Remembering the late Bob Crane
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The show always held a special place in my heart because it was the first television program I had ever seen in color. It seems that my father had purchased a color television while we were living on Hawthorne Circle in Hanahan, SC and as soon as he plugged it in and turned it on there was the intro to Hogan's Heroes with the snow and the blue night cast to the titles and oh, it was a thrilling moment for me personally.
He did appearances on the various television programs of the era such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Donna Reed Show prior to Hogan's Heroes
Other media ventures such as The Bob Crane Show weren't nearly as successful and he faded from my short term memory except for the syndicated episodes I sometimes encountered.
His ending was one of violent and perverse circumstances wherein he was bludgeoned to death while naked in his bed with the crime remaining unsolved.
I recall reading about the tragedy while I was on active duty and later there were television programs featuring the circumstances as well. They spoke of the chief suspect being a man who was something of a gadfly in Crane's life to whom he referred to as a 'groupie' but it's all a blur and I didn't really follow a lot outside of my Time and Newsweek subscriptions in the Navy.
Regardless, I always thought that Bob Crane went down hard and needlessly in that kink which hides behind those curtains of behaviors we don't show to others. The real tragedy of it all is the fact that they couldn't find who did it and I am left feeling that the controversy was needless in the life of a fellow so utterly uncontroversial as Bob Crane until that time.
Too many like to get into the business of others. I prefer to perhaps admire from afar and leave others alone.