History Trivia / HogansHeroes

* FakeNationality: Almost completely averted. John Banner was Austrian, the rest of the cast matched the nationality of their characters. Major Hochstetter -- a character not in the main cast -- was played by an American actor, as was French resistance leader Tiger.
** "Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London" has as Canadian Lloyd Bochner playing dual roles as an Englishman and a German... who's pretending to be English, making it also an InUniverse FakeNationality.

** Both Werner Klemperer and John Banner had appeared in the fact-based drama ''Operation Eichmann'' playing more serious, evil Nazis. Klemperer was Adolf Eichmann himself, while Banner played notorious Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss.

** "Heil Klink" features a financial expert called Wolfgang Brauner who's wanted by the Gestapo; John Banner plays Schultz and Brauner.

* RetroactiveRecognition: William Christopher was a minor supporting actor in an number of episodes, sometimes playing a [=POW=], sometimes playing a German, and sometimes [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs playing a POW playing a German]]. He would later become famous in a series produced by Gene Reynolds (who directed many of the episodes Christopher was in), ''Series/{{MASH}}''.

* NamesTheSame:
** Sgt. Carter wasn't the only TV character in TheSixties who was a [[Series/GomerPyleUSMC sergeant whose last name was Carter]], nor is he related to [[Series/StargateSG1 another one from the 90s.]]
** This occurs InUniverse and is played for serious drama. In "The Crittendon Plan" Hogan is ordered to blow up a convoy and the tunnel with it, and is told that Colonel Crittendon, his old nemesis, has the masterplan for it. Unfortunately, it turns out London gave Hogan the wrong Crittendon, and the Crittendon they need is in a different Stalag. The Crittendon that appears in the show had formulated a Crittendon plan, where geraniums would line every runway in England, and this causes severe trouble for the group. When the underground members realize they have the wrong Crittendon, everything goes pear-shaped even when they explain that they merely got the wrong Colonel Crittendon. While everything does work out and they accomplish the mission, it certainly could have gone a lot easier if they had received the right Crittendon.

** Related to the above, although the series is often criticized for lampooning Nazis and prisoner of war camps, in fact many of the actors involved in the series were direct survivors of Nazi oppression. Aside from Clary, John Banner was an Austrian-born Jew who lost family in the concentration camps, while other actors in the series, including Klemperer and Leon Askin, left Germany and Austria as Hitler rose to power.

* ActingForTwo:

** The two-parter "Lady Chitterly's Lover" has Bernard Fox act as both the bumbling Col. Crittendon and the traitorous Lord Chitterly. Notably, all of these episodes feature impersonations of one character by the other.

* YouLookFamiliar: Howard Caine played three different German officers, Major Keitel in "Happy Birthday, Adolf" (S1/E17); Col. Feldcamp in "The Battle of Stalag 13" (S2/E5); and Maj. Hochstetter in 37 episodes.

** Early production had intended for Schultz and Langenscheidt to be a "Laurel & Hardy" type comedy pair. This was scrapped in favor of having Schultz play off Klink instead.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Made the "perpetual winter" continuity of the series unrealistic, with full green foliage in the surroundings, and the actors sweating in their caps and coats and acting like it's freezing outside when in actuality it was well over 90 degrees outside. In fact the main set was on the Desilu lot near the sets of Series/TheAndyGriffithShow and Series/GomerPyleUSMC.

** Averted with Bob Crane and Werner Klemperer; Crane loved playing Hogan and wanted to be remembered as such, while Klemperer mentioned on ''Series/ThePatSajakShow'' that he's perfectly okay with people coming up to him and saying, "Hi, Colonel [Klink]!"

** In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons,'' Werner Klemperer's ghost is Homer's GuardianAngel. Homer, of course, thinks it's Colonel Klink. Klemperer plays along with it in his final cameo.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The producers of the [=DVDs=] seem to think so, the show is described as being "timeless" on DVD packages, however, with this show obviously taking place in a German prisoner of war camp in [=WW2=], it's a period piece no matter how you look at it.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Werner Klemperer was insistent that Colonel Klink never be seen as sympathetic in any way and reviewed scripts in advance to ensure it. In addition to being in the US Army during WWII, his father was Jewish but converted to Catholicism, later re-converting to Judaism; Werner converted back to Judaism.

* RealitySubtext

** Sgt. Carter wasn't the only TV character in TheSixties who was a [[Series/GomerPyleUSMC sergeant whose last name was Carter]].

* CaliforniaDoubling: Made the "perpetual winter" continuity of the series unrealistic, with full green foliage in the surroundings, and the actors sweating in their caps and coats and acting like it's freezing outside when in actuality it was well over 90 degrees outside.

** Many of the actors playing Germans on the show were Jews who left Europe to escape the Nazi regime. They took parts in the show because the heroes would always outsmart the Nazis. Leon Askin (who played General Burkhalter) had a prominent scar on his cheek from being beaten by the SS in the street because of his religion and this was handwaved away in-universe as a fencing scar[[note]]Many German officers had such scars since it was a sign of bravery because that they didn't flinch as sabers were being swiped at their faces. Many would sew horsehair into the open wound to make the scar as prominent as possible[[/note]]

** Bob Crane as Col. Robert Hogan, though this is actually coincidental; the character was named after actor Robert Hogan, who was a friend of co-creator Bernard Fein, and director Gene Reynolds (and indeed appeared on the series himself).

* NamesTheSame: Sgt. Carter wasn't the only TV character in TheSixties who was a [[Series/GomerPyleUSMC sergeant whose last name was Carter]].

** Isn't it really, in fact, an ''intentional'' period piece, then?

** Richard Dawson wanted to give Newkirk a Liverpool accent in order to avoid the stereotype that all British characters speak in a cockney accent. However, people were having a difficult time understanding his dialogue, and he was asked to give Newkirk a cockney accent after all, to which request he relented. Ironically, shortly after the pilot was filmed, ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' was released and went over really well with audiences, leaving Dawson to ponder that if audiences could understand what Music/TheBeatles said, surely they could've understood Newkirk.

* Werner Klemperer was insistent that Colonel Klink never be seen as sympathetic in any way and reviewed scripts in advance to ensure it. In addition to being in the US Army during WWII, his father was Jewish but converted to Catholicism. Werner converted back to Judaism.

* HeAlsoDid: Both Werner Klemperer and John Banner had appeared in the fact-based drama ''Operation Eichmann'' playing more serious, evil Nazis. Klemperer was Adolf Eichmann himself, while Banner played notorious Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss.

* The series has a shared reality with ''Series/GreenAcres''. During a flashback from Oliver's World War II years, both Colonel Hogan and Stalag 13 are mentioned. Colonel Klink also showed up in -- of all places! -- the ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' TV show and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.

* Both Werner Klemperer and John Banner had appeared in the fact-based drama ''Film/OperationEichmann'' playing more serious, evil Nazis. Klemperer was Adolf Eichmann himself, while Banner played notorious Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss.

* The series has a shared reality with ''Series/GreenAcres''. During a flashback from Oliver's World War II years, both Colonel Hogan and Stalag 13 are mentioned. Colonel Klink also showed up in -- of all places! -- the ''Series/{{Batman}}'' TV show and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.