Derrick (TV series)
| Derrick (TV series) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Herbert Reinecker |
| Starring |
Horst Tappert Fritz Wepper Willy Schäfer |
| Country of origin | West Germany (1974–90) Germany (1990–98) |
| No. of episodes | 281 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Helmut Ringelmann |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | ZDF ORF SRG |
| Original release | 20 October 1974 – 16 October 1998 |
Derrick is a German TV crime series produced between 1974 and 1998 starring Horst Tappert as Detective Chief Inspector (Oberinspektor) Stephan Derrick, and Fritz Wepper as Inspector (Kriminalhauptmeister) Harry Klein, his loyal assistant. They solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings (with three unsolved cases in total). It was produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG
Derrick is considered to be one of the most successful television programmes in German television history, it was also a major international success and the series was sold in over 100 countries. On 2 May 2013 ZDF announced it would no longer carry reruns of the show, after it emerged that Tappert had been untruthful in discussing his service in the Waffen-SS in World War II.
All 281 60-minute episodes were written by veteran screenwriter Herbert Reinecker and produced by Helmut Ringelmann. As a rule, new Derrick episodes were broadcast on Friday night at 20:15. The series received enormous popularity and was aired in more than 100 countries worldwide.
The series' discontinuation in October 1998 came as Horst Tappert had reached the age limit he had set himself.Horst Tappert is the only German actor who has ever had fan clubs abroad including the Netherlands and France.
In France Derrick is known as Inspecteur Derrick; in Italy, the show is called L’ispettore Derrick. In Chinese it is known as Dé li kè.
The series took a noticeable turn towards psychological drama as time progressed and Derrick approached retirement age. Acting on a hunch, Derrick would ignore a number of possible suspects right from the start and, instead of doing the legwork often shown in police movies, would follow the main suspect to his or her favourite haunts and involve them in lengthy conversations, claiming that he had to get to know them better. Towards the end of the show the murderer, now revolted by what they had done, would then be prepared to confess to his or her crime without Derrick having to produce any further piece of evidence. Generally, there is little violence or bloodshed and no shoot-out at the end.
...
Wikipedia