Let's get a beer at the Hofbrau...
- Hogan's finally put in his time--Allied Command is ordering him home. Guess who his replacement is? Col. Critterdon! We get a rare chance for Klink to needle Hogan about it. Crittendon manages to botch Hogan's escape in multiple attempts in "Hogan, Go Home".
- Newkirk sneaks a local girl suspected of being a spy into camp. Unfortunately, she's a Gestapo spy. They have to blow up the tunnel to save themselves--along with Carter's help as a fake Nazi general--"Sticky Wicket Newkirk".
- In my favorite episode so far, Hogan has to free underground leaders held by the Gestapo at Stalag 13. Otherwise, they'll be prisoners until the war is over. The obvious solution? End the war--or at least convince Klink and Hochstedder it's over. A fake radio broadcast and newspaper, along with an intercepted call to Berlin, does the trick in "War Takes a Holiday". We also learn that Schultz made toys before the war--as the owner of Germany's equivalent to Mattel. Maybe Klink will work for Schultz after the war...
- It's a "Duel of Honor" when Klink has to escape to Argentina to avoid a crazed general and jealous husband (played by Carter). It's all to get big secrets back to England--just have Klink take them. There's a bit of physical comedy with Schultz playing with Klink's riding crop--too bad those went out of style.
- Hogan needs to get some info to the underground, but the Gestapo have moved into town. Also, "Axis Annie" has come to Stalag 13. What to do? Kill two birds with one stone--use Nazi propaganda to communicate with the underground. Louise Troy played multiple parts on the series--she also happened to be Werner Klemperer's wife at the time. She was nominated three times for a Tony, but never won.
- Hochstedder is becoming a near-regular on the series. In "What Time Does the Balloon Go Up?", he's back to track down a traitor who has important info to get to the underground, but the camp is sealed. Hogan holds a BIG basket-weaving contest--just big enough to fly out the traitor on a hot air balloon. Also, where did Klink get a Lucite map of Europe? I don't think they had these in WWII.
Cast info:
Bernard Fox (Col. Crittendon) was descended from a long line of actors. He was in several British films before coming to the US to work for Danny Thomas, and has the distinction of being in the two major films about the Titanic--A Night to Remember (1958) and Titanic (1997). In addition to his work as the bumbling Crittendon, he's well known as Doctor Bombay on Bewitched (calling Dr. Bombay, Come in Right Away...). He played a number of stuffy British characters on many TV shows from the 60's to 2001, with his last role (for now) on Dharma & Greg. One of the hardest-working men in 60's and 70's TV, you can hear all about him on an episode of our Vast Wasteland podcast.
Remember, you can play along! The DVD box set is available on Amazon.