Sympathy for a Hogan's hero

Now that Watson has proven resistance is futile and ratings are great, I'd like to blog about something completely different. Somehow the GSN Classics board wandered into a discussion of Bob Crane, late of Hogan's Heroes and, as it turns out, many game shows.

Crane's personal demons have been so well catalogued that I won't rehash them here. But there were a few references in my comments from the thread...

Other poster: Speaking of Bob Crane although he never appeared on Match Game he did appear on a game show Larry Hovis was associated with called Liar's Club.

Just glanced at Bob Crane's IMDb page and I was surprised to see all the game shows on his resume: Break the Bank, You Don't Say, Celebrity Sweepstakes, Tattletales (hm, a very interesting item), Hollywood Squares, Match Game (sixties version), What's My Line, Password All-Stars, The Face is Familiar.

YouTube has one of the Liars Club episodes with Crane and Larry Hovis, along with Harvey Korman and Tom Bosley. You can also watch him on The Face is Familiar with June Lockhart. But wait, there's more, a Break the Bank episode with Crane and some Game Show Network bumpers from way back.

Other poster: I wonder if Bob Crane was on Tattletales with [his wife] Sigrid Valdis. That actually would be interesting to see.

What looks like the "official" Bob Crane website says that he did indeed appear with Sigrid on Tattletales. Yep, most interesting. The site says Crane also subbed for Johnny Carson on Who Do You Trust, and he turned up on Gong Show, where he got into a spat with Jaye P. Morgan over...marijuana!

There's also a reference to a show called One Thousand Dollar Pyramid. Never heard of that one (wink). But I did find a source for a Crane appearance on $10,000 Pyramid. This guy showed up on a lot of game shows.

Another poster: Yes, Bob was with Sigrid Valis on Tattletales. I think all or part of it is on YT and I've seen pics from the clip while doing other Tattletales searches.

Couldn't find the Tattletales episode on YouTube but I did find this. The final shot of the tombstone is partly touching, partly disturbing. Oh, Crane suffered a horrible death so I don't want to sit in judgment. By the way, Wikipedia (usual caveats) tells me Sigrid's birth name was a much more prosaic Patricia Annette Olson.