Hogan's Heroes (TV Series) Request Permission to Escape (1966) User Reviews

Women are like war.....

[kfo9494 · 7/10 · 22 September 2014]

In this final episode of season one, we get Carter getting a 'Dear John' letter from home when his sweet-heart Mary Jane is now seeing someone else in her hometown. Now Carter ask permission from Hogan to escape to go back to the States and be with Mary Jane.

At first Hogan resists Carters request and even goes as far to get others, including Schultz, to talk with Carter and try to get him to change his mind. It will not be until Hogan gets some micro-film with some false information contained about a bombing raid. What the Allies want is for the Germans to recover the film from one of the prisoners and think that this is true information. Now Hogan is asking for volunteers to escape and then be recaptured with the film on them.

Since no one wants to volunteer, Carter will do the duty. But on his escape trip he meet a young waitress that just may solve the problem that Hogan was unable to solve.

It was nice to see Larry Hovis getting the lead in this show that was well done by the entire cast. Nothing was really remarkable in this production but it still provided an enjoyable watching experience. As we end season one, expectations are high for the next season to beginning. And thanks to the magic of reruns, we only have tomorrow to wait.

"Hogan's Heroes" Hits All Its Marks

[darryl-tahirali · 9/10 · 11 March 2022]

Laurence Marks was the best writer "Hogan's Heroes" ever had. While "Request Permission to Escape," which closed the series' first season, focuses on Sergeant Carter's need to return to the United States after receiving a Dear John letter from his girlfriend, with a number of humorous vignettes goosing that premise, Marks emphasizes the overall seriousness of the Heroes' operation. When Carter requests permission to escape, Colonel Hogan reminds him in no uncertain terms that his (Hogan's) orders were plain: "We're not just ordinary POWs. We're here on a mission. . . . We're to assist Allied prisoners to escape, sabotage the enemy wherever possible."

This central dynamic of "Hogan's Heroes" is inherently contradictory--after all, how do you balance Sixties sitcom silliness with a sobering emphasis on war?--which resulted in wildly uneven approaches depending on who scripted the episode. Richard Powell, for instance, played the series strictly as farce. On the other hand, Marks never forgot Hogan's mission and used it as his baseline. He also never forgot that "Hogan's Heroes" was a sitcom and tried to incorporate wacky gags into his narratives, and although some of his attempts were desultory--the opening car-washing routine here is tossed-off, sudsy slapstick--he was able to strike the strongest balance of comedic outrageousness and dramatic credibility.

The plot device linking the two is microfilm the underground has passed along to the Heroes that purports to show plans for an upcoming Allied air raid but is really designed to deceive the Germans into thinking the raid is aimed at one city, Eindhoven, when it is actually targeting another city, Schweinfurt. (The Allies did launch a historically significant raid on Schweinfurt in August 1943, another real-world acknowledgement by Marks.) When Carter, officially granted permission to escape by Hogan, overhears Hogan's plan to have someone be deliberately captured by the Germans during an escape attempt so the microfilm can be found on him, which the other Heroes are reluctant to volunteer for, Carter volunteers to do it, provided he can still escape for real and go home.

It is not clear if that scene was staged to entice Carter into sticking around, at least temporarily, although Bob Crane plays it as deception. Certainly there was plenty of deception going on prior to that, with Hogan enlisting not only the Heroes but Sergeant Schultz, Colonel Klink's secretary Helga (in Cynthia Lynn's final appearance in the role), and even Klink himself to try to dissuade Carter from returning home. And Carter's "escape" is truly a comedy of errors as he literally cannot get arrested for escaping. But in the end, the spotlight is on Larry Hovis as it's Carter who has the last laugh, thanks to a cute barmaid (Mary Mitchel) he met during his travels as "Request Permission to Escape" shows "Hogan's Heroes" hitting all its Marks.

This one just didn't deliver

[FlushingCaps · 5/10 · 3 May 2020]

While not horrible, I felt this was one of the weakest episodes simply because it wasn't all that funny. The gang learns of some microfilm hidden in a cigarette lighter that has been stashed somewhere in Klink's car. They take on the task of washing it and searching until they find it under the distributor. Right away, I wonder why the underground contact only said it was in Klink's car instead of being more specific. They could have looked in vain for that lighter for hours.

We get the predictable scene where once they find the lighter, the prisoners all hightail it back to their barracks, ignoring Sgt. Schultz's pleas for them to finish. Col. Klink comes out while Schultz is holding the hose, and, of course, as he starts to salute the Colonel, Schultz points the hose right at him...and keeps it there, soaking the Colonel. Klink's response was to sort-of-calmly, tell Schultz, "When you get done drying off the car, you can dry me off."

Carter gets a "Dear John" letter from a previously unheard-of fiancee back home (his buddies said they never heard of her, as well as the TV viewers) and he wants to escape so he can go home.

But before Hogan agrees, Carter is going on one last mission. He is to escape, while carrying that important microfilm designed to trick the Germans. He is supposed to get recaptured outside the camp and let the Krauts find the hidden microfilm that should lead them to moving troops away from the actual site of a bombing mission.

Carter shows up at a bar in town and happily walks up to every German military person he can find trying to turn himself in. They all think he is some sort of Gestapo spy trying to trick them and refuse to capture him.

He does get his mission accomplished. Then (spoiler alert, I guess), Hogan goes through with his promise to let Carter escape only to learn that Carter has suddenly forgotten the girl back home, but instead wants to go back to see the barmaid who was nice to him the night before. And the show ends.

I know it's Hogan's Heroes and it doesn't have to have a truly realistic conclusion, but I just thought this one was weak. That Hogan would just let him escape and thus spoil Klink's famous "no-escape" record-which often seems to be the only way he keeps his command-doesn't follow anything else in the series. Arranging for someone else with Carter's bomb-making skills to become a prisoner not only sent to Stalag13, but assigned to Hogan's barracks would also be a challenge.

As the series goes, Hogan would normally not have approved an escape. And for him to escape knowing that the girl he loves will be married before he could possibly make it back home truly makes this a pointless escape. I haven't even gotten to the part about how Hogan letting Carter go back to England might well not find the brass there happy to allow him to just quit the war to go back to his girlfriend at home-many hundreds of GIs had no recourse on receiving such a sad letter other than to write back to their loved ones. Here, they made it sound like as soon as Carter got to England, he would be allowed to go home.

Ignoring as best I could these gigantic plot holes, I just didn't think there were many funny lines or actions in this episode, when compared with most others. The drama part was certainly close to nil, as there were no scenes where anyone was in danger and no espionage or other action scenes to enjoy.

If Carter had gone home ..

[mick987g · 9 January 2021]

Wouldn't that have spoiled Klink's record for no escapes and jeopardized the whole operation?

How would it be explained. I know its just a tv show but still !