Hogan's Heroes (TV Series) Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London (1967) User Reviews

This episode was better than expected.

[kfo9494 · 9/10 · 26 September 2014]

When I first saw that the story was going to be an actor playing duel roles I thought, 'not again'. Nearly every TV show has a story similar and it always seems to be a clunker. But after viewing this episode I can say that I was wrong. This actually was a very interesting and fun show.

The plot involves an RAF pilot, Captain Roberts, that is also well received within the government of Great Britain. In fact Capt Roberts has special clearance where he is briefed by Winston Churchill concerning the war progress. This is where the Germans have a scheme where they will try and assassinate Churchill.

What the Germans have done is taken one of their own officers, Lt. Baumann, that looks just like Capt Roberts and substitute him for Roberts. With some plastic surgery and voice recordings the two people are near identical. The real test, plus the reason they have come to Stalag 13, is that Hogan is friends with Capt Roberts. If Lt. Baumann can fool Hogan then he can fool Churchill.

And sure enough it looks like Hogan has taken the bait. But when Hogan overhears the exact plans, he has to think of a way to get the real Robert out of camp and delay the fake.

This was a better episode than expected. What the writer had was a great story and a nice cast that lead to an entertaining production. With the serious side of the switch and the humorous side of Hochstetter and Klink, this made for an enjoyable and amusing show.

***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 1 March 2016]

The usually suave Lloyd Bochner, with that distinct urbane way of speaking, certainly added to this episode. Here, he portrays a British army official captured and brought to Stalag 13. In the meantime, the Gestapo has a double of him and naturally they shall allow him to escape so that he can assassinate Winston Churchill with a new type of shoulder gun that the Germans have made.

With the allies finding all this out, they are able to come up with a plan to thwart the phony Bochner character from carrying out such a dastardly deed.

Since being debonair, Bochner was able to bring new life to the role.

This Eagle Lands in the "Hogan's Heroes" Hall of Fame

[darryl-tahirali · 10/10 · 16 April 2022]

The plot? A German plan to assassinate Winston Churchill. The means? An assassin trained and surgically altered to be the exact double of a British Royal Air Force staff officer with direct access to the British prime minister. Why did this caper come to Stalag 13, the German prisoner-of-war camp where an Allied intelligence and sabotage unit, "Hogan's Heroes," operates covertly? The RAF officer being twinned, Group Captain James Roberts (Lloyd Bochner), is a friend of Heroes' leader Colonel Hogan, and if the evil twin, Leutnant Baumann (also Bochner), can fool Hogan, then the plan to kill Churchill is sure to succeed.

And who gets to script this tale with its grandiose premise and audacious scheme, which could easily collapse into farcical exaggeration or outlandish contrivance--if not both--to which any number of "Hogan's Heroes" writers who have collapsed like that already could easily attest?

Getting the call is Laurence Marks, from whose deft hands "Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London" delivers crafty deception, knife-edged suspense, worthy adversaries on both sides (yes, even foolish Stalag 13 commandant Colonel Klink and his bumbling Sergeant of the Guard Schultz), narrative plausibility from start to finish, and snappy dialog laced with biting wit as it makes its way to, were it to exist, the "Hogan's Heroes" Hall of Fame as an exemplar of the best that this 1960s wackiness-ensues situation comedy could produce.

Major Hochstetter is on hand to orchestrate the plot when the genuine Roberts is brought to Stalag 13 from another POW camp, with Hogan allowed, a little too easily, to see him immediately. On his guard, and already tipped to the assassination plot by the Heroes' bug in Klink's office, Hogan tries to ascertain why Roberts has been brought to camp.

The real Roberts is part of a double-blind test, revealed once Baumann arrives in Klink's office, looking and sounding exactly like Roberts, and proudly accepts his mission to kill "Winnie." Listening in on the bug, the Heroes, especially British Corporal Newkirk, can scarcely believe that "Roberts" would turn traitor--that is, until the real Roberts confronts his doppelganger. Then the race is on for the Heroes to foil the plot before Baumann leaves--and before the real Roberts becomes a liability to be liquidated.

(In a telling aside, French Corporal LeBeau is most willing to believe that the real Roberts defected to the Nazis, ironic in that, during World War Two, the southern half of France, known as Vichy France, openly collaborated with the Nazis occupying the rest of France.)

"Funny Thing" is structured so much like a dramatic suspenser that you might think there is no room for what is crucial to a sitcom: humor. In fact, Marks works the yuks in so seamlessly that you might not notice they're there even as you're laughing. That is what distinguishes him from virtually all the other series writers: Instead of stringing together a collection of gags in the hope that they'll somehow cohere into a story, Marks crafts his narrative carefully and deliberately so the jokes and one-liners arise organically. He can even keep Klink and Schultz the butts of jokes while still painting them as competent--just check out Schultz's aggressive assurance at the climax.

The only flaw (and God knows that contributors to the Goofs page have torn this episode apart looking for one) is that Baumann, once handed the mechanism by which he is to kill Churchill, must realize that he is now on a suicide mission, with nothing to indicate what his reaction might be.

Still, "Funny Thing" is so strong it makes you wonder if it inspired Jack Higgins's 1975 novel "The Eagle Has Landed," which also elaborated a plot to neutralize Churchill and was quickly turned into a movie. In any case, with excellent performances all around, particularly guest-star Bochner in the actor's dream of a dual role, this proud bird lands in the "Hogan's Heroes" Hall of Fame.