Stalag offensive. One such critic, Jack Gould of The New York Times, admitted as much two years later when he gave the series a second look: “The idea of making sport of the Nazis as clownish oafs originally struck this corner as a wildly improbable premise, but the continued run of Edward H. Felman’s production speaks for itself.” 2 If Gould’s assertion is true, what does it say? By 1967, why had the series become more acceptable in the eyes of a New York tastemaker? Gould’s own answer is that the series had found a comedic formula that assured continued success, namely by avoiding the kind of topicality associated with other television programming of the day. While Gould is no doubt right that Hogan’s Heroes had discovered a formula for success, one that would keep it in syndication for decades after its original broadcast run, his own reading of what constituted that formula is underdeveloped. The secret to the success of Hogan’s Heroes was the series’ ability to couch its own topicality within a historical war setting in which the moral stakes were much less contentious than the war that was raging during the show’s run.
