"Hogan's Heroes" (1966-1971)

A World War II prisoner-of-war camp seemed like an unlikely setting for a comedy, but this had a good run on CBS. Colonel Robert Hogan (Bob Crane) appeared to be just another prisoner in a camp in Germany, but actually, he and a group of men fed information to the Allied forces on the outside. They did this under the nose of Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer), who ran the camp, but was quite clueless and incompetant. It was easy for Hogan to manipulate Klink, whose pompous attitude and ego tripped him up, as well. Hogan and his men practically ran the camp, and their bunkers had the comforts of home.

Hogan's men -- LeBeau (Robert Clary), Newkirk (Richard Dawson), Sgt. Baker (Kenneth Washington), Sgt. Kinchloe (Ivan Dixon), and Sgt. Carter (Larry Hovis) -- had various skills which they used to fight the bad guys. They snuck in and out of the camp at will to complete their missions. Sometimes, Klink's sidekick, Sgt. Hans Schultz (John Banner) would walk in on the guys in the midst of their missions. But Schultz was a nervous type who was always afraid of being sent to the front, so he would ignore whatever he saw. "I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing!" was his catchphrase.

Every time I see reruns of this show, I can't help but think of the fate of actor Bob Crane. He was murdered in the mid-1970's, and to this date, the crime has never been solved. Crane appeared on "The Donna Reed Show" (1958-1966), and headlined one other series on his own, "The Bob Crane Show" (1975). Richard Dawson hosted the game show "Family Feud" for years, and appeared in the movie The Running Man with Arnold Swartzenegger. Ivan Dixon was featured in the movie Car Wash (1976).