Hogan's Heroes Episode Review: "Hogan Goes Hollywood"

Guest stars include Alan Oppenheimer.

When I first started watching this particular episode at lunch today, I was a bit concerned it would be like many others and prove to be very predictable. However, after seeing it, I do have to admit the episode was better than expected.

The thing I liked about this episode was the fact it doesn’t fully reveal Hogan’s plan until toward the end. This is something many other episodes from the series did not do and they weren’t overly interesting as a result (it’s hard to be surprised by something when you already can guess at how it will end). But, in this case, while it was obvious Hogan planned to use the propaganda film to accomplish his objective of blowing up a bridge, it wasn’t overly easy to figure out exactly how it was going to work.

This was also true about the very end of the episode, when they manage to blow up the bridge right in front of Klink and General Burkhalter (Leon Askin). It was unusual because that is the type of thing you would expect them to do in secret. And, the way Hogan set up the explosives and blew up the bridge while still staying out of trouble was fantastic.

For his part, Oppenheimer did an excellent job as the captured Major Byron Buckles. I liked how the episode chose not to have the character be a complete traitor and, instead, had him just be overly arrogant to the point he wanted to make a movie, regardless of who he was making it for. And, the fact he wasn’t a very good actor (other than to Klink) just made it funnier, especially since Oppenheimer managed to overplay it just the right amount.

As I said, I wasn’t really expecting to like this episode when I first started watching it. However, it turned out to be much better than I expected it to be, mostly because it wasn’t as predictable as I thought it would be. I do recommend watching this one if you have a chance.

My Grade: B