Batman-Hogan's Heroes Connection?

I was watching a Season Two (1966-67) episode of "Batman" the other day, and as Batman and Robin are climbing up the Bat-rope to capture Shame, Col. Klink of "Hogan's Heroes" pops his head out of the window. That struck me as quite odd, since "Batman" was on ABC and "Hogan's Heroes" was on CBS, and as far as I can tell, there was no connection between the two shows' production companies (Greenway/20th Century Fox for "Batman," Bing Crosby Productions/Paramount for "Hogan's Heroes"). Why would "Batman" or ABC want to promote another show on another network? Were Adam West and Werner Klemperer drinking buddies or something?

Anybody have any ideas?

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  • Nobody on the internet seems to have an explanation for this. One says he's in his WWII uniform (he isn't). I just watched the clip on YouTube. He has his monocle and has a give-and-take with Adam West. They actually mention Hogan and Klemperer says he's looking for "underground" members. West calls him "Colonel" but doesn't refer to his character name. West mentions that Chief O'Hara might have a problem with an "alien" sneaking around.

    Some on the internet refer to the Klink character as a "Nazi" and a "war criminal." Klink was never shown to be a Nazi, just a German soldier. He was afraid of the Gestapo. A POW camp is not a concentration camp, and neither Klink nor his soldiers were ever shown abusing any prisoners.

    Maybe this was a winking appearance that Klemperer wanted to do and nobody had a problem with it. ABC is probably the only one that would care about promoting a show on another network, if they noticed.

  • Richard Willis said:

    Nobody on the internet seems to have an explanation for this. One says he's in his WWII uniform (he isn't). I just watched the clip on YouTube. He has his monocle and has a give-and-take with Adam West. They actually mention Hogan and Klemperer says he's looking for "underground" members. West calls him "Colonel" but doesn't refer to his character name. West mentions that Chief O'Hara might have a problem with an "alien" sneaking around.

    Maybe this was a winking appearance that Klemperer wanted to do and nobody had a problem with it. ABC is probably the only one that would care about promoting a show on another network, if they noticed.

    The key here is that, from your description (I haven't seen it), Werner Klemperer is not in full costume and is not referred to by his character name -- that way, they don't run afoul of whatever it is that would cry "foul" as such things, and can deny it was the character, even though we all know it is the character.

    It reminds me of a bit in Homicide: Life on the Street -- The Movie, which wrapped the series. The surgeon who operates on the wounded Lt. Giardello is played by Ed Begley Jr. He's not mentioned by name, but you know it's Dr. Victor Ehrlich from St. Elsewhere.

  • The people in the window were from all sorts of things, weren't they? I mean, the slot wasn't restricted to just people who had shows on ABC, obviously.

  • Batman directly refers to Col. Hogan, so while he stops short of saying, "Watch 'Hogan's Heroes' on CBS," it was a pretty obvious plug for a show on another network.

    Yes, it's true that all sorts of people appeared at the window, but other times it was ABC people (Dick Clark, the Green Hornet and Kato, Lurch from "The Addams Family," Howard Duff from "The Felony Squad" (who would end up becoming a Season 3 villain, Cabala), or just your basic garden variety celebrity, e.g., Jerry Lewis.

    Very odd.

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