Hogan's Heroes - The Complete 2nd Season | 
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Directors: Richard Kinon, Marc Daniels, Jerry London, Edward H. Feldman, Bob Sweeney
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $20.29
You Save: $9.69 (32%)
New (33) Used (15) from $18.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 5427
Format: Box Set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 5
Running Time: 762
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.5 x 1
MPN: D888404D
ISBN: 1415713189
UPC: 097368884045
EAN: 9781415713181
ASIN: B000A6T1J0
Theatrical Release Date: September 17, 1965
Release Date: September 27, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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A top 10 show in its first season (a top 20 show in its second), Hogan's Heroes, like Gilligan's Island, got little love from critics during its seven-year run, but it would come to be ranked among TV's guiltiest pleasures. Hogan's Heroes has gotten something of a bad rap. It is not a situation comedy set in a concentration camp. It is, instead, set in a P.O.W. camp, where Col. Hogan (Bob Crane, a former top radio jock, in his star-making role) and his men "trick the dumb Germans," to quote the late Crane's former wife, Sigrid Valdis, in her enlightening commentary on the episode, "Hogan Gives a Birthday Party." While Valdis reveals that the film Von Ryan's Express was a key inspiration for the series, the show seems to takes its cue from Billy Wilder's Stalag 17, with its blend of comedy (albeit more broad than darkly cynical) and espionage action. Though camp commandant Col. Klink (Werner Klemperer, who would win an Emmy for his career-defining role) was, in the words of one character, "a bubble-headed fool," Hogan's Heroes was not quite a burlesque of bad taste. Seemingly in response to wide-ranging outrage over the show's misunderstood premise (a Mad magazine parody at the time was brutal), there are some bracing dramatic moments that cut through the comedy. In "Operation Briefcase," Hogan is recruited to assist an attempt to assassinate Hitler. Hogan disdainfully tells the German plotter, "It's the least you can do, considering you're the same bunch of guys who put him in business." In the episode "Will the Real Adolf Hitler Please Stand Up?" Hogan explodes at one of his men when he imitates Hitler. "Imitating that nut in Berlin," he fumes. "It's not all that funny." But somehow, Hogan's Heroes is, thanks to Crane and Klemperer ("You talk about two people born to play a part," remarks Valdis), not to mention John Banner as the jowl-cheeked buffoon, Sgt. Schultz, and the rest of the crack ensemble, including real-life concentration camp survivor Robert Clary as LeBeau, Richard Dawson as Newkirk, Ivan Dixon as "Kinch," and Valdis herself, who debuted this season as Klink's secretary, Hilda, she of the scene-stealing tight sweaters and low-cut peasant blouses, and whose chief dialogue consisted of "Col. Hogan to see the commandant." The extras are a retro blast. The most bizarre is a commercial in which Carol Channing is smuggled into the barracks to enjoy a Jello dessert with Hogan and company. --Donald Liebenson
Description
HOGAN'S HEROES: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON focuses on a group of American soldiers, led by Colonel Hogan (Crane), who are confined in a Nazi prisoner of war camp called Stalag 13 during World War II. While trapped in Stalag 13, the inmates conduct an espionage and sabotage campaign right under the noses of their warders. Because the Germans, led by the bumbling Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Emmy Award-winning actor Klemperer), are often gullible, the real strength of Hogan's men are the elaborate ruses and sometimes dangerous lengths they will go to complete their mission.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 "Hogan's Heroes" ramps it up in Season 2 July 27, 2008
A number of things have changed between the premiere Season 1 DVD set and this one, for Season 2.
For one thing, the box set is smaller. It has a few less episodes (because that's what TV networks began doing at the time, ordering fewer episodes), and the five disks that comprise the season are contained in three cases.
Not that that's a bad thing. It really doesn't make any difference. What does make a difference is the menu that is used for this edition of the show. Season 1 merely had a static menu with a picture and the episode titles. People often complain about such bare-bones menus...but as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because in Season 2 we get it: a nicely-done animated menu -- with an obnoxiously loud audio track that includes sirens and military drum rolls (which is why this DVD set rates four stars instead of five). The drumming's harsh repetitiveness can be merely annoying in the daytime...but in the evening, try falling asleep watching an episode, only to be jarred awake by strident drums when the episode is over and the DVD jogs back to the main menu.
