Ep 1 Selling World War II as Comedy

Ep. 2 "The Old Germans" and Jewish Refugee Policies

In this episode, we discuss the lives of John Banner (Sgt. Schultz) and Leon Askin (General Burkhalter), and we interview renowned historian of the Holocaust Dr. Christopher Browning about US Jewish refugee policy during the 1930s. We also delve into German policies toward Jews in the pre-war period, as well as the Swiss and French response to refugees from 1939 to1940.

Ep 1 Selling World War II as Comedy

In this episode we talk about the genesis of Hogan's Heroes as a plot originally based on a prison comedy. The conversion to a WWII POW camp brought with it controversy, a reluctant network executive, critical reviews in major media, but also success.  We talk about the way TV worked in the 1960s, and we interview Frank Conniff of MST3K fame on the nature of comedy and satire and how Hogan's Heroes was able to sell WWII as comedy.

Prologue: The Original Pitch for Hogan's Heroes and Postwar America

This short audio summarizes the stories we tell in the full podcast.  We used this to sell people on the idea when we first came up with it.   Video version is available on YouTube.