Werner Klemperer
1920-2000

This stuff is from the kooky : Mahatma Randy at Mahatmarandy@msn.com a far better expert on Mr. Klemperer than I shall ever be. Click here, dang it and look at his Hogan costume page.

After he wrote this history of Mister Klemperer, someone wrote him about Klink. Mahatma said "Yeah, I got one E-mail from a guy who's mom had dated Werner Klemperer for a few years in WWII, when they were both USO entertainers. Werner had recently died, and his mom had revealed their affair to him. He was quite shocked, and was trying to find out anything he could about Werner, sort of as a present to his mom, to see if he ever thought about her, talked about her, whatever, in the 60 years since. He assumed from my article on your page that I knew more about him than I did. We talked a couple times, and he disappeared."

So by reading that paragraph, its' like YOU have slept with Klink. I'm impressed!

Background:   "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1964-1968, 110 episodes, 31 in B&W) was based on the very sucessful 1961 movie of the same name. It was set ten years in the (then) future of 1974, primarily aboard the USRN* Seaview, "Known to the public as a vessel of research, while secretly the deadliest weapon afloat".

The first season (64/65) seems to mostly chronicle 1974/75, while the later seasons take place anywhere from '75 to 1980, in no particular chronological order. an episode in '80 could be followed by one in '76, for instance.    

The principle star of the show was Richard Basehart's Admiral Harriman Nelson, a 50-ish retired 4-star admiral ** who was the world's foremost marine biologist, a nuclear engineer, computer genius, seasoned combat vetteran, and (Apparently) an officer with some kind of history in covert ops.   

His second was Commander Leeland Crane, who's main duties seemed to be providing beefcake for the ladies to look at while Basehart did all the acting.  

Anyway, the first season frequently brought the Seaview into conflict with an ill-defined international terrorist organization bent on mayhem and the eventual promise of world control. Eh. It's a 60s thing. Kinda' like "Spectre" in the bond flicks.  I've named them "The League of Bald Men" because most of 'em seem to be so, and because no better name was ever given onscreen.  Their leader was a man named "Frederich Kregar", played by WERNER KLEMPERER.  

The first shows up in the Pilot episode, "Eleven Days to Zero", where the Seaview has 11 days to stop a plot by "An organization we all know all-too-well" as nelson says.  There's 2 versions of this episode, one with a lot of WK footage and voiceover stuff, the other with little WK footage, and some voiceover stuff.  The Reason?  the original Frederich Kregar, John Zaremba, got sick during filming, and had to be replaced, and WK stepped into the roll.  Since it was only a pilot episode, they made no effort to fix the continuity.  Once the series had been picked up by the network, they went back and re-shot most of the Kregar scenes with WK.  Airdate 9/16/64, directed by Irwin "The Towering Inferno" Allen, written by Irwin "The Swarm" Allen.  

[the mists of silence. Airdate 10/5/64.  WK is not in this episode, but again is confronted by the League of Bald Men.]  

The Blizzard Makers  airdate 12/7/64. Directed by Joseph "I never did anything else of note"  Leytes. written by William "I wrote 32 episodes of this damn show, and no one remembers who I am" Welch.

The League of Bald Men attempt to take over the world by making it snow in miami beach. WK's character is called by his name for the first time.   The Saboteur.  Airdate 2/22/65  Written by william Read "Earth II" Woodfield.  Directed by Felix "I'm not a cat, dammit" Feist. Cregar and the League of Bald Men capture Commander Craine, and brainwash him to do their bidding.  WK is only present in a suprisingly eerie voiceover while Craine is being brainwashed. He's not credited, but it's unquestionably him.  

The Enemies   Airdate 3/29/65  Written by William Read "I'm gene roddenberry's ghostwriter" Woodfield, directed by Felix "That guy, there" Feist. Nelson and Crane end up on an island where the Legue and Cregar are experimenting with violently halucinogenic drugs (you get violent, AND you halucinate!) and spend most of the hour trying to kill each other. then they figure out what's going on and go after Cregar. Cregar escapes, but is never seen again.   

Of course, between 64 and 65, WK got HH, and so he and the League were simply disbanded, apparently.  

Hope that was useful info!  If you have any questions, just ask.   

So what other 60s Tv do you like?  

Mahatma Randy                  

*- United States Research, Nuclear, as it was designated in seasons 2-4. In Season 1 it was designated "USOS" for "United States Oceanographic Survey". Given the major set, personell, and designation changes between seasons 1 and 2, some people have speculated that season 1 was covert, and no one outside of the government and the navy knew the Seaview existed, and the second season was after the sub had been admitted to exist. this is, of course, conjectural, however, and I'm deliberately wasting your time with it.  

**- it could happen. Hell, Elmo Zumwalt Jr. made 5 stars by the time he was 49 years old! (Head of the US navy during Vietnam). It could happen. It's not bloody likely, though.

EERIE CONSPIRACY:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998
From: Tim Foster
Subject: six degrees of separation?

I knew it had to happen somehow. I'm reading the Sacramento Bee today, and saw an article about Susan McDougal and her legal woes.  As you may know, she's on trial for bilking conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife out of $150,000 while she was working for them.  Buried near the end of the story was a mention that one Werner Kemperer covered some of their debts for them after they were screwed by McDougal. 

There it is.. all plain as day.  Bill Clinton/Whitewater/McDougal/ Kemperer/Bob Crane!  It's eerie!  I think some intrepid soul (that would be you) should look into HOW deeply Clinton is implicated in the Crane slaying.  I mean, Vince Foster; dead under questionable circumstances... Bob Crane; dead... questionable circumstances.  Maybe Lewinsky and the ambassador who died in a "plane crash" are involved as well.  I guess we all knew that a public figure of Bob Crane's stature couldn't have died in the sordid manner the "media" described... obviously a ploy to discredit this great American when he was no longer able to defend himself.

I just Thought You Should Know.