On the other hand, this time we do get something else buyers complained about last time: features, including a photo gallery, some on-the-set home movies, network promos and more. They're a welcome addition.
Like the previous set, these episodes are also closed-captioned, though you can access them only through your TV's remote control, not your DVD player or any on-screen menu. Kind of odd, but at least they're there.
As for the shows themselves: it's obvious that in Season 2 the series was finding its stride. The missions become more dangerous, the villains more villainous. By this point the writers have managed to inject a more serious side without necessarily giving up the hi-jinks that made the show so popular in the first place. In "Diamonds in the Rough", for example, the heroes encounter a Gestapo man who knows literally everything about their operation; and "Operation Briefcase" roughly tracks the real-life assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, including some (fictional) very tense moments when the bomb looks like it may go off prematurely.
More location shooting (and a wider variety of interior sets) indicate that the series was, by this time, operating with a somewhat larger budget. In the two-parter "A Tiger Hunt in Paris", we even go to gay Paree.
What doesn't change is that the shows are still quite funny, if unbelievable. Even fans of the series will have to admit that the plots have more holes in them than a lace shawl. In many episodes, all it would take is a conversation between two of the characters for them to realize that they have been duped by Hogan. (In "A Tiger Hunt in Paris", for example, Klink, in Paris, checks by phone with Cpl. Gruber (actually Newkirk) and determines that Hogan has not left Stalag 13. But when Klink returns to camp, it would require only one conversation with the real Cpl. Gruber to reveal that Gruber never received such a call.) There are dozens of such incidents scattered throughout the series, so plot-wise the episodes don't bear much inspection.
Also, you may have trouble believing Hogan's German aliases, such as "Hoganmeyer". An Irish name combined with a Jewish-sounding one. Yeah, that'd be convincing in Nazi Germany.
You're better off if you just go along with it all and have fun.
Quality-wise, the season opener, "Hogan Gives a Birthday Party" seems to suffer from poor contrast. But really, that's not too unusual in DVDs made from shows 40 years old. One volume of "M*A*S*H" has an episode transferred from 16mm, because all the 35mm prints were, unfortunately, in bad condition. So this is nothing new, and thankfully it is rare. We're lucky to have the good quality prints we do have, and once again CBS has done a very nice job of mastering them, ensuring that you will enjoy these episodes over and over again.
If only they hadn't put that damned drumming on the menu....
Best season of all... June 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love Hogans Heroes, and this season is my favorite. If you haven't bought a HH season yet, buy this first. Why? Because it is the best season of all and has the best episode of the series "Art for Hogan's Sake."
It is hard to imagine HH without all of the main characters, that is why the final season without Kinchlow is the least favorite of mine. HH#2 is the most original and most humorous of all. (But all of the others are VERY enjoyable as well.) You will be able watch these over and over again. They are all family friendly...unless you don't want your kids watching Hogan kiss a girl in every episode.
"CBS Presents This Program In Color" May 5, 2008
It's great to see this second season of Hogan's Heroes so perfectly intact, that each episode still wears the network announcement that it is in color (which also appears at the beginning of 31 of 32 first season DVD shows). By (1966-67) all prime time television was broadcast in color, though during season one (1965-66) Hogan in color was up against ABC's The Addams Family in black and white on Friday nights. Season two of Hogan's Heroes is just as brilliant as season one. Watching the episodes in chronolgical order, it's evident that Hogan's Heroes hit it's stride from the very beginning.
Complete episodes we never saw on t.v.! April 22, 2008
This is the most fun we've had "watching t.v." in a long time. We grew up watching Hogan's Heroes reruns. I taped as many episodes as I could in recent years for our children to enjoy as we had. They love this show! But we suspected that increased number of commercials had cut into the episodes. We imagined segments of film lying on the cutting room floor. Well, now we know that to be true - we had missed so much great comedic content! There are numerous scenes or parts of scenes per episode that never made it onto the small screen. Now we have complete episodes, and we just love every one of them. Such underrated comedic actors! Such an underrated show. We'll certainly be buying every season.
Hogan's Heroes Season 2 April 9, 2008
To anyone who did not see this in the 60's -- this was good family entertainment of the type we rarely see anymore. If you have seen it, get it to show it to your family and friends. It is an evening, day, or a weekend of fun a good laughs.
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