The second year of this surprisingly popular sitcom once again finds Colonel Robert Hogan (Bob Crane) and his merry band of fellow POWs (Robert Clary, Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon, Larry Hovis) aiding the Allied war effort under the noses of their German captors in Stalag 13. The 30 episodes of the 1966-67 season removed any question in the minds of Commandant Klink (Werner Klemperer) and dimwitted Sergeant Schultz (John Banner) that Hogan was assisting the underground (they just couldn't figure out how). For his part, Hogan continued to play a cat-and-mouse game with his feckless Nazi adversaries, never actually admitting the extent of his activities but leaving little doubt that he was successfully conducting them. In “The Tower,” a late-season episode, he's able to blackmail Klink's superior, General Burkhalter (Leon Askin), into preventing the Commandant's banishment to the Russian front for failing to prevent Hogan's destruction of a radio tower. Other fine examples of Hogan's ingenuity can be seen in “The Rise and Fall of Sergeant Schultz,” in which he uses a ceremony honoring Schultz's participation in World War I as a diversion to release a captured Resistance fighter, and in “The Battle of Stalag 13,” in which he schemes to prevent his operation from being uprooted by visiting Nazi officers who want to turn the camp into an interrogation center or an officers' retirement home. What's perhaps most remarkable in the second season (indeed, in the whole series) is how the show's writers consistently rose to the challenge of concocting credible variations of the same theme. If you don't like Hogan's Heroes, you will zee nozink here to change your mind, but faithful fans will enjoy. DVD extras include audio commentaries, rare home movies, a blooper/gag reel, and cast guest appearances. Recommended. (E. Hulse)
Hogan's Heroes: The Complete Second Season
Paramount, 5 discs, 762 min., not rated, DVD: $38.99 December 26, 2005
Hogan's Heroes: The Complete Second Season
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