| DVD Roundup May 2005
 From
Big Screen to TV Screen: Sometimes It Works
Today, old and not-so-old television series are being
turned into multi-million-dollar feature films all the time. But try looking the other
direction: hit movies that were turned into successful TV series. There’s M*A*S*H
-- probably the greatest example of them all. Add to this In the Heat of the Night,
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Odd Couple, and Buffy The Vampire
Slayer, to name a few more big successes. Almost all of these series were in
the same genre as their respective films: from drama to drama, comedy to comedy, action to
action. There were some notable flops, however. Remember Casablanca -- either the
1950s TV version, or the more recent attempt with David Soul as Rick -- Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off, or, most recently, My Big Fat Greek Wedding? No wonder.
Each sank like the proverbial stone when transferred to television.
A point that may well have played into the failure of these
ventures is the almost total absence of the original film actors from the TV shows' casts.
With the exception of Gary Berghoff in M*A*S*H (though only a minor star, he still
provided a sense of continuity), TV series have had to come up with suitable replacements.
The choice of actors has ensured each show’s chance of success -- or failure.
Think back to mid-September, 1965, and the debut of the
series Hogan’s Heroes, staring Bob Crane as prisoner-of-war Robert Hogan and
(in an irony delicious to music fans) Werner Klemperer, son of expatriate German conductor
Otto Klemperer, as camp commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink. The popular show was based on
the 1953 World War II drama Stalag 17, directed by Billy Wilder and starring
William Holden, Otto Preminger, and Peter Graves. It’s a shame that most people today
are more likely to remember Hogan’s Heroes than Stalag 17. Whereas the
film was a more serious depiction of life in a German POW camp, replete with its good and
bad times, Hogan’s Heroes was, of all things, a situation comedy. It did very
well, too, running from 1965 to 1971 -- longer than WWII itself.
CBS DVD and Paramount Studios have released all 32 episodes
of the first season of Hogan’s Heroes in a five-disc boxed set. Because there
were fewer commercials back then, these shows ran a whopping 25 minutes per episode,
compared to the 18-20 minutes of current "half-hour" shows. Those additional
minutes gave each plot a chance to develop while allowing plenty of room for laughs. The
result, for the first season, is 13 hours of fun.
Hogan’s Heroes was silly and was meant to be.
Who in his right mind would think that the shenanigans regularly pulled off by Hogan,
Kinchloe, LeBeau, Newkirk, Carter, and the rest of the Stalag 13 gang could have possibly
happened? Who could take seriously the almost total absence of common sense displayed by
Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz, so ably played by John Banner? 1965 was not so long removed
from the horrors of WWII, which much of the show’s target audience could easily
remember. The series’ premise that the POWs really ran things, and that they could
play such a strategic role in Nazi Germany’s downfall, even if done in such a joking
manner, played well in American homes. The show made people laugh instead of cry when
recalling those dark days.
The picture quality is very good, especially considering Hogan’s
Heroes’ overall low budget. The sound quality, though adequate, is not great. The
original shows were recorded in mono, and you’ll hear occasional dropouts and volume
fluctuations. Still, none of these will deter fans of the show from fully enjoying this
set. The only thing missing are the extras. There are no commentaries, interviews, or
features, any of which might have added much to the understanding of this show and placed
it in the context of the time in which it was first broadcast. For instance, why was Hogan’s
Heroes a comedy, when the film on which it was based was a drama?
Speaking of which, check out Stalag 17, also
available on Paramount DVD.
…John Crossett
johnc@hometheatersound.com |
