Hogan's Heroes: The Informer (1965) Reviews

Hogan's Heroes began its six-season run on September 17, 1965, with its black-and-white pilot episode, "The Informer." Colonel Hogan and the gang welcome a new prisoner named Wagner (Noam Pitlik) to Stalag 13 (here referred to as "Camp 13"). After giving the newcomer a guided tour of the barracks -- and of the inmates' covert espionage operation and prisoner-escape service -- Hogan discovers that Wagner is a spy for the Gestapo. Quickly, the other prisoners cook up a scheme to discredit Wagner in the eyes of Colonel Klink and the rest of the Germans. Worth noting in this inaugural episode is the more sharply adversarial relationship between Hogan and Klink (who is not as much of a buffoon as he'd be in subsequent episode) and the fact that Carter (Larry Hovis) is a lieutenant rather than a sergeant. "The Informer" was written by Richard M. Powell and series creators Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy, from a story by Fein and Ruddy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi