Funny Thing Happened on the Way to London
- Episode aired Oct 7, 1967
- TV-PG
- 26m
The Germans plot to send an impostor of a captured English officer to kill Winston Churchill. Hogan plots how to foil the plan and keep the real officer alive.The Germans plot to send an impostor of a captured English officer to kill Winston Churchill. Hogan plots how to foil the plan and keep the real officer alive.The Germans plot to send an impostor of a captured English officer to kill Winston Churchill. Hogan plots how to foil the plan and keep the real officer alive.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe "sleeve gun" used by Lt. Baumann actually existed. One can be seen at the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
- GoofsThe reference to the British Prime Minister as "Sir" Winston is premature by as much as a decade. Churchill was invested as a Knight of the Garter on 14 June 1954 during his second premiership. He had been offered a spot in the elite organization when an opening appeared at war's end, but after the July 1945 parliamentary elections which brought Clement Atlee and a Labour government, Churchill declined King George VI's offer by saying that the British people had given him the "order of the boot."
- Quotes
Sgt. Schultz: [finding a dummy in Robert's bed] That's not Capt. Roberts.
LeBeau: He must have sneaked out. I bet he's trying to escape.
Sgt. Schultz: Oo-o-o, I'm in trouble. Where would he go?
LeBeau: Try the wire near the main gate.
Sgt. Schultz: Right! How do you know?
LeBeau: If I was going to escape, that's where I would go.
Sgt. Schultz: Okay. Keep the pancakes warm.
- ConnectionsReferences A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
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.
- darryl-tahirali
- Apr 16, 2022