Hogan's Heroes

Hogan's Heroes (1965)

106 mistakes in season 1

(24 votes)

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Suggested correction: I think that the tank in question is actually an M3 Lee.

It is an M-7 Priest, armed with a 105mm howitzer, not an M-3 Lee.

Scott215

The Gold Rush - S1-E18

Continuity mistake: Hogan and company use red painted gold bricks to replace the wooden stairs that they sabotaged. The steps after this episode should have been brick, but they went back to being wooden.

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Suggested correction: This is technically correct; however, the series was set up to allow the episodes to be aired in any order; this is why it is always winter and some episodes do refer to other storylines and actual events/dates for episode storylines, e.g., Hogan's D-Day, which took place in June, not wintertime.

unkajes

Reservations Are Required - S1-E15

Continuity mistake: Hogan dumps a bucket of water on Barnes and Davis each, to make it look like they were the ones who hid in the tanker. They get big wet patches on their uniforms from it, but aren't completely wet through and through - which is to be expected, after all it's just a small bucket of water each. After the next cut however, they are completely soaked like they went swimming.

Doc

Anchors Aweigh, Men of Stalag 13 - S1-E16

Revealing mistake: When the "Boat" is loaded on a "trailer", you can see that it has very little ground clearance. The wheels of the "trailer" actually are hidden behind the boards like on a parade wagon. The boat has no keel and no hull below its freeboard. Besides the question of how the boat got onto the trailer if it is practically built around it, there remains the question of how it is supposed to stay afloat without a keel or a bottom.

Doc

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Suggested correction: "Hogan's Heroes" is an American television show produced for an English speaking audience. The whole show is shot in English! Did you expect Schultz and Klink to speak German and LeBeau to speak French?

I have seen MANY instances in the show where German characters are speaking actual German phrases (many quite accurately, by the way) and ranks of fellow German soldiers. When the German characters are addressing English-speaking characters in this American-made show, you do expect them to speak German-accented English, however, when German-speaking characters speak German to each other, one expects them to use the proper address and vernacular Germans would use and not mix in other languages. In this case, the SS guard did not know a lick of English when he was questioning some prisoners who were out their barracks, but addresses Sergeant Schultz as "Sergeant" rather than "Feldwebel." Furthermore, why aren't little things like buckets of water used in the show are labeled, "Water" rather than the German "Wasser"? Why isn't the list of rules tacked onto the barracks say "Forbidden" rather than "Verboten"?

Scott215

The point is that when German characters are speaking to each other, it is assumed by the audience that they are speaking German and we are hearing an English translation for our convenience. In the world of the show, they are using the German term, but we hear the English equivalent.

The Gold Rush - S1-E18

Factual error: The guard outside Klink's office and the two Gestapo soldiers guarding the gold truck have MP38/40 and a Thompson submachine gun, but carry rifle ammunition pouches instead of the long ammo pouches that carried the 30-round magazines used by the MP38/40.

Scott215

I Look Better in Basic Black - S1-E28

Other mistake: When Hogan asked the girls if they wanted to try to escape to England, the one in "basic black" said that anything is better than being booked in a German prison camp for three years. How did she know when the war would be over?

The Flame Grows Higher - S1-E31

Visible crew/equipment: Toward the end of the episode, after the two women are taken out by the Gestapo, Shultz, Hogan, Lebeau, and Newkirk are standing having a drink. The camera goes in for a close-up on Shultz, there is a noticeable shadow of the camera on Shultz's coat, and right arm.

Movie Nut

The 43rd, a Moving Story - S1-E23

Character mistake: When Klink explains the route of the trucks carrying the red cross packages to Kühn, he for once uses a map actually showing Germany. Unfortunately, the places he points to start near Luxemburg and track all across Germany. The spot he places Hammelburg at would be near Poznan in Poland.

Doc

I Look Better in Basic Black - S1-E28

Factual error: The American women the SS brings into camp claim to be entertainers having performed for troops. The series is allegedly set in 1942. Before June 6th, 1944 there were no allied troop concentrations in central Europe, certainly not in Germany, and very certainly none of a size and security rating the USO (or probably rather its predecessor organization, since the USO was founded in 1941 and would not have been fully operational yet) would send a troupe of female entertainers to.

Doc

The Gold Rush - S1-E18

Revealing mistake: When Le Beau holds up the gold painted brick and the "gold" brick, the ends reveal that they appear to be pieces of lumber. The ends seem to have grains consistent with lumber.

Movie Nut

Request Permission to Escape - S1-E32

Character mistake: When ordering Schultz to finish cleaning his car, Klink salutes Schultz, his returning the salute with the garden hose in his hand leads to Klink being soaked. A salute is, except in rare circumstances, always initiated by the lower-ranking individual and returned by his superior, not the other way round. This rule is broken especially by Klink in several other places as well.

Doc

The Gold Rush - S1-E18

Other mistake: When the man goes to close the door, Newkirk gets a piece of plastic in between the door and the jamb to prevent the lock from engaging. But if you look closely, the plastic is above the lock, not stopping anything.

Movie Nut

The Late Inspector General - S1-E4

Plot hole: At the beginning, the Inspector General instantly pegs the incidents Hogan's men enact as staged to defame Klink, and takes it as proof Klink is the right man to be put in charge of all POW camps in the Reich. Later, as Klink and he do their "final inspection", much less severe - and frankly, much less believable - incidents cause him to completely revise his assessment of Klink. Him believing Klink would be a pickpocket and compulsive kleptomaniac simply doesn't make sense.

Doc

More quotes from Hogan's Heroes

Trivia: A sinister aspect of an otherwise lightheated comedy, but the fact is that Hogan and his men are war criminals. They engage in combat activities behind enemy lines when not in uniform, and worse, while wearing enemy uniforms. The Germans tried that during the Battle of the Bulge and those arrested were shot.

More trivia for Hogan's Heroes

Answer: Nimrod's actual identity was never revealed in the series. It was only known that he was a British intelligence agent. Nimrod was not Colonel Klink. Hogan had only implied it was him as a ruse to get Klink returned as camp commandant, not wanting him replaced by someone more competent who would impede the Heroes war activities. The term "nimrod" is also slang for a nerdy, doofus type of person, though it's unclear why that was his code name.

raywest

"Nimrod" is originally a king and hero mentioned in the Tanach and taken into the Bible and the Koran. His name is often used in the sense of "stalker," "hunter," and sometimes figuratively as "womanizer" as in "hunter of women." I've never seen it used to denote a nerdy person, and although I cannot disprove that connotation, I think given his role, the traditional meaning is more likely the intended one.

Doc

It's widespread enough that Wikipedia has an entire section on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod#In_popular_culture

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