Hogan's Heroes (hardback): The Definitive Episode Guide

Watched Hogan's Heroes in 1965 until Summer 1968 when I went to college. No opportunity there to binge-watch one of my favorite shows. Now in 2023, the episodes are on TV again and I can watch and catch up on the escapades of all the characters on the show. This book is definitely the "definitive guide" as it goes into greater detail than what was available a while ago about the Series. The book outlines the human-interest aspects of the show and gives away "secrets" that made the show such a success. Unlike a movie where you have 2+ hours to develop the characters and plot, the Guide gives the inside scoop on each character and episode. Even the dialog and choice of words spoken to various characters helps present the story line to completion in about 23 minutes, and with COMEDY as the result! I read the Guide of each episode before viewing to get the logic and direction of the characters.

Absolutely love looking up each episode and reading all about it.

The description of the episodes and the listing of the featured actors is well done. I would have preferred seeing more photos of the episodes' scenes.

If you're a real Hogan's Heroes aficionado, you will find a few nice features in this book. These include the short interviews with director Jerry London, writer Bilson and four guest stars. It is also peppered with some details about production and some back story on the various guest stars. The episode summaries are OK, but at times they lack objectivity. For example, they attempt to introduce conflict by conflating the on-screen personas of the characters and the actors. (When Newkirk rolls his eyes at Hogan, is that really Dawson rolling his eyes at Crane? I don't think so. I think it's acting.)The "assessments" of each episode are probably intended to differentiate this book from Brenda Royce book (which in my opinion remains the REAL definitive volume.) These are the weakest part of this book.Most of the photos have been seen before, but a few are new, which is nice. There are also some caricatures, which I find garish, but your mileage may vary.It's not a bad addition to your bookshelf if you're a real Hogan's Heroes fan, but calling it "definitive" is a bit oversold when the Brenda Royce book already exists, as does a Fandom wiki that includes many, many episode recaps.

Not researched well. Many errors of episodes. Just thrown together. Authors need to research and verify their information.sad book all together