We’ve lost another of the companions of our youth.
The actor Ivan Dixon, who played Kincheloe on “Hogan’s Heroes,” has died. He was 76.
For my money, Sgt. Baker couldn’t carry Sgt. Kincheloe’s dog tags.
Last one leaving Stalag 13, turn out the lights, please.
“Hogan’s Heroes March,” Bob Crane with John Banner, from “The TV Theme Song Sing-Along Album,” 1985. Out of print. Perhaps thankfully.
It originally was on this album, “Bob Crane: His Drums and Orchestra Play the Funny Side of TV.”
But not this album, “Hogan’s Heroes Sing the Best of World War II,” on which Dixon performed.
Wow. I really do not want to know. If you do, go here.
Update, two days later: I don’t wish to slight Dixon’s memory by failing to mention other aspects of his distinguished career. As noted in the Los Angeles Times’ appreciation, he also was a fine dramatic actor, a highly regarded director and an advocate for African-Americans in the film industry.
AM, Then FM 
Am I the only person who thinks that wacky hijinx in a prison camp, as portrayed on “Hogan’s Heroes,” was (and remains) in hideously bad taste, given what happened in the concentration camps? Perhaps I am. But watching it always makes me uncomfortable, so I don’t anymore.
It does have one of the great themes in TV history, though.
I know how you feel jb. At the time though, I didn’t know any better. Old habits are hard to break. if it weren’t for HH I probably never would have joined the marching band as a kid and would have never found the beat!
I was a huge McHale’s Navy fan. Still my favorite to this day.
No, jb, I’ve thought the same thing. I remember nodding in agreement when “MAD” magazine did a parody, at the time “HH” was on the air, titled “Hochman’s Heroes,” about the hijinks that took place in an extermination camp. That pretty much put it in perspective for me. But I guess the mainstream didn’t ponder such things back then.
Always thought the concept for Hogan’s Hero’s had to be a tricky sell for network television, especially as a comedy. I thought they did a good job to keep it entertaining, yet deftly skirting the ugly realities of war.
An important point to keep in mind is that HH was set in a prisoner of war camp for allied aviators, not a extermination/concentration camp.
Stalag 17 was the orginal movie that HH was loosely based on: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/
It had some of the familar elements of the TV show, but the setting and storyline was as a drama instead of a comedy